Charlotte Hornets Officially Sign PJ Hairston

By John Woodcock | Aug 22, 2014

Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports that the Hornets have officially signed shooting guard PJ Hairston to a contract. Hairston played for the Hornets Summer League team, but the real reason that his signing took so long was an issue with his agent. Hairston’s agent had not been certified by the NBAPA. It would look like that issue got cleared up.

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Terms were also not a stumbling block to the process because the NBA uses a rookie pay scale that doesn’t change. Hairston was drafted with the 26th pick and so he will make 26th pick money. That means a two year guaranteed contract worth about $1 million per year for the first two years. If
Hairston makes it to the final team option years, then that number would increase slightly.

By comparison rookie forward Noah Vonleh will make $ 2.5 million this year as the ninth pick. Point guard Kemba Walker, in the last year of his rookie deal, was the 10th pick and will only make $3.3 million this season. The rookie scale is very friendly to the team that drafted them. In most cases it makes since to pick up all four years of the rookie contract.

The other news out of the Hornets is fairly limited at the moment. Cody Zeller is finishing his time with the USA Select Team, and might be essentially finished by now. Bonnell also said that Coach Steve Clifford would like to add a third center to the Hornets roster. This would essentially be a Jannero Pargo for the center position.

That said, the Hornets are pretty close to finished with the off-season, barring something crazy like a Josh Smith trade. Fourteen of the fifteen roster slots are filled. Training Camp starts in Asheville in more than a month.

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