Charlotte Hornets to host Isaiah Canaan, Norris Cole and Donald Sloan in workouts
The Charlotte Hornets will play host to free agent point guards Norris Cole, Isaiah Canaan and Donald Sloan in workouts this week.
The Charlotte Hornets‘ search for a backup point guard continues. Yesterday, Sam Amico reported that they will host Norris Cole, Isaiah Canaan, and Donald Sloan for workouts through the week.
Despite signing Michael Carter-Williams in early July, it seems like the team wants a proven, experienced player at their disposal behind Kemba Walker. Since the Carter-Williams signing, there has been skepticism of whether or not he can get his career back on track, so putting all of their eggs in one basket with him isn’t ideal.
Bringing in players such as Canaan, Cole, and Sloan make it clear that the Hornets still need a viable backup after not re-signing last year’s backups Ramon Sessions and Brian Roberts. Sessions remains on the free agent market in hopes of signing a deal before the season and Roberts recently signed a deal in Greece.
Cole is known for his days playing in Miami alongside LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He played the role of coming off the bench as the point guard and won two NBA championships during his four-year tenure. He was traded to New Orleans in February of 2015.
The Ohio native was thrown into the starting position when Jrue Holiday went down with a season-ending injury. That summer, the Pelicans tendered his qualifying offer to keep Cole’s services. He’d respond by having the best year of his career statistically, averaging 10.6 points and 3.7 assists per game coming off the bench.
As a free agent the last summer, Cole wasn’t signed by any NBA team and ended up in China with the Shandong Golden Stars for nine games before inking a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder. There, Cole only appeared in 13 games and played only 9.6 minutes per game.
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Sloan has been a journeyman throughout his career, playing for six different NBA teams and a number of teams in China. Most recently, he was in China playing for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Sloan averaged 23.5 points, 6.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game to lead the Tigers to the CBA Finals.
Canaan has had stints in Houston, Philadelphia and Chicago over his four seasons in the NBA. His career numbers are 8.1 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He’s proven that he can score at the NBA level as a role player, but hasn’t been able to put the rest of his game together to make a team fall in love with him.
In terms of which player would fit best for Charlotte’s needs, it would be Cole. Of the three, he is the most proven and can fill the backup point guard duties the most. Both Sloan and Canaan are more of scoring guard than they are floor generals. Cole has a good mix of both. He’s played on teams alongside NBA superstars in which he had to get involved almost every possession down. Throughout his Miami days, he had to make the most of the shots that were presented to him.
He isn’t a sniper from deep, as seen by his 32.4 percent success rate throughout his career, but the defense can’t treat him like a non-shooter. Cole also has the ability to operate in pick-and-roll sets successfully not only by hitting the big man with a pocket pass, but also keeping the defender ready for a little floater in the paint that he makes efficiently.
Another big attribute that Cole brings is winning. He’s a two-time NBA champion. Even though he wasn’t a main piece to the puzzle, he still was counted on to play important minutes throughout those title runs and knows what a winning environment entails.
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There haven’t been any reports on whether Charlotte will take a chance with any of these players. But if they do, Cole is the safest bet.