Charles Lee and Dave Canales are used to working near each other in uptown Charlotte. But on Thursday in Indianapolis, they were both on the road, working to make their respective teams better.
Canales was in town to interview and observe potential future Carolina Panthers at the NFL Scouting Combine. And Lee led his Charlotte Hornets past the Indiana Pacers in a 133-109 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Canales, 44, and Lee, 41, have quite a bit in common. Canales just wrapped up his second season in Charlotte, while Lee is in the middle of his second campaign with the Hornets. Canales just led his upstart Panthers to their first playoff berth since 2017, while Lee has his team on the cusp of a potential postseason run after a nearly 10-year drought.
And it turns out the coaches have bonded during their shared time in the Queen City. Canales took a brief break from scouting prospects at Lucas Oil Stadium to attend the first half of the Hornets’ victory over the Pacers, showing support for Lee and his ascending squad, a Panthers spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer.
“Phenomenal relationship with Dave,” Lee said before the Hornets’ 29th victory of the season. “I respect him so much as a man, as a husband, as a coach. I think that we speak a lot of the same languages. We are so much about the culture, we are so much about our players-first mentality and then also just our overall process every day and how important it is to us. So yes, I value his input, and we’ve had a lot of time to kind of connect, and sometimes it’s sports-related or team-related and then, at times, it’s just family-man related.”
Lee’s Hornets are 29-31 through 60 games. He is shepherding a squad that’s among the hottest teams in the NBA and features a top contender for the league’s Rookie of the Year award, Kon Knueppel. The former Duke forward claimed the NBA’s all-time rookie record for 3-point makes during the victory over Indiana.
Similarly, Canales just oversaw the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign for wideout Tetairoa McMillan, who set the team’s single-season rookie record for receiving yards. And while the Panthers’ 8-9 campaign in 2025 was their best output in years, Canales isn’t sitting on his hands with improving the team.
Along with wanting to upgrade the Carolina roster, Canales recently made the decision to hand over offensive play-calling to his incumbent coordinator, Brad Idzik.
The Panthers had finished 29th and 27th in total offense in each of Canales’ first two years with the franchise. Giving the play-calling to Idzik gives Canales the opportunity to focus on the team as a whole, while also providing a stage for the offense to improve under the 34-year-old coordinator.
Lee — who has also had to make some hard decisions during his Hornets tenure — applauded Canales’ team-first gesture ahead of Thursday’s win.
“It was a lack of ego,” Lee said about Canales’ decision. “Great humility to understand, I think, what the team needs to be most successful, what his coaching staff needs to be most successful. I think sometimes — and I don’t know the whole situation of like why he gave up that responsibility — but I do think sometimes, when you are giving a lot of power — or play-calling power — to empower the other people around you is really important, and so I’m guessing the other coach has earned that opportunity, and I look forward to seeing how it kind of plays out for them.”
As the Panthers get ready to follow up their NFC South-winning campaign with a strong offseason, Lee and the Hornets will look to finish strong in their remaining 22 games. The Hornets are two games under .500 with the 10th-best record in the Eastern Conference.
Perhaps some of Canales’ Mint Street magic will rub off on the Hornets down the home stretch.