The 2026 NBA Draft finished up on Wednesday night, with three Arizona Wildcats getting picked and another signing a 2-way deal immediately afterward. But that’s just the start of the NBA’s typically insane offseason, with free agency just around the corner and several blockbuster trades likely to occur.
One of those big trades dropped Thursday morning, and it included a former UA standout.
Ex-Arizona guard Josh Green has been traded from the Charlotte Hornets to the Minnesota Timberwolves, according
to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Green and all-star point guard LaMelo Ball were dealt from Charlotte in exchange for forward Naz Reid while a bunch of draft picks were also swapped.
The 6-foot-6 Green is headed to his third NBA team ahead of his 7th season in the league. A 1st-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks in 2021, Green spent four seasons with Dallas before getting traded to Charlotte in 2024 as part of a massive 6-team trade.
Green, who is going into the final year of a 3-year, $41 million contract, appeared in 58 games last season for the Hornets and averaged 4.3 points in 15.7 minutes per game. He shot 42 percent from 3 and 89.3 percent from the line, coming off the bench exclusively after starting 67 games his first year with Charlotte.
With Dallas he 62 games, including 33 during the regular season in 2023-24 and scored 14 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Green played one season at Arizona, the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign when he averaged 12 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He was one of three Wildcats taken in the 2020 NBA Draft along with Nico Mannion and Zeke Nnaji.
