On June 25th, 2026, news broke of a rupture from the Charlotte Hornets’ Michael Jordan/Mitch Kupchak era, when Shams Charania reported the trade of LaMelo Ball and Josh Green for Minnesota’s Naz Reid and draft assets. Hornets General Manager Jeff Peterson next sent away the other half of “Air BnB”, Miles Bridges, to the Suns in return for Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale and draft compensation. Just months after the Hornets racked up the most wins in nine years, they shipped two lynch pins of that success across the country.
Will rising stars Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller combine with offensive spark plug Coby White, defensive demon Moussa Diabate, and sharp shooting new big man Naz Reid to carry the Hornets into the playoffs? Or will the loss of Ball’s scoring, elite ball-handling and playmaking combine with the loss of Bridges’ solid starter-level play at power forward (PF) to drop the Hornets back into the cellar?
Newcomers Reid, Allen, and O’Neale are each proven playoff rotation players. Starters, at times, on playoff teams, and they will help the team significantly as it transitions more fully into the Jeff Peterson era.
The athletic 6’ 9’, 265 lb, long-armed big man, Naz Reid, will replace and likely surpass Bridges as the Hornets’ starting PF. He’ll pair with Diabaté in the front court, both players fully switchable between center (C) and PF on defense, giving the Hornets much better size than the Hornets’ frontcourt had with Bridges. In addition to very good size, Reid upgrades the team in three-point shooting, rebounding, steals and blocks. However, the Hornets’ offense might miss Bridges’ plus passing, as Reid has never yet posted the assist/turnover ratio that Bridges did last season, when he stood out with 3.7 assists vs. 1.6 turnovers per 36 minutes. Reid holds his own as a passer, with about 3 assists and 2 turnovers per 36 on average the last two years, but he hasn’t been as secure with the ball or as prolific an assist man as Bridges was for us last year.
Reid turns 27 years old on August 26th, hitting the heart of his prime. A former Sixth Man of the Year, the Hornets hope for a breakout season from him, given his first chance to be a full-time starter, after he played behind All NBA PFs Karl-Anthony Towns and Julius Randle his entire career.
At shooting guard (SG) Grayson Allen, 30 years old now, played an impactful season for the playoff Suns, helping them surprise the league by securing a playoff spot in the highly competitive Western Conference, despite losing Kevin Durant in trade. Allen averaged about 29 minutes a game and started more than half of the 51 games he played, while picking up his scoring to become the Suns 4th leading scorer per game on the season, though his efficiency dipped with the higher volume.
The Hornets will welcome his playmaking: last year he set a new career high 3.8 assists per game vs only 1.6 turnovers. But, he missed time due to right knee, left hamstring, and right groin injuries through the season: a warning sign that the Hornets should heed. His rehab and injury prevention are important if the Hornets hope to return to competing for the playoffs next season.
Royce O’Neale, a sharp-shooting combo forward, hit 41% from 3pt range on fairly high volume over the last two years, and he also moved the ball well, sporting a solid 3.4 assists vs. 1.7 turnovers per 36 minutes in 2025-26. At 33 years old, he could experience some fall-off due to aging, but he started 67 games for the playoff Suns last year and is fully healthy, so he should be a good backup forward to help replace Josh Green and Bridges.
The Hornets also added talent via the draft, making two first round picks from a notably good and deep draft class: selecting two 20 year old Germans: big man Hannes Stienbach at pick 14 and point guard (PG) Christian Anderson at pick 18. Both players excelled in the NCAA last year as freshmen. Steinbach, a beast of a rebounder and a good scorer down low, also sports some potential to stretch the floor with long range shooting.
A recent article at The Athletic rated the Hornets offseason highly: 3rd best in the league, behind only Miami at #2 and Philly at #1. The author praised the Hornets’ pivot away from Ball and towards Miller and Knueppel, adding a slew of picks and swaps, several solid veteran rotation players, and two first round rookies:
“Everyone has a different interpretation of [Ball’s] skills. I see: “Crazy talent but can’t be your lead dog.” … It was a mature understanding by general manager Jeff Peterson and Charlotte’s front office that the sugar high of a 25-win improvement last season didn’t mean they’d arrived.”
The Hornets also re-signed combo guard Coby White to a 3 year contract, and he will step into Ball’s place as the starting PG. He led the Bulls as their lead guard at times earlier in his career, most notably at age 23 prior to Josh Giddey’s arrival in town. He performed respectably, but he and the team didn’t find good success back then, led by a hodgepodge of ill-fitting minor stars, like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vučević, who all wanted the ball in their own hands.
This year, in his prime at 26 years old and a seven year veteran, White takes the reins on a team loaded with other good shooters and competitors, but a team that doesn’t have a lot of other proven on-ball creativity. He and the Hornets are betting that he is ready to level up as a plus starter at PG. White has been a tantalizing basketball talent since his one college year, leading an excellent Tar Heel team. Star upside was never the most likely outcome, but it’s always been a possibility.
White, Miller, Knueppel, Reid and Diabate are an unproven starting lineup, but all 5 players have earned the right to be considered starters in the league. They are a well balanced unit that should benefit from youth improving year over year, at every position. The projected bench rotation, of Dennis Schröder, Allen, O’Neale, Grant Williams and one of Ryan Kalkbrenner or Steinbach at C, looks similarly well balanced and sports playoff veterans at 4 positions.
On the deep bench, the third string, of Anderson, Sion James, Liam McNeely, Tidjane Salaun, and one of Kalkbrenner or Steinbach, is very young, but has some level of proven NBA talent, with Sion playing heavy minutes last year for the winning Hornets, filling in at 3 positions, PG-SF. McNeely is a promising young wing who played decently last year in his limited NBA minutes, and was a bright spot on the Hornets’ G-League affiliate and in Summer League. Salaun improved notably last season and played capably for the Hornets in limited minutes and also in the G-League. Kalkbrenner proved himself a solid second string center last year, and Steinbach is a highly rated rookie who could pass Kalkbrenner for rotation minutes, either one making a strong third string center.
A tumultuous offseason left the Hornets a radically different team. Looking to the current betting lines at the major sports books as a guide indicates 37-38 wins next season: a losing record unlikely even to be in a play-in game to the playoffs. But, with good health and individual improvement of each of the Hornets’ young starting five, this author believes they will challenge for the playoffs in the East once again.
