Anyone confirmed if Coby's new deal's a declining one? This is the only source I've found so far. (National media really leaning hard into painting the Wolves as the
loser of this deal.)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7395855/2026/06/26/lamelo-ball-trade-timberwolves-hornets-analysis/What does it say that a Hornets team that finished last season with a better point differential than the Wolves was willing to move on from a 24-year-old centerpiece? Ball was good last season and played 72 games, but Charlotte’s current front office didn’t draft him and clearly didn’t totally believe in him considering they took the first good opportunity to exchange him for cap relief and assets.
Because Green’s outbound salary offsets Reid’s inbound number, the Hornets have a whopping $40 million trade exception from Ball to use in the next 12 months and enough cap flexibility to actually make use of it. (So abundant is their room that they could easily accommodate designing Coby White’s new contract as a declining money deal.)
Reid is only 26 and signed for four more years, and the oldest of their 14 players with guaranteed money this year is 28-year-old Miles Bridges. Even before landing this haul, the Hornets were sitting on 2027 first-rounders from Dallas and Miami, a 2029 first that could be the one the Wolves originally sent out for Gobert and a cache of seven surplus second-round picks. Other than the little matter of not having a true star to build around, the Hornets are set for the future.
The other tell, I must say, is that nobody totally believes what happened in the second half of last season. So many teams were so uncompetitive that virtually everyone who was trying posted a winning record, if not a downright scintillating one. A 28-10 finish seems amazing until you realize an utterly unremarkable Atlanta Hawks team did nearly the same thing, as did several other underwhelming rivals. When it mattered, the Hornets barely beat an average Miami team in the first Play-In tournament game and then got smoked by the Orlando Magic in the second one.
Viewed that way, the move the Hornets made is the patient, grown-up decision of a team that knows it’s still far away from its intended destination and isn’t drinking the Kool-Aid on last year’s hot streak.
The Wolves’ move, meanwhile, seems more rash. But if you’re going to make a move like this, do it for somebody in his 20s who has All-NBA talent. It’s risky, but so was standing still and slowly circling the drain. Yes, the Wolves drained every single draft pick to do it, but this might be the one move that allows Minnesota to hop off the asset-churn treadmill and build more normally past this season.
