Kemba Walker admits he was worried when Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams became free agents that the Charlotte Hornets would be unable to keep them.

“I was nervous as hell,” Walker said. “I didn’t want to lose those guys. I knew we couldn’t pay everyone. I wish we could have gotten a lot of the guys back, but unfortunately, the way this business works is it can’t happen all the time. Nic and Marv were high priority … I got a chance to go out to Dallas and be a part of Nic’s meeting. Me and MKG flew out. It was super cool. We got a chance to sit in the room and say a few words.”

While the Hornets re-signed Batum and Williams, they were unable to keep Jeremy Lin, Courtney Lee and Al Jefferson.

“Me, Nic, MKG (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) and Marv and Cody now, we’re all kind of locked in for about the same amount of time,” Walker said. “We are getting the opportunity to grow with each other. It’s a great start. We all love playing with each other. We know how to play with each other very well. We all know each other’s spots and how each other plays and things like that. As far as more pieces, I think we’re good right now. We’re going to grow. The best thing about it is how hard we all work. We work extremely hard. The guys around us, they see that. Hopefully over the years, whoever comes here to our team, they see how hard we work, and they follow.”