Charles Lee knows the Charlotte Hornets are walking into a very different future.
After a summer of major roster upheaval, the third-year head coach now has to rebuild an offense that was built around LaMelo Ball and had climbed to a top-five offensive rating. Ball is out.
Miles Bridges is gone too. In their place, the Hornets have loaded up on three-point shooting, and Lee will be the one tasked with making it all fit.
That kind of change is never easy, especially for a fan base that had finally seen real offensive success. But Lee made it clear he believes the front office is thinking long term.
"Our front office did make some moves, and I thought that they had the long-term vision in sight," Lee said during a Summer League contest the Hornets would go on to lose.
He added, "We had a ton of success, we have a very passionate fan base, and so I know some of the moves seem daunting to them, but I do think that it's going to help us in the long run of being able to sustain success."
The biggest addition in the reshaped roster is Naz Reid, but the trade of Ball also opened the door for Coby White to step into the starting point guard job after re-signing for three years. Lee said he’s eager to see White in a larger role and believes Reid’s presence gives the team a different kind of balance.
"I think that having Coby [White] as the starting point guard to set the table for a bunch of guys, I'm looking forward to him having an expanded role this year. Naz Reid, all the versatility that he brings offensively and defensively will create a different dynamic for our group."
White won’t replace Ball as a passer, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But Lee sees a guard who can put pressure on the rim and score more efficiently, which should help create chances for Reid and the rest of the group.
Lee also pushed back against the idea that he and Ball were at odds. He said the goodbye was difficult, and the relationship they built mattered.
"It was, it is hard. We built such a great relationship, Melo and I, personally and professionally. Those phone calls are never easy ones."
He didn’t stop there, either, praising Ball for what he brought to the Hornets while making it clear he thinks the guard’s best basketball is still ahead.
"I thought that he helped our group create a foundation, a standard for how we want to operate every day. I think that he's really just scratching the surface. There's more for that young man to achieve, and I'm looking forward to following the rest of his career."
For Lee, the challenge now is simple enough to say and hard to execute: turn a roster that looks nothing like last year’s into something that can win anyway.
In Other News...
Hornets Loss Put An Unexpected Summer League Story In Focus
The first few days of Las Vegas Summer League are usually about sorting out the obvious, but Charlottes latest loss also nudged an unexpected side story into view. With rookie and undrafted players getting their first real pro minutes since the event opened July 9, the Hornets were part of the backdrop for a night that reminded everyone how quickly a summer showcase can turn into a reminder of who is getting back on the floor and who is still trying to establish a foothold.
Among the players drawing attention was Moore, whose path back to this stage has made his appearances worth watching even in a setting built for experimentation. The box scores have already offered the usual mix of scoring bursts, playmaking and defensive flashes from the 2026 rookie class, but Charlottes angle is bigger than one result, because the Hornets are now watching a summer league board that keeps adding new names and new questions every time the ball goes up. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Move On From Miles Bridges And The Return Changes Everything
Miles Bridges time in Charlotte appears to be ending with the Hornets leaning into a longer view. The deal with Phoenix sends Bridges and two future draft picks out of town in exchange for Grayson Allen, Royce ONeale and a future first-rounder, a sign that Charlotte is willing to reshape the roster around flexibility and more draft capital as it moves into the next phase of the rebuild.
Bridges was heading into the final year of his contract and would have been extension-eligible this offseason, so this move also clears an important decision point for the Hornets. The trade still has to be finalized after the moratorium ends on July 6, but the bigger question now is how Charlotte uses the incoming pieces and the added pick to keep building without one of its most productive frontcourt scorers. [Read more 🡒]