Sion James Talks Guarding MVP-Caliber Players, His Commitment to Duke, and More Ahead of Year Two in Charlotte

Sion James was a stalwart for the 2025-26 Charlotte Hornets.

The rookie guard played all 82 games and established himself as one of the league's top young perimeter defenders in an impressive first act of his career. Going into year two, James will be relied on to slow down opposing bucket-getters as a supplement to Charlotte's depth of offensive talent.

At media day earlier this week, James sat down with Charlotte Hornets on SI and discussed a wide range of topics including his committment to Duke, improvements he's looking to make in his sophomore season, and the difficulties of playing defense as a guard in the modern NBA.

Looking at your rookie season, you played all 82 games and were a key defensive piece for the Hornets, what can you do to replicate that success and improve upon it in year two?

James: "I did some good things, for sure, especially defensively, but there's a lot of growth on that end too. I want to continue to grow defensively, become more disruptive and make it hard for other team's top players."

"Offensively I want to improve as a shooter, improve as a finisher in the paint, improve as a ball handler, and I feel like I've done a lot of those things this summer."

You were the last player to commit to that 2024 Duke team after Khaman Maluach, Cooper Flagg, and Kon Knueppel were already in. Does that speak at all to who you are as a basketball player, being a guy who doesn't need the ball to impact winning?

James: "There's two parts to it. The first part is, I didn't know nearly enough about the roster. I should have asked way more questions. Duke was my dream school growing up, so Coach Scheyer called me and I was like 'yeah, sure.' I didn't know any of those guys. Things ended up working out great, though."

"I think the biggest thing for me was that I had a goal, and that was to be an NBA player. In the NBA there's no running from talent. Every team is going to have a crazy amount of talent. You're going to go to a team every single year where they have multiple guys in your position that you're going to have to beat out all of the time."

"And in my head, my decision point was, if you're an NBA player like you think you are, then you'll figure it out. You'll be fine, you'll get playing time, and you'll be good. And if you don't get playing time or you don't crack it, then you aren't an NBA player anyway, and you got to get better."

"So for me it was a no lose situation. Either way I'd learn a lot and go from there."

When you look at the guard position in the NBA, what does it take to be a great defender at that position right now?

James: "I think there's a few things. Physicality is one. You've got to physically be able to move your feet, play defense, and keep guys in front of you. But the other part is IQ. You have to have a very high offensive IQ to understand things on the defensive end. You've got to understand what players want to do, what counters they like to go to, and what makes sense for their game so you can have a better idea of how to stop it."

How much of that for you is film study versus natural defensive talent?

James: "It's a little bit of both. I study plenty of film, but it's not really that. It's just generally consuming games. Watching games all of the time, having games on in the background. Ever since I was in college I'd have NBA games on just because I love watching them."

"I think in doing that you passively pick up tendencies and what players like to do. And of course you get scouting reports from coaches and stuff too. Combining those things plus the natural staying in front of people, that all combines into something."

Who gave you the most problems when you defended them in your rookie season?

James: "There's a lot of them, man. It's a tough league. Guys are good around this league and everyone does what they do at a high level."

"The MVP and MVP-caliber players are the ones, objectively, that are the toughest. When you have someone like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Luka Doncic, Steph Curry, these are tough guys, guys that have been making it hard for a lot of defenders for a really long time."

"I feel like I've had good stretches against all of those players, but obviously they're really good at what they do and I'm trying to become really good at what I do. It's always fun competing against those guys."

What excites you about the new players on the team you'll be taking the floor with this season?

James: "Just the competitiveness. The joy that everyone plays with."

"It's fun being on a new team because everyone gets an opportunity. There's a heightened sense of urgency, and going into that we all feel the same way. We all miss the guys that got traded, moved on, whatever the case may be; we love them, we appreciate them, but we are still wearing a Hornets jersey and we have games to win."

"It's exciting having that new energy around here."

Have you picked up anything from fellow Duke Blue Devil Grayson Allen in your practices this summer?

James: "I've always been a big fan of Grayson. He was on those early Duke teams, those are some of the first basketball teams I watched, so getting to be on his team is cool."

"There are a few things I've picked up for sure. The first one is the shooting which has always been a strength of his. He's always been so consistent with his release and everything. Also some of his moves getting downhill. He likes to play with pace when he gets into the paint. He's such a good shooter that guys are constantly running him off the line, but he's also got skill and pace inside paint to counter it. It's cool to watch."

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