Hornets Announce Injury Update on Kon Knueppel, Grant Williams, Coby White

Kon Knueppel, Grant Williams, and Coby White are back on the court for individual work, according to an injury update the Charlotte Hornets posted Tuesday afternoon on their public relations account.

All three will be out Wednesday at Barclays Center, where Charlotte opens its season against the Brooklyn Nets.

Each of them is still working through a return-to-play plan, per the update. The Hornets said more information on the three would come "as appropriate."

Knueppel hurt his left hamstring and Williams his right. The Hornets announced both injuries Sept. 25, said they happened during offseason on-court work, and set a re-evaluation for the first week of the regular season.

White's injury came at training camp, which Charlotte held on The Citadel's campus in Charleston, South Carolina. He strained his left calf there. On Oct. 5, the team ruled him out of the preseason.

Sunday was the last time Hornets coach Charles Lee updated Knueppel and White, three days out from the opener.

"I think there's still no timeline on those guys," Lee said. "They're making really good progress. Day by day, they've stepped up what they've been able to do on the court and adding some level of contact to their workouts, as well."

Knueppel, Williams, and White sat out all four exhibitions. Charlotte won one of them. In the last two, at Boston and Memphis, the Hornets committed 54 turnovers, and turnovers were on Lee's cleanup list heading into Brooklyn along with pace and half-court execution.

Duke had Knueppel for one season. Charlotte took him fourth in the 2025 draft, and the East named him its Rookie of the Month four times. His Duke teammate Cooper Flagg beat him out for Rookie of the Year, though both landed on the All-Rookie First Team.

Knueppel's 273 3-pointers led the league.

His media day was Sept. 28, three days after the hamstring news.

"We know that I want to play in every game," Knueppel said. "We saw that last year, [I] pretty badly rolled [my] ankle and only missed one; I didn't miss any games in college or high school. So I'm going to do my best to get myself prepared for that."

He rolled the right ankle with seconds left in the first half at Orlando on Dec. 26. Three nights later, he sat out at Milwaukee.

Back on Nov. 23, 2024, Williams tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee at Milwaukee, 16 games into a season in which he was averaging 10.4 points. Surgery followed Dec. 11. His first game back was Jan. 10, 2026, and he played 36 games from there, three of them starts.

On Oct. 4, two days after camp broke, Lee's update on the two hamstring injuries was posted by Jeremy Grandison.

"Their engagement has been really good in how they're helping and elevating our practices and our environment," Lee explained. "... they're trending positively. They're doing a little bit more on the court every day."

The Celtics drafted Williams 22nd in 2019, and Dallas sent him to Charlotte in 2024.

White's Hornets debut also waited on a left calf strain. Chicago dealt him on Feb. 4, and he did not play for Charlotte until Feb. 24, against the Bulls at the United Center. Mike Conley came with him in that trade, while Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng, and 2031 draft picks went to Chicago, according to The Associated Press.

With the Bulls, he'd already missed 22 games on and off with calf strains in both legs. He put up 18.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in his 29 games there.

"I hope [I] don't have to deal with it no more," White said before his first game with Charlotte, according to The Associated Press.

He played 21 regular-season games for Charlotte. His new contract, signed in July, is worth $74 million over three years.

Tip-off Wednesday at Barclays Center is 7:30 p.m. ET. The Nets won the Oct. 6 preseason meeting in Charlotte, 124-90.

Two days after Brooklyn, the Hornets play their home opener against the Atlanta Hawks.