James Bouknight – SG
I mean, who else? The 2021 lottery pick has surprisingly but also unsurprisingly seen very little playing time through the first half of the season and has returned a mixed bag of reviews when he has seen the court.
Drafted 11th overall by Charlotte, Bouknight has played in just 16 games this year and averaged 8.2 minutes in those appearances.
However, Bouknight really had fans wanting more earlier in the month when he went off for a career-high 24 points against the Sacramento Kings, hitting six 3-pointers in 26 minutes.
The things likely holding head coach James Borrego back from having Bouknight be a regular part of the rotation are his defensive liability and inexperience.
When not in Charlotte, Bouknight has been back-and-forth spending time with the team’s G-League affiliate Greensboro Swarm, which should benefit him greatly.
The Hornets have been very good offensively already and struggling defensively, so that might hurt Bouknight’s chances of being a rotation fixture the rest of this season but we should expect to see him more in 2022.
The reason being is that as the season winds down, injuries will undoubtedly happen, and you never know what can pop up with COVID.
There might be times when Charlotte is the stretch-run of its season and needs some reliable shooting off the bench, and Bouknight has shown he can provide that.
We have just seen the beginning of Bouknight, so get ready.