CHARLOTTE - Royce O’Neale is only a few games into his Hornets stint, but Charles Lee already likes what he sees on both ends of the floor.
After Charlotte’s 105-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in its final home exhibition, the Hornets spent Monday at practice revisiting a film clip of O’Neale closing out on a shot. That sequence, Lee said, was a pretty good snapshot of why the 33-year-old forward keeps popping in this new rotation.
“As you can tell, he just impacts everything, literally defense, offense, media sessions,” Lee said. “The guy just has a knack for getting involved, and so love having him around and his presence and the way that he competes.”
Lee pointed to the details in that defensive possession - the pressure on A.J. Green, the contest, the recovery and the rebound - before shifting to O’Neale’s passing and creation.
“I think you’re seeing it defensively,” Lee continued. “We watched a clip today, one of his hot closeouts.
He gets to A.J. Green's body, makes him put it down.
He gets a low contest, a high contest, comes back in and helps rebound. I think he's had a couple really good passes and creations.
I'm still a little bit questionable about that left-hand finish that he had, but it was pretty impressive. So, love, love what Royce has given to our team.”
Charlotte brought O’Neale in from the Phoenix Suns in a June 28 trade that also sent Grayson Allen and a 2033 first-round pick to the Hornets. Miles Bridges went the other way, along with a 2029 first-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick.
Once the deal became official June 29, O’Neale posted on Instagram from Phoenix: “LETS GET TO WORK CHARLOTTE.” Suns general manager Brian Gregory thanked both O’Neale and Allen in the team’s release.
Bridges had been Charlotte’s longest-tenured player. The Hornets drafted him in the first round in 2018 out of Michigan State, and the team never made the playoffs with him on the roster. His final game for Charlotte was the 121-90 play-in loss at Orlando on April 17.
O’Neale arrives with a résumé that shows why the Hornets wanted him. Last season in Phoenix, he posted career highs of 9.8 points and 2.7 3-pointers in 28.4 minutes per game.
He also averaged 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals while shooting 42.1% from the field. The Suns finished 45-37 and lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
Phoenix had acquired O’Neale from the Brooklyn Nets in a three-team deal before the 2024 trade deadline.
Before his NBA career, O’Neale played two seasons at Baylor after transferring from Denver. He is from Killeen, Texas.
Charlotte also moved LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves in June, three days before the Bridges trade, in a deal that brought back Naz Reid.
Brandon Miller says the veteran wing hasn’t shown him a pump fake lesson yet, but he’s already giving the Hornets something useful.
“No, I think he's more of a better shooter than me on the three-point line, so I'm going to give him that one," Miller said. "But he's always a willing passer.
He plays the game the right way. So having a 10, 12-year vet like him around us is always great for us because he knows he's been through the game.
He's been through whatever. He knows what it takes to get to where we want to be.
So having him around is great for us."
Miller led Charlotte with 18 points and went 4-of-9 from 3-point range against Milwaukee. Reid added 16.
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