Daily competition is the Hornets’ focal point for 2025-26

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Charles Lee’s second season as Charlotte Hornets coach starts with an influx of rookies with potential and a more experienced roster looking to improve on last season’s 19-63 campaign.

The Hornets are back and so is the Bugs’ Life column.

In what could be described as a wild offseason after a 19-win season, Charlotte coach Charles Lee and Vice President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson feel success is obtainable. 

“Winning is hard,” Peterson said, “it is extremely hard at this level. As I’ve always said, getting to the playoffs once is not the goal. We want to build a program that can get there and sustain success year after year. By maintaining discipline and a strategic approach, we feel that once we do break through — and we will break through — we’re in a position to stay there for a very long time. As we continue to lay the foundation for this organization, daily improvement is going to be a pillar for us. We know that we can’t control every result or every outcome, but we do take pride in being able to control the process which will inevitably lead to the results that we want to seek.”

Lee said the offseason gave him time to reflect on himself and what he can do better as head coach.

“It was really productive,” he said. It’s given me an opportunity to, No. 1, just reflect on last year. I think that there were so many lessons learned. There were so many positives that came from a 19-win season, but obviously we want to be better than that. I want to be better than that. I think there was a lot of situational basketball that I was able to learn from. I think that I was also able to see I’m really kind of prepared for anything. I think our team is prepared for anything. Our whole organization is just resilient, and I saw it in every game last year, competing to the fullest, finding ways to be flexible with all the injuries and all the things that kind of just happened. But we turn the page.”

Turning the page is a good analogy. Guards LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller missed time due to injuries; so did center Mark Williams, who was traded to Phoenix. So, staying healthy is going to be of utmost importance to the success of the 2025-26 season. 

Miller sustained a wrist injury that limited him to 23 games last season. He has been practicing with tape on the wrist.

“I used to tape my wrist in high school,” Miller said, “so I don’t think that is going to be a problem. I think the confidence will eventually come and grow as the season goes. I think that is the main piece, just confidence and building my confidence back up. … I think right now, I’m just more excited than anything else, to get back out there and compete with my teammates to get better every day.”

Ball added muscle mass in the offseason. It is not specified as to how much weight he has gained, but just in appearance he looks stronger. 

“With coach Lee, we watched film and went over it,” Ball said. “We saw some of the kinks and stuff. I knew [I needed] to get in the weight room and I did get stronger and stuff.” 
Ball is a man of few words when addressing media but added that he doesn’t feel urgency as Charlotte’s franchise player. 

“I have no pressure,” he said. “I am just going to play and try to get as many wins as we can and do the best I can do.”

Ball said that he is fond of the Hornets’ rookies, but Kon Knueppel was one that surprised him most. 

“I love all the rookies,” Ball said. “Them winning the little Summer League thing, that was big, as you can tell, they take stuff seriously. … [What surprised me about Kuneppel] was his bounce. He got a few dunks. I’ve seen [the movie] ‘White Men Can’t Jump,’ but he was jumping all day though.”

Said Kneuppel: “I’m not a highflyer by any means. I think I’ve had a couple [dunks] here in this month, so maybe that surprised people a little bit. But I think [I’ll be able] to sneak up on people a little bit athletically. You have to be pretty athletic to play in the NBA, so it has been a good development.”

Lee and Peterson emphasized daily competitiveness and that is what Knueppel hopes to bring as a rookie. 

“I think if you have a bunch of guys in a team or an organization that want to compete and want to win, you’re going to have, at the end of the day, a competitive team, a competitive team that’s going to win games,” Kneuppel. So, having as many people that care about that as possible in the building is going to be really, really helpful. I just want to be one of them.”

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