With the October 19 rookie-scale extension deadline looming, the noise around the league is going to center on names like Brandon Miller, Cason Wallace, Anthony Black, Scoot Henderson, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. That’s the headline crowd.
But there’s another extension conversation building underneath it, and it could matter just as much for teams trying to keep useful pieces in place. The league’s 2026/27 extension tracker already shows that not every new deal belongs to a star, with players like Raptors guard Jamal Shead, Celtics forward Jordan Walsh, and Mavericks wing Naji Marshall landing extensions since July. And as several veterans move toward the possibility of unrestricted free agency in 2027, the list of possible extension candidates goes well beyond the biggest names, stretching from Karl-Anthony Towns, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, and Rudy Gobert to role players such as Luguentz Dort and RJ Barrett.
One of the more interesting names in that second tier is Moussa Diabate in Charlotte.
Diabate’s path to relevance has been anything but straight. The second-round pick in 2022 spent his first two NBA seasons on a pair of two-way contracts with the Clippers and never really broke through as a rotation piece. When he hit free agency in 2024, Los Angeles didn’t even extend a qualifying offer.
Charlotte gave him another shot on a two-way deal for his third season, and he turned it into a real role. Diabate became the Hornets’ backup center and was rewarded with a promotion to the standard roster in February 2025.
Then came another jump in 2025/26, when Charlotte traded away Mark Williams and Jusuf Nurkic. Diabate’s minutes grew, and before long he had passed Ryan Kalkbrenner to become the starting five.
That development made the Hornets’ decision not to bring in a proven veteran center during the 2025 offseason look a lot smarter. Diabate answered the bet with a productive season: 73 appearances, 47 starts, 7.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 block in 26.0 minutes per game while shooting 63.1% from the field.
The box score only tells part of the story. Diabate also won the NBA’s Hustle Award and showed up all over the league’s per-minute leaderboards among qualified players, ranking first in offensive box outs, fourth in screen assists, eighth in offensive loose balls recovered, 10th in contested two-point shots, and 11th in defensive box outs and contested three-point shots. Charlotte was a different team with him on the floor, posting a terrific +10.5 net rating with Diabate playing, compared with just +0.6 when he sat.
Miller is the Hornets’ obvious short-term extension headline, but Diabate has earned real attention too. He’s on track to hit unrestricted free agency next summer after making $2.46MM this season, and Charlotte has a clear case for keeping him around.
In Other News...
Brandon Miller Puts Hornets Under Pressure With Crucial Decision Looming
Brandon Miller is heading into a familiar kind of early-career test for a former first-round pick: the extension window is open, the market is setting itself, and the Hornets still do not have a long-term deal in place with one of their core young players. Miller, selected in the 2023 draft, remains unsigned as other players from that same class have already locked in their next contracts, a reminder that these negotiations can move quickly for some teams and linger for others.
For Charlotte, the situation is less about immediate panic than about timing and control. Millers next step could still come later, and the Hornets would keep a measure of protection if he ends up in restricted free agency next summer, but the fact remains that the calendar is doing them no favors right now. In a league where extension decisions often signal how firmly a franchise is tying itself to a young player, this one has become a quietly important checkpoint. [Read more 🡒]
Naz Reid Is Already Setting A Tone Hornets Fans Will Notice
Naz Reids first season in Charlotte is already drawing attention inside the locker room, and not just because he arrived in the trade that sent LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. The Hornets are off to a 1-1 start in preseason, but the early buzz around Reid has more to do with the habits he is bringing than anything he has done in games so far. His approach has stood out to teammates as the kind of day-to-day professionalism that can shape a teams tone long before the regular season begins.
Tidjane Salaun, heading into his second season with the Hornets, has been one of the players taking notice of Reids work. For a young roster still trying to build consistency, having a veteran presence committed to the details can matter as much as any box score line. Reids early impact in Charlotte is still unfolding, but the message he is sending is already clear: the standard starts long before tipoff. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Miller Knows What Hornets Are Asking Of Him Now
Since drafting Brandon Miller in 2023, the Hornets have kept reshaping the roster around him, and the most recent wave of moves has pushed even more of the load onto the second-year wing. The departure of LaMelo Ball changed the feel of the group and the scope of Millers responsibilities, leaving Charlotte to lean harder on a player it has already identified as central to whatever comes next.
Miller has acknowledged how hard the turnover can be while also showing the kind of perspective teams want from a young cornerstone, understanding that the NBA is a business and relationships do not disappear just because the roster does. For the Hornets, the bigger question is not whether Miller accepts the challenge, but how far his game will go as his role keeps expanding and the organization keeps asking more of him. [Read more 🡒]