Charlotte Hornets: Takeaways from Summer League

James Bouknight impressed the most with his maturity and ability to grow with the games progressing. He was a steady presence during the whole event.

When we discussed the Bouknight selection by the Hornets we were pointing out that his development path would take some time as he is a very raw talent. The areas of improvement are undeniably a lot but he showcased a very impressive steadiness during the Vegas Summer League alongside some flaws that went unnoticed during the draft evaluation process.

As stated before, this Summer League Hornets team was not very well built and was missing a true point guard. In the lonely game that Bouknight missed, the Hornets were blown out by the Chicago Bulls and had a really tough night at creating open looks. This proves that, aside from him and some good flashes by the other rookies, the team was far below average even for the Summer League level.

This surely did not help Bouknight’s performances because he was asked to be the primary guy much more than he was at UConn. Opposing teams decided to put their best defenders on him and organized the whole game on trying to contain his offensive ability.

During the five games, Bouknight was forced to create offense while being guarded by great defenders like Davion Mitchell, Tre Jones, Scottie Barnes, and the results were much better than one could have anticipated. He seemed to understand well how to adapt to these coverages by the opposite teams and then adjusted properly to the fly to be effective even as a primary ballhandler. Passing ability was a concern when coming out of college because he had more turnovers than assists but he demonstrated to be far ahead in this area. If he is capable of making these types of passes he could easily be used by James Borrego in a much versatile way.

This could benefit him transitioning from college to the NBA level giving him more versatility when being involved in an offensive system. Scoring ability will not be a problem for Bouknight going forward. Despite not being very efficient he displayed an overall ability to be a competent three-level scorer as he was getting good shots in almost every situation. A three-level scorer is a player that can find the basket while attacking the rim, from the three-point line and also from the mid-range area. When his three-point shot becomes consistent this will be the case for him.

His overall shooting mechanics were very much improved from his Uconn days, especially his footwork. The issue with Bouknight was related to his footwork consistency as he was not setting his feet properly. A ton of work still needs to be done but the improvement was pretty clear in these first games back in action for him.

The defense did not look that great for the whole Summer League especially when he was asked to be the first player guarding the opposite point guard at the point of attack. His ability to navigate screen is still not there and he needs to be more active when asked to slide his feet to be an average defender in the league. Because of the offensive load mentioned before, Bouknight was probably using defensive possession to rest and gain energy.

The last point I would like to mention is that he was one of the few players on the court in every game to look comfortable with his own pace, this shows great maturity and steadiness from the rookie.

Overall it was very impressive how he already made effective improvements when his collegial season ended back in March. These are promising signs of his work ethic and understanding of his area of improvement to become a much better player.