The Charlotte Hornets are walking into 2026-27 with a roster that looks very different from the one that came before it. The old setup is gone, and the new core is in place, but the real question is simple: how much juice is actually in this group?
There’s enough talent here to make the exercise interesting. Some of it is established.
Some of it is still waiting to click. And some of it is coming off summer runs that hinted at more.
Brandon Miller sits near the top of that discussion because the upside is obvious. If he can be at his best, he can be nearly impossible to handle.
He already scores from three and in the midrange, and if his finishing gets sharper, he can become a true elite three-level scorer. A little more defensive intensity would help, too.
Kon Knueppel is in a different spot, but the appeal is just as clear. Without LaMelo Ball feeding him, that historic efficiency may dip some, but the overall production should still hold. He has already shown he can take on more usage, so a much bigger role on the ball this season should not be a problem.
LaMelo Ball’s absence changes the shape of the offense, but Coby White gives Charlotte a reason to believe it won’t all fall apart. He was quietly excellent last year, even in a smaller sample size than Ball, and his numbers alongside the other core players were strong as well. That’s the kind of detail that should matter to the Hornets as they try to keep things moving.
Naz Reid is the kind of big man Charles Lee likely wants in this setup. He can play both the four and the five, and he can stretch the floor from deep. Reid has never been a starter before, but a rise in minutes should push his production even higher.
Grant Williams gave Charlotte exactly the kind of bench value teams love last season, and there’s no reason to think that stops now. He should remain a strong backup big in 2026-27.
He shoots well enough, but it’s the defense that really stands out. He posted one of the lowest opponent field goal percentages as the primary defender.
Moussa Diabaté brings a different kind of pressure. He’s one of the best offensive rebounders in the sport and he just never stops working. Even when he doesn’t come away with the board, he wears opponents down and can force extra effort - and sometimes extra fouls.
There are also a few younger pieces who are still sorting themselves out. Liam McNeeley had another strong Summer League showing, and now the question is whether the second-year wing can carry that into real Hornets minutes.
Tidjane Salaün has not fully put it together yet, but there are signs that something is starting to show. Nearly every metric jumped from year one to year two. The sample was small, but some of the numbers were actually quite good and point toward a better future.
Christian Anderson Jr. looks like a player who may need the G League. His playmaking is about what was expected, but the shooting he showed in college hasn’t carried over.
Ryan Kalkbrenner has not fully found his footing yet, but there are still things to build on. His size gives him a real chance to help as a rim protector, and he has good touch around the basket.
Hannes Steinbach made his Summer League case the old-fashioned way. Rebounding tends to translate, and he was excellent at it.
He also stayed out of foul trouble, which is not something you often see from rookies. That combination makes him look pretty good.
Sion James is likely to handle some point guard responsibilities again, even though that isn’t really where he shines. He is at his best when he can focus on stopping the other team’s top scorer, and he does that well.
The defense is real. The offense, at least right now, is not.
Grayson Allen is one of the tougher names to pin down after a rough year from beyond the arc, but the track record is hard to ignore. He has historically been one of the best shooters in basketball, and Charlotte’s spacing should help him get back to a 40% clip as the backup guard.
In Other News...
Hornets Get A Painful Christmas Reminder About Their NBA Standing
Christmas Day has long been the NBAs showcase stage, the sort of calendar slot where contenders, stars and rivalry games get the spotlight. The Hornets have never been part of it, and this years schedule only sharpened that reminder as the league lined up high-profile teams while one of Charlottes most recognizable former faces, LaMelo Ball, was set to be featured elsewhere.
For a franchise still searching for the kind of national pull that earns those holiday invitations, the omission says plenty about where it sits in the league pecking order. Even with a player as marketable as Ball having once been the centerpiece in Charlotte, the Hornets remain outside the group the NBA trusts to carry one of its biggest regular-season days, and that gap is hard to miss when the Christmas slate drops. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Miller Just Took On A Bigger Hornets Reality
Brandon Miller has already become the centerpiece of the Hornets next chapter, and the latest sign of that is as plain as a video game rating. In NBA 2K27, Miller comes in at 85 overall and stands as Charlottes highest-rated player, a neat snapshot of how quickly the teams hierarchy has shifted after moving on from LaMelo Ball. After a season in which Miller played 65 games and put up 20.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per night, the Hornets are now looking at him less like a promising piece and more like the player around whom the roster has to make sense.
That reality brings real contract stakes with it this summer. Charlotte may look to work out a rookie-scale extension with Miller, but if that does not happen, he would be headed toward restricted free agency next summer. For a franchise trying to reset its identity, the timing matters, especially with Miller and Kon Knueppel now viewed as the faces of the team. The Hornets have already accepted that their future looks different than it did a year ago, and Millers next move will say plenty about how quickly that future can take shape. [Read more 🡒]