The Dwight Howard homecoming lasted one season.
The Hawks traded the Atlanta native to the Hornets on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Hawks will receive Miles Plumlee, Marco Belinelli and a second-round pick, No. 41, in Thursday's NBA draft in the deal. The Hawks will also send a second-round pick, No. 31 overall, to the Hornets.
The Hawks signed Howard to a three-year, $70.5 million contract as a free agent last year. Howard was due to make $23.5 million this season.
The dramatic move is the first for the Hawks new general manager Travis Schlenk, who was hired earlier this month after a shakeup of the organization's front office.
Howard averaged 13.5 points and led the team with 12.7 rebounds per game. The point total was the second-lowest average of Howard's 12-year career, less than every season but his rookie campaign of 12.0 in 2004-05.
There were several games this season when Howard did not play in the fourth quarter. Most notably was the entire period in the Hawks' Game 6 elimination loss to the Wizards in the first-round playoff series.
Howard was not happy with the lack of playing time in key situations during his exit interview following the season's final loss.
"It hurts," Howard said in May. "I'm sure if you wrote the best stories in the world and nobody read your stories and they told you to stop writing and you saw somebody else's story that wasn't as good as yours, I'm pretty sure you'd be pissed, too. That's how it is in basketball."
The Hawks will take on salary in Plumlee. The center has three years remaining on his contract at $12.4 million per season. Belinelli has one year remaining on his contract at $6.6 million.
Plumlee appeared in 45 games last season for the Bucks and Hornets. The center averaged 2.5 points and 2.1 rebounds. Belinelli appeared in 74 games last season for the Hornets. The guard/forward averaged 10.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
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