Charles Lee optimistic after first season as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets

Despite the results of the Charlotte Hornets 2024-25 season, head coach Charles Lee says he is ending the year with optimism at the forefront.

“It's hard not to be optimistic when you get to come to work with great people. The players have been absolutely phenomenal with their mindset, their approach, their hunger for coaching, for trying to get better, to come into a Spectrum Center arena with fans that are unwavering with their support, even in a 19 win season, it's pretty special,” Lee said. “It makes me even more optimistic when we can continue to put a product on the floor that they are just proud of.”

Lee credits that mindset to those around him from ownership to the front office, his coaching staff and players.

“Number one, it's an absolute blessing to be in this position. I definitely do not take it for granted,” Lee said of his first year as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. “The trust that ownership and Jeff [Peterson] bestowed on me to lead this team, year one, I think of a vision of just trying to build sustainable success and the goal the whole year was to build standards of competitiveness, daily improvement, and an environment of togetherness as we just come to work, win or lose, but the mindset every day is to just come in and get better and work and do it together, and have fun with the journey.”

Last offseason the Hornets and Charles Lee reached a deal when he was still in the playoffs as the top assistant coach of the Boston Celtics. This offseason looks to be different for Lee and one where he can focus all of his attention on how to build on year one in Charlotte.

“I look forward to a summer of fully focusing now on not having to hire a staff or play a playoff series with Boston and travel back and forth. I can't wait to sit down with Jeff [Peterson] after we kind of decompress a little bit and reflect on the season and just continue to evaluate our team and what our team needs because we have made so much growth and we just want to continue that positive momentum,” Lee said.

As Coach Lee reflected on his first year as a head coach in the NBA an important goal is moving forward is continuing to build relationships.

Charles Lee assesses his first season as HC of the Charlotte Hornets & goals for the future.#Hornets | #NBA | @SI_Hornets pic.twitter.com/SJuWvsFL45
— Ashley Stroehlein (@ashstro) April 14, 2025

“One of my strong suits is being able to communicate with the guys. I think whether they like it or they don't like it I do a pretty good job of explaining to them what the expectations are, what I expect from them, offensively, defensively, from a player development standpoint and I got to keep building relationships,” Lee said.

Building relationships is also about more than chemistry on the court for Lee, it’s also learning who his players are off the court.

“I need to go spend time with guys, whether it's here in Charlotte, out of market, on a personal level. I want to do that. I want to get to know them. I want to get to know what makes them tick, how I can be better, how I can be more useful to them. Is it challenging them more in the end game? Is it challenging them more in a film session? Is it having dinner with them and their significant other? Whatever it is, I want to figure out what those things are because I do think that the better the relationship, the better the communication, the more that I can coach them and then try to help them and our team just continue to grow.”

Lee takes pride in what he saw from his team defensively and hopes with a healthy roster next season they can build on the strides that were made.

“Progress is never like, just straight up, you hit a little bit of a lull, you're making this progress. I thought that we were kind of lingering defensively, middle of the pack, 14, 15 defense efficiency, 16th, and towards the end of the season it kind of tailed off a little bit. So I want us to get back to that point and I need to figure out what are the things that we need to do to get back to that point,” Lee said of the Hornets defensive performance this season. “Is it matchups? Is it coverages? Is it emphasizing different things? Playing some zone in which we did in Boston, but I think the guys, to their credit, they were very open minded.”

Offensively, Lee feels like the team needs to find a way to improve all around.

“I felt like we never really got out of that 20 range and below. So we do have to tighten up. How do we take better care of the ball? Is it the positions that I'm putting them in? Is it playing a little slower? Is it trying to play faster?” Lee explained of the Hornets offensive performance. “I want to continue to study that. What were the things that helped Melo? What were the things that helped Brandon? What were the things that helped Miles? How did Mark help us offensively? I want to do a deep dive into our offense too, and try to come back next year and have that in a better spot.”

Overall the main focus and need for Lee and company moving forward is the overall health of the roster. Something the organization will need to find sustained success for seasons to come.

“So many times this year, I thought that we showed that we can do things at a high level and elite level, but can we sustain it? And a lot of that, being able to sustain it is a little bit of the mental focus, but also the physical constraints that this game puts on you,” Lee said. “It is tough to win in this league. It is a physical league and so we got to be better conditioned. I think that we gotta be a little bit stronger, and it all starts now.”

All of that is doable for Peterson and company this summer. Will it happen? Hard to say. This regime has done minimal to prove that they are capable (or incapable) of making such a titanic leap in one offseason, but time will tell.

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