What Charlotte coach Charles Lee will be looking for in Hornets-Knights preseason game

Between the Charlotte Hornets’ first pair of official practices, Charles Lee expanded on the reasoning behind holding his initial training camp as a head coach at Duke University.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to spend a little time with each other on the court,” Lee said. “If we did training camp in Charlotte, or as most teams do it in market, as soon as you leave the practice you are going home and you’ve got family, you’ve got kids,s you’ve got soccer events or whatever it is that you do.”

Mission accomplished, apparently.

With the exception of a few, most weren’t too sure what to expect with the environment but wound up enjoying the ability to build camaraderie without too many outside distractions.

“Just taking us out of your comfort zone,” Miles Bridges said. “Seth (Curry), Mark (Williams) and Harry (Giles), they went here but other than that, we are not too familiar with this place so it was like us going to away games. So, just getting us out of our comfort zone and getting us ready to play wherever we are at.”

Now, comes the next task: trying to put it all together in an actual game setting.

That’s what will happen when the Hornets host the New York Knicks in their preseason opener Sunday. Coincidentally, it marks Charlotte’s first outing in Spectrum Center since the first phase of renovations was completed and the arena opened its doors for business again.

As told to The Observer upon the conclusion of camp, here are three of the many things Lee will be keeping his eye on:

Show progression

“I’m just looking for us to take another step with our competitiveness, with our togetherness and our open-mindedness,” Lee said. “We’ve done a lot of really good things here in camp, battling every day with one another.”

“I’m just looking for us to remain who we are, to continue to trust in who we are, believe in who we are because we are building something really good and really strong. But a lot of times as a team, the bright lights all of the sudden come and you have the tendency to try to change. So, I just don’t want us to change.”

Dig in defensively

“I want to be able to compete,” Lee said. “I want us to refuse to be screened, I want us to get up into guys, I want people to take the individual pride. The Knicks are a really good team and I think they are going to test us in a lot of ways as a playoff-caliber team that’s obviously made a couple of moves to strengthen their roster. And it’s going to be a really good challenge for our guys.”

Gauging depth

“I think that we are going to play as many guys as we can,” Lee said. “There’s been a ton of good competition here in camp and there’s no reason why we can’t see a lot of guys and evaluate a lot of guys versus the Knicks.”