Hornets Trade Grade: James Nnaji to New York Knicks for Multiple Draft Picks

The Charlotte Hornets have finally completed their complex pre-season trade with the Knicks and Timberwolves. After days of speculation, the full details of the trade have been revealed.

The Hornets will send New York the draft rights to James Nnaji (31st pick in 2023) and, in return, will receive three second-round picks, along with three sign-and-trade players: Charlie Brown Jr., Duane Washington Jr., and DaQuan Jeffries. In this article, I’ll break down all the specifics of the trade and provide my final grade for how the Hornets fared.

I expect all the sign-and-trade players to be waived, with the $7.2M sent by New York covering that cost. There’s a small chance one of them could take the Hornets’ final roster spot, but it’s unlikely. I initially thought Charlotte would get at least three second-round picks, especially since they received three for taking on less money this summer (Reggie Jackson’s $5.25M). Given that it’s harder to offload contracts at this point in the season, I expected the value might be a bit higher.

Incoming Picks

– 2025 Second (least favorable of Denver or Philly via MIN)

– 2026 Second (Golden State via NYK)

– 2031 Second (from NYK)

The DEN/PHI ’25 pick will likely fall in the mid-to-high 50s, so it doesn’t hold much value. The ’26 GSW and ’31 NYK picks have some potential upside, but there’s no clear high 2nd-round pick value here. It’s important to note that Charlotte will lose their ’26 and ’27 second-round picks to San Antonio unless they make the playoffs this year, so getting a ’26 pick helps cover them for that year.

Charlotte chose to use their MLE to absorb bad salary early in the season with this deal. I’m curious to see what the market will look like for draft compensation at this year’s trade deadline. Will their ability to take on bad contracts be more valuable in February or less? Teams are still adjusting to the new CBA, so it’s hard to say right now, but time will tell.

It was surprising to see the Hornets lose some value by trading away Nnaji. He hadn’t really shown much while playing overseas since being drafted, but it’s worth noting he was the youngest player in the 2023 draft and had a back injury that eventually required surgery. Optimists might say it was too soon to give up on him, while cynics would argue he hadn’t proven himself. The new front office clearly didn’t rate him highly and preferred future second-round picks, as they could have kept him instead of one of the 2nds. What’s clear is that Mitch Kupchak’s 2023 draft strategy looks even more puzzling now.

Did New York really insist on including Nnaji in the deal? That seems unlikely to me. Did Charlotte have to include him to meet some CBA rule about sending something out in the trade? I thought they could just absorb the salaries using the MLE without sending anything back. Maybe it was a favor to Nnaji’s agent, especially since we learned after the draft that the Hornets picked him against his wishes. Including him is a bit confusing, but the team has more information than I do. I’ll trust the new front office and hope losing him doesn’t come back to haunt them.

Once you take into account the ’25 pick having very little value and losing Nnaji’s rights, there is only a real net income of one 2nd round pick with an undetermined value. That is still a worthwhile trade to make when you give up so little, but it doesn’t jump out as exceptional value. If at February’s trade deadline, the value for taking on $8M in dead money is less than in this deal, I’ll bump this up to a B, but at the moment I’m factoring in some future opportunity cost.

That said, I do give credit to the new Hornets front office for being proactive, having good relationships around the league, and using some creativity to make this trade happen. I don’t believe this trade happens under Kupchak’s regime, and a small market like Charlotte needs to be proactive with small wins on the margins.

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