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Charlotte Hornets X-Factor: The Center Rotation

As the NBA season approaches and training camps get underway, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

In Charlotte, there’s a lot to be excited about. Reigning ROY LaMelo Ball looks like a legitimate, franchise cornerstone type star in the making. Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward have both been terrific since arriving from Boston, and they have plenty of young wings and power forwards like James Bouknight, Kelly Oubre Jr, PJ Washington, and Miles Bridges that provide reason for optimism. However, there is one glaring weakness when you scroll through the Charlotte roster coming into this season and that is at the center position, which could make or break this team with playoff dreams.

Mason Plumlee arrives from Detroit in a salary dump acquisition, but also filling a need for at least someone with NBA experience as a solid center. He doesn’t fit the timeline and doesn’t provide an awful lot of upside, but considering the centers on the roster beyond him are all the opposite, young players Charlotte hope can emerge but don’t know about, they are more reliant on him right now than I think they’d like. Rookie Kai Jones brings the most upside of the youngsters on the roster, but is incredibly raw and might spend more time in Greensboro with their G League affiliate than he does in Charlotte.

The most likely scenario is that PJ Washington will see more time at center after splitting his time between the four and five last year (54/46 percent splits per Basketball-Reference), possibly splitting starts with Plumlee based on matchup. He has plenty of athletic gifts, but isn’t the most imposing figure and the Hornets are going to have to make adjustments nightly based on their opponent as to how they rotate their options at the five.

Charlotte is a team in an interesting situation because they have a young star that would normally dictate a future-facing timeline, but Ball’s quick emergence coupled with the next two stars being in their prime at the moment means the playoffs are a priority now. As such, it’s possible that the answer at the center position isn’t on the roster at the moment, and that they have so much depth and so many intriguing young players stacked up on the wing means it wouldn’t be hard to make a trade happen this season. There were plenty who thought the Hornets could target Myles Turner this offseason and I’d expect them to be paired together fairly often up to the trade deadline, as Turner makes a lot of sense for what the Hornets need.

Whatever the case, that will be the swing position for this team this season. They have talent at other spots and certainly could use to see continued improvement from their young players elsewhere, but figuring out what the center rotation is and getting something approaching consistent production on both ends of the floor from that will determine if they’re able to be more than a play-in hopeful.