Mitch Kupchak details Hornets trades, Miles Bridges’ future and Mark Williams’ health

In a city filled with thousands of people, two semi-old acquaintances found themselves in the same locale unexpectedly on Thursday night.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport suddenly morphed into Spectrum Center.

All thanks to a chance meeting between PJ Washington and Buzz Peterson, the Charlotte Hornets senior vice president of basketball operations/assistant general manager.

“Buzz ran into (Washington),” Hornets president of basketball operations/general manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday. “He was on his way to Dallas to check in for his physical. I think Buzz even said he got a little teary-eyed.”

That brief chat was the culmination of a long day loaded with activity. The Hornets were one of the busiest teams during Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, sending Washington to Dallas for Grant Williams and Seth Curry, and moving Gordon Hayward to Oklahoma City. In return, the Hornets also received Tre Mann, Dāvis Bertāns, Vasilije Micić, a 2027 first-round pick from Dallas and second-round picks in 2024 and 2025.

Although it was already clear when they traded Terry Rozier to Miami for Kyle Lowry and a protected 2027 first-round pick, the 2023-24 campaign is a wash for the Hornets, and co-owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin decided running it back with the bulk of the same group that hasn’t gotten it done didn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. Status quo wasn’t going to cut it.

“Going into this season we felt — or at least I felt — we could contend for a playoff spot,” Kupchak said. “I don’t know what that means in terms of wins and losses. There’s a lot of good teams in this league, there’s a lot of good teams in the East. Certainly I think we all felt we would be better than we are today. Now, the injury part of it cannot be denied. With LaMelo (Ball) and Gordon and Mark (Williams) and so on and so forth.

“So, yeah, we could say, ‘Listen, let’s sit pat, everything is going to be OK next year. We got the injury bug this year, so let’s just go through it and you get a good pick and you go from there.’ Your record says what you are. We’ve got 10 wins and to just sit and do nothing, we didn’t feel was the prudent thing to do.”

Certainly not Schnall and Plotkin during their first deadline calling the shots.

“Rich and Gabe, they wanted to be aggressive,” Kupchak said. “They didn’t want to sit and just assume this team is going to be healthy next year, so our feeling was to get out, balance the team better, add some veterans that’s going to help our younger players in the locker room. And more important or just as important, get assets that we can use to set ourselves up down the road.”

And apparently, Miles Bridges will be a part of that future.

Bridges elected not to waive his power to veto a deal, ensuring he remained with the Hornets beyond the deadline. He’s said more than once he hopes to stay with the franchise and it seems like the feeling is mutual.

Provided they can work out any complications that may arise.

“This is not a simple conversation to have,” Kupchak said. “It’s pretty complex. Without going into great detail, when you sign a qualifying offer, you lose your Bird rights if you are traded, and you also get the right to approve a trade. So you do have a lot of. But when you get traded, your Bird rights don’t go with you. So you have to rely on representation to really help you navigate something like this.

“This is really not something a player, when you have that much control, can really navigate yourself. So, we did frequently check in with his representative and because it was the trade deadline, you could imagine there were a lot of calls. And, of course, during the trade deadline, you don’t know who is going to call, you don’t know what it’s going to be about. You take it, you have conversations.”

But Bridges is still a member of the Hornets, and both sides want to keep it that way.

“I feel comfortable saying Miles has been with us, we drafted him and he’s certainly having a great year, getting better and better as the season goes along,” Kupchak said. “And I don’t see why we wouldn’t want him to be a part of this team for a long, long time.”

Here are the other notable highlights of Kupchak’s chat:

Kyle Lowry buyout

“I think there will be a resolution there, hopefully in 24-48 hours,” Kupchak said. “Don’t have much more to share with you right now, other than that. Yes, he is still a part of the team. He is one of our roster players. But he’s not in Charlotte right now as you know, but we hope to have a resolution there within 24-49 hours.”

Mark Williams’ back injury

“It is taking longer (than anticipated),” Kupchak said. “He did see a specialist last week and it will just take some time, and he expects 100% return to pay. So, there’s nothing here that is going to create a problem with his career going forward. And I think the way we left it, our next update will be in four weeks, something like that. I think the last thing we said was he would be re-evaluated in six weeks.

“I can’t say I expect him to play four weeks from now. Yeah, it’s taking longer than we thought and it’s not just a contusion where you get hit and you get a bruise. It’s a little bit more than that, and it’s just going to take some time for it to heal. But we expect … he saw a specialist that’s supposed to be the best in the country recently and we expect 100% return to play.”

Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin involvement

“I did this in L.A. with Dr. (Jerry) Buss,” Kupchak said, “and I think Dr. Buss came to one trade deadline meeting and with Michael (Jordan), Michael was very involved. Didn’t come very often. But Gabe and Rick, you could feel their energy. They were in the building, very, very involved. To be honest with you, shockingly knowledgeable. I didn’t realize that they had so much knowledge about the players, and we met every day, beginning last week. We had a room where six or eight of us met.

“Very involved, very energetic, very passionate. And every owner that I’ve been with, there’s been a lot of good stuff. So, I’m not saying one is better than the other. But this was great. You could feel the energy and the passion that they both have for this organization to make this team better. And not only on the court, but in the community.”

How trades will help

“First of all, I think we are more balanced as a team,” Kupchak said. “If you look at the positions … of course we have an injury at the center position with Mark that’s lingering, that’s going on longer than we thought. So, we still need some help there. But we really balanced the roster in the backcourt. We are hopeful LaMelo gets back soon and then our bench will perform better than the bench we had. We’ve added veterans — not just one and two, but three, four, five, six veterans.

“That part we’ll see immediately beginning (Saturday) when they get their physicals and pass. And also maybe, just as big as getting the players — and I’m also lumping in the Terry Rozier trade — getting the pick from Miami, a very lightly protected pick and then the pick we got (Thursday), they have tremendous upside.

“A lot of times you get a pick and it’s protected one through 14, one through 10. And then it goes to two second-rounders and there’s really not much upside. Both of these picks have a tremendous amount of upside. We can wait it out and see how they play out in terms of where they end up as a number, and then we can draft a player. Or going forward you can use that pick to make a deal work. They are valuable picks.”