{"id":324674,"date":"2025-10-06T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/324674\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:03:09","slug":"hornets-notes-knueppel-miller-mcneeley-kalkbrenner-plumlee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/324674\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets Notes: Knueppel, Miller, McNeeley, Kalkbrenner, Plumlee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two spots in the Hornets\u2018 starting lineup are uncertain as the regular season approaches, and coach Charles Lee indicated they could be flexible for a while, writes Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer<\/a>. Moussa Diabat\u00e9<\/a> was the starting center for Sunday\u2019s preseason opener against Oklahoma City, while rookie Kon Knueppel<\/a> got the nod at small forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke with Tre (Mann)<\/a>\u00a0and Kon and Collin (Sexton)<\/a>, and I said, \u2018I think you guys need to be prepared to start a lot of different ways and we\u2019ll see how the season goes,\u2019\u201d Lee said. \u201cI think that each one of them has had really high moments or really good bright spots and have shown that they learned to be out there and have a significant role. And all three I think will have a significant role. And every night it might look a little bit different and they need to be open minded to it. And so (Sunday), trying to just get some data on what lineups I think work well defensively, what lineups work well offensively and we\u2019ll keep kind of carving out what we think makes the most sense for our team on a night-to-night basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knueppel, the fourth pick in this year\u2019s draft, led Charlotte in scoring with 18 points, shooting 6-of-13 from the field and 4-of-10 beyond the arc. He\u2019s eager to launch his NBA career and isn\u2019t concerned about whether he\u2019s used as a starter or a reserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Knueppel said. \u201cI think we\u2019re all going to contribute a bunch or all three of us will. So, just depending on the matchups each night, we want to start out on their guard heavy. Maybe he goes to one of those guys just depending on the matchup. But I think we\u2019ll all get similar playing time every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from Charlotte, all from Boone:<\/p>\n

Sunday night marked Brandon Miller<\/a>\u2018s return to the court for the first time since tearing a ligament in his right wrist in January. Boone notes that Miller didn\u2019t show any lingering effects from the injury, throwing down a pair of dunks with his right hand and driving into the lane with no fear of contact. \u201cJust getting that feel back,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI haven\u2019t played basketball with my guys in a long time, so I would say just getting the feel back and building that confidence and bond that we have with our teammates, just being that stronger every day.\u201d
\nRookies Liam McNeeley<\/a> and Ryan Kalkbrenner<\/a> also saw significant minutes in their debuts Sunday night. They both displayed a mix of inexperience and positive plays, and Lee was encouraged by what he saw. \u201cI think everyone got to see what these kids are about,\u201d he said. \u201cOur young rookies, they\u2019re fearless, they don\u2019t back down. Their competitive spirit, their winning spirit, they\u2019re coming up with offensive rebounds, they\u2019re diving on the floor for loose balls. There\u2019s a physicality, there\u2019s a togetherness.\u201d
\nMason Plumlee<\/a> joined the team on Sunday after missing nearly a week with an excused absence. He participated in warmups but didn\u2019t play as Lee gave the minutes at center to Diabat\u00e9 and Kalkbrenner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two spots in the Hornets\u2018 starting lineup are uncertain as the regular season approaches, and coach Charles Lee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,970,684,473,3878,1585,685,968,921,12445,6,972,6358],"class_list":{"0":"post-324674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brandon-miller","10":"tag-charlotte","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-charlottehornets","13":"tag-collin-sexton","14":"tag-hornets","15":"tag-kon-knueppel","16":"tag-liam-mcneeley","17":"tag-mason-plumlee","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-ryan-kalkbrenner","20":"tag-tre-mann"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115327834733197795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}