The Charlotte Hornets finished the preseason with a 1-4 record, losing to the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, and beating the Memphis Grizzlies.
While not a great preseason in the win column, the Hornets were able to figure out a handful of things about the roster.
In the first two losses to the Celtics and the Heat, the Hornets utilized a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Nicolas Batum, Dwayne Bacon, Miles Bridges and Cody Zeller. This lineup saw a handful of positives, including out-scoring the Celtics in the first half, and all players other than Zeller finishing no worse than a plus-8 in a one-point loss to Boston, though this was significantly worse against the Heat.
In the next three games, Batum sat out, moving rookie P.J. Washington from Kentucky to the starting lineup. This meant that Bacon was starting at the shooting guard position and Bridges was moved to small forward, while Washington played power forward.
Washington impressed in all of his minutes, appearing in all five preseason games and finishing with averages of 12.2 points, five rebounds, 1.8 assists and one steal on 62.9%/50%/81.8% shooting splits (field-goal percentage/3-point percentage/free-throw percentage, respectively). The only knock on Washington’s performance was that he finished with two turnovers and three fouls per game, but these numbers are likely to go down as he becomes more experienced.
Caleb Martin, the twin brother of 2019 second-round draft pick Cody Martin, played more than his drafted brother in the preseason, as Cody had an injury that knocked him out of most games. Caleb played exceedingly well on his Exhibit-10 contract and should be expected to make the final 17-man Hornets roster. He likely won the final standard roster spot over Kobi Simmons, whose G-League rights have already been secured by the Greensboro Swarm.
Caleb Martin’s play already allowed him to beat out Josh Perkins, a guard from Gonzaga, and Joe Chealey, a guard from Charleston that won a two-way contract last season and was anticipated to earn a spot on the final roster until Caleb showed his worth in the preseason games.
Caleb Martin finished preseason averaging 9.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists on 43.2% shooting, by far the best stats posted by any player playing on a training camp deal.
Also of note, the Hornets were able to come to terms with their other second-round draft pick this year, Jalen McDaniels, and that meant the end of Thomas Welsh’s time with the team. McDaniels and the Hornets were not anticipated to come to an agreement on a deal, but the two sides were able to as preseason progressed. McDaniels will likely see a significant amount of time in the G-League anyways, as the Hornets already have many rotation questions and McDaniels is more of a project player.
Aside from Washington, three players on the Hornets scored double digits per game: Rozier, Bacon and Devonte’ Graham. Graham started the fifth and final preseason game at the point guard spot in place of Rozier, who sat out.
Rozier had the best preseason out of any of the Hornets, finishing with 15.3 points, four rebounds, five assists and 1.3 steals per game with just 1.5 turnovers per game on an efficient shooting line of 49%/46.7%/100%. Rozier will be the leader of this team going forward, as evidenced by his three-year, $58 million contract.
Rozier’s best game was against the Grizzlies, in which he put up 24 points and eight assists on 4-of-7 shooting from deep. The Hornets won that game by 21 points, outscoring the Grizzlies 30-14 in the fourth quarter, showing Rozier’s importance to the team already.
Bacon and Graham look like they have taken the next step forward, with Bacon averaging 13 points a game in five games, and Graham having averaged 12.2 points on 40% shooting from deep, also in five games. Bacon is one of the players that head coach James Borrego will be looking at to provide a scoring punch for the team.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Batum only appeared in two games each, combining for 4.5 points per game in limited time. It is not yet clear if this will be indicative of things to come, but with so many young players it may be hard to find consistent time, as Borrego will reward the harder working players with time. Kidd-Gilchrist is likely on the outside looking in as far as playing time goes, whereas Batum looks as if he will start to begin the year, but may lose his starting spot over time.
The Hornets will begin the regular season at home against the Chicago Bulls, who added UNC-Chapel Hill alum Coby White in the draft and have emerging stars in Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr. The game is on Oct. 23 and will begin at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
