Charlotte Hornets waive Aaron Harrison

The Charlotte Hornets have waived guard Aaron Harrison according to Adrian Wojnarowski, of Yahoo! Sports. The undrafted guard out of Kentucky has spent the majority of his time with the Hornets at the end of the bench, or in the D-League.

Harrison so far has not looked like much of an NBA player in his short stint with Charlotte. After going undrafted. the Hornets signed him to their summer league roster where he played well enough to earn a training camp spot. From there he earned a two year contract with a partial guarantee on the first year, and a team option on the second. Had Charlotte kept him until January 10th his contract would have become fully guaranteed for the second season as well.

Harrison has spent the majority of this season with the Hornets D-League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm. In 14 games with the Swarm he’s averaged 36 minutes, 20 points, five rebounds, and three assists while shooting 42 percent from the field. Perhaps the more important number however is the 34 percent he’s shooting from 3-point range as a member of the Swarm. Everybody knew that his 3-point shot needed to improve if he was ever going to be an NBA player, and while he’s made strides it currently isn’t at the level Charlotte needs.

While Harrison has been waived from the roster this doesn’t mean his time with the Charlotte organization is over for good. The Hornets have only used three of their four affiliate player slots on the Swarm roster. Unless there’s an NBA team out there that really wants Harrison on their roster then it’s likely he’ll clear waivers, sign with the D-League, and continue with Charlotte on their D-League roster. They’ll still be able to call him up as a D-League affiliate player, but now the Hornets will have a free spot on the NBA roster.

Now that the Hornets have this free roster spot it will be interesting to see how they could use it. Most regular watchers of Charlotte have noticed that there is definite need for some more depth on the bench, particularly on the defensive end. Having space on the main roster gives them the ability to pick up players off waivers, sign free agents, or receive more players than they send out in a trade. This could be a sign of the Hornets planning to make a roster in the future move, but more likely it had to do with saving them some money. Either way it gives them some nice flexibility with the main roster.