Hannes Steinbach Calls Extended Hornets Minutes ‘Important Reps’

The Charlotte Hornets assigned Hannes Steinbach to the Greensboro Swarm on Thursday. On Friday, they called him back, and by the end of the night he had played more minutes than anyone else on the roster.

Steinbach logged 27:13 in Charlotte's 119-80 loss to the Boston Celtics at Spectrum Center. The 14th pick in June's draft finished with 4 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 blocks.

His 11 rebounds were the most by any player in the game. Five came on the offensive glass, and all three of Charlotte's blocks were his.

Christian Anderson Jr., the other rookie the Hornets sent to Greensboro on Thursday, was recalled with him and played 24:57.

To Steinbach, the Hornets have been pretty unlucky with injuries the last few games.

"It was good to get in the game in the beginning," Steinbach said. "Just kind of figured out how the physicality is against those guys that regularly play. It was definitely tough at the beginning. I think I got used to [it] a little bit better throughout the game."

Moussa Diabaté was downgraded to out Friday afternoon with right quadriceps tendinopathy. He had started each of Charlotte's first nine games.

Ryan Kalkbrenner started at center and played 20:47. Steinbach checked in with Royce O'Neale at 4:24 of the first quarter, and 36 seconds later he tipped in a Naz Reid miss for his first points.

Diabaté is one of the bigs Steinbach battles on the boards every day in practice.

"Definitely helps going against those guys," Steinbach explained. "They're all great players, especially Ryan and [Moussa] are always battling against them on the board, so it's always a good practice for me, so it helps me a lot for the [real] games."

Before Friday, Steinbach had appeared in three of Charlotte's first nine games, against Atlanta, Washington, and Detroit.

He averaged 15.8 points and 9.2 rebounds in Summer League. Charlotte signed him to his rookie-scale contract on July 6.

Steinbach played in all four quarters. He had 2 rebounds in 4:24 in the first, 3 rebounds and a block in 7:05 in the second, and 1 rebound in 5:18 in the third.

The second-quarter block came on a Payton Pritchard finger roll at 10:58.

He played 10:26 in the fourth. In that stretch he had 2 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 blocks, both against Luka Garza.

His assist set up an Anderson fadeaway with 1:23 left. With 33.4 seconds to go, he ran the floor on a Liam McNeeley steal and dunked for Charlotte's final points.

Charlotte went 23-23 with Boston in the fourth quarter.

Steinbach wants the players who don't normally see much time sticking to the Hornets' habits and identity.

"I think just continuing to play like we as a group when we win the game, and yeah, even though we don't play, we just still got to stick to our habits, play to our identity, and do the right things," Steinbach said. "Those important reps for us, the guys that don't play too much normally, so just take it serious and try to do the best of it."

Steinbach spent one season at Washington before the draft and scored in double figures in all 30 of his games there. He is from Würzburg, Germany, and was the highest-drafted German player since Orlando took Franz Wagner eighth in 2021.

Boston outrebounded Charlotte 51-43, and the Hornets had 19 offensive rebounds to the Celtics' 14.

The Hornets host the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET on Monday.