New Orleans Hornets Buy Out Matt Carroll's Contract

Matt Carroll was the returning piece in a deal that sent Hakim Warrick to the Charlotte Bobcats.  When the trade was made, it was quite obvious that the New Orleans Hornets were just dumping salary.  It seemed they had no intention of keeping Carroll on long-term, and they didn't.  Yesterday, the team cut ties and bought out Carroll's contract. According to Jimmy Smith of the New Orleans Times-Picaynne, the Hornets had either simply absorbed Carroll's contract or reached a buyout.  Mark Stein of ESPN reported that the team had in fact reached an agreement to buy out Carroll.  The terms of that buyout are not yet known, but the team should still be saving money over the alternative of having never traded Warrick. Carroll has had a long NBA career, but he has seen his minutes and productivity drop over the years.  Last season, he only averaged 1.1 points per game.  The Hornets did not feel he could contribute enough to continue taking up a roster spot, so they parted ways.  But the truth is, they never really intended to keep him.Warrick has not had much more success in Charlotte.  He is averaging just 2.5 points per game for the Bobcats this season.  This whole deal was just a matter of moving declining players and freeing up salary. Follow @hoopsinjurynews!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.nbainjurynews.com//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-34100676-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();