Will LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward thrive? Charlotte Hornets’ 5 biggest questions
I think the Charlotte Hornets will be significantly better this season.
I don’t know whether that will show up in their record sufficiently to get them into playoff contention.
The Hornets open their season Wednesday (7 p.m., Fox Sports Southeast) on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It will be the first regular-season game they’ve played in nine months. They are very different, after drafting LaMelo Ball No. 3 overall and acquiring Gordon Hayward, arguably the best free agent to change teams this off-season.
It’s been four seasons since the Hornets last reached the playoffs. In fact, center Cody Zeller is the only player from that team left on Charlotte’s roster.
We got a glimpse of this roster in four preseason games. What did we learn? Five key questions on the Hornets:
1. How much difference will Ball and Hayward make?
Assuming Hayward stays healthy, he can make a major difference on a young team in need of a connector: A 6-foot-7 small forward with scoring and playmaking skill to lift the fourth-youngest roster in the NBA.
Ball is such a creative passer and his 6-7 height will be a big plus. However, he also shot 26% from the field and averaged 3.8 turnovers in the preseason. That’s the reality of being an NBA rookie; as coach James Borrego said of Ball, he doesn’t expect perfection, just development.
Ball is going to be really fun to watch, and will play a lot (I’m guessing he’ll average at least 25 minutes per game). His most creative assists will be on ESPN constantly, as they should be. He might end up Rookie of the Year. But I don’t know that he’ll have as much impact on the Hornets’ record this season as will Hayward, Devonte Graham, P.J. Washington or Terry Rozier.
2. What’s the deal with PJ Washington?
Borrego’s critique of power forward/center Washington was blunt Monday: “He’s got to play better. He’s got to be in better shape.”
Washington had a bad preseason, shooting 30% from the field and averaging three turnovers. Borrego also said Washington’s performance is of major consequence to this Hornets season: “If he’s not (good), we won’t be as good as we possibly can be. If he is, we’ve got a shot to be a really good team.”
It’s not typical for Borrego to call out individual players this directly. Washington is splitting time between power forward (where he started as a rookie) and center in a small-ball lineup. He’s being asked to handle the ball more, which is a factor in his turnovers.
Washington’s preseason was so good a year ago that he started his first regular-season game. This is the first time in the NBA he’s being criticized. How will he respond?
3. The Hornets’ biggest concern, based on the preseason?
Going into the preseason, it would have been rebounding; the Hornets were last in the NBA last season in defensive-rebounding percentage, and Charlotte didn’t really do anything to address that in the off-season.
Yet, they narrowly outrebounded opponents in the four preseason games, 56.5 per game to 55.8.
Instead, turnovers were the big concern -- they averaged 19.8. That might be predictable for a team so young, with two new ballhandlers and looking to speed the pace, but it can’t remain this epidemic.
Borrego said he expects the Hornets to average around 15 turnovers this season. He doesn’t want to stifle his players’ passing creativity, but he can’t live with careless, live-ball giveaways leading to constant easy opponent baskets.
4. How does the Charlotte rotation shake out?
The Hornets are dramatically deeper than they were last season. A second unit that includes Miles Bridges, Ball, Malik Monk, Cody Martin and a rapidly-improving Jalen McDaniels gives Borrego choices he didn’t have a year ago. Specifically, Bridges has a much better chance to thrive against second-unit power forwards than he did starting against small forwards. His energy defensively and explosion offensively is better served this way.
But getting deeper means managing growth. Borrego says he can live with playing 10 guys initially this regular season. But he’s going to trim that back to eight or nine eventually; it’s just not practical in the NBA to find minutes for 10 players on a regular basis.
I think that last rotation spot comes down to Martin’s defense vs. Monk’s talent and athleticism vs. McDaniels’ length. Some of that selection will be performance, some of it will be situational relative to opponents. Despite missing training camp with a positive COVID-19 test, I don’t think Monk will fall off the radar; as general manager Mitch Kupchak has said, Monk’s talent is too considerable to ignore.
There will be injuries, and potentially illnesses, that create opportunity for others. For the first time in his 2-plus seasons in Charlotte, Borrego has real options.
5. Is this an NBA playoff team?
They sure think so: Hayward and Bismack Biyombo have said this team should see a playoff spot as a realistic goal. Bridges offered the best quote of the preseason, with his exasperation over the no-playoffs streak.
“The Hornets, we haven’t been a good organization for a long time,” Bridges said. “Let’s be honest about it — everybody here, we’re tired of that.”
The Hornets improved this off-season. They already look better defensively (largely due to Bridges’ frenetic energy) and Ball and Hayward will keep raising the offense.
But the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards also improved, at the fringe of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.
If the Hornets play well enough to qualify for the play-in tournament, regardless of whether that gets them to one of the playoff slots in the East. I’d define that as success.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 11:11 AM.
