CHARLOTTE — Free agent guard Coby White intends to sign a three-year, $74 million deal to return to the Charlotte Hornets, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Thursday.
White was a major priority for the Hornets and now steps into a new starting role in the backcourt following Charlotte’s agreed-upon trade to send LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Hornets officials worked through White’s free agency with CAA Basketball agents Steven Heumann and Ty Sullivan, ESPN reported.
The Hornets acquired White in a trade with the Chicago Bulls before the February deadline, adding the pending free agent in the hopes of making a postseason push. The 6-foot-4 guard was exactly the punch Charlotte needed off the bench as White averaged 15.6 points and 39% 3-point shooting in 21 games for Charlotte.
White came up big in the Hornets’ biggest win of the season when he scored 19 points and hit a turnaround 3 with 10.8 seconds left in regulation to force overtime in Charlotte’s 127-126 win over the Miami Heat in the first Eastern Conference play-in game.
For White, playing in Charlotte was a homecoming. The 26-year-old was born in North Carolina and played for the University of North Carolina in college.
“He’s a tremendous culture fit from the Carolinas,” Jeff Peterson, Hornets president of basketball operations, told ESPN in late March. “So loved the fact that we got to get him to come back home.”
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.
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