The Charlotte Hornets open the regular season tonight on the road against the Brooklyn Nets. They'll be without Grant Williams, Kon Knueppel, and Coby White. The Nets also throttled the Hornets in the preseason, for whatever that's worth.
The Hornets are entering a crucial season, and getting off on the right foot against a team they finished much higher than last year would be great. Will they accomplish that? Here's what the Hornets on SI staff think.
Schuyler Callihan: Hornets 117, Nets 110
Even without Coby White and Kon Knueppel, the Hornets have enough pieces to leave Brooklyn with a win. The Nets are in full rebuild mode, even with some of the new additions they landed this offseason.
The frontcourt of Julius Randle and Day'Ron Sharpe could give the Hornets some issues, but Charlotte's depth there will be the difference. They can keep rotating guys and keep bodies fresh, whereas Brooklyn is going to have to lean heavily on those two.
Matt Alquiza: Nets 111, 104
This says more about my belief in Brooklyn than it does anything about the Hornets.
The Nets are going to give teams fits all year due to three men: Jordi Fernandez, Michael Porter Jr., and Julius Randle. Brooklyn is a well-coached team with high-end NBA talent that will drag them to a win tonight.
Charlotte, down three key rotation players, will need a major scoring night from both Brandon Miller and Grayson Allen to pull off the upset in the Big Apple.
Zach Roberts: Hornets 110, Nets 109
Surprisingly, the margins are razor-thin tonight. The Nets, though still an unknown before playing a game this year, have to be better than last year when they were probably tanking. The Hornets, as we know, are worse.
They're also really banged up. Without Kon Knueppel and Coby White, a lot of the scoring punch has been lost, and Dennis Schröder has his work cut out for him replacing White. But the Hornets made sure to add plenty of depth this offseason.
That depth is going to be key, and Charles Lee is going to earn his money by coaching them to the narrowest of victories in the season opener.
Albert Böttcher: Nets 115, Hornets 103
I'm REALLY skeptical of the Nets' bench being able to even tread water. But with how well their starting lineup can score the ball and how bad the injury-riddled Hornets looked in preseason... I don't think it matters all that much. There's little reason to believe Charlotte's turnover and penetration problems have just vanished overnight, so I have a more in-tune Brooklyn team coming out on top.
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