With the Charlotte Hornets roster appearing mostly set heading into the 2024-25 season, it's now possible to look forward at what the Hornets rotation could look like on opening night. To predict the opening night rotations before a training camp ball has been bounced is difficult, but here are my "Too Early" rotation predictions.
I'm not of the belief yet that Tre Mann would play point guard ahead of Vasilije Micic, which makes the point guard conversation straight forward. There is some potential for Ball's minutes to be kept under 30mpg in an effort to keep him healthy which would result in an uptick of minutes for Micic.
Cody Martin vs Josh Green for the starting shooting guard position is an intriguing camp battle. I give the edge to Green due to his lower usage role, superior shooting, durability and fit in transition with LaMelo Ball, but it's very close.
With Grant Williams' success playing as a stretch five last year and Charles Lee's track record with stretch bigs, I can't help but think he will get a look at center. It will be match-up dependant, but I think it will be regular enough to consider it a standard part of the rotation. This could help keep Mark Williams' minutes lower which could help manage his past injury issues.
In this projection I have both Miller (SG/SF) and Bridges (SF/PF) splitting their time across multiple positions. The Hornets do have an interesting route to a "Super Size" lineup with playing Miller at SG, Bridges at SF and Grant Williams at PF. Expect that to be experimented at in pre-season.
Bridges led the team in minutes last year at 37.4 per game, but I anticipate that dropping, but only slightly. Bridges could be well suited to run some second unit offense for a short amount of time when Ball and Miller are on the bench
Despite being a late off-season add, Curry showed he's still an NBA rotation player towards the end of last season. His outside shooting and playmaking could be a useful addition to a second unit which has two sub 31% three-point shooters in Micic and Martin and a non-shooter in Richards. It wouldn't shock me if he ended up taking minutes away from Mann, Green and/or Martin to work his way into the rotation.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!