Charlotte Hornets: Should Charlotte roll the dice on these free agents?
By Joe Fisher
Kris Dunn
A 7 point, 3 assist point guard is nothing to get overly excited about. But Kris Dunn has a few tools this team needs. Most notably a knack for earning extra possessions.
Dunn averaged 2 steals per game which was good for second in the league. Only Ben Simmons had more with 2.1. And this is with Simmons playing drastically more minutes per game (35.4) than Dunn (24.9).
Dunn has a little more size than Graham or Rozier, measuring about 2 inches and 10-15 pounds bigger. Rozier has proven he can hold his own on the perimeter where Graham has some defensive deficiencies.
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The Providence product ranked 17th in the league in defensive rating (101.2) according to NBA.com. With Charlotte jostling for the tail end of the playoff race with the likes of Trae Young and John Wall, it would be great to have someone like Dunn to disrupt the other team’s rhythm.
The tradeoff with Dunn is what he lacks offensively. In college he excelled at attacking the basket and shouldering the load offensively. That hasn’t been his game in the NBA. He’s a competent finisher with an effective field goal percentage of 45.7 percent for his career. But he’s middle of the road at the line and from three.
Dunn is a restricted free agent carrying a base salary of about $7 million with a $16 million cap hit scheduled. If Charlotte wants to boost itself from the cellar on defense, Dunn could be one affordable option.