Hornets keeping forward Miles Bridges after agreeing to 3-year, $75M contact, AP source says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets are keeping forward Miles Bridges after the forward was re-signed to a three-year, $75 million contract, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Saturday because the agreement cannot yet be announced.

Bridges has spent his first five seasons with the Hornets and indicated leading up to free agency that he wanted to remain with the franchise that drafted him in the first round in 2018 out of Michigan State.

He averaged a career-high 21 points and 7.3 rebounds last season after sitting out all of the 2022-23 season due to his involvement in a domestic violence situation. He was suspended 30 games by the NBA last summer after pleading no contest, and sat out the first 10 games of the season.

In February, additional criminal charges connected to the domestic violence case against Bridges were brought, but then later dropped because of “insufficient evidence,” court documents revealed.

Bridges had been facing three charges for an alleged violation of a domestic violence protection order in Charlotte on Oct. 6, 2023, misdemeanor child abuse and injury to personal property.

But the state said in a Charlotte Mecklenburg County Court filing that prosecutors would “not be successful at trial.”

Authorities said the woman who accused Bridges gave conflicting stories of what happened.

Superior Court documents say that when police officers responded to a call they found a woman – the mother of Bridges’ two children -- and the two children in a vehicle with a damaged windshield. She initially told police another woman at the house caused the damage, but then told them a few days later it was Bridges who inflicted the damage.

Later, court documents stated the woman told prosecutors she was unsure how her car was damaged leading to the charges being dropped

Over the course of his five season with the Hornets, Bridges has averaged 14.8 points and six rebounds.

In other news, Charlotte announced that it received guard Devonte’ Graham from the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for cash considerations. However, in a corresponding transaction, the Hornets waived Graham, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Charlotte also announced that it has waived forward Davis Bertans, guard Bryce McGowens and forward Aleksej Pokusevski.