Former Washington forward Hannes Steinbach is headed to the G-League after Charlotte assigned him to the Greensboro Swarm on Thursday.
Steinbach’s move comes after a slow start to his rookie season with the Hornets, who are 3-7 through 10 games and sit 11th in the Eastern Conference, just outside the play-in picture. Charlotte dropped its NBA Cup game to the Boston Celtics, 119-80, on Friday.
The former Huskies standout has appeared in only three of Charlotte’s 10 games this season. In those outings, he has averaged 2.7 points on 50% shooting from the field, along with 2.3 rebounds and 0.3 assists. He has not taken a 3-pointer.
Steinbach arrived in Seattle as an international recruit from Wurzburg, Germany, and made an immediate impact in his lone season with Washington. He played in 30 games, starting all of them, and averaged 18.5 points while shooting 57.7% from the floor and 34% from beyond the arc.
He also posted 11.8 rebounds per game, plus 1.6 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals. That production earned him third-team All-Big Ten honors, and he led the nation in rebounding while co-leading the country in double-doubles with 22.
That breakout year helped push Steinbach into the 2026 NBA Draft, where Charlotte took him with the final lottery pick at No. 14 overall. He showed enough in Summer League and preseason to keep hope alive, but he still hasn’t cracked the Hornets’ regular rotation.
Now he’ll get a chance to log steady minutes with Greensboro, and Charlotte can bring him back whenever it wants. The NBA can recall players from the G-League at any point, so Steinbach could be back with the Hornets soon.
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