The Charlotte Hornets Must Find a Way to Move Spencer Hawes
With back-up center, Spencer Hawes, set to make over $6 million next season, the Charlotte Hornets must find a way to move his contract to another team this summer.
With the off-season fast approaching, the Charlotte Hornets will have a lot of decisions to make about the team going forward. They have eight players that are expected to be unrestricted free agents. The team won’t have enough cap space to re-sign them all but they may be able to sign most of them if they can create some space.
One way that would create the most space would be to trade Spencer Hawes. This move would make the most sense for the team. He is scheduled to make $5.7 million next season and he has a $6 million player option the following year. By trading Spencer, the team could create cap space to re-sign some of their more high priority players from this pasts season.
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Hawes was acquired last off-season when the Hornets traded Lance Stephenson to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Spencer and Matt Barnes. Stephenson was a dumpster fire for Charlotte and they were looking to get rid of him quickly and this deal was the best way to do that.
Spencer was the only player that stayed on the team after Matt Barnes was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. Hawes had a decent season for the Hornets as he played the role of back-up center for the team.
Hawes averaged 6.0 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game in his first season with Charlotte. He only appeared in 57 games this year due to various injuries and started six games. Spencer averaged 18.2 minutes per game and shot 40.5% from the field and 37.3% from the three-point line.
He did add an interesting dynamic to the Hornets this past season as being a stretch big man who could spread the floor. But Charlotte won’t need that going forward because they have Frank Kaminsky to fill that role. They will also likely have Big Al Jefferson or Cody Zeller to come off of the bench as the back-up center next year.
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There is no reason as to why the team should keep Hawes going forward. He will just be a bench player that will take up a chunk of the Hornets’ salary. They could arguably get a cheaper and younger option than Spencer to fill the role of being an emergency big man next season.
The Hornets may have some trouble finding a team that is willing to take on Spencer’s contract. But it shouldn’t be too difficult with the salary cap going up $20 million this next season. Team’s will have extra money to spend and Hawes could be valuable to a lower end team that needs a productive back-up center. Charlotte just doesn’t have a need for what he does on the court going forward.
The team may need to throw in a future draft pick if they move Hawes. It will likely be a future second round pick that shouldn’t be a problem. The Hornets own all of their future first round picks and all but this year’s and 2018’s second round pick. They have enough future draft picks that they could be seen as expendable in attempting to move Spencer this summer.
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It will be interesting to see if the Hornets make any moves before the free agency period begins but this one would make the most sense. It wouldn’t open up a ton of cap space but every bit could help in re-signing Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lin, Marvin Williams, Al Jefferson, and Courtney Lee. Spencer Hawes should not be a priority for Charlotte in the future.