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Rumor: Charlotte Hornets offer Julyan Stone a two-year deal

By Jerry Stephens

MESTRE, ITALY - APRIL 23: Julyan Stone of Umana looks over during the LegaBasket of Serie A1 match between Reyer Umana Venezia and Openjobmetis Varese at Palasport Taliercio on April 23, 2017 in Mestre, Italy. (Photo by Arturo Presotto - Iguana Press/Getty Images)
MESTRE, ITALY - APRIL 23: Julyan Stone of Umana looks over during the LegaBasket of Serie A1 match between Reyer Umana Venezia and Openjobmetis Varese at Palasport Taliercio on April 23, 2017 in Mestre, Italy. (Photo by Arturo Presotto - Iguana Press/Getty Images) /
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If reports are true, Julyan Stone has a two-year contract offer from the Charlotte Hornets as the guard could return stateside.

According to Sportando, Julyan Stone “has a two-year offer from Charlotte Hornets he would love to accept.” The report also mentions that the guard recently signed a two-year extension with Reyer Venezia in Italy. His father’s health could be the main reason for him wanting to come back to the U.S.

It is unclear if Stone will be able to make the move to Charlotte because his current club in Italy’s top basketball league doesn’t want to let him go after completing an extension. Julyan does not have an opt-out clause in his deal so it complicates the situation.

Despite already having four point guards under contract, the Hornets are still looking for a veteran third string to backup Kemba Walker and Michael Carter-Williams. They recently signed Marcus Paige to a two-way deal and T.J. Williams to a training camp contract. It’s possible that they are eyeing Stone as a possible emergency option off of their bench to fill the role Brian Roberts/Briante Weber left.

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After four years at UTEP in college, the 28-year old went undrafted in 2011 but has played for the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors in the NBA. He also spent time in the G-League with the Idaho Stampede, Iowa Energy and most recently the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2016-17 as an affiliate player for the Indiana Pacers. Outside of the US, the 6’6 shooting guard has played in Turkey and Italy.

In 47 career NBA games, Stone has averaged 1.3 points per game and 1.0 rebounds per game while shooting 44% from the field, 21.1% from three and 72.2% from the free throw line.

According to Basketball-Reference, Julyan put up 3.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.1 APG and 1.1 SPG for Reyer Venezia last season in 10 appearances. He did manage to shoot 37.1% from the field, 33.3% from beyond the arc and 62.5% from the charity stripe.

Over the course of his career, Julyan was named to two All-Defensive Teams while in college (2010, 2011), one All-Conference Second-team in 2011 and was crowned an Italian League Champion (Lega Basket Serie A) in 2017.

If Charlotte did sign the Virginia native, it would probably be to a training camp deal that would include a G-League contract with the Greensboro Swarm once he is waived. The Hornets don’t have a lot of open spots left on their regular season roster so it would be hard to make Stone fit with already six wings on the team in Malik Monk, Nicolas Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Treveon Graham, Jeremy Lamb and Dwayne Bacon.

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If the rumors are true, hopefully, Julyan Stone and the Charlotte Hornets can come to an agreement and the situation with his current team is resolved. The shooting guard could be a great defensive addition to the team and he is also a deceptively good passer.