The Charlotte Hornets are starting over, and Naz Reid is already making his presence felt before the games really count.
Reid arrived in Charlotte after a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves that sent LaMelo Ball the other way, and the early talk around him has gone beyond his production. What’s standing out inside the locker room is the way he works. That edge, that constant push, is already leaving an impression on Tidjane Salaun.
Salaun, who is going into his second season with Charlotte, said Reid has set a clear example with the way he approaches improvement.
“He's a good player, but he's also hungry, and he wants to prove himself,” Salaun said. “Being teammates with him is very cool, and I'm trying to learn from him. All the extra work we share together, I'm trying to take it as experience for my future.”
That kind of reputation did not appear overnight. Reid entered the NBA undrafted in 2019 and built his name on refusing to let anyone else define his ceiling. The source of that climb has been a demanding routine: a strict diet, weight training, and 7:00 am workouts during his time with the Timberwolves.
That grind paid off in a big way when Reid was named 6th Man of the Year during the 2023-24 season.
🎙️ Tidjane Salaun on Naz Reid: "It's always good to see someone with this type of character who wants more and wants to work. Not every vet comes in at night."
— r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) October 12, 2026
"He's a good player, but he's also hungry and he wants to prove himself. Being teammates with him is very cool, and I'm… pic.twitter.com/M5dpl3ByvW
Salaun, meanwhile, finished last season averaging 6.0 points and 4.0 assists per game. Charlotte’s own season ended with a hard-fought push to the Play-In tournament before the Hornets fell to the Orlando Magic.
Reid’s former team also made a deep run, with the Timberwolves reaching the 2026 Western Conference semifinals before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in 6 games.
For now, Charlotte is just getting its preseason work in. The Hornets are 1-1 so far, opening with a 124-90 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on October 6 before bouncing back with a 105-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.
In Other News...
Brandon Miller Puts Hornets Under Pressure With Crucial Decision Looming
Brandon Miller is heading into a familiar kind of early-career test for a former first-round pick: the extension window is open, the market is setting itself, and the Hornets still do not have a long-term deal in place with one of their core young players. Miller, selected in the 2023 draft, remains unsigned as other players from that same class have already locked in their next contracts, a reminder that these negotiations can move quickly for some teams and linger for others.
For Charlotte, the situation is less about immediate panic than about timing and control. Millers next step could still come later, and the Hornets would keep a measure of protection if he ends up in restricted free agency next summer, but the fact remains that the calendar is doing them no favors right now. In a league where extension decisions often signal how firmly a franchise is tying itself to a young player, this one has become a quietly important checkpoint. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Have A Sneaky-Big Diabate Decision Coming Soon
The rookie-scale extension window has turned into a meaningful checkpoint around the league, and for Charlotte it has quietly put Moussa Diabate in the spotlight. What began as a two-way story has become something much more important for the Hornets, who have watched him climb from a depth option into a player they now lean on in a starting role.
Diabate does not have the name value of some of the bigger extension candidates, but he has played well enough to make this a real front office decision, not just a bookkeeping exercise. Charlotte will have to balance the timing, the price, and the risk of letting a useful young big get closer to the open market, which is why this is shaping up as one of the more interesting contract questions on the teams calendar. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Miller Knows What Hornets Are Asking Of Him Now
Since drafting Brandon Miller in 2023, the Hornets have kept reshaping the roster around him, and the most recent wave of moves has pushed even more of the load onto the second-year wing. The departure of LaMelo Ball changed the feel of the group and the scope of Millers responsibilities, leaving Charlotte to lean harder on a player it has already identified as central to whatever comes next.
Miller has acknowledged how hard the turnover can be while also showing the kind of perspective teams want from a young cornerstone, understanding that the NBA is a business and relationships do not disappear just because the roster does. For the Hornets, the bigger question is not whether Miller accepts the challenge, but how far his game will go as his role keeps expanding and the organization keeps asking more of him. [Read more 🡒]