The Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls have agreed to a deal that sends Buddy Hield and cash to Chicago in exchange for Rob Dillingham, according to ESPN.
It’s the second move of the offseason for Hield, who was recently dealt for Dorian Finney-Smith while he was still with the Atlanta Hawks. In this swap, Hield’s salary is about $3 million higher than Dillingham’s this season, so the cash component helps bridge that gap.
For Chicago, the logic is pretty clean. The Bulls’ young core is built around athletic forwards Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis, and Dillingham never really carved out a role after arriving as a trade-deadline gamble from the previous regime. He appeared in 30 games for Chicago and didn’t play especially well, and with Tre Jones and Josh Giddey handling point guard duties, plus Wilson and Buzelis taking on more of the ball-handling load, keeping Dillingham as an on-ball development project no longer made much sense.
Hield gives the Bulls something more immediate: shooting. His spacing should open up driving lanes for Wilson and Buzelis, which is the kind of fit Chicago was clearly chasing here.
Charlotte’s side is less settled. At the moment, the Hornets have 18 players on standard contracts, and Dillingham may not even stick on the roster.
Ryan Nembhard, who came over in the trade with Atlanta, is expected to be waived, and Pat Connaughton likely will be too, but the Hornets still need to get down to 15. There doesn’t appear to be an obvious path for Dillingham to win one of those spots, and if he is waived, Charlotte would at least carry a smaller dead cap number than it would with Hield.
If Dillingham does make the team, though, the fit could be useful. Charlotte has become one of the NBA’s more shooting-heavy teams, which can be a friendly setup for a young guard trying to create offense. Right now, Coby White is the starter at point guard, with veteran Dennis Schröder and rookie Christian Anderson behind him.
Dillingham’s start in the league has been disappointing, but he was still the No. 8 overall pick two years ago, and there should be a team somewhere willing to give him a shot this season, whether that ends up being Charlotte or not.
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