“Hornets’ Charlie Brown Jr. is one of the latest NBA additions”

The Hornets have renounced it Charlie Brown Jr., Harry Giles And Keyontae Johnsonthe team confirmed in a press release. Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer was the first to report the moves (Twitter link).

Brown has appeared in 49 regular season games for Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Philadelphia and New York over the course of his four NBA seasons. The 27-year-old was signed and transferred from the Knicks to the Hornets during the game Karl Anthony cities Blockbusters.

While it’s not surprising that Brown was released given Charlotte’s roster situation, it is still a notable event since he is owed $2,237,692 guaranteed for the 2024-25 season. Assuming he goes unclaimed, the Hornets will carry that salary as a dead money cap hit on their books.

Above all, an experienced swingman DaQuan Jeffries – another player acquired via sign-and-trade from the Knicks – was not cut today. That could mean the Hornets plan to keep him at the start of the regular season even though he suffered a broken pinky finger last week. The team did not provide a timetable for his return.

Both Giles and Johnson had non-guaranteed training camp contracts. Giles, a North Carolina native who played college ball at Duke, is a former first-round pick (No. 20 overall in 2017) whose career was derailed by a series of serious knee injuries. The 26-year-old big man parted ways with the Nets and Lakers last season.

As for Johnson, he spent 2023-24 – his rookie season – with the Thunder on a two-way contract, but they chose not to extend him a two-way qualifying offer in the summer, making him an unrestricted free agent made.

If Giles and Johnson had Exhibit 10 language in their contracts, as is likely, they would each be eligible for a bonus worth up to $77.5K if they play at least 60 days with the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte’s NBA-G League partner, would spend.

The Hornets now have 17 players under contract, including 14 players on guaranteed standard contracts. Taj Gibson with a significant partial guarantee on his minimum wage contract and two players on two-way contracts. NBA teams are allowed to promote three two-way players, leaving the team with one available roster spot before the regular season.

Here are a few more players who were (or will be) released on Friday – all three had non-guaranteed training camp contracts:

• The Kings I intend to forego undrafted rookies Boogie Ellisreports Michael Scotto from HoopsHype (via Twitter). The former USC guard, who had a solid preseason performance with Sacramento, will likely move to the Stockton Kings to begin his first professional season. In addition to Ellis, Sacramento will have to waive a few more players to finalize its regular-season roster.
• The thunder announced that they had been released Buddy Boeheim And Cormac Ryan. Both players will likely move to the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s NBAGL affiliate. The Thunder now have 18 players under contract, which is the regular season limit.