Coby White is Exactly What the Doctor Ordered for the Charlotte Hornets

Collin Sexton did exactly what the Charlotte Hornets, coach Charles Lee, and general manager Jeff Peterson wanted him to do in his half-season spent in 2025-2026.

He was “Young Bull,” as Hornets play-by-play announcer Eric Collins called him. He was a steadying force in the locker room and an integral part of showing how Charles Lee wanted his second-year Bugs to play. Fast and hard; at all times.

As Charlotte went on a run, and the tiny details started to matter more at the end of close games, Collin Sexton became a casualty of fit more than anything else. There’s a reason, even on an actively attempting-to-lose Chicago Bulls team, Sexton is giving the middle finger to the rim after he misses a free throw.

Funny as it was, he cared about winning. Still does, and will continue to. Sexton’s attitude is one that any good team deserves.

Coby White just had “Destined to be a Hornet” written all over him.

The North Carolina High School Basketball League’s all-time leading scorer, coming back home. Even more, White is exactly what Charlotte has been missing at backup point guard since Jeremy Lin in 2016.

All respect to Dennis Smith Jr., Fayetteville native, and another one of North Carolina’s own. His one year spent with the Hornets was fun, but now, Hornets fans have another reason to be excited by a backup point guard that’s not forced by injury.

White does for the Hornets what a LaMelo Ball-led team has been missing for a while, but has become more prevalent from the moment Charlotte went streaking with their new starting lineup.

With Sexton, they weren’t re-creating LaMelo in the aggregate the way they needed to.

When Ball would go off the floor, things tended to collapse. The playmaking that left the hardwood with him left Charlotte grasping for air offensively, more often than not. It was never for a lack of talent; it was a lack of creation that this version of the Charlotte Hornets needs to best amplify its players.

On the nights in Sexton’s tenure when he shot 50% or better from the field in reserve minutes for LaMelo, San Antonio comes to mind immediately; they were in the fight. He could only give this every so often, and Charlotte needed them to have a puncher's chance by the time Ball returned to play. If Sexton wasn’t scoring in reserve for LaMelo, things got rough when he couldn’t create properly.

With Coby, he creates for players on the perimeter in the same fashion as Ball, within the parameters of coach Charles Lee’s offense. Collin could easily break those parameters. Young Bull often saw red, or more accurately, orange, as he got tunnel vision going downhill to the basket.

It was the signature of his game, and it had its place on Charlotte’s roster, at times.

Given LaMelo Ball sits 16th in the NBA (Min. 47 GP) in ODPM rankings per Databallr at +2.9 (97th percentile), Sexton just didn’t have the distribution ability to recreate an offensive engine like that. LaMelo is in a category where the only 15 players ahead of him are all-stars.

White doesn’t emulate Ball perfectly, but, with a smaller on-ball percentage than Sexton over this 2025-2026 season (33.7% for Collin, 28.1% for White), Coby averages more assists, has a better ODPM, and shoots almost double the three’s per-game, on the year. This all fits much better into the offensive sets Lee has designed specifically for LaMelo Ball's creative tendencies.

White is also in the 88th percentile league-wide in Rim Assist Percentage at 1.4. There have been a few times, ones that stats can’t really account for, that the old-school eye test tells you everything you need to know about Coby White.

Multiple games throughout his brief tenure thus far in Charlotte, Coby will break his man down, get to the rim, and provide the same downhill presence Sexton was providing. But then?

Just like LaMelo is notorious for, White will get down closer towards the restricted area, see the defense is collapsed, and find Grant Williams, Josh Green, or a myriad of others in the corner for a three at the last second. The kinds of moments, in retrospect, that Charlotte needed Sexton to be doing the same thing after he got downhill. More often than not, for Collin, it ended up as a shot at the rim.

When Coby does decide to get a shot off at the rim? He’s crafty; White also is in the 98th percentile league-wide in free-throw rate.

It’s exactly what Charlotte needs out of someone backing up Ball, who is never going to be playing the likes of 42-48 minutes in the regular season again in his career. If the Hornets are smart, at least. Their plan to keep Ball on a very strict minutes plan has seen him play the most games in his career since 2022.

This leaves so much playing time for a starting-caliber guard on other teams in the NBA, like Coby White, to be a reserve who consistently plays close to 30 minutes or more in place of LaMelo.

White is still managing his calf injury rehab and is missing one of two games on back-to-backs for the Hornets every time around right now. Good thing for Charlotte — after this March 10th and 11th back-to-back, the Hornets only play one more time the rest of the season...

It comes after the Hornets have a seven-game road stand, go play one road game at Brooklyn, and then they’ll have their last back-to-back in Spectrum Center.

It’s crunch time for the Hornets, and Coby White is exactly who they needed in reserve for LaMelo Ball in their push for the play-in, and if they're lucky, the playoffs.

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