National Basketball Association

Season Preview: Stephenson joins Hornets facing big expectations

Published Oct. 27, 2014 12:39 p.m. ET

foxsports

The biggest deficiency for the Hornets the last several years has been their inability to shoot from the outside, and in particular from beyond the three-point line. Even though Charlotte finished with a winning record for just the second time in franchise history, it still ranked 23rd in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage at 35.1.

Obtaining more and better outside shooting was the biggest need entering the offseason and the front office made a concerted effort to address and rectify those deficiencies. And they believe they believe they did just that.

Enter free agents Lance Stephenson, Marvin Williams and first-round draft pick P.J. Hairston, all of whom are quality three-point shooters. Stephenson, a shooting guard, shot 35.2 percent from beyond the arc last season, while Williams, a power forward, shot 35.9 percent. Hairston is the one, however, that Charlotte is counting on to provide instant offense and a high percentage from three-point distance.

While in college at North Carolina, Hairston, a shooting guard, shot 39.6 percent from three-point range during his second and final year in Chapel Hill. Last season as a member of the Texas Legends in the NBADL, Hairston sank 35.6 percent of his threes.

And should the plan work and the team gets better outside shooting, it will work perfectly in lessoning the defensive pressure on All-NBA player Al Jefferson at center.

When team owner Michael Jordan and company convinced the 24-year-old Stephenson to shun Indiana and shock the basketball world by signing with the Hornets, they immediately envisioned him leading the way offensively in the backcourt.

Stephenson led the NBA in triple-doubles last season with five. Moreover, he and MVP Kevin Durant were the only two players average at least 13 points, 4.5 assists and seven rebounds per game.

Coach Steve Clifford has even stated publicly that he believes Stephenson will score nearly 20 points a game, if not more. And while Stephenson wouldn't commit to predicting such big numbers, he knows that he and Jefferson will be the two primary scorers.

And having more than one will be something new and welcomed for Charlotte.

For all his popularity with the team and in the city, this is a very big year for Walker in terms performance, improvement and a future contract. If the team and Walker don't agree on a new contract by the Oct. 31 deadline, he will become a restricted free agent at season's end.

While his numbers at first glance seem to resemble that of a franchise point guard, as he averaged 17.7 points and 6.1 assists last season, a closer look reveals the reality of it all.

Walker's field goal percentage was a woefully low 39.3 percent, which ranked 28th out of the top 30 scoring point guards in the league. Moreover, he shot roughly 35 percent from the field from outside of 10 feet. Ball-handling wise, he committed too many turnovers for Clifford's liking and ranked 19th in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Defensively it wasn't much better as the person he guarded had an effective field goal percentage of 48.5.

But if Charlotte is to offer the undersized point guard big money or, for that matter, any money at all, Walker has to obviously improve, and general manager Rich Cho said as much.

"Range shooting is going to be important for him if he wants to take another step as a player," Cho said. "I think he realizes that."