When I scouted Sion James ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, his path to impacting winning was pretty simple: play solid defense, act as a connector on offense, and knock down just enough shots to keep opposing defenses honest.
Check, check, and check.
Through just under a month of NBA basketball, James has quickly proven himself as an invaluable member of the Charlotte Hornets’ rotation. Forced to scale up his role due to a morass of injuries to Charlotte’s star players, James has done more than enough to keep his team in games against some tough matchups.
He started by knocking down just about every three-point jumper he attempted. James is shooting 42.3% from three on the season, a far cry from the unsustainable 80% he was knocking down in the season’s first two weeks, but still a serviceable number that will accentuate his overall two-way impact.
The 22-year-old is a versatile player on offense who has shown a penchant to attack tilted defenses and force them to pay for their over commitments to his teammates.
If the ball reaches James’ hands on a swing-swing after a paint touch, you can count on the right decision being made. Whether it’s a whirling drive to his preferred left hand, a no-look pass to a diving big man, or a kick out to a relocated Kon Knueppel, James can be trusted when he gets a touch.
That doesn’t mean he has no room to grow, though.
Sion is struggling at the rim. He is shooting 50% within four feet of the basket, a 5th percentile among guards in the NBA (per Cleaning the Glass). He’s a reliable team defender who forces his matchup to work hard for their looks, but he’s far from an impactful event creator.
James has a 1.1% steal rate (35th percentile) and a 0.6% block rate (55th percentile), meaning he has to rely on his sticky man-to-man coverage skills to slow down opposing ball handlers, not deflections or takeaways.
There are fine margins when you have to live that way, as shown by James Harden’s 55-point explosion on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the nitpicks in Sion’s overall profile, he’s clearly a winning player that will play a role in Charlotte as an ancillary piece alongside whatever star player they plan to build around. His role malleability as a 5th man on the floor that can be trusted on both ends is increasingly valuable in the modern NBA, especially as a young player on a cheap contract that was signed after he was selected with the 33rd overall pick.
The Hornets’ net rating jumps +1.9 when James plays with a defense in the league’s 65th percentile. Sion’s game is not flashy, it doesn’t garner headlines or think pieces, but it is effective, and it is exactly what Charles Lee needs it to be.
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