176658007.30 teams 30 days charlotte hornets

Welcome to my 30 teams in 30 days series, the most comprehensive and informative previews for every team in the NBA. Inside these posts, you’ll get up to speed with every team’s offseason additions and their roster hierarchies, learn whether they’ve addressed their biggest areas of need, ponder over 5 questions that will define their season and then decide whether you agree with my offseason grades and record predictions.

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Notable Additions: Kon Knueppel, Collin Sexton, Pat Connaughton, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Liam McNeeley, Sion James

Notable Subtractions: Mark Williams, Jusuf Nurkic, Nick Smith Jr.

Depth Chart:

PG: LaMelo Ball / Collin Sexton / Tre Mann / K.J. Simpson

SG: Kon Knueppel / Josh Green / Sion James/ Antonio Reeves

SF: Brandon Miller / Liam McNeeley / Pat Connaughton

PF: Miles Bridges / Grant Williams / Tidjane Salaün / Drew Peterson

C: Moussa Diabaté / Ryan Kalkbrenner / Mason Plumlee

Roster Hierarchy:

Franchise: LaMelo Ball

Core: Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel

Key Rotation: Collin Sexton, Grant Williams, Moussa Diabate, Josh Green, Tre Mann

Rotation: Liam McNeeley, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Tidjane Salaün, Pat Connaughton, Mason Plumlee

Development: Sion James, K.J. Simpson, Antonio Reeves, Drew Peterson

Offseason Overview:

While the Hornets record didn’t change much from their first year under head coach Charles Lee, the stark difference in their approach to the draft from last year is a clear indicator of a shift in roster construction philosophy. In the years since drafting Lamelo 3rd overall in 2020, the Hornets have somewhat aimlessly selected players with extremely variable outcomes, from guards like James Bouknight and Nick Smith Jr, to selecting the rawest player in last year’s draft class 6th overall, Tidjane Salaün.

CHA left the 2025 draft with FOUR rookies, with each selection clearly reflecting the Hornets’ desire to add players with clearer paths to being rotational NBA players. Kon Knueppel boasts one of the more projectable skillsets in the class, Liam/Ryan/Sion all have bankable NBA-level skills. This draft haul, combined with some shrewd offseason additions, should fortify a rotation for a team that’s had to work with some of the weakest depth in the league.

Pre-Draft Areas of Need:

🥇 Play Finishing: 30th in eFG%, 30th in Transition PPP (1.02)

🥈 Advantage Creation: 30th in Overall Shot Quality, 30th in Drive FG% (43.3%)

🥉 Shooting: 30th in Open FG% (39.4%), 27th in C&S 3P% (35.4%)

Sexton’s strong transition play, Grant/Plumlee’s play finishing and the rooks finishing/shooting indicators will help boost CHA’s overall efficiency, provided Lamelo is healthy enough to shoulder the advantage creation burden.

Season Outlook:

1. Will this year be a referendum on Lamelo’s status as the franchise player?

I posed this same question in last year’s Hornets preview, noting that while Lamelo’s on-court impact has been massive, his lack of availability and inefficiency at the rim may prevent him from being a viable cornerstone. He somehow took a step BACK this year as a finisher, shooting just 51.1% at the rim on his 2nd lowest rim attempts/75 in his career, the league’s fourth worst rim finishing %.

He continued to show an inability to penetrate deep enough to generate high quality looks, often opting for scoop layups at ridiculous angles or premature floaters. He’s constantly falling and is typically off-balance on these misses,a clear indicator of a lack of strength to withstand physicality around the rim.

His overall effectiveness as a scorer and creator will be hampered as long as he is ineffective at what’s supposed to be the most efficient shot in basketball, which considering Charlotte’s desires to get more serious this year, may cause them to re-evaluate their willingness to build around him if he continues to struggle with availability and finishing at the rim with an improved roster around him.

2. Is there any room for Brandon Miller to grow as an interior scorer?

With LaMelo’s sample of being an ineffective interior scoring growing every year, the onus is shifting towards Brandon Miller to attempt to compensate for Ball’s weaknesses at the rim. Miller shot 57.8% at the rim in college and 65% at the rim in 2 years in the NBA, but that includes transition scoring and uncontested dunks. We can gain a clearer picture of his finishing ability by looking at his layup percentages at the rim, where he shot just 51.2% in college. His non-dunk NBA rim FG% falls 11.1% from his overall rim FG%, all the way to 53.9%!

This massive dip is representative of some touch and strength related issues around the rim, but also a result of BMill taking so few rim attempts in the NBA. In college, 37% of his shots came at the rim, but in the NBA, just 15% of his total FGA came at the rim. The inefficiency and lack of volume is magnifies my concerns, as while I’m relatively confident he can be among the better shooters in the league, it’s simply not viable for BOTH the Hornets’ highest usage players to be this bad at the rim.

Miller has length and athleticism on his side, evidenced by his collection of posters through his first 2 years, but he’s got to start using that bounce to ramp up his halfcourt finishing ability.

3. How fast can the rookies solidify CHA’s rotation?

Kon Knueppel and Ryan Kalkbrenner are likely the 2 most surefire bets in the 2025 class. Kon shot 43% on over 1200 threes dating back to high school and scaled up effortlessly as Duke’s lead perimeter creator in the ACC tournament when Flagg missed a couple games. Kalkbrenner has a litany of NBA-ready skills, he’s an amazing screener, drop defender and finisher, with one of the most dominant pre-NBA defensive profiles of any prospect in recent memory thanks to his CAREER 7.5 block% while averaging an incredible 1.94 blocks for every foul.

McNeeley has an extensive shooting pedigree similar to Kon, despite struggling in an on-ball role at UConn. His size as a movement shooter helps soften the negatives of his efficiency and scoring inconsistency, as he’s a strong rebounder, cutter and connective passer. Sion will start his NBA career at 22 years old, which means it’s unlikely he develops further as an offensive player, but brings a translatable defensive and spot-up shooting skillset.

I anticipate Kon and Ryan to be in the rotation from Day 1, with Liam eventually forcing his way into the rotation by virtue of his additive offensive skills as a cutter, spacer and rebounder. Sion will likely be on the fringes of the rotation unless there are some injuries to CHA’s robust guard depth.

4. What do the influx of rookies mean for Tidjane Salaün’s development?

Salaün was predictably one of the worst players in basketball last season, further confirming the long developmental runway that waits him on to become a rotational player. Drafting so many rookies in a single year indicates that Charlotte may not prioritize his development going forward, especially since so many of their picks have solid floors.

The good thing is none of the new picks outside of Liam overlap with his position/archetype, but CHA is facing a dilemma with how much investment Tidjane needs vs their desire to make meaningful steps forward this season. Salaün was destructively bad last year, and CHA can’t afford to play him over their more reliable options at the 3 and 4.

5. What’s the ideal pace & shot profile for this team?

CHA has been in the bottom 10 in pace last 2 years, but their pace goes from the slowest in the league with LaMelo OFF (96.07) to ~ 15th with LaMelo ON (99.53). LaMelo has increased CHA’s transition frequency every year of his career, ranking in the 98th% last year in transition on/off differential (+3.5%). Charlotte got out in transition at the 2nd lowest rate in the league, on just 12.9% of their possessions, but with Lamelo on the floor, they would rank FOURTH in the minutes Lamelo was on the floor (16.4%).

Transition offense = easy offense, and a fully-unleashed LaMelo unlocks early threes for Knueppel and Miller. CHA’s offense peaked in the Ball era at 9th in adjusted ORTG, when they took the 12th highest proportion of their shots from 3 (41.7%). Their offense tanked the next 2 years with their 3PAr falling to 23rd and 15th, but they got back above 40+ 3PAr this past season. The offense was 2nd worst in the league because of the guys who were taking them, so CHA needs to maintain that shot diet and play up-tempo to truly capitalize on their improved shooting.

Record Prediction

Total Wins Over/Under: 27.5 via BetMGM

Floor: 24–58 (+5 wins)

I hate defaulting to injuries as an explanation for a team’s record, but it has to be mentioned with Lamelo’s injury history and their reliance on his availability. While Sexton establishes reliable guard play in the time Melo misses, this young team will go as far as LaMelo takes them.

Ceiling: 38–44 (+19 wins)

I was cautiously optimistic about the Hornets last year as well and their incoming draft class has me wondering if Charlotte can creep their way back to the play-in. There’s a lot of variables of course considering their lack of relative experience and the variance of their vets that are currently rostered, but anything’s possible in this East.

Let me know if you agree with my predictions! What are your expectations for the Hornets this season?

Overall Grade: B+

Up Next: New Orleans Pelicans