Why Cody Zeller is the key to making the Hornets a success while the losses pile up
Following the Charlotte Hornets this season has to be about managing expectations.
That’s the reality of rebuilding around youth: There won’t be many full games that make fans happy. But there should be a half, or at least a quarter, that signals what they aspire to be.
The first half of Sunday’s 120-101 road loss to the Los Angeles Lakers qualifies. They played the way they’d been taught since mid-summer, and they finished that half trailing a Western Conference contender by a single point.
Specifically, they took the optimum shots. Thirty-eight of their 62 first-half points were scored either outside the 3-point line or at the foul line. That’s how the NBA is evolving and the Hornets must adapt.
I’ll never be confused with a math major, but the logic is easily understood: The most efficient ways to score are taking 3s and earning free throws. The best way to get to the foul line is attack the rim.
In contrast, the least efficient shot is a mid-range jumper. So coach James Borrego wants his guys to either drive all the way to the hole or step back outside the arc. Anything in between is doing what the opposing defense wants.
Mind game
To retrain the players’ habits this preseason, the coaches made up new rules for scrimmages: A 3-pointer was still worth 3 and a layup worth 2, but if you made a 15-foot jump shot, it counted for zero.
If you tell elite players that some of their baskets no longer count, it modifies behavior. Example: Center Cody Zeller averaged one 3-point attempt every nine games his first seven NBA seasons. He has taken three 3s (making one) in his first two games this season.
“All summer, the focus was on 3s and layups — getting to the rim and getting to the free-throw line from there,” said Zeller, who finished Sunday with 19 points and 14 rebounds. “That’s what the stats show wins, so we’re trying to make it work.”
Zeller’s buy-in to playing differently is important. Of the so-called “older guys” on this roster, he’s the one in age (27) and situation most likely to still be a rotation player on the Hornets’ next playoff team.
The Hornets don’t just have a new roster, they have a new identity: From built last season around a ball-dominant point guard in Kemba Walker to everyone chipping in more to ball movement this year. As one of the NBA’s better screen-setters, Zeller can help shepherd this transition. A lot of this season’s offense runs through him. If he can make enough 3s to coax an opposing center to drift out of the lane defensively, it makes everyone’s job easier.
So how is this experiment progressing?
“We’re still figuring it out. Some stretches where we look good and others not so good,” Zeller assessed.
The gap was particularly apparent in the fourth quarter, when a Lakers team built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis shot 62 percent from the field to outscore the Hornets by 12.
“A lot of talent over there,” Zeller said. “That’s what good teams do.”
That’s what the Hornets don’t do. Can’t do for whole games right now.
Reset your expectations accordingly.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 8:26 AM.
