The most likely outcome ended up being the one that came to fruition.
After months of speculation that ramped up in recent days, the Charlotte Hornets made their final roster decision of the offseason and waived Pat Connaughton on the eve of the regular season.
Reports from NBA insiders like Marc Stein and Jake Fischer believed that Charlotte was going to give their proverbial final rose to either Connaughton or Tidjane Salaun, and it turns out that the Tidjane experiment will continue on into year three.
Connaughton has career averages of 5.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 18.4 minutes per game, making 637 appearances across 11 NBA seasons. Charlotte acquired the veteran swingman along with two second-round picks in the summer of 2025 in a trade for reserve guard Vasilije Micic.
He appeared in 42 games as a member of the Hornets, averaging 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.4 assists in 7.1 minutes per game.
This was always the most logical conclusion, right? To this point, the Hornets have shown no signs that they are ready to give up on Tidjane quite yet. And why should they? When the team selected the Frenchman with the sixth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, it was clear that they viewed the then teenager as a long-term project, not a ready-made NBA talent.
Moving on from Salaun now, just as he's started to show even the faintest glimmers of promise (at least on the defensive end) in preseason action, would be antithetical to everything the franchise has said and done since Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee took the reins in the summer of 2024.
This move concludes one of the busier offseasons in franchise history. After losing to the Orlando Magic in the NBA Play-In Tournament, Charlotte underwent a major facelift that saw stalwarts LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges get replaced by Naz Reid, Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale, and a load of draft assets.
Charlotte's final roster is as follows:
Point Guard: Coby White / Dennis Schroder / Christian Anderson Jr.
Shooting Guard: Brandon Miller / Grayson Allen / Sion James
Small Forward: Kon Knueppel / Royce O'Neale / Liam McNeeley
Power Forward: Naz Reid / Grant Williams / Tidjane Salaun
Center: Moussa Diabate / Ryan Kalkbrenner / Hannes Steinbach
Two-way players: Kylan Boswell, Michael Ajayi, and PJ Hall.
The new-look Hornets will open their 2026-27 campaign on Wednesday, October 21st in Brooklyn against the Nets.
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