Charlotte Hornets guard Aaron Harrison disappointing in summer-league opener

Is he a point guard? Is he a shooting guard? Is he both? Is he neither?

Unless you have a deep fascination with overseas basketball, there might not be many names on the Charlotte Hornets’ summer roster that catch your attention.

So the one point of interest, or at least curiosity, here for Hornets fans might be gauging Aaron Harrison’s development after a rookie season that amounted to an apprenticeship.

Harrison was mostly out-of-sight, out-of-mind from November through May. And that’s OK. He was an undrafted rookie who played well enough in summer league to be the 15^th man. He spent most games in street clothes, not on the active roster.

But there was something intriguing about him. He had a nice first step, the length and quick feet to defend and a Kentucky pedigree. He couldn’t really shoot, which is probably why he went unselected in the 2015 draft.

Saturday was supposed to be the unveiling of Harrison 2.0. Back at Orlando summer league, where he established himself a year ago. What did he demonstrate against the Orlando Magic’s split squad in Game 1?

That he’s still a guy with quick feet and long arms. And he’s still in need of a reliable jump shot.

Harrison went 2-of-13 from the field and 1-of-5 from 3-point range in a 79-74 loss. To his credit, he earned 10 trips to the foul line. To his detriment, he committed four of the Hornets’ 11 turnovers.

The turnovers were the thing that bugged associate head coach Patrick Ewing following this loss. Ewing wants Harrison leading this week and the direction he led Saturday was the wrong one.

Harrison knows that and promised to learn from his mistakes.

“We’ve got to communicate better on defense and I need to be a better leader out there,” Harrison acknowledged. “I’ve got to help the team out a lot more.”

As he said that, Harrison massaged an aching right hand. He took a hard fall early in the game against the Magic and seemed to favor his hand for a long span after that.

Harrison said it was a brush burn, not an injury that should linger. So whether that was a factor in his awful shooting Saturday was hard to say.

Last summer the best thing Harrison did here was explode to the rim off pick-and-rolls. They played him mostly as a point guard then, where this summer he’s playing off the ball more.

The Magic played off him Saturday, daring him to make 3-pointers. He kept putting them up, they kept hitting the back rim.

It’s OK to experiment in July, so long as it improves him come November.

“In the regular season you can’t just get to the hole easily. I try to balance it out,” Harrison said of drives versus jump shots.

“I’ve been working on finishing and I think I’ll finish better as the week goes on. And I’ll shoot it better as the week goes on.”

As the only Hornets player from last season’s roster playing here, Harrison knows he’ll get a steady diet of minutes in Orlando. Saturday he played 35, easily the most on the roster.

So he’s got the time. Now it’s time to fix that game.

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This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets guard Aaron Harrison disappointing in summer-league opener."