{"id":988139,"date":"2026-08-08T03:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/988139\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:35:17","slug":"hornets-coby-white-ready-to-surprise-people-in-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/988139\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets’ Coby White Ready To ‘Surprise People’ In 2026\/27"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hornets<\/strong> traded away two starters this summer in LaMelo Ball<\/a><\/strong> and Miles Bridges<\/a><\/strong>, but Coby White<\/a><\/strong> is confident the team can move up the Eastern Conference standings in 2026\/27, according to Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got a really, really good team,\u201d White told Boone. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of really, really good players. I think we got a lot of unselfish players, so that\u2019ll make it easy in terms of coming together. A lot of us are already here now in Charlotte working out, so that\u2019s a major step in \u2014 what is it, August?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t see that a lot in the NBA, so that already shows individually how bought in each player is. So for us, it\u2019s just about doing it together, doing it as a collective, getting better each and every day on the court, off the court. Because I think we all value getting to that brotherhood off the court as well. It\u2019s just as important as doing stuff on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

White, who was acquired by Charlotte ahead of the February trade deadline and re-signed with the Hornets this offseason on a three-year, $74MM<\/a> deal, has high expectations for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a chance to be a really good team and surprise a lot of people, but we\u2019ve got to put the work in,\u201d White said. \u201cAnd what comes with the work is doing what we\u2019re doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Boone writes, the Hornets have the longest active playoff drought in the NBA at 10 years and the East looks quite strong. White acknowledged the apparent strength of the conference but believes the competition will only help the team grow.<\/p>\n

While the Hornets moved on from Ball and Bridges in separate deals, those trades brought back Naz Reid<\/a><\/strong>, Grayson Allen<\/a><\/strong>, Royce O\u2019Neale<\/a><\/strong> and draft assets, Boone notes. White reiterated that several players on the roster are already getting to know one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing here is important,\u201d White said. \u201cIt\u2019s important right now, especially when you\u2019ve got not a totally different team, but you got some new individuals joining the team. Grayson Allen\u2019s here as well. The rookies are here. Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a><\/strong> is here. You don\u2019t normally see that during the summer. So, I think it\u2019s important for us to just gain some traction going into the training camp. It\u2019s going to be dope.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys being here this early, not just being here, but you start stuff early \u2014 the locker room talks, the meal room talks. And all that stuff is important. So, yeah, exciting times for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

White called Reid \u201csuper talented\u201d and praised the big man\u2019s \u201cunique skill set.\u201d He also spoke extensively about Allen, whose teams have made the playoffs in six of his eight years in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ve always noticed about G.A. is his ability to impact winning,\u201d White said. \u201cEverywhere he\u2019s gone, he\u2019s won. Whether it\u2019s Milwaukee. \u2026 he\u2019s been a winner everywhere he goes. He\u2019s been part of a winning culture. He\u2019s been part of a winning organization. So I think first and foremost, he knows what winning looks like, and he knows what it takes to win at this level. I think obviously being one of the best shooters in the NBA is going to help us a ton.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd something that\u2019s underrated about him is his ability to put the ball on the floor, play-make as well, get into the paint. He has a variety of finishes, slow step finishes around the rim, great touch. He has a lot of game, obviously, but I think everybody sees him as just a shooter. But he\u2019s a guy who\u2019s like an elite competitor. He\u2019s a guy that can put the ball on the floor, play-make, get in the paint, finish around the rim, like I said. So yeah, I\u2019m excited to share the floor with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hornets traded away two starters this summer in LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, but Coby White is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":988140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[42766,20541,9275,27847,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-988139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-coby-white","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-grayson-allen","tag-naz-reid","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117057796660196742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}