Hornets Insider: The Observer goes one-on-one with Charlotte coach Steve Clifford
Although the Charlotte Hornets are just hitting the midpoint of their season, it certainly doesn’t feel like it.
Not when the days seem more like weeks at times, and those weeks feel akin to months, a sensation conjured up while constantly waiting for their best players to return. Ranking fourth in the league with 132 games lost to injury this season — mostly spread out among LaMelo Ball, Gordon Hayward, Terry Rozier, Cody Martin, Dennis Smith Jr. and Kelly Oubre — is partially why the Hornets (11-29) have struggled.
Their projected starting unit didn’t log its first home game together until Dec. 29 and has been intact for only six outings, once again derailed by Hayward’s latest injury. Maintaining a semblance of regularity is an arduous task these days for coach Steve Clifford.
“It’s definitely been challenging,” he told The Charlotte Observer. “But I’m proud of the way the guys have hung in there. We’ve had, obviously, more than our share of injuries, which has made it difficult to really build a continuity with playing groups and establishing a way that we want to play.
“But the effort has been good. We have Cody back now, we have Dennis back now. We’re hoping that we’ll have Gordon back in the next few days, and then try to build in a way where we can be competitive against any team any night.”
The assorted ailments have made it more difficult to completely assess the Hornets’ roster at full strength, an issue that’s further complicated with Oubre’s hand surgery on Thursday and Hayward’s left hamstring soreness.
But there are a few problems that have cropped up regardless of the lineup combinations, and how the Hornets handle them will have a large impact on the second half of their season and determine whether they can keep from hovering near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
“One of the bigger parts of a coaching staff is to evaluate your team every night,” Clifford said, “and that really determines, for instance, roles, what your offense is going to look like, what your defense is going to look like. And for sure it does make it harder when you have as many injuries as we’ve had. What we have to be able to do here — and I feel confident we can do it — we have to be more consistent with some of the things that allow you to play well every night.”
He pointed to the lapses in getting back to prevent easy buckets on too many occasions.
“Like our transition defense,” Clifford said, “which was really good the first 20 games of the year and is a bigger part of the NBA now than it was, say, even seven or eight years ago, it hasn’t been as good the last 18 or 19 games. And we need to get back to that. It’s the same thing. We have to have a way to play in which we can be consistent.”
Clifford spoke to The Observer about a number of topics surrounding the Hornets’ play as they hit the halfway mark of their season, including the biggest surprise, managing three centers and reflecting on the first six months of his second stint with the franchise.
Roderick Boone: What has been the biggest surprise?
Steve Clifford: I would say that the one thing I’ve been pleased with is we’ve been able to play — offense has obviously been a struggle — but we’ve been very much inside-out, which is critical every year. Teams that play in a way where the ball is hitting the paint, it’s a big part of being good on offense. And that part we’ve actually done a good job. And the next piece now — and this will come more so once everybody gets back — is we haven’t shot the ball very well. And that to me is obviously a key, key part of this.
As guys get back and I think especially as we got Melo back and then we get Gordon back, we have more of the guys that we play through every night, that we can play though more consistently, (including) Terry. I think that’s a big part of this next stretch, is we’ve got to shoot the ball better.
Q: What concerns you most that you have to correct to be a better team in the second half of the season?
A: I think the one thing is no matter who’s playing, we’ve got to get to the point where we can defend more consistently. You look at these guys (Milwaukee) and they’ve played a big part of the year without Khris Middleton, who’s obviously terrific. But what they’ve established over the years, they are third or fourth in defense and so they are winning with their defense. That’s what I’m hopeful that we can get to also.
Q: With Mark Williams in the rotation now, you have three centers you have to juggle with Mason Plumlee and Nick Richards also in the mix for playing time. How do you determine who plays moving forward with Richards healed up?
A: No question, those are the decisions that we will have to make going forward here. Nick has played well, and he does deserve to play. Mark has played really well here in this stretch and yet I don’t want to get away from Nick playing also. So, those are things we have to figure out, and it’s a good problem. I think they are both younger developing players that have bright futures and your playing groups change a lot depending on situations. But we do have to figure that out because I do want both of them to get a lot out of the year.
Q: Since you were brought here to get the team to the next level, how do you balance developing for the future with winning right now?
A: There is no crystal ball. I’ve been doing this for a long time, but that’s where you’ve got to watch closely, evaluate as much as you can. Obviously, I talk to (GM) Mitch (Kupchak) daily and Buzz (Peterson, the assistant GM and senior VP of basketball operations). But we need to do both. We need to win and develop these young guys. And definitely this is really a different roster than what we thought it would be, particularly when I first got here.
But at the end of the day being adaptable as a coach is a big deal, and you want to be the right coach for the team that you are coaching. And so this isn’t a time to start to reflect back on ‘What if, what if, what if?’ It’s, ‘What’s the best thing we can do today to get ready to play tonight?’ And that’s where I have liked this group. They’ve hung in there. They’re doing the work, they badly want to win and that’s why I feel good about what we can become here as we get these guys back.
Q: What’s the vibe been like with the players after some of the tough losses, especially knowing they can be better than what they’ve shown so far?
A: I do think it’s hard. Listen, I’m a big sports fan and I know how I’m frustrated when my favorite teams don’t play well or don’t win. So, I think that fans being disappointed is all fair and part of this. But I do also know that everybody doesn’t get to see the players after the game or in practice or whatever to truly know how much they do care and how much they do put in it.
Q: Théo Maledon and Bryce McGowens are on two-way contracts and have played more than anticipated, so you guys could be facing a roster decision soon. How are you managing their development in Greensboro with being on the main roster moving forward?
A: I think Mitch and Buzz do a great job of organizing to get the guys so that they are both with us, and they know exactly what we are doing, and get some time in Greensboro so they can be on the court. It’s important that they get minutes, and with Théo’s situation and Bryce, look they’ve played a lot more NBA minutes than we previously thought they would.
And it’s great for them, but also as guys come back we have to balance to make sure that they are getting time with us. I think that’s critical, so they are on top of what we are doing here, but that they get time in Greensboro where they can get on the court and play a lot.
Q: What have these last six months been like and how much do you want to get this team and franchise to the next level?
A: I love it here, and I loved it the first time. My vision is to be the head coach with this group and get back to the way it used to be. I remember being with the (New York) Knicks and scouting here and playoff series … Charlotte is a great sports city and what we have to do is the same thing I said the first time I was here. We have to give them a product where they are excited to come and see us play. And I thought the first time I was here, we were right there.
We had a 48-win season, we had a really good chance to win a playoff series against Miami. We came up short and then things happen, right? We had a lot of free agents, we lost some guys and we were never able to take that next step. And so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to do that this year. If we had our whole roster, I really believe we’d be a top four or five team in the East with everybody.
As a coach, though, just having done this for a long time, it’s not always the way that you want it to be, and you have to try to be the right coach for your team every day. You have to. So that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s got to be about getting better, about making progress. I think we have to be firm and demanding, not over reactionary. We don’t have a lot of room for error, and I think the guys understand that.
And this is where I’m disappointed in myself. We could be better, I think, particularly at the defensive end of the floor and a lot of that is why I was brought back. We do it at times. We got off to a good start and we haven’t made progress. What I’m looking for in this next, whatever it is, 40-something games, is that we do turn it around and we just play better with more consistency.
This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
