For the first time since the emotional rollercoaster of the play-in games versus Miami and Orlando, the Charlotte Hornets are back! Or at least, some of them are.

LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and Tre Mann are gone. In their place, Naz Reid, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, and Dennis Schröder will see big minutes starting tonight. Even more so tonight, because a good chunk of the Hornets roster isn’t actually back quite yet:

The Injury Report:

Charlotte Hornets: OUT – Coby White (L Calf), Kon Knueppel (Hamstring), Grant Williams (Hamstring), PJ Hall (Ankle), Kylan Boswell (R Knee)

Brooklyn Nets: OUT – Joshua Jefferson (Back), Mikel Brown Jr. (Ankle)

In what feels like the worst possible sequel idea for Groundhog Day, the Hornets AGAIN are headed towards the regular season with injuries piling up. The silver lining in this case is that White and Knueppel are expected to return sometime around the start of the regular season, and Grant Williams’ injury shouldn’t keep him out for more than a few weeks either.

Still, you want this revamped starting five to have as much time on the court together as possible, which won’t be the case for now. On the other hand, this is also a chance for the fringe rotational players to make one final case for themselves.

No Grant Williams? Tidjane Salaün can earn himself a few regular rotation minutes! No Coby White? Let’s see how Christian Anderson Jr. fares! Kon Knueppel is out? How about some Liam McNeeley minutes? If there’s a time of year to try these kinds of things, it’s now.

Tonight’s opponent: The Brooklyn Nets (Last Season: 20-62 | 13th in the East)

The Brooklyn Nets are, in all likelihood, going to be the worst team in the East. Maybe Milwaukee has a say in that conversation. Possibly Washington, if they have bad injury luck. Brooklyn, though, definitely has the worst roster of the three.

Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle spearhead an otherwise very inexperienced roster. Long-time starting center Nic Claxton was shipped to Chicago during the offseason; his shoes will be filled by long-time backup Day’Ron Sharpe. There’s also the newly acquired Mo Wagner, who is hoping to bounce back after a rough and injury-hampered final year in Orlando.

At the guard spots, the sophomore shooting savant Egor Dëmin is likely to start alongside former LA Clipper Terance Mann. Another option at the two-guard position is defensive specialist Keon Ellis, who disappointed after being traded to the Cavaliers in the middle of last season.

Otherwise, Brooklyn’s bench is relatively unremarkable. Noah Clowney, who went to Dorman High in South Carolina, is a stretch big who could cause Tidjane Salaün some problems in their minutes as backups.

And then there’s the sophomore trio of Ben Saraf, Nolan Traoré, and Danny Wolf. None of them looked awfully enticing in 25-26, with Wolf definitely being the best of the three. He’s got the ability to handle the ball as a big man, which helps in head coach Jordi Fernández’s handoff-heavy playstyle.

The Nets ran by far the highest frequency of handoffs last season, at 8.7%. The second-place Denver Nuggets came in at 6.4%. This should be a good test in terms of defensive communication, especially for Charlotte’s younger players.

As below-average as this Nets roster might be, there’s still plenty of shooting to go around, and if Salaün, Anderson Jr., McNeeley, Steinbach, James, and maybe even Michael Ajayi can’t navigate Brooklyn’s myriad of handoffs, Dëmin and Co. will make them pay.

Projected Starting Lineups:

Charlotte Hornets

Brooklyn Nets

Point Guard

Dennis Schröder

Egor Dëmin

Shooting Guard

Grayson Allen

Terance Mann

Small Forward

Brandon Miller

Michael Porter Jr.

Power Forward

Naz Reid

Julius Randle

Center

Moussa Diabaté

Day’Ron Sharpe

To hear more thoughts and an even more detailed preview on tonight’s game, feel free to check out the Charlotte Hornets on SI YouTube (HERE) or Spotify (HERE) podcast channels, where a preview will be posted at 10 am!

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