Looking Ahead to a Big Hornets Offseason - 2026 Offseason Preview
On the Hornets' upcoming offseason, their salary cap situation, impending contract decisions, and how they can make multiple significant upgrades to the roster.
When the Hornets drafted LaMelo Ball, it felt like they had turned a corner and finally nearing the end of their rebuild. Instead, subsequent draft blunders set them back and extended a playoff drought that dated back to 2016. Some teams in their position would have tried to improve the roster quickly just to end it. Then, new ownership took over, and the Hornets made the difficult decision to “re-rebuild”, focusing deeper on the draft and developing their players.
That decision looked shaky for a while. The Hornets traded away their best frontcourt players, kept dealing with injuries to their cornerstones, and may have whiffed on their 2024 lottery selection. That resulted in ranking among teams with the lowest levels of public confidence entering the 2025-26 season. Their preseason win total was just 27.5, the fourth-lowest mark in the league.
It felt like the Hornets were heading into one last trip to the lottery and a chance to draft one more prospect before needing to reevaluate the roster. Instead, they soared past expectations by winning 16.5 more games than their preseason total. Most importantly, they saw enough from their young core to feel like they may finally have a foundation for sustainable success.
The Hornets will almost certainly upgrade the roster this offseason. They are tied for the second-most first-round picks in the league and have the third-most second-round picks. They also have a lot of money to spend through various exceptions. The question is whether they believe now is the time to cash in some of their chips, and how aggressive they are willing to be.
2026 Offseason Previews
Atlanta Hawks | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | Charlotte Hornets | Chicago Bulls | Cleveland Cavaliers | Dallas Mavericks | Denver Nuggets | Detroit Pistans | Golden State Warriors | Houston Rockets | Indiana Pacers | Los Angeles Clippers | Los Angeles Lakers | Memphis Grizzlies |
2026 Contract Projections
Current Extension Eligible Players Part 1 | Current Extension Eligible Players Part 2 | Current Extension Eligible Players Part 3 | Current Extension Eligible Players Part 4 | Standout Minimum Players | Free Agents and Pending Options Part 1 | Free Agents and Pending Options Part 2
Salary cap situation and assets
The Hornets are entering the 2026 offseason with a full 15-man roster and a combined payroll of $157.9 million. That is below the $165 million salary cap, so they could technically be a cap space team if they reduce their payroll a bit more. But that would require renouncing Coby White’s Bird rights, meaning they wouldn’t be able to go over the cap to re-sign him.
Instead, they are expected to operate as an over-the-cap team, which gives them more spending power. Along with re-signing White, they would also have access to the $15.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, the $5.5 million bi-annual exception, and several pre-existing trade exceptions worth $8.2 million and $7 million. That gives them significantly more spending power than an impractical amount of cap space and the $9 million room mid-level exception.
The more relevant threshold for the Hornets is the $200.5 million luxury tax line. Charlotte is roughly $42 million below it and is highly unlikely to exceed it this season. They and the Pelicans are the only two NBA teams in history to have never paid the tax, and that streak will likely continue.
All these factors put the Hornets in an advantageous position to make several meaningful upgrades within their budget. They should be able to re-sign White to a lucrative deal and use the entirety of the mid-level exception. On top of that, they could make a consolidation trade using an expanded trade exception. Essentially, in addition to re-signing White and using the MLE, they could significantly increase their payroll by taking back more salary than it sends out in a trade.
The Hornets also have one of the largest draft-pick surpluses in the league, with 13 first-round picks and 15 second-round picks between the 2026 and 2033 drafts. They have the means to trade for just about any player who becomes available.
There is an argument for the Hornets to mostly stand pat with their core and see how they look next season with more proof of concept. That would be similar to how the Pistons operated last summer. Instead of making an all-in trade to upgrade the core, they mostly ran it back to gather more intel. They still made significant improvements, going from a bottom-tier team to a playoff-caliber level the following season.
The Hornets could take that path and would probably make the playoffs as is, especially considering they played at a 55-win pace in the second half of last season. But the 2024-25 Pistons aren’t a one-to-one comparison. The Hornets are young, but they might have a better case than the Pistons did to be aggressive this offseason.
