GRAYSON Allen

Last season with the Suns, Allen played 51 games and averaged 28.8 minutes. He scored 16.5 points per game with 3.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals, plus 0.3 blocks and 1.6 turnovers. The shooting line was mixed. He hit 40.3 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from three, both lower than you want from a shooter, but his 85.7 percent free throw mark kept his true shooting at 56.8 percent. His usage rate was 23.1 percent, which is a lot of offense for a role player, and his plus-minus came in at 0.4. Read those together and you get a player who carried more scoring load than he probably should have last season. In Charlotte, a smaller role with better shot quality could bring the percentages back up.

The one real concern this fall was Allen's right knee. He landed on the injury report on October 11 as day-to-day with a knee issue on his right leg. He then did not play on October 16 against Memphis, a game the Hornets lost, logging zero minutes. On October 20 he was cleared and removed from the day-to-day designation. Right now he is not on the injury report at all. That is the best outcome for a team that signed him to shoot. Before the knee flared up, he played on October 6 against Brooklyn and scored 13 points with 1 rebound and 1 assist in 14.2 minutes, finishing with a plus-minus of 2.0 in a loss. That short burst is a reminder of what he does when he is healthy: score quickly in limited time.

Allen's final stretch with Phoenix was uneven. On April 27 against Oklahoma City he scored 12 points with 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 20.9 minutes, and his plus-minus of 15.0 stood out in a loss. On April 25 against the same Thunder he had 7 points in 17.0 minutes with a plus-minus of minus 16.0. Earlier in April he had 8 points and 4 rebounds against the Lakers in 12.5 minutes and 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists against Houston in 25.6 minutes. He put up 6 points and 5 rebounds in a win over Chicago, 13 points against Charlotte in 24.5 minutes, and 10 points in 32.2 minutes against Orlando. The best night in that run was March 28 against Utah: 19 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 20.7 minutes with a plus-minus of 14.0 in a win.

Charlotte did not bring Allen in to run the offense. His minutes should come as a secondary scorer and spot-up threat, with the ball finding him after the defense collapses. His 85.7 percent free throw shooting last season is a real asset in close games, and his 1.4 steals per game show he can contribute on the other end without being a stopper. The number to watch is the three-point percentage. At 34.9 percent last season, he was below his usual standard, and the Hornets are betting that cleaner looks and a lighter usage load fix that. If his knee holds up and the shot comes back, he gives Charlotte a veteran who knows how to play off stars. If it does not, the front office has a rotation question to answer.

Allen's old team is still in the news. A September 28 Suns notebook touched on Bridges, Kennard, Gillespie, the center spot and Ishbia, per that report. None of it involves Allen directly, and none of it should be read as anything more than a Phoenix roundup. What matters for Hornets fans is that Allen is no longer part of that conversation. He is a Hornet, he is healthy as of October 20, and his focus is on earning rotation minutes in Charlotte. The Suns moved on, Allen moved on, and the only link that still matters is the body of work he put together there last season, which is the baseline the Hornets will measure him against.