The Charlotte Hornets have started Naz Reid in all five games since benching him for an entire second half on Oct. 28, and raised his minutes from 27.4 a night to 31.2, twice playing him 36. Whatever that benching was, it was not the start of a slide in his standing.
That matters to the Los Angeles Lakers, who declined to make a serious offer for him in October on the view that his price would not move. This site argued the opposite on Oct. 31 — that a coach publicly sitting a starter paid nearly twice as much, in October, is how prices fall. Hornets coach Charles Lee had just sat Reid after saying he “didn’t meet our standards in the first half.”
The mechanism has not recurred. No outlet has reported an asking price, and Charlotte has not told teams he is available; the most recent reporting on that remains ESPN’s Shams Charania in June, saying the Hornets planned to keep him.
The Production Gap Held. The Three-Point Edge Did Not.
Through ten games Reid averages 16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds to Sandro Mamukelashvili’s 8.8 and 4.4 — a gap of 7.8 points and 3.7 rebounds, close to the seven and four measured at the end of October. On that count the earlier read holds up.
The shooting is where it moved. Reid made 42.9% of his threes across his first five games and 26.7% across the next five, leaving him at 35.4% for the season; Mamukelashvili sits at 31.2%. A three-point edge of 7.2 percentage points is 4.2 now, and Reid is also at 40.0% from the field over the recent five, down from 43.0%.
Charlotte Is Shorthanded, Which Explains Part of the Minutes
The extra minutes are not all a vote of confidence. Kon Knueppel has played one game all season, six minutes on Nov. 4, and Coby White has played three, none longer than 18 minutes, after a calf strain cost him the first seven. Charlotte has lost all five games since the benching by an average of 20.6 points and is 3-7.
Even so, a 3-7 team that keeps a $23.3 million big in the starting lineup for 31 minutes a night through a 26.7% three-point stretch is not a team shopping him. It is a team without anyone else to play.
The Trade Package Has Lost Value on Both Ends
The deal this site drew up on Nov. 1 was to wait for December 15, when Mamukelashvili’s contract becomes tradeable, and then offer him alongside Kevon Looney. Both halves have weakened.
Mamukelashvili has averaged 7.4 points and 4.0 rebounds in 22.2 minutes over the same five games on 39.4% shooting — 111 minutes, a small sample, and it should be read as one — against the 10.2 and 4.8 on 51.4% that made him the centerpiece.
So the player Los Angeles would send out is worth less to Charlotte than he was a week ago, and the player it would receive is shooting worse than the line that justified wanting him. The October case that Mamukelashvili already answered the Reid question got the money right. Neither player has since made the trade stronger.
Let December 15 Pass
The benching signaled nothing. Treating one rotation decision as the start of a market move was a misread, and the price never moved.
What is left is the version of the question Los Angeles already answered in October, on worse numbers: a 16.6-point big shooting 35.4% from three, for a 3-7 team that will not say he is for sale, in exchange for a rotation piece the Lakers have gone 8-2 with.
December 15 should come and go without an offer. The thing worth watching is Reid’s three-point shooting, not Lee’s rotation.
Figures cover ten games through Nov. 6, 2026, via the ESPN box-score API. Contract figure via Basketball-Reference. Lee’s comments reported by Yahoo Sports’ Ryan Young; the Hornets’ plans for Reid reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania in June.
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