If youth is causing Hornets’ slow starts, why not try adding a veteran starter?
When the Charlotte Hornets lost Kemba Walker and pivoted to rebuild, coach James Borrego knew he’d have to accept some bad losses.
That’s not the same as accepting bad habits.
Two things particularly bothered Borrego about a 109-104 loss to the Phoenix Suns: The terrible start that eventually led to a 20-point deficit and the carelessness in letting ex-Hornet Frank Kaminsky rebound his own missed free throw with a minute left.
Kaminsky’s rebound set up Suns teammate Kelly Oubre with the first of two 3-pointers in the final minute, erasing the last of a five-point Hornets lead.
While Borrego didn’t like the late meltdown, he was primarily frustrated by the first seven minutes. That’s when the Hornets slipped behind by 10, which worsened to 20 at halftime.
The Hornets’ slow starts are chronic; double-digit deficits are a game-to-game given.
“We’ve got to take ownership of how we start games,” Borrego said. “We go through the motions in the first half, we wait until we’re down 15 or 20 to feel like we’ve got to play the right way. To play with some urgency. To play like professionals out there.
“It’s their job to play for 48 minutes.”
Learn from whom?
Borrego isn’t wrong, but how this team is configured, it’s difficult to conjure a ready fix. Borrego doesn’t want to keep excusing his starters’ youth, but that is a reality.
Four of the five starters — Terry Rozier, Devonte Graham, Miles Bridges and rookie P.J. Washington — had a combined 58 NBA starts prior to this season. Center Cody Zeller has more than 200 starts, but to ask him or fellow center Bismack Biyombo to prod the other starters into that sense of urgency Borrego described is asking a lot.
I’d think the only thing Borrego could try is to move one of his second-unit veterans into the starting group.
If that is appropriate, the candidate is obvious: Forward Marvin Williams.
Fine with whatever
Williams, a 14-season veteran, doesn’t care whether he starts or comes off the bench, or how much he plays. But he showed with a season-high 22 points Monday how effective he can still be, and he appreciates Borrego’s problem.
“It feels like we never really play as hard as we can until we get down five, 10, 15 (points), and then the fight kind of comes out,” Williams described.
It might be worth starting Williams as an experiment, and bringing Washington or Bridges off the bench, just to test if it changes the dynamic. , Borrego wants to use playing time to accelerate the young guys’ development, but those minutes don’t always have to be as starters.
As Borrego said before this season started, wins and losses aren’t necessarily the central concern right now. What better time, then, to mess with the mix and see what happens?
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
