The reason for the $9.4 million trade was Spencer Dinwiddie waived

The The Charlotte Hornets have signed veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie to a one-year, $3.6 million deal in the summer, but will enter the 2025-26 NBA season without him on the roster. Charlotte released Dinwiddie less than a week before the start of the new NBA campaign, as the team had to waive the player to get within the 15-man standard contract limit.

But why Dinwiddie?

It appears the Hornets decided to part ways with Dinwiddie because they didn’t want another veteran on offense Pat Connaughton to be the one they would give up for at least two reasonsaccording to NBA insider Marc Stein.

For one thing, Connaughton is said to have cultivated a great personality in the young Hornets’ dressing room.

“The 32-year-old is already popular in the Charlotte locker room, ranks as the only active Hornet to win an NBA championship and is one of only two 30-year-olds on a young team alongside 35-year-old Mason Plumlee,” Stein wrote.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, Stein noted that “Charlotte is still holding out hope that the ex-Milwaukee Buck’s $9.4 million expiring contract will be attractive as a useful trade chip between now and the Feb. 5 trade deadline.”

Connaughton arrived in Charlotte via trade in July. The Bucks sent him to the Hornets along with two future NBA draft picks in exchange for Serbian guard Vasilij Micic, who was later waived by Milwaukee. Two weeks before that move by Milwaukee, Connaughton picked up his 2025-26 player option worth $9.43 million.

Drafted in the second round of the 2015 NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets, Connaughton played in 595 regular season games in the league, averaging 6.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting a career-high 35.6 percent from behind the arc.

Connaughton isn’t expected to get heavy minutes with the Hornets, and likely won’t be part of the team’s rotation while buried on the depth chart behind Conn Knuepel, Josh Green and Liam McNealy. But from a front office perspective, the Hornets appear to be more interested in the type of capital they will receive in the case of the Connaughton trade than its real value might be on the floor.