{"id":901470,"date":"2026-06-29T19:46:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/901470\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:46:34","slug":"hornets-to-exercise-option-on-former-nba-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/901470\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets to exercise option on former NBA champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/charlotte-hornets\/5312\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Charlotte Hornets;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Charlotte Hornets&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a> made another move Monday, but not as big as their recent trades, including <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/6395\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:LaMelo Ball;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;LaMelo Ball&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LaMelo Ball<\/a> and <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/6023\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Miles Bridges;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Miles Bridges&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miles Bridges<\/a>. The Hornets <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rodboone\/status\/2071668284361969703\" data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:exercised;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;exercised&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">exercised<\/a> their $3.8 million team option to retain veteran swingman <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/5501\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pat Connaughton;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pat Connaughton&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pat Connaughton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While Connaughton played in just 42 games for the Hornets last season, the biggest impact he made was off of the floor, mentoring Charlotte&#8217;s young players in the locker room. His help aided in the team&#8217;s success, making a 25-win improvement from a season prior. On the year, the former Milwaukee Buck tallied 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, and 0.3 blocks while shooting a career-high 40.4% from 3-point range. Looking to help Charlotte reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season, Connaughton will enter his 12th NBA season this fall.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/06\/29\/charlotte-to-bring-back-former-nba-champion\/90743120007\/\" data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Hornets to exercise option on former NBA champion;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Hornets to exercise option on former NBA champion&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">Hornets to exercise option on former NBA champion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Charlotte Hornets made another move Monday, but not as big as their recent trades, including LaMelo Ball&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":901471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3118,57189,131707,1260,24186,62,169214,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-901470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-miles-bridges","tag-nba","tag-pat-connaughton","tag-sports","tag-team-option","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116835122323305002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}