After agreeing to a deal with Kobi Simmons, a question has arisen — will the 22 year old be with the Charlotte Hornets or Greensboro Swarm in 2019-20?
With training camp set to begin later this month, the Charlotte Hornets now have one roster spot left to fill after agreeing to a deal with former Memphis Grizzlies point guard, Kobi Simmons. Simmons will be one of many competing for a final spot on the roster.
One area that the Hornets are currently lacking in is point guard, as Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham are the only lead guards on a guaranteed contract for next season. This means that we’ll have a training camp battle for the third-string point guard job.
Who’s fighting for that spot? The newest addition, Simmons, is one name, but we can’t forget about Joe Chealey, Caleb Martin and Josh Perkins as well.
Teams can bring in up to 20 players for training camp, but must cut the final roster down to 15 prior to the start of the regular season. This does not include players on two-way contracts. So, with 13 guaranteed deals already in place, Charlotte will pick two out of the five camp invites to make the team.
If you ask me, I certainly do think Simmons has the talent to be a third-string point guard in the NBA. Despite that, he would not be my first choice. I personally like Chealey, who was on the roster last season as a two-way player. We’ll see who the Hornets eventually lean towards, but those two both have strong cases.
Both Simmons and Chealey played in one game last season, and they had pretty similar G-League stats. Simmons averaged 17.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists, while Chealey averaged 16.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists.
Coming out of high school in Georgia, Simmons was a five-star recruit. He played one season at Arizona, but he was largely disappointing. He only averaged 8.7 points and 2.0 assists while shooting 39 percent from the floor and 33 percent from deep.
It wasn’t a surprise to see him go undrafted, but it also wasn’t a surprise to see a team quickly scoop him up off the market. Memphis made the move and he played well for them, especially during the second half of his rookie season, in which he averaged 7.5 points and 2.8 assists in 23.4 minutes.
He went on to have a strong showing in Summer League last off-season, but was surprisingly waived by the Grizzlies. He latched on with the Cavaliers for a little while, but only played in one game during the 2018-19 season before being waived once again.
Simmons is still 22 years old and has plenty of upside, so you can see why the Charlotte Hornets are taking a chance on him. It’s a rebuild season and they will be looking for contributors up-and-down the roster.
Training camp is right around the corner for Kobi Simmons and the Charlotte Hornets. With a strong showing, Simmons could easily claim one of the two final spots on the roster going into the 2019-20 season. This should be fun!