The Charlotte Hornets still need to cut a couple more players, as teams are limited to just 15 standard contracts once the regular season starts. With the way the offseason has gone for the Hornets, Nick Smith Jr. is the likely casualty.
Charlotte has targeted plenty of wing players in the draft, free agency, and the trade market. So, Smith Jr. has to impress the front office in training camp to make sure he stays with the organization by the start of the 2025-26 regular season.
It will be a tough hill to climb for the 27th overall pick of the 2023 draft, as the Hornets already have more proven undersized scoring guards in Collin Sexton and Tre Mann. Aside from the redundant player archetypes, he will also have to compete for a spot on the reserves with the likes of Spencer Dinwiddie, Kon Knueppel, Liam McNeeley, Sion James, and Summer League standout KJ Simpson.
Nick Smith Jr. had two seasons to prove himself
Perhaps if NSJ had produced well in his first two years in the league, retaining him would have been a no-brainer decision for the Hornets. Sadly for him, the only outstanding quality he showed during his rookie year was shooting the rock incredibly efficiently from 3-point land, sinking 43.2 percent of his attempts from that range but only averaging 5.9 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 14.3 minutes per game.
Smith Jr. had more opportunities to prove his competence in the 2024-25 campaign, as injuries ravaged the squad almost the entire year. While his counting stats improved alongside the increased minutes (9.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 22.8 minutes per contest), his field-goal percentage remained the same from the previous season at 39.1 percent, and his efficiency from downtown drastically dropped to 34.0 percent.
As the season wore on and as the Hornets continued to descend to the bottom of the standings, the Hornets' regret in using one of their two first-round picks on the University of Arkansas in 2023 may have only grown further.
Charlotte could have also made its stance on keeping Smith Jr. for the long haul clearer by not collecting a plethora of guards and wings in the past weeks. It even has a potential depth problem at the big men positions, yet the team has still gone for more backcourt and forward pieces, including using two of its two-way slots on sharpshooters Drew Peterson and Antonio Reeves.
It's not far-fetched to think that the Hornets simply cannot rely on Smith Jr. to develop into the player they need at this point in their rebuild. So, we may have already watched the 21-year-old play his last match repping the purple and teal.