Ryan Nembhard Likely To Be Waived By Hornets

The trade was officially completed on Tuesday night with veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith going to Atlanta in exchange for Buddy Hield, Nembhard and cash.

The Hornets now have 18 players on standard contracts, including 17 with guaranteed salaries. They’ll have to trim that number to 15 by opening night. Nembhard is among the players with a guaranteed deal, but he’ll earn just $2,150,917 on his expiring contract in 2026/27, so waiving him wouldn’t significantly impact Charlotte’s salary cap situation.

The club also has a few other options at point guard, with Dennis Schröder and first-round pick Christian Anderson Jr. projected to back up Coby White.

Nembhard was traded earlier this offseason by the Mavericks. He was sent to Atlanta in the three-team Luguentz Dort/Zaccharie Risacher trade in July. After going undrafted last year, Nembhard appeared in 60 games for Dallas, making 27 starts and earning a promotion from his two-way contract to a standard deal. He averaged 6.6 PPG, 5.3 APG, and 2.2 RPG in 19.5 MPG, with a solid shooting line of .415/.356/.806.

Nembhard is expected to have multiple suitors willing to offer a two-way contract if he’s waived, with the Nuggets among the teams interested in the point guard, Marc Stein of The Stein Line tweets. He’d be eligible to sign with any team except Atlanta.

Jake Fischer speculated in his latest Bleacher Report live stream (video link) that Charlotte might also waive Hield. However, that would leave a more substantial amount of dead money on the team’s books. Hield has a fully guaranteed $9.66MM contract this season, and his deal also includes a $10.1MM player option for ’27/28 that would be partially guaranteed for $3.14MM if he’s waived.