Nick Smith Jr. making the most of his opportunity with Hornets

As the Hornets get ready to take on the Celtics for the first of two games against Boston to close out the season, there isn’t much riding on this one. The Celtics are locked into the 2 seed in the East, and the Hornets need to lose one of their final two games to guarantee a bottom three finish and their best odds at the number one overall pick in next month’s NBA draft lottery.

Head Coach Charles Lee and GM Jeff Peterson are using these final games to evaluate young talent like Tijdane Salaun and KJ Simpson, their 2 rookies both making progress with increased minutes, and evaluating the rest of the roster for contributors for next season and beyond.

One of those players might be 2nd year guard Nick Smith Jr. During Wednesday night’s loss to the Raptors, the 20-year-old Smith poured in 28 points on 8/13 shooting, including 6 of 9 from beyond the arc, and perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line. He also dished 10 assists and pulled in 6 rebounds. It was his first career double-double and highlighted the high energy scoring potential that convinced the Hornets to use a 1st round pick on him in 2023 after just one season at Arkansas.

Lee was especially proud to see Smith’s hard work pay off and result in a career game. “It's special to see,” Lee stated. “I’m so proud of Nick and that's usually who he is. We talked about some things that he could do better to bring to the team and just for himself individually, and I thought today he came out with the right intentions and the purpose. Sometimes the stats can be deceiving, but tonight they don't lie at all. I thought he did it in a lot of different ways, some defensively, getting in there rebounding after we talked about how many offensive rebounds they were getting, and offensively he just took what they gave him."

The extra minutes are coming because the Hornets are missing so many key players, but Smith is making the most of them, averaging 13.7 ppg since February, and showing increased shooting percentages. Will he turn into a star player for the Hornets? Probably not, but even at 20 he is already beginning to look like a valuable bench scorer who can play both guard positions off the bench.