Hornets got James Borrego from Spurs. At his best, he brings 4 great habits with him.

The Charlotte Hornets want a culture change. They hired longtime Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak to oversee that, and the key hire is going to be San Antonio Spurs assistant James Borrego as the next head coach.

If you’re striving for a winning culture, the Spurs can’t be topped in the NBA: Five championships and a sixth Finals appearance since the 1998-99 season, and that franchise never missed the playoffs in that span.

Can that simply be copied? No, or everyone would do it. Also, just because you worked on Gregg Popovich’s staff doesn’t guarantee you’ll succeed out on your own. But Borrego has had two extended stints with the Spurs, so he certainly knows how things are done there.

A franchise that has yet to win a playoff round since the NBA returned to Charlotte in 2004 could learn plenty from the Spurs. Such as …

Great ball movement

Despite the presence of individual stars (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge), most of the Spurs’ 20-year playoff run has been defined by an unselfish motion offense that kept everyone involved.

There’s plenty of room for improvement for the Hornets in that regard. Some of that is personnel (small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist lacking 3-point range, for instance), but the ball has to get to open shooters, too. Center Dwight Howard can be a ball stopper at times in the post. He has a relatively high number of turnovers, particularly offensive fouls, so we’ll see if Borrego can find a better way for the future Hall of Famer to be a part of winning.

Finding hidden gems

Over the past 20 drafts, the earliest the Spurs have selected is 20th (Oklahoma State’s James Anderson in 2010). Those late picks haven’t kept the Spurs from harvesting plenty of talent: Parker (28th pick in 2001) and Manu Ginobili (57th pick in 1999) are viable Hall of Fame candidates. Other late picks who contributed significantly: George Hill (26th pick in 2008), Tiago Splitter (28th pick in 2007) and more recently Dejounte Murray (29th in 2016).

Some of that is a savvy front office, but that has to go hand-in-hand with a coaching staff adept at player development. A particularly strong example might be former North Carolina player Danny Green, who was waived by the team that drafted him (the Cleveland Cavaliers, 46th overall in 2009). The Spurs made Green a project, one so successful that he played a major role on two teams that reached the NBA Finals.

Hornets managing partner Curtis Polk told the Observer recently that player development was the No. 1 quality the franchise was looking for in the next coach. This franchise’s record in developing second-round picks has been all but nonexistent the past 14 years. Refining Malik Monk (11th pick a year ago) and Dwayne Bacon (40th pick) will top Borrego’s summer agenda.

Using what’s there

The Spurs have had a knack for getting the best out of players who didn’t fit in so well elsewhere. A great example: former Charlotte Bobcat Boris Diaw.

Diaw was miserable at the end in Charlotte, seemingly detached from what coach Paul Silas wanted from him. Then he signs with the Spurs (where close friend and fellow Frenchman Parker already was) and Diaw has a renaissance of the versatile, facilitating style from earlier in his career.

Wouldn’t it be great if Borrego can similarly get Nic Batum back to optimum effect? Batum isn’t a specialist at any one skill, but he has shown in the past he can impact a game positive in a half-dozen ways. How he’s used and when he’s used is a key question going forward, because this team still owes him about $75 million guaranteed.

When to yell, when to praise

It was telling — damning, in fact — when coach Steve Clifford said the day after the season’s conclusion that this Hornets team didn’t have the “spirit” of previous ones he coached.

As someone who’s around this team most days, I’d agree that the locker room seemed less congruous than the previous few seasons. Every player doesn’t have to want to have Christmas dinner with every other player, but it’s important to appreciate the common good. I would have graded this team an “A” in that regard three years ago. Now it would be a “C.”

Borrego needs to be aware of that and address it best he can. Obviously, Popovich has great people skills or he wouldn’t have lasted so long in a job where 90 percent of head coaches will be fired. Hopefully, Borrego’s time around Popovich, combined with those 30 games as interim coach with the Orlando Magic, has him ready to set agendas and get 15 egos pulling in the same direction.

This story was originally published May 8, 2018 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Hornets got James Borrego from Spurs. At his best, he brings 4 great habits with him.."