The Charlotte Hornets are moving on from Kai Jones. The team announced that they were releasing the 22-year-old forward on Wednesday.
This isn’t a surprising move from the Hornets, as they announced that the Texas product would be away from the team indefinitely because of personal issues ahead of media day. His erratic social media behavior before then included insults to his teammates as well as self-comparisons between himself, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.
Jones publically requested a trade on Monday via X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his desire to join a new team, and now he’ll get the opportunity to do so. He only averaged 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in his second pro season in 2022-23, but did show promise at the NBA’s Summer League ahead of 2023-24. Jones averaged 7.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks in his stint.
In the meantime, the Hornets are a little thin at power forward. PJ Washington appears set to start after putting up career numbers last season and Miles Bridges will serve a 10-game suspension to kick off the team’s upcoming campaign.
