CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Charlotte isn't a destination city like Miami, Los Angeles or New York for 20-something NBA superstars, so free agency doesn't ever figure to be the centerpiece of a Hornets roster plan.
Team owner Michael Jordan has said as much to me in the past.
But free agency can supplement the draft and trades in what general manager Mitch Kupchak is doing. The Hornets signing Al Jefferson in 2013 worked out well. He was an All-NBA selection in 2014.
Signing Lance Stephenson in 2014? Not so much. He was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers after one season of minimal impact.
Because the Hornets' player payroll was so clogged with veteran guarantees, it didn't look like the Hornets would have much opportunity at all in free agency this summer. But the trade that will send center Dwight Howard to the Brooklyn Nets in July, taking back Timofey Mozgov's contract, will open some short-term flexibility below the NBA's luxury-tax threshold.
Mozgov will make about $7.5 million less than Howard next season. That gets the Hornets far enough below the tax line that they will have access to this season's midlevel salary-cap exception (a first-season salary of up to $8.6 million).
That puts the Hornets on even footing with most franchises this summer. Teams can start meeting with free agents on Sunday.
This isn't considered a particularly deep free-agent class and only a handful of the NBA's 30 teams have major space under the cap heading into the league's new fiscal year.
