Shortly after striking a deal to trade guard LaMelo Ball to Minnesota, the Hornets have reached an agreement to bring back free agent guard Coby White, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reports (via Twitter) that White will sign a three-year, $74MM contract to remain in Charlotte.
The deal will be fully guaranteed, with no player or team options, tweets Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports.
Hornets president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson repeatedly indicated entering the offseason that retaining White was a top priority for the club this summer after he was acquired from Chicago at February’s trade deadline.
Re-signing the former Bull became even more crucial in the wake of the Ball deal. As Charania observes, with Ball gone, White figures to take on a more substantial role in his first full season as a Hornet.
The seventh overall pick in the 2019 draft, White spent the first six-and-a-half years of his NBA career in Chicago, where he developed into a productive scorer, shooter, and secondary play-maker. In his last full season with the Bulls in 2024/25, he averaged 20.4 points and 4.5 assists per game with a shooting line of .453/.370/.902.
His breakout performance with the Bulls made it impossible for the club to sign him to a contract extension before he reached free agency. Since he only earned $12.9MM in 2025/26, his maximum extension would have been worth $87MM over four years — he reportedly conveyed to Chicago last year that he wouldn’t be signing an extension and would take his chances on earning a more lucrative payday in unrestricted free agency this offseason.
Following a mid-season trade to the Hornets, that bet has paid off for White, whose new $74MM deal will have a lower total value than his max extension, but will be worth nearly $25MM per year, comfortably above the $21.75MM annual average value he could’ve earned if he had signed the extension.
White, a North Carolina native who played his college ball at UNC, averaged 15.6 PPG and 3.0 APG on .461/.391/.839 shooting in 21 appearances off the bench for Charlotte in the second half. His most memorable moment as a Hornet so far came in the team’s play-in victory over Miami, when he knocked down an improbable fadeaway three-pointer with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime (video link via NBA.com).
The Pistons and Nets were among the other teams who were eyeing White as a potential free agent target, notes Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
White’s new deal shouldn’t have a major impact on Charlotte’s cap flexibility this summer. Depending on the structure of the contract, the Hornets – who are generating significant cap savings in the Ball trade – should still have about $50MM in spending flexibility below the luxury tax line, observes Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link).
