Situational or bona fide starters? Charles Lee details decision to start two rookies

Well, before the Charlotte Hornets' season opener against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night, I had thrown together the starting lineup article so that it was ready to roll the very second the team made the announcement.

As always, I read through it just to double-check and make sure what I believe would be the first five is correct, and as I got to the very end, I did a double-take.

Huh? Wait a second... Does that say Ryan Kalkbrenner? Is that a typo? Nope, it sure wasn't. The second-round draft pick out of Creighton had proved to the coaching staff in Summer League and in preseason play that he was worthy of getting that starting nod, alongside his fellow draftmate, Kon Knueppel.

“A combination of all those factors," head coach Charles Lee said when asked if it was a situational decision due to the opponent or if they had won training camp battles. "I thought for what we needed tonight, going up against this team, and just where we are in the season, that Ryan and Kon made sense for that unit. Sion, how he’s connected and how he’s brought it on both ends of the floor — a nastiness, a grit to him, a toughness — it’s what we needed today.”

Although I would have started Collin Sexton over Knueppel, I had a pretty strong hunch Lee would end up going with the rookie there at the two spot. I was, however, completely thrown off by Kalkbrenner getting the nod over Moussa Diabate. He showed a lot of really positive things in preseason, but with all the experience Diabate gained last season and Kalkbrenner being the only true addition at center this offseason — sorry, Mason Plumlee — I figured they were paving the way for Moussa to get the first crack at the job.

Now, there's no telling if this is a permanent decision or not. Lee made it seem like both Kalkbrenner and Diabate will play a lot of minutes and sort of hinted that Moussa could get some starts as well. Ideally, you'd like to establish some continuity with that first group, and considering how well Kalkbrenner played in the opener, I imagine he'll continue to man down the five spot for the foreseeable future.