The Charlotte Hornets just made back-to-back draft selections with the 33rd and 34th picks in the second round and ended up picking Sion James and Ryan Kalkbrenner. In doing so, they helped address two of their biggest remaining roster needs, and put themselves in an excellent spot headed into the free agency period.
We knew that going into the 2025 NBA Draft, Charlotte was going to need to address the issue of their roster's lack of shooting power. They achieved that when they selected arguably the best shooter in the draft at fourth overall in Kon Knueppel, along with Liam McNeely with pick 29. From there, the name of the game was going to be about acquiring more size and high-level defenders.
Those were almost the exact words Charles Lee used on Wednesday night when asked about the team's plans in the second round. "We always want competitors," the Hornets' coach said. "We value positional size, shooting, IQ, those are the core tenants we look for relative to position."
So it's no surprise Charlotte ended up with two of the best-value players remaining in the draft that closely fit those attributes. Sion James out of Duke University is exactly the kind of gritty, switchable defender that the Hornets have been missing on the perimeter.
James and Kalkbrenner bring more versatility to Charlotte's roster
James projects as an instant-impact type of defender who is going to be able to guard multiple positions and hit open shots. On paper, he's the perfect type of fit around Charlotte's core of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges.
Then there's Ryan Kalkbrenner out of Creighton University. The 7-foot-1 behemoth will give the Hornets the interior size they find themselves in need of one night after trading away Mark Williams to the Phoenix Suns.
Kalkbrenner may not possess Williams' brand of lateral quickness, but he's a very polished shot-blocker and interior scorer. He has excellent defensive instincts and dominated in drop coverage at the collegiate level. Ryan will have the potential to be Charlotte's center of the future.
Perhaps not everyone anticipated the Hornets to come out of Wednesday and Thursday night using all four picks and adding four rookies to the roster, but here we are. And the best part about both Sion and Kalkbrenner is that they're first-round level talent that ended up just outside of round one. Charlotte got excellent value here.
If either of these guys can stick and turn into rotation players in Charles Lee's system, it'll be a massive win for the organization. In a draft where the Hornets needed to stabilize their foundation and address key weaknesses, they did just that.