In the 15-year history of the Hornets, the team has drafted only two foreign-born players -- Czechoslovakia's George Zidek in 1995 and Canada's Jamaal Magloire in 2000.

But this year the franchise plans to identify potential draft-eligible international players and monitor them for the rest of the year. The Hornets also are planning to take more scouting trips outside the country.

Hornets assistant general manager Allan Bristow traveled to Greece in June for an eight-day tournament.

The Hornets are considering taking a trip to Sweden next month to scout international players participating in a tournament. But even if they don't make that tournament, it's likely that team officials will take another trip to Europe before the end of the year, said Bob Bass, the Hornets' executive vice president of basketball operations and general manager.

"This is the earliest that we have identified (foreign) players for our draft," Bass said.

Last year, the Hornets made one trip to Europe.