$9.66 Million Trade Exception Comes Out of Charlotte's Dillingham Deal

Photo: NBA.com. Official Rob Dillingham headshot, Chicago-to-Charlotte trade.

Chicago sent Rob Dillingham to Charlotte on Saturday and brought Buddy Hield plus cash the other way.

The Hornets create a $9.66 million trade exception on the deal, take in $3 million less in salary, and land a 21-year-old lottery guard while the Bulls add a career 39.5 percent shooter on 7.3 threes a night.

That $9.66 million line is the real asset Charlotte just created. Hield makes $9.66 million this season with a roughly $10.1 million player option for 2027-28. Dillingham is owed $6.9 million this year and carries an $8.8 million club option for next season that has to be exercised by Nov. 2. Chicago gets cash to cover a chunk of the differential. Charlotte walks away lighter on payroll and holding a fresh exception it can use later.

Dillingham is the No. 8 pick from the 2024 draft and this is already his third team since the February trade deadline. Minnesota shipped him to Chicago in the Ayo Dosunmu deal. Chicago just flipped him south. He averaged 9.6 points and 2.8 assists in 21.5 minutes across 30 games after the deadline with the Bulls. For the full 2025-26 season across both stops he played 65 games at 6.3 points, 2.2 assists, and 39.6 percent from the field. Those numbers leave room to grow, and a 21-year-old with that draft slot and a team option still open gets a real camp audition.

Charlotte needs that audition more than Chicago did. The Hornets traded LaMelo Ball to the Timberwolves earlier this offseason and opened a real guard lane in the process. One day before this deal landed, Charlotte ruled Kon Knueppel out of the entire preseason with a left hamstring and put him on a first-week reevaluation clock before the Oct. 21 opener at Brooklyn. That sequence matters for how you read Saturday. The create button left town in the Ball trade. The wing who made 273 threes as a rookie is not available for Charleston camp. Into that void walks a young guard who can push pace and run pick-and-roll in practice while Charles Lee's staff builds tape without its spacing engine. Minutes in that setting are different from the ones Dillingham got buried behind in Chicago.

Watch the first Charlotte practice when Dillingham gets the ball off a high ball screen with the second unit. The real question is whether Lee can give him live reps as a primary initiator while Knueppel sits and the Ball-shaped hole in the offense is still open. Every missed pull-up, every late-clock turnover, and every kick that finds a corner gets logged before week one. A lottery guard on his third team in seven months does not get a soft landing. He gets a short runway into an Oct. 21 tip that Charlotte still hopes Knueppel can make.

Naz Reid is already in Charlotte and was one of Dillingham's strongest supporters when they shared a Timberwolves locker room. Reid's backing won't set the rotation. It can soften the landing for a 21-year-old who has already packed twice since February. The Hornets also sit in a roster crunch with about 17 fully guaranteed contracts as they work toward the 15-man limit. Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron expects Charlotte to absorb Dillingham's contract into its Tyus Jones trade exception and open the new one with Hield's salary. The confirmed piece is Charlotte taking the younger, cheaper guard and banking the exception.

Hield's path into this deal is the other half of the watch. Atlanta sent him to Charlotte on Tuesday. Charlotte sent him to Chicago on Saturday. Less than a week in a Hornets uniform ended with another deal. That is the seventh trade of his career, and he is 33 heading into his 11th season. It is also his second trade of the week, and he was eligible to move again immediately because his salary was not aggregated with another player. The prior Dyme Take covered Tuesday's deal, when Atlanta used Hield's $9.66 million salary to land Dorian Finney-Smith.

For Chicago the basketball read is spacing. Hield shot 34.9 percent from three in 51 combined games with Golden State and Atlanta last season while averaging 7.6 points. That is a down year against a career mark of 39.5 percent on heavy volume. Young Bulls wings such as Matas Buzelis need someone who can stand in the corner and force a closeout. Hield's job in Chicago is to make the help hesitate when a young wing drives. Cash from Charlotte softens the salary bump. The Bulls take on a little more money this year and get a veteran who can still punish a tag when the shot is there.

The Nov. 2 option deadline hangs over Charlotte's side of the ledger. An $8.8 million club option on a lottery pick is a real decision for a player on his third franchise. Camp, preseason, and the first two weeks of the regular season will write the file Lee and the front office open on that date. If Dillingham earns primary-initiator minutes while Knueppel works back, the option conversation changes. If he sits behind the next wave of Charlotte guards, the exception Charlotte just created becomes the cleaner long-term win from Saturday.

Sources

• ESPN / Shams Charania. Sep 26–27, 2026. Bulls trade Rob Dillingham to Hornets for Buddy Hield and cash; Hornets create $9.6M trade exception; Dillingham No. 8 pick 2024, age 21, 9.6 PPG / 2.8 AST in 30 games after Feb deadline; Hield less than a week in Charlotte after ATL trade; LaMelo Ball traded to Timberwolves earlier this offseason; Knueppel hamstring context day before; Hield ~$10M player option 2027-28; Dillingham team option before RFA summer 2028; Hield history with Bulls EVP Bryson Graham (New Orleans).
• NBA.com News Services. Sep 27, 2026. Hornets send Hield to Bulls for Dillingham; cash considerations; $9.6M TPE (Shams quote); Hornets take in $3M less salary; Dillingham third team since February deadline (MIN→CHI via Ayo Dosunmu deal); Hield career 39.5% on 7.3 3PA/g; 7th team, season No. 11.
• Hoops Rumors / Arthur Hill. Sep 26, 2026. Hield $9.7M this season, ~$10.1M partially guaranteed player option 2027/28; Dillingham $6.9M this season, $8.8M team option next year (exercise by Nov 2); second trade of week for Hield (ATL→CHA Tuesday); Marks: salary not aggregated so eligible to move again; Hield 33, 34.9% from three in 51 GSW+ATL games, 7.6 PPG; Dillingham 9.6 PPG in 21.5 MPG / 30 games post-deadline; KC Johnson: no future with Bulls new FO; Naz Reid supporter context via Krawczynski/Athletic; ~17 fully guaranteed contracts / roster crunch (Gozlan/Third Apron); Gozlan expects Charlotte to absorb Dillingham's contract into its Tyus Jones trade exception and create a new TPE for Hield; Hield's seventh career trade.
• Sportsnet / wire. Sep 26–27, 2026. Dillingham 2025-26 overall 65 games, 6.3 pts, 2.2 ast, 39.6% FG between two stops; Hield 2025-26 line corroboration.
• CBS Sports. Sep 26–27, 2026. Trade confirmation; waive speculation noted elsewhere — not treated as fact in this Take.
• Spotrac, Buddy Hield contract. Hield 2026-27 salary $9,658,536.
• Prior Dyme (reference only, not rewrite): Buddy Hield $9.7M / Finney-Smith Atlanta; Kon Knueppel hamstring / 273 threes.
• Photo: NBA.com official Rob Dillingham headshot, player ID 1642265.