Why Hornets coach Steve Clifford ‘probably the perfect guy’ to lead through rumors, injuries
In advance of their date with one of the top teams in the NBA, Steve Clifford didn’t leave any doubt about expectations, and precisely what he wanted to accomplish.
As the Charlotte Hornets play out the string and wrap up the remainder of their lost season, there’s still a certain protocol their coach is demanding.
And Clifford is not about to compromise.
“He was pretty much straightforward,” Kelly Oubre said. “like, ‘We have 11 games left, where we want to get to is unseeable right now. So, it’s easy to kind of fall under the eight ball and get lackluster with the preparation for the games and the competition. We have to focus our vision on where we want to be.’
“He pretty much said, ‘Keep your eyes on the future and don’t necessarily worry about where you’re at right now, because everything will change, and when it does, if you didn’t put the proper work in for that moment, then you won’t be ready.’”
Sounds like sage advice from a 61-year-old who’s been around the block once or twice, and a guy who is keenly aware of the perils of a team devoid of anything to actually play for other than pride. It’s a message Clifford likely has to constantly reiterate, considering how undermanned Charlotte is without star point guard LaMelo Ball, as evidenced by the Hornets’ 121-82 loss to Philadelphia at Spectrum Center on Friday night.
Immersed in a season that’s unraveled like a ball of yarn in part thanks to an unconscionable amount of injuries, the Hornets (22-50) hung with the 76ers for about a quarter and a half before succumbing to Philadelphia and MVP candidate Joel Embiid.
With so much flying around the Hornets, it takes a typist with the skills of a stenographer to keep track of it all. Things took another wild turn Thursday night with the report that owner Michael Jordan is in talks to sell a majority stake in the franchise he purchased from Bob Johnson for about $187 million in 2010.
Navigating a landscape ruined by injuries is tough enough, but factor in a potential ownership change, and it cranks the stomach knots and deep sighs up a few notches.
Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers believes the Hornets have the right guy at the helm. Rivers knows a thing or two about what Clifford is dealing with, given Rivers was coaching the L.A. Clippers when they transitioned from Donald Sterling to new owner Steve Ballmer after Sterling was banned by the NBA for life for racist comments.
In a sense, Rivers said, Clifford is built for this, and can help turn it around.
“He’s a vet,” Rivers said. “And it just seems like there’s so much going on — injuries, trades, now ownership talk — he’s probably the perfect guy if you can name a guy. And I couldn’t imagine a better guy. Calm, has a great discipline about him.
“I’ve been through that. That’s no fun. I can tell you that. There’s still a lot ahead if all these rumors are true. So, there’s just a lot of moving parts when all that stuff happens. It’s not easy.”
Clifford is still emotionally involved, showing little signs of being overly burdened by the Hornets’ difficult circumstances. He got whistled for a technical foul by referee Nate Green in the third quarter against the 76ers (47-22) with Charlotte in a 24-point hole, trying to vouch for his guys.
There’s little doubt Clifford was, and is, heeding his own edict.
“I want us to compete hard,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to look at it, but we’re going to need to have a great offseason. When you don’t make the playoffs, the offseason is really long. There’s a big difference between (playing in) the first round and how your offseason sets up if you don’t make it.
“I told them (Thursday), just my experiences are that when you don’t make the playoffs, they’re going to be sitting there at the end of April saying, ‘I wish I had a game tonight.’ They will. It’ll be end of April and we’re going to have been done for two or three weeks.”
Which is why Clifford is imploring the Hornets to finish strong. They’re essentially locked into posting the league’s fourth-worst record, giving them a 12.5% chance — 1.5% less than the bottom three teams — to land the No. 1 overall selection in the June draft, and there’s not a whole lot they can do to improve their odds of potentially landing French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
But that’s not Clifford’s focus. Playing with intensity over the next three weeks is. Compromising that is not an option.
“Our effort has been, in my opinion, the biggest part of this team this year,” Clifford said. “Handling the adversity, the injuries, playing shorthanded night after night, especially from guys like Terry (Rozier), the effort has been great. And every time it seems like we’ve gotten to a place where it seems like we have some momentum, playing well really with Melo at both ends of the floor, he goes down. That was a big hit.
“I want us to try to play to win. We’re doing a lot of individual messaging with guys about what they can concentrate on. I don’t want to just play it out. I don’t want to do that. I don’t think that’s smart to do.”
Neither, apparently, is attempting to trick your players. Clifford joked there’s only one way to ensure morale remains high even if the Hornets don’t rattle off as many victories as he’d like over their final 10 outings.
“Say, ‘Please,’ ‘Would you,’ ‘I appreciate it,”” Clifford said. “It’s the NBA. That’s basically how it is. It always makes me feel better when you do stuff like this. There’s an old saying in college that the players walk in the gym, and look at each other, and say what kind of mood is he in today? In this league, you walk in and look at the assistants and say, what kind of mood are they in today?
“That’s the difference between college and the NBA.”
