Charles Lee likes where the Hornets are heading, but he’s not pretending Charlotte has arrived yet.
With the preseason nearing its end, Lee says the point of these last two road games is simple: get his team ready for a regular season that begins away from home. Charlotte wrapped up its home preseason schedule Sunday with a 105-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and now heads to Boston on Wednesday before finishing at Memphis on Friday.
The regular season opens Oct. 21 at the Brooklyn Nets, with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. ET, so Lee sees these next two stops as more than just tune-up games.
"I think it's great for our team right now in this moment," Lee said. "We started training camp out in Charleston, which I think helped us kind of just forge some more relationships and be on the road and get that feel.
And then now you've been home for two games. And so it'll be good as we go into the regular season to have two road games and see how we can battle some road adversity and your first regular season games on the road as well."
"So I think that this is going to really help prepare us for the regular season," Lee continued.
Charlotte’s preseason has already given Lee a decent read on where his team stands. After getting blasted 124-90 by Brooklyn on Oct. 6 and turning it over 25 times, the Hornets bounced back against Milwaukee with a cleaner performance. They finished with 29 assists on 39 made baskets, controlled the second quarter 31-19 and carried a 20-point lead after three.
Lee said the early stretch has shown steady growth.
"I think that we've made great progress from game one to game two," Lee explained. "I think from day one of training camp to where we are now.
We've added some layers. We've thrown some things in there pretty quickly because it's like a balance of we have a ton of returning guys, we have some new guys coming in, but some of those new guys are also veterans, and so they understand the league and can pick up things really fast.
So I love where we are."
"I know that we are not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm excited to kind of just see how we can keep growing throughout the rest of preseason," Lee added.
The Hornets’ roster has changed again, with Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale arriving June 28 in the deal that sent Miles Bridges to the Phoenix Suns. Three days earlier, Naz Reid came over from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the trade that sent LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. O'Neale is entering his 10th season, and Reid was the Timberwolves’ Sixth Man of the Year in 2023-24.
Sunday also brought a few encouraging individual signs. Brandon Miller, who sat out the opener with a shin contusion, returned and scored 18 points.
Reid added 16. Liam McNeeley, who led Charlotte in scoring in the loss to Brooklyn but also had six turnovers in that game, responded with five assists and no turnovers against Milwaukee.
Charlotte used several familiar pieces as it continued sorting out its rotation. Moussa Diabaté, Tidjane Salaün, Sion James and McNeeley all played for the Hornets last season, while Kon Knueppel and Coby White have yet to appear in the preseason. Allen missed Sunday’s game because of soreness in his right knee.
The Hornets were 23-18 on the road last season and 21-20 at home. They went 44-38 overall, finished ninth in the Eastern Conference and then lost the play-in game at Orlando.
After the trip, Charlotte returns home for three straight: Atlanta on Oct. 23, Miami on Oct. 24 and Washington two days later.
In Other News...
Brandon Miller Just Put Serious Pressure On The Hornets
Brandon Millers emergence has put Charlotte in a familiar but important spot: the Hornets now have a young cornerstone worth paying like one. Miller is eligible for a five-year, $275 million extension, and after a season in which he averaged 20.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists, the team has every reason to treat this as more than a routine contract decision. With LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges already moved out in the roster overhaul, Miller has moved closer to the center of everything Charlotte wants to build.
The timing matters because the Hornets are expected to open the season with a newly constructed lineup that includes Miller alongside Coby White, Kon Knueppel, Naz Reid and Moussa Diabat. If no deal comes together, Miller will be headed toward restricted free agency next offseason, and that creates a real test for a franchise trying to reset while also locking in its best young piece. For Charlotte, the next step is not just about keeping Miller happy, but about proving the new version of the roster has a clear direction. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Miller Faces One Huge Test As Hornets Bet On His Leap
LaMelo Balls move to Minnesota leaves Charlotte with a different kind of offensive center of gravity, and Brandon Miller is now the player the Hornets are counting on to help carry it. Entering the new season, Miller was ranked No. 49 on Bleacher Reports list of top NBA players, a reminder that he already has leaguewide respect even as the next step in his game becomes the bigger storyline for this team.
For the Hornets, the bet is straightforward: Miller has to score more and create more, because Charlottes push toward the playoffs starts with someone turning promise into nightly production. If he makes that leap, the conversation around the Hornets changes fast, especially for a franchise trying to end a drought that has stretched for more than a decade. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Miller Is Giving Hornets Fans A Reason To Believe
Brandon Millers return from a shin contusion gave Hornets fans an early reminder of why he is such an important part of Charlottes future. In the preseason win over Milwaukee, he put up 18 points in 23 minutes and looked like a player settling back in quickly, with the kind of comfort and activity that can carry over once the games start to matter.
Charles Lee liked what he saw from Miller on both ends, particularly the way he stayed involved defensively and offensively. Miller said his confidence is growing with the effort and winning plays he is stringing together, and for a Hornets team looking for reasons to believe, that matters just as much as the box score. [Read more 🡒]