Hornets and Hawks Trade Role Players Ahead of Training Camp
NBA training camps are almost here, but the Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks squeezed in a bit of business before the doors open.
Charlotte is sending forward Dorian Finney-Smith to Atlanta in exchange for guards Buddy Hield and Ryan Nembhard, a person with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The trade has not yet been formally announced, so the person requested anonymity.
It’s a small move on the surface. Inside the Southeast Division, it says plenty.
Finney-Smith Gets Fresh Start in Atlanta
Finney-Smith, 33, arrives in Atlanta trying to reboot a reputation that once made him one of the league’s more reliable 3-and-D wings.
Last season with the Houston Rockets, that version of him never really appeared. Across 37 games, he posted career lows in points (3.3 per game), rebounds (2.5), field goal percentage (33.3%) and 3-point percentage (27%). For a player whose value is tied almost entirely to perimeter defense and spot-up shooting, those numbers bit hard.
Charlotte had only just taken a low-risk flier on him in July, acquiring him from Houston for cash considerations. Two months later, he’s on the move again, this time to a Hawks team still tinkering around its core and always hunting for defensive help on the wing.
If Atlanta can coax even league-average shooting out of him, his size and defensive versatility could still earn him playoff minutes. If not, this is a short-term experiment at minimal cost.
Charlotte Doubles Down on Shooting
On the other side, the Hornets lean further into a clear priority: surround their creators with as much shooting as possible.
Hield, 33, has built an entire career on that one skill. He’s a career 39.5% shooter from 3-point range, one of the most prolific long-range threats of his era. Yet he never found a foothold in Atlanta. After arriving in February in the multi-team deal that also brought Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks and sent Kristaps Porziņģis to the Golden State Warriors, Hield struggled to crack the rotation.
Now he lands in Charlotte, where minutes on the wing are far more available and the mandate to space the floor is far more urgent. If the Hornets give him consistent run, his gravity alone changes how defenses line up against them.
Nembhard brings a different kind of help. The younger brother of Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, he was thrown into the fire with the Dallas Mavericks, forced into a starting point guard role while Kyrie Irving recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
That stretch hardened him quickly. He’s not a star name, but he’s already shown he can organize an offense, survive being targeted, and keep a team afloat in difficult minutes. For a Charlotte team that has cycled through ball-handlers and struggled with stability at the position, that matters.
Two shooters, two different stages of their careers, both fitting the same organizational theme: make the floor wider, make the reads easier, and give the offense a chance to breathe.
Training camp is days away. Depth charts are about to be written in ink instead of pencil.
For both franchises, this quiet divisional deal will help decide who actually earns their place on them.
