The Charlotte Hornets’ reshaped roster is going to push just about everybody into a different lane this season, but two returning players stand out for opposite reasons: Coby White is headed for a much larger workload, while Moussa Diabaté could see his minutes trimmed.
White’s shift is the easier one to see coming. With LaMelo Ball gone, the point guard isn’t coming off the bench anymore.
He’s set to run the offense, and the Hornets likely won’t lean heavily on two-point-guard lineups. Even when White shares the floor with Dennis Schröder or Christian Anderson Jr., he’ll still be the main engine.
That’s a major jump from the sixth-man role he held last season. White logged 19.3 minutes per game with Charlotte, well below the 29.1 he averaged with the Chicago Bulls before the trade and the 29.3 mark for his career.
This year, he should get back to - and maybe beyond - that level. If he stays healthy, he could wind up playing more minutes than anyone else on the roster.
Diabaté’s situation points in the other direction. After grinding to earn his place and becoming one of the league’s more impactful players last year, he now faces a crowded frontcourt that could squeeze him. Some projections have him moving to the bench, and while that may not happen immediately, the path is there.
The Hornets made the big-man rotation a clear offseason priority, and the numbers bear that out. Last season, Diabaté was mostly fighting Ryan Kalkbrenner for time.
Now he’s dealing with Naz Reid, Hannes Steinbach, Kalkbrenner, and Grant Williams all being part of the mix. Each of those players can play center, and Diabaté doesn’t really have a natural power forward fallback to carve out a different role.
So even if he remains in the starting group at first, the workload could still shrink. Charlotte will want to use him and keep everyone fresh, but that won’t look like the same setup he had last season. Whether Steinbach jumps him in the lineup or not, Diabaté’s minutes are in real danger of dropping significantly.
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The broader league has noticed, too. Bleacher Report recently ranked Knueppel as the best 21-year-old in the NBA, a nod to how far he has already come after setting multiple rookie marks and carving out a role as one of Charlottes new franchise players. For a team still trying to establish a clear identity, that kind of recognition is more than a nice headline. It suggests the Hornets may finally have a young cornerstone worth believing in. [Read more 🡒]
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Of course, the price of dreaming on a player like Durant is never small, and Charlotte would have to decide how far it wants to push its current plan. Hornets president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson has already sounded confident in the roster after the teams recent trades, so any chase for a superstar would have to fit into that larger picture rather than knock it off course. For now, Durant remains where he is, and the question is whether a star of that size is even realistic for a team that still seems to value its new direction. [Read more 🡒]