Charlotte Hornets NBA Summer League player preview: Ryan Kalkbrenner

Vegas Summer League tips off in the desert on Thursday afternoon, and the Charlotte Hornets have one of the more intriguing groups of talent making the trip to Sin City. Ahead of Charlotte's Friday night tip-off, we're going to detail what we want to see from a handful of the Hornets' players heading west.

On Sunday, we started with number four overall pick Kon Knueppel. Today? Let's chat about Ryan Kalkbrenner.

Creighton Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) and Auburn Tigers forward Johni Broome (4) go for the ball — Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Do what you do best

Kalkbrenner's role in Vegas should be simple: finish around the rim on offense, and protect it on defense.

Those are the two elite skills Kalkbrenner has in his bag as an NBA prospect. At Creighton, the larger-than-life big man dominated the paint on both ends for four years and developed into one of the nation's most fearsome big men, flashing a simple, yet effective game that should translate nicely to Vegas.

In his senior year as a Blue Jay, Kalkbrenner finished 76.1% of his shots attempts at the rim, lapping his entire class of draftees on elite volume. He boasts exquisite touch around the cup, and he'll suit up alongside a quartet of guards (K.J. Simpson, Kon Knueppel, Sion James, and Kalkbrenner's college teammate Jamiya Neal) who's main mission will be to feed Kalkbrenner in his sweet spots.

On defense, the rookie has clear strengths and weaknesses. His lack of foot speed will be exposed in switch situations, and although he's a mountain of a man, Kalkbrenner doesn't impact the defensive glass like you would expect (his only above-average defensive rebounding season via defensive rebound rate was his final year at Creighton).

However, his elite size, timing, and verticality make him a true deterrant at the rim. Kalkbrenner will eat opposing guards and forwards up when they attempt to attack him in and around the paint, and ideally he will show some true prowess as a rim protector without fouling, like he did in college, at Summer League.

Can you stretch the floor?

The long-term ceiling for Kalkbrenner will be defined by his ability to knock down threes with some level of consistency.

Much of the pre-draft chatter surrounding Kalkbrenner centered around his improved shooting stroke, although it was arguably a bit overblown (even by myself). In his last two seasons at Creighton, he made a total of 37 three-pointers on 115 attempts - a fairly insigificant number when projecting Kalkbrenner to be a legitimate floor spacing threat at the next level.

Compare those numbers to his Summer League teammate PJ Hall, another older, projectable big man who left college with questions about his long-term viability as an NBA player, who knocked down 52/165 long range attempts in his senior year alone, and envisioning Kalkbrenner becoming an impactful three-point shooter becomes an even more difficult task.

Can he nail a couple of pick-and-pop jumpers at Summer League? I'd love to see at least an attempt or two per game to keep defenses honest, giving opposing teams another wrinkle to prepare for when the preseason tips off in October.

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