Hornets trade Nick Richards to Suns for Josh Okogie, picks

The Suns only have three tradable second-rounders on hand: Denver’s 2026 and 2031 selections, and Phoenix’s own 2031 pick. Those are the three picks headed to Charlotte in the deal.

According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7, the pick being sent from the Hornets to the Suns is a 2025 selection. It will be the least favorable of Denver’s and Philadelphia’s picks, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks and Charania. Barring an unexpected development in the second half of this season, that figures to be the Nuggets’ second-rounder.

Richards, 27, has seen regular rotation minutes in Charlotte since the start of the 2022-23 campaign and served as the team’s primary starting center in ’23-24 with Mark Williams sidelined. So far this season, he has appeared in 21 games, averaging 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 blocks in 21.0 minutes per night.

Richards is on a team-friendly contract that pays him $5M this season, with a $5M non-guaranteed salary for next season. Okogie’s contract is also guaranteed in 2024-25 and non-guaranteed in ’25-26, but he’s earning $8.25M this season, so the swap will reduce Phoenix’s projected end-of-season luxury tax bill by approximately $20M, per cap expert Yossi Gozlan, while giving the team an athletic option in the frontcourt.

Reporting over the weekend indicated that the Suns and Hornets were in talks about a potential Richards trade that would send second-round draft capital to Charlotte.

Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic was believed to be part of those discussions, but the Hornets were likely unwilling to take on Nurkic’s contract, which is worth significantly more than Okogie’s this season ($18.13M) and is also fully guaranteed for next season ($19.38M). An Okogie/Richards swap is simpler from a cap perspective for the Hornets and doesn’t require Charlotte to include a second player.

Because they’re operating over the second tax apron, the Suns have limited options on the trade market this season. They’re not able to aggregate contracts or take back more salary than they send out. This deal meets those requirements while taking advantage of an Okogie contract that had been viewed as a trade chip since it was first signed in July. Not coincidentally, Okogie became trade-eligible on Wednesday.

Besides its new 2025 second-round pick, Phoenix’s only remaining tradable draft pick is its 2031 first-rounder. The front office figures to make that pick available as the club continues to weigh its options on the market ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline.

As Marks tweets, the Suns will also generate a $3.25M trade exception as a result of this transaction. The club would be able to use that exception during the season, but not during the 2025 offseason as long as it continues to operate over the second apron.

As for the Hornets, after taking advantage of their significant breathing room below the luxury tax line to take on contracts and acquire three second-round picks from the Knicks in the Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster in the fall, they’re making a similar deal here, taking back some extra salary in a deal for their backup center and netting multiple second-rounders in the process.

Charlotte will still be operating $7M+ below the tax line once this move is official, leaving the team with some flexibility to facilitate one or two more deals with cap-strapped trade partners by Feb. 6.

While the Hornets are making the trade for the draft assets rather than for Okogie, he has been solid in limited minutes this season, averaging 6.0 points and 2.9 rebounds in 14.0 minutes per game across 25 outings, with career-high shooting percentages of 49.1% from the floor and 38.1% on three-pointers. 

If he’s not part of Charlotte’s plans going forward, the team could look to flip him in the coming weeks, though he’s ineligible to be aggregated with another contract.