An ‘intriguing’ prospect is moving up some NBA Draft boards. Could the Hornets be in play?

Ask which player turned heads the most at the NBA Draft Combine last month, lighting it up in front of league executives, and the name isn’t one making splashy headlines.

Ever heard of Trentyn Flowers?

“He was the youngest and best athlete at the combine,” one longtime talent evaluator told The Observer. “Now overall, the best athlete is Devin Carter (from Providence). Devin Carter is 22. But among the guys who were born in ‘05, he’s the most athletic athlete and he has positional size.”

Flowers’ name may ring a bell to avid followers of the Carolina high school basketball scene. He played at Combine Academy in Lincolnton in 2022-23, was ranked in the top nationally by 247 Sports and had offers from major programs like Kansas, Michigan and North Carolina.

Flowers didn’t go the collegiate route, though, instead lacing up for the Adelaide 36ers of Australia’s National Basketball League in 2023-24, averaging 5.2 points in 18 appearances. A 6-foot-8, 205-pound wing, he’s gone from a mostly unknown prospect to becoming a compelling player on some draft boards thanks in part to that showing in Chicago.

The Charlotte Hornets are among the teams taking a closer look at Flowers, bringing him in for a workout earlier this week, per a league source. The Hornets hold the sixth overall pick as well as No. 42 — which they obtained from Oklahoma City in the trade sending Gordon Hayward to the Thunder in exchange for Davis Bertans, Tre Mann and Vasa Micic — in the draft.

Dubbed by TNT’s Kenny Smith as his No. 1 sleeper among this year’s crop, Flowers has also worked out for Brooklyn, Washington, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Houston and San Antonio. At least 13 teams are running him through a variety of drills, testing his abilities.

Like many of the prospects in a draft considered the worst talent-wise since at least 2013 — when Anthony Bennett went No. 1 overall to Cleveland and the Hornets selected Cody Zeller with the fourth pick — the range where Flowers could be taken off the board varies.

He just turned 19 in March, but possesses some traits that have some evaluators enamored with his potential. Flowers has positional size, allowing him to flow freely on the wing and guard multiple spots.

Flowers is also extremely athletic, and tied for the best overall max vertical leap at the combine with a 42-inch showing. He was just shy of tying for tops in the standing vertical leap behind a 34-1/2 mark.

“Athleticism, you can’t teach it,” the talent evaluator said. “You either got it or you don’t. Athleticism is so valuable because it allows you to make up for mistakes, you can recover quicker. Playing athletically, you are always at an advantage.”

That was on display during some of the scrimmage action in Chicago. Flowers posted 12 points, going 5-of-5 from the floor and converting a nice dunk in one of the games.

It didn’t go unnoticed.

“His performance is what’s drawing a lot of interest in teams,” the talent evaluator said, “because there’s not a lot of film on hand in Australia in the NBL League. So, to see the things that he was able to do at the combine makes him very intriguing.”

Question is, what do the Hornets think?