Following Marvin Williams' decision to exercise his $15 million player option last week, fellow Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist did exactly the same exercising his $13 million player option on Wednesday. While this looks good on the surface, it creates quite a number of dilemma for the Hornets, especially if the team plans to re-sign its best player, Kemba Walker.
Kidd-Gilchrist's decision came at a time when top billed stars are looking to opt out of their contracts and instead pursue free agency. He signed a four-year contract in 2016 which included the player option for a reported $52 million in 2016. He will be an unrestricted free agent come the summer of 2020.
Kidd-Gilchrist had a rough season. Of the 64 games he played, he only started three of those. Moreover, his last season was his worst career performance. He averaged 6.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He shot 47 percent on the field, and 34 percent beyond the three-point line, as per NBA Stats.
What is really interesting about this latest development from the Hornets is that Kidd-Gilchrist re-resigning with the team complicates its negotiations with Walker, arguably the best player in the roster. Should the Hornets pursue Walker and sign their three draft picks, the team will be about $9 million above the tax limit. This means that for the first time in franchise history, the Hornets will hit luxury tax. That is a huge amount of cash for Walker to take a cut.
Unless, team owner Michael Jordan shoulders the burden of the luxury tax.
The Hornets still has a number of option to pursue if it doesn't want to hit luxury tax limits. One option is to clear some cap space by trading some of its undesirable assets. Trading these assets require some sort of creativity from the Hornets front office, but it is a viable option. Between Kidd-Gilchrist, Nicolas Batum, Bismack Biyombo, and Cody Zeller, the Hornets has $85 million in contracts. The good news here is by next season, at least $45 million will off the books from that group.
While the Hornets has not been a playoff contender for years, it would be very wise for the organization to have more flexibility, financially speaker, in order to attract younger talents with much impressive prospects. Kidd-Gilchrist, who was the No. 2 overall pick and has played for the Hornets his entire career, just did not live up to expectations and he has a lot to prove this season.
