The Hornets have moved on from Pat Connaughton, waiving the veteran wing as Charlotte trims down to the 15-man regular-season limit, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. The team confirmed the move as well.
Connaughton had been the clearest candidate to be squeezed out for a while. Among Charlotte players on standard deals, he was the only one carrying a non-guaranteed salary, and waiving him, along with a couple of training camp invitees, gets the roster where it needs to be.
For Connaughton, it’s the latest turn in a career that’s taken him from Portland to Milwaukee and now through Charlotte. The 41st overall pick in the 2015 draft opened his NBA run with three seasons in Portland before joining the Bucks in the 2018 offseason. At 6-foot-5, he carved out a steady role as a guard/forward and became a trusted bench piece for Milwaukee, especially during the run to the franchise’s first championship in 50 years in 2021.
His later Bucks years were slowed by injuries, and Milwaukee ultimately attached a pair of second-round picks to move his salary in the 2025 offseason.
Charlotte’s decision comes after a season in which Connaughton barely cracked the rotation. He averaged just 7.1 minutes per game across 42 appearances, but his value to the team wasn’t measured only in box scores. For a young Hornets group that outperformed expectations, particularly in the final two-thirds of 2025/26, he served as a locker room leader.
The Hornets made it clear in February that they still saw something in him. After waiving him ahead of the trade deadline to make room for other roster moves, Charlotte brought the 33-year-old back on a two-year, veteran’s minimum deal.
Over 11 NBA seasons, Connaughton has put up averages of 5.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting .438/.357/.767 in 637 regular-season games, with 72 starts and 18.4 minutes per contest.
He also saw limited action in the preseason this fall, appearing in two games and averaging 1.0 PPG, 1.5 RPG and 2.0 APG in 10.7 MPG.
In Other News...
Hornets Back-End Roster Picture Just Got A Lot Clearer
Charlottes back-end roster picture came into sharper focus as the Hornets moved to trim down to the regular season limit, waiving guards Jarkel Joiner and Latrell Wrightsell. Joiner, an undrafted point guard out of NC State, had already logged time with the organization through G League work and preseason appearances, while Wrightsell, another undrafted guard from Alabama, came in on an Exhibit 10 deal and never got into a preseason game.
The moves tidy up the final spots while keeping both players in the organizations developmental orbit, and the next stop should be familiar for each. The Greensboro Swarm are expected to be the landing point, giving Charlotte a chance to keep evaluating two young guards without having to carve out room on the active roster. [Read more 🡒]