Hornets' Coby White Shows Downside of Sixers' Cost-Cutting Approach

The Sixers priced themselves out of being able to acquire Coby White at the trade deadline this year, which could prove costly.

Mar 19, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White (3) stands on the court during the third quarter against the Orlando Magic at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images | Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images

If not for Coby White, the Charlotte Hornets' season would be over.

White scored 19 points in 26 minutes off the bench Tuesday in Charlotte's win-or-go-home game against the Miami Heat in the play-in tournament. That included an 11-point flurry at the end of the third quarter that put the Hornets up six, along with the game-tying three-pointer with 12 seconds left that sent the game into overtime.

The Hornets acquired White at the trade deadline by sending out Ousmane Dieng—whom they effectively got for free from the Oklahoma City Thunder—along with Collin Sexton and two second-round picks. The Hornets originally got Sexton last June by shipping Jusuf Nurkić to Utah.

During his 21 regular-season games with the Hornets, White averaged 15.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 three-pointers in only 19.3 minutes off the bench. So much for Sixers president Daryl Morey's theory that no needle-movers changed hands at the trade deadline.

The Sixers, meanwhile, did not acquire anyone at the trade deadline. All they did was trade Jared McCain to the Thunder for future draft picks, which outraged many of their fans.

The Sixers did acquire three second-round picks as well as a late first-rounder from the Thunder for McCain. They had the draft capital to acquire White. They just chose not to, in part because doing so would have pushed them back into the luxury tax.

The trade deadline is where their cost-cutting approach over the past 12 months came back to bite them.

How tax ducking cost the Sixers

The Sixers' original sin in that regard was the KJ Martin trade ahead of the 2025 trade deadline. They spent two second-round picks to offload him onto the Detroit Pistons so they could duck the tax. (One of those picks was the Milwaukee Bucks' 2027 second-rounder. Whoops!)

Martin's contract was fully non-guaranteed for the 2025-26 season. The Sixers could have held onto him, waived him last June and been left with zero dead-cap hit.

Conversely, they could have kept his $8 million contract and seen what trade opportunities would present themselves. He could have been the main salary-matching component in a deal for White or another player earning between $10-15 million.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, when teams under the first apron trade between $7.25 million and $29 million in salary, they can take back up to an additional $7.5 million in return as long as it doesn't push them over the first apron. Teams over the first apron can't take back a single dollar more in salary than they send out.

The Sixers finished the season roughly $2.2 million below the first apron.

Burning two second-round picks to salary-dump Martin so they could avoid the luxury tax was inexcusable at the time, and it looks even worse in retrospect. But that wasn't the Sixers' only path to match salaries for White.

One of the perils of a three-max build is how top-heavy it leaves your roster in terms of salary. Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey are all earning at least $37 million this season, but VJ Edgecombe is the Sixers' next-highest-paid player at $11.1 million. Beyond that, Quentin Grimes ($8.7 million) and Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.4 million) are their only two other players earning more than $5 million.

White is earning $12.9 million this season, so even with the $7.5 million in padding, the Sixers would have needed to send out at least $5.4 million in salary to acquire him. They also would have been hard-capped at the first apron if they didn't send out at least $12.9 million in salary in that deal.

Their easiest path to acquire White would have been a trade involving Grimes. That's where their offseason decision to dare him into taking his qualifying offer backfired on them.

Grimes came to haunt them, too

Had Grimes signed a new deal with the Sixers in free agency, he would have been fully trade-eligible by Jan. 15 at the latest. But since he took his qualifying offer, he had veto rights over any trade involving him this season. (He would have lost his Bird rights had he gotten traded to a new team.)

Perhaps Grimes would have signed off on a trade to the Bulls in hopes of some late-season stat-padding that boosted his value in free agency. Rather than embrace a full tank, the Bulls were playing veterans such as Sexton and Tre Jones up until the final game of the season for some unbeknownst reason.

Instead, Grimes stayed put, White moved to Charlotte, and the rest is history.

The Sixers are now headed into their own play-in game Wednesday against the Orlando Magic short-handed in the backcourt. Beyond Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes, they only have 40-year-old Kyle Lowry and Dalen Terry, whom they just converted from a two-way contract to a standard deal in the final few days of the regular season.

It's premature to say that White would be the difference between the Sixers making and missing the playoffs. Perhaps they win Wednesday and earn a date to get bludgeoned by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

But if they lose Wednesday, they'll have to face the Hornets on Friday in a win-or-go-home game. White will be there, front and center, to remind them of what could have been had a needle-mover been available at the trade deadline.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X and Bluesky for the latest news.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.