Charlotte Hornets’ Borrego calls rotation fluid; hints he’ll go to bench sooner
Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego now calls his player rotation “fluid.”
Translation: As of Tuesday, he wasn’t planning a change in the starters for Wednesday’s home game against the Golden State Warriors. But if he doesn’t get what he wants, following chronic slow starts, he’ll be quicker to shake up playing time.
“If the starters aren’t bringing it, I could go to the bench after two or three minutes. I’m comfortable doing that,” Borrego said.
The Hornets had an awful first half half Monday against the Phoenix Suns to trail by as much as 20 points. They came all the way back to lead by five going into the final minute before blowing that lead to lose by five.
Borrego was frustrated post-game by the habitual lack of urgency to start games.
“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,” Borrego said Monday night.
“It’s their job to play for 48 minutes.”
Those comments, combined with Borrego’s statement last week that his players don’t have a “God-given right” to playing time, suggest he’s losing patience with a starting group full of youth. However, the only lineup change has been at center, where one veteran, Bismack Biyombo, has replaced another, Cody Zeller, as starter.
Zeller missed two games with a left hip bruise. He was a reserve in the two games that followed that. Borrego said Tuesday he’s sticking with Biyombo as the starter for now, and that’s not entirely about Zeller’s injury. Biyombo is among the Hornets’ most physical, defense-oriented players, and starting him sends a message of sorts.
“Right now, Biz is giving us good minutes as a starter, as a defender, as a physical presence inside,” Borrego said.
“I like it with Cody coming in off the bench right now, giving great energy and juice. We could go back to Cody as well. It’s very fluid right now.”
Zeller, in his seventh NBA season, said he’s not hung up on starting.
“I have no problem coming off the bench for now,” Zeller said. “It doesn’t matter, really, who starts. Both Biz and I are veteran guys, we understand. We want to win and for the team to play well. We’ll do whatever it takes.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 12:02 PM.
