Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee evaluates key pieces, areas to improve + More

See what the first-year Hornets head coach had to say at media day.

Schuyler Callihan | Sep 30, 2024

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Charlotte Hornets

First-year Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee met with reporters Monday morning for media day to discuss his thoughts on the team, injuries, style of play, and more. Here is what he had to say.

Thoughts on this team prior to training camp

“There’s a great buzz around the team, no pun intended. But I feel it and I feel the energy. It really started from day one when I was hired. The whole offseason, the players have been bought in. One of the biggest messages that we’re trying to hammer home as a staff is consistency. Consistency of habits. Consistency of competitiveness. Consistency of togetherness. All of those attributes are going to get us through the whole season.”

Mark Williams’ injury

“Unfortunate that happened to Mark because he’s one of the guys during the summer that just showed a newfound commitment and love and joy for the game as he was battling back from his back injury. Knowing that he couldn’t even play in the Summer League games, it was important for him to follow the plan that was in place for him by our performance team. Coming to Sacramento and being around the team and learning the new terminology. There’s just such a love and a care for the game. It’s unfortunate to see him go down with this minor injury, but we’ll re-evaluate in a couple weeks and I know that he’s resilient.”

What he’s learned about LaMelo Ball/expectations for him

“LaMelo plays with such great joy. And now, what we want to see from him is that he has competitive joy and understanding what are the competitive attributes that he needs to bring on a night out, night in basis and build those proper habits. He has this infectious personality to where he brings everybody together. Even the way he plays the game of basketball, he brings everyone together with his playmaking. So now we just have to make sure those efforts competitively are happening defensively and offensively on a night in, night out basis.”

What he can take from previous organizations he’s been with to build the Hornets

“Not getting bored with the process. Falling in love with the everyday grind and embracing some of the challenges that the NBA season bring about. A lot of people will face the adversity that comes with injuries or not shooting the ball well, and they’ll take the easy route out and come up with excuses. We are resilient. We are going to figure it out. We’re just going to have the mindset of we’re not going to make excuses. We’re just going to continue to make progress.”

Unleashing Mark Williams as a shot-blocker

“To unleash him I think is a mindset. A lot of the mindset has to come from Mark and watching film with Mark. One of the things we talked about in September as we were going through workouts and seeing him in some five-on-five competition was just doing your work early. Having the instincts and anticipation of seeing the play a little bit earlier. I’ve been around some other great bigs that I think have helped protect the paint and I’ve shown him some of those clips. And he’s going to be different than some of those other guys, but I do think that it’s a great reference point and he took to that. Unleashing him to understand if you see the ball driven to the basket, we have to protect the paint as a team and it’s going to start with our guy on ball. Then after that having trust in each other that Mark will be there and Nick (Richards) will be there.”

What the team can do to prevent LaMelo Ball re-injuring his ankles

“Injuries are a part of the game, unfortunately, in all sports. What we can do and what we can control is a lot of the preparation that we put into it beforehand. This offseason I think he’s shown a real commitment to coming in and being consistent and doing his ankle rehabilitation stuff and doing band work to address certain areas that he might have limitations in that he’s trying to improve upon. There’s been some really good conversations and I think there’s been a really good plan put in place by our performance staff, front office, and coaching staff. I think to start the year the plan is to try to wear the braces as much as possible to put him in the best position to have success. As we continue to go through the season, we’ll evaluate how that’s helping/hurting or if things are staying status quo.”

The biggest area the team can improve in

“I think our overall commitment to defense could be better. The numbers have laid out a picture of what we have been and now, we have to put in the work and have the actions to follow to change that. I do think that this is a very competitive, resilient team. We just have to do it not for a quarter or a minute or a week. It’s just a level of consistency that we need to build.”

Impact of Brandon Miller spending time with Team USA Select

“I think it helps with your confidence overall. I think Brandon is already a really confident kid and he’s shown last year what he’s capable of doing. Now we just have to go from a guy on the scouting report to the guy on the scouting report. So, owning your space, and you have to be a little more physical as you go up against some of the top players in the NBA. From a physicality standpoint, he got tested. It was good for him to see what that looks like on both ends of the court. I think the way they run Team USA is just really well run and for him to get that exposure and experience is going to be huge for his growth and his confidence as he comes into this year.”