5 Players the Charlotte Hornets Gave up on too soon

It is not unfair to say that, as an organization, the Charlotte Hornets have made some not-so-great decisions over the years.

With blunders such as selecting Adam Morrison with the No. 3 overall pick in 2007 and Cody Zeller with the No. 4 overall pick in 2013, you can’t blame Hornets fans if they have the occasional trust issues.

Even with a string of bad decisions plaguing the franchise (especially in the past fifteen years), the Hornets/Bobcats organization has managed to do some things right. However, those “right” decisions aren’t always clear in the moment, and you don’t always see the gold in the grindstone until the moment has come and gone.

Everybody in the world has decisions they wish they could take back and NBA franchises are no exceptions. Be it trades that were made too soon or restricted free agents who were allowed to walk, these decisions made by NBA front offices can sometimes come back to bite them.

The Hornets, unfortunately, know this feeling all too well.

5 Players the Charlotte Hornets gave up on too soon

5. Caleb Martin

Caleb Martin is currently a steady rotation player for the Miami Heat, but Martin actually spent the first two and a half seasons of his career in the Charlotte Hornets organization.

Martin went undrafted in 2019  but was quickly picked up by the Hornets as an undrafted free agent, following his brother, Cody, who had been selected in the second round.

Martin was a solid role player off the bench, averaging roughly 5.5 points per game on a respectable field goal percentage inside and beyond the arc. While he was capable of filling up the stat sheet as a scorer on any given night, his bread and butter was defensive intensity. He touted a defensive rating around 113 during his time in Charlotte according to StatMuse.

Martin was released mid-season in August of 2021, reportedly because of the free agent signing of Kelly Oubre Jr. He was picked up by the Heat shortly thereafter where he remains to this day as a solid rotation player. With his hard-nosed playing style, he consistently touts one of the best plus-minus ratings on the team.

While Oubre Jr. has been solid in his time in Charlotte, the Hornets’ front office has to wonder what might have been had they kept Martin in the same rotation .