In an attempt to restart a once-promising career, former Charlotte Hornets forward Jalen McDaniels is heading to Japan.
Reports out of the country indicate that McDaniels is to sign with the Kobe Storks, a team in the Western Conference of the country’s top division, the B. Premier. It is certainly not unheard for NBA veteran frontcourt players to sign in Japan – see for example the recent conclusion of the long and storied Japanese career of former L.A. Lakers forward Ryan Kelly, or the fact that the same Storks team signed former Golden State Warriors forward Alfonso McKinnie just two years ago – but rare is the direct NBA-to-Japan jump, which McDaniels will be making.
The move gives McDaniels a fresh opportunity overseas after not playing anywhere last season. He last appeared in a game with a brief return to the NBA with the Washington Wizards in March 2025, and moves abroad for the first time, trying to throw a log on the fire of a career that once burned quite brightly.
Best Days Came With The Hornets
McDaniels entered the NBA as the 52nd overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft after two seasons at San Diego State. Despite being only a second-round pick, his first NBA deal (save for the one day he spent on a two-way deal) was a four-year contract, and he would go on to spend almost all of it with the Hornets.
His role grew steadily across that time in Charlotte. After making just 16 appearances as a rookie, McDaniels became a regular rotation player over the next three years, eventually averaging career highs of 10.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 26.7 minutes per game across 56 contests with the Hornets during the 2022-23 season. He eventually was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers at the 2023 trade deadline, as a small part of a large four-team deal in which the Hornets received Svi Mykhailiuk and two second-round picks.
The 76ers used McDaniels as a rental reserve during its (unsuccessful) title push to close out the 2022-23 season, after which he signed a two-year, $9.3 million with the Toronto Raptors in free agency. That stop proved less successful, though, and much briefer – McDaniels averaged 3.4 points in 50 games before being traded to the Sacramento Kings during the 2024 offseason in exchange for Davion Mitchell, Sasha Vezenkov, the rights to Jamal Shead and a 2025 second-round pick (later used on Alijah Martin). His stay with the Kings was even briefer, with Sacramento flipping him within four months to the San Antonio Spurs in a salary-clearing move before he was waived one day later.
Ever since then, McDaniels’s career has been on the rocks.
McDaniels’s Tricky Mid-Career
McDaniels then joined the Capital City Go-Go in the G League, where he was able to put in some good numbers and remind teams of his versatility. In 28 regular-season games, he averaged 13.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest while shooting 45.2% from the field and 34.7% from the all-important three-point line. Those performances earned him another NBA opportunity when the Wizards signed him to a pair of 10-day contracts, albeit giving him only seven minutes of court time.
Last season, though, McDaniels did not play anywhere. A training camp contract with the New Orleans Pelicans did not come to anything, and nor did he return to the G League. Now 28 years old, McDaniels takes his game international for the first time.
A 6’9 forward, McDaniels has been in and around the NBA on account of his length and defensive versatility, with the ability to play either forward position and switch across multiple matchups. Offensively, he is capable of handling the ball in transition, finishing around the basket and stretching the floor when his outside shot is falling. What he never found, though, was an NBA shot profile, and nor did he seem to adapt to the pace and physicality of the NBA game in the same way as his younger brother, Jaden.
McDaniels leaves the NBA – for now, at least – with 252 NBA regular-season appearances under his belt, and career averages of 6.8 points and 3.2 rebounds.
Former Hornets Forward Signs in Japan