Preview: The Charlotte Hornets open the season at the Houston Rockets

What: Charlotte Hornets (0-0) at Houston Rockets (0-0)

When: 8:00 p.m. East Coast

Where: Toyota Center; Houston, TX

How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass

Play lines: Hornets +7.5, O/U 229.5

Equipment: Hornets Association (white), Rockets Icon (red)

Injuries:
Hornets: Josh Green – questionable (Achilles tendon), Mark Williams – out (foot), DaQuan Jeffries – out (hand)

Rockets: Steven Adams – questionable (calf)

The Charlotte Hornets open their 2024-25 season with a game that's a little different from the norm. They start on the road against a Western Conference opponent and don't start at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. I hope you can handle this extra hour of anticipation.

We get our first look at the Hornets on the newly rebranded FanDuel Sports Network, which has confirmed that Eric Collins and Dell Curry will continue to suit up for the purple and teal.

In terms of on-court product, the Hornets are going up against a Rockets team that was a trendy dark horse team last season after trading up on Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks in the offseason. Although they took a big step forward, they were still mediocre. They finished the 2023-24 season with a record of 41-41 and were outside the play-in tournament.

The problem was some stagnation among the team's top draft picks. Despite his outstanding scoring talent, Jalen Green still hasn't quite figured out how to be a positive presence on the court. Jabari Smith didn't do at all what the Rockets were hoping for with the third overall pick. The team was worse last season when both players were on the floor and had a net rating of -3.7 when both were on the floor together. That's the third-worst net rating of any of the Rockets' top-20 two-man combinations last season (Jabari Smith is in all three).

Both players are still young, so there is plenty of room and time to grow, and the Rockets will need it. They just signed Jalen Green to a three-year contract extension worth $106 million.

The Rockets are led by Alperen Şengün, who comes from Domantas Sabonis, the lightweight Nikola Jokic school of European centers. He led the team with 21.1 points per game last season while contributing nine rebounds and five assists. He is a smart, mobile giant who often causes problems for Nick Richards. We'll see what the Hornets do to neutralize him.

Fred VanVleet is exactly who he should be. He is a steady presence in the backfield and can get hot from deep and win some games on his own. Tari Eason is a wrecking ball off the bench and Cam Whitmore is a potential breakout sophomore. Dillon Brooks is annoying.

It will be our first chance to see the new-look Hornets in earnest. The team has been changing lineups throughout the preseason, so we won't know the starting lineup until closer to tipoff time. The only thing that seems certain is that the Hornets will hit a lot of 3-pointers. The Rockets had the best 3-point defense percentage in the league last season. We'll see if the Hornets can break through that at the start of the 2024-25 season.

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