| Advertisement |
The Charlotte Hornets officially acquired forward Marco Belinelli from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for the draft rights to guard Malachi Richardson in a deal that was agreed to before last month's draft. Belinelli averaged 10.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 24.6 minutes in 68 games, including seven starts, for the Kings last season. The nine-year veteran has averaged 9.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 23.0 minutes in 570 career NBA games.
Advertisement
Belinelli has two-years remaining on the three-year, $19 million contract he signed last offseason and is due to make $6.33 million in base salary next season and $6.6 million in 2017-18.
"We are excited to be adding a high-caliber player in Marco Belinelli to our roster," Hornets general manager Rich Cho said. "Marco is a solid outside shooter and has proven he can score and create for others in a variety of ways over the course of his nine-year NBA career. He brings veteran leadership to our locker room and we think he'll mesh with our core group well."
Belinelli was the 18th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, and the well-traveled veteran from Italy has also played for Golden State, Toronto, New Orleans, Chicago and San Antonio, where he won an NBA title in 2014.
The 6-foot-6 Richardson was selected by the Hornets with the 22nd overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. He averaged 13.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 34.4 minutes in 37 games in his lone season at Syracuse. He was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and his 79 three-pointers made was the third-most in program history.
