After initially agreeing to give up three second-round picks in their trade for Coby White, the Hornets amended the terms of the deal to remove one of those selections when the guard’s physical showed a left calf injury. However, that calf issue didn’t diminish the team’s enthusiasm for its acquisition of the North Carolina native, writes Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
“As soon as I touched down, I felt wanted,” White told Boone. “I called my family, and I’m like, ‘Everybody here is just super-welcoming and super-nice. And they keep talking about long term, long term, long term.’ And just hearing that somewhere where you’re valued for a long term, especially being back home, it means a lot.”
White is on an expiring contract and will be eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer, so there’s no guarantee the Hornets will be able to re-sign him. But president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson made it clear that’s the plan, as Boone relays.
“Just being able to acquire Coby and being able to acquire his Bird rights is very, very important for us in terms of how we’re operating and how we are building it out,” Peterson said. “So, as I said earlier, he fits everything that we want to be about and hope that he’s a Hornet for a very long time.”
Head coach Charles Lee is also excited about adding White to the roster, breaking into a smile when he was asked about the team’s newest guard on Saturday (Twitter video link via Boone).
“Spend a minute with him, you can already feel a sense of maturity, a sense of eagerness to want to play and build relationships, a competitiveness to him,” Lee said. “He’s super engaged in everything we do. A great human being. … I think he’s already trying to put his fingerprint – or put his stamp – on our environment and on our culture.”
We have more from around the Southeast:
- Heat swingman Norman Powell was initially listed as questionable for Sunday’s game in Washington due to a right hand sprain, then left the blowout victory in the third quarter due to lower back tightness. However, with a busy All-Star weekend on tap in a few days (in addition to being named a first-time All-Star, the 32-year-old will also take part in the three-point contest), Powell didn’t sound concerned about either health issue. “I think a lot to do with being stuck on the plane for a lot of hours,” Powell said of his back tightness, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “And then soft beds at the hotel. We tried to make an adjustment. But they didn’t have what we needed to have, a little firmer mattress there. I always get a little back flare-up when I’m sleeping on soft mattresses.”
- Magic forward Franz Wagner, who has missed nine consecutive games – and 25 of the past 27 – due to a left ankle injury, has been upgraded to questionable for Monday’s game vs. Milwaukee and hopes to play before the All-Star break, writes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required). If Wagner isn’t activated on Monday, his last pre-All-Star opportunity to return would be on Wednesday in a rematch against the Bucks.
- Franz’s brother Moritz Wagner has played in 11 of the Magic‘s 12 games since returning from an ACL tear last month, but he admitted this week that his recovery process hasn’t been “linear” and that he’s still trying to get back to feeling 100%. “My days are full, my recovery protocol is huge, (and) my confidence is still not at a point where it used to be,” Moritz said (Twitter video link via Beede). “This injury is heavy, man. It’s a really long process and it takes a long time, so I have a lot of respect for that.”
- After being waived by Chicago at the start of trade deadline week, Jevon Carter was informed that the Magic were “very interested” in signing him. That made it an easy decision for him to sign with Orlando, Beede writes for The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required). “It was kind of a like a no-brainer for me,” Carter said. “They wanted me. I like to go where I’m wanted. Talking to (Magic president of basketball operations) Jeff (Weltman), he still remembered my pre-draft work out that I did here back in 2018. So, he was excited to have me, and I’m excited to be here.”