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Charles Lee details new offensive philosophies ahead of 2025 NBA season

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Matt Alquiza | Last updated Sep 29, 2025 2:50 PM ET

The Charlotte Hornets offense was stuck in the mud for most of the 2024-25 season.

A spinning carousel of initiators was impossible for Charles Lee to overcome in his maiden voyage as an NBA head coach as Charlotte finished with one of the worst offensive efficiency numbers in the sport.

At the team's annual media day ahead of the upcoming season, Lee unveiled some changes to the team's offensive philosophies that will kick start the moribund unit.

Pace and space are coming to Charlotte

When looking at Charlotte's 2024-25 statistical profile, one of the more glaring warts was the team's glacial pace. The Hornets finished 23rd in pace, averaging 98.22 possessions per 48 minutes. Although the aforementioned lack of back court continuity likely played a role in Charlotte's ability to get organized in transition, the team did run out some personnel groupings that should have thrived in transition.

Lee plans to put his players in position to take advantage of their opposition by pushing the pace and running significantly more often than they did last season, taking a page out of the Indiana Pacers playbook.

Lee pointed to a couple of factors that the team plans to focus on at training camp, and they all revolve around Charlotte's improved guard depth: paint touches created by those guards, improved overall conditioning, inbounding the ball quicker, advancing the ball with passes, and 'making everybody a threat' on the court.

In terms of Indiana specifically, Lee commented on the Pacers' ball movement, their break neck pace, and their willingness to move the ball and finding those threats dotting the perimeter. He believes that Charlotte has the ability to play a similar style.

Charles Lee talked about inbounding the ball quicker, advancing the ball with the pass, making 'everybody a threat' on the court.

Very Rick Carlisle of him. Wonder how much the success of Indiana in the NBA playoffs shaped that mindset.
— Matt Alquiza (@malquiza8) September 29, 2025

Informed Hornets fans and pundits have been clamoring for the franchise to play with a sped up pace for awhile, and hearing Lee comment on the change explicitly was music to their ears.

Will the proposed changes come to fruition? It's hard to say, but the flurry of offseason moves have this writer optimistic that Lee wasn't just offering lip service to the assembled media.

All of LaMelo Ball, Tre Mann, Collin Sexton, and Spencer Dinwiddie are comfortable with the ball in their hands. If Charlotte's rag tag center rotation can clean the glass, they'll have a number of swift ball handlers to find that can start the break.

Dotting the perimeter in transition will be Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel, Liam McNeeley, and Miles Bridges. A quartet of players that can either knock down jumpers or swing the ball to an open man with supreme confidence.

The team is young, and the front court is shallow, so the improved pace may not lead to an improved win-loss record. No matter. The 2025-26 season is all about Charlotte evaluating their young talent and further establishing 'Hornets DNA,' and these proposed changes by Lee will be crucial in hitting both of those bench marks.