Charlotte Hornets: What each young player needs to work on this summer

Cody Martin: Shooting, Ball Handling

A lot of people consider Cody Martin a forward, but to me, he’s a guard, and he’ll need to sharpen up those guard skills if he wants to carve out a rotation spot in his rookie season. With his IQ and defensive abilities, he could end up being an important bench piece down the line.

Martin is not a bad shooter or ball handler, but he’s not great at either. He shot 36 percent from downtown as a senior at Nevada, but only made 34 three’s on the season. The good thing is that he is a smart player, and isn’t going to jack up bad shots just for the sake of getting a shot up. He picks his spots and is efficient, which you love to see from a guard.

Considering Martin will be able to play three different positions, developing as a ball handler could be huge for him. He did more facilitating during his senior year, which meant the ball was in his hands a lot. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him be the lead guard in the second unit at times, even over Devonte’ Graham.

A lot of fans didn’t like this pick, but I think Martin is a safe bet to have a solid NBA career. I think he ends up finding some playing time as a rookie, and he could eventually develop into a nice rotational player in the NBA.