The Hornets now have two Duke basketball big men and a former Blue Devil sniper.
Less than two weeks ago, former three-year Duke basketball player Marques Bolden signed a 10-day contract with the Charlotte Hornets. The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Texas native appeared in only one game, going scoreless in five minutes of mop-up duty, and the organization released him a few days before his contract ended.
Don’t worry. The Hornets announced on Saturday that Bolden had been signed to a two-way deal, a substantial boost from his previous interim status of approximately a week. On Sunday evening, he came off the bench in a road game against the Toronto Raptors, who included former Blue Devil guards Gary Trent Jr. and RJ Barrett.
Bolden, who spent the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons in the G League with the Salt Lake City Stars, has already appeared in 11 NBA games since going undrafted in 2019.
He began the 2023-24 season on a two-way deal with the Milwaukee Bucks. However, he appeared in only two games for the Bucks before being waived in early January.
MAJOR shoutout to @WisconsinHerd standout Marques Bolden on securing a Two-Way contract with the @hornets! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/hFTfGkAvRO
— NBA G League (@nbagleague) March 2, 2024
The 25-year-old’s return to the Hornets, combined with former Duke basketball big man Harry Giles’ two-way agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers last week, brings the total number of Blue Devils with active NBA contracts to exactly two dozen.
Marques Bolden joins two other NBA Blue Devils in Charlotte: experienced reserve guard Seth Curry, who is recovering from an ankle injury, and second-year center Mark Williams, who was a full-time starter when healthy. Williams, who is 7 feet tall, has been sidelined since early December with a nagging back problem.
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