{"id":739146,"date":"2026-05-20T08:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/739146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:27:13","slug":"recent-mock-draft-links-hornets-to-lockdown-sec-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/739146\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent mock draft links Hornets to lockdown SEC defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 19, 2026, 10:30 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>The Charlotte Hornets excelled in 3-point shooting but struggled defensively last season.Rookie Kon Knueppel led the league in 3-pointers made for the Hornets.A recent mock draft links Charlotte to Texas guard\/forward Dailyn Swain.Swain is considered a top defensive prospect in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/charlotte-hornets\/5312\/\" data-autotag=\"e256e96c-b58f-4300-a36c-9b2c6d336797\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a> have plenty of perimeter shot-makers, ranking third in 3-point percentage and first in 3-pointers made per game. Rookie standout Kon Knueppel was a big reason why, as the former Duke Blue Devil led the league in 3-pointers made while shooting an impressive 42.5% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">That said, the Hornets could use more perimeter defenders after finishing 29th in the league in steals, averaging just seven per game. In a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nba\/news\/nba-mock-draft-vol-2-aj-dybantsa-remains-in-the-top-spot\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mock draft<\/a> by NBC Sports, Charlotte was linked to one of the best defensive prospects in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft, Dailyn Swain (Texas).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Swain did a little bit of everything for the Longhorns last season, posting 17.3 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.6 steals. Listed at 6&#8217;7&#8243;, Swain is an athletic guard\/forward that can switch on to many different positions and finish well around the rim. Although draft scouts have knocked his 3-point shooting ability (34.4%), there&#8217;s reason to believe that Swain could improve with all the open looks Charlotte creates from beyond the arc. If still available at No. 18, he could be another draft day steal for the Hornets.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:3|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 19, 2026, 10:30 p.m. ET The Charlotte Hornets excelled in 3-point shooting but struggled defensively last season.Rookie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[72400,7,684,473,3878,685,6,90348,72761,72762,72404,72468,72452,83632,72444,72422,72570,73795,72405,72406,72558,74348,72403],"class_list":["post-739146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-hornets","tag-nba","tag-sourcerookie-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarookie","tag-sstsnrookie","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcharlotte-hornets","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagkon-knueppel","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagnba-draft","tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagtexas","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116605959741282298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739146","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=739146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}