Hornets’ Steve Clifford on Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball and more
Dressed in a sweatsuit punctuated with a crisp white hoodie emblazoned with teal letters spelling out Charlotte Hornets, Steve Clifford lowers himself into a plush chair inside his spacious office.
The Hornets’ 62-year-old coach is taking a short break, only back downstairs briefly after overseeing the optional work that has the Novant Health Training Center buzzing with activity on this early fall morning. It’s a little different for Clifford this year, mostly because he didn’t have to play catch-up throughout the summer like he did leading into last season when he got hired just after the 2022 NBA Draft.
He’s had a full calendar and then some with this group and believes he has a really good pulse on the Hornets’ heartbeat. It puts him in a good mood as he looks ahead to the second season of his second stint with the franchise alongside team president/GM Mitch Kupchak.
“I feel really optimistic,” Clifford told The Observer. “I think continuity is what you make of it, but hopefully the continuity piece will be real positive for all of us. The one thing with Mitch, I had a comfort level with him before because I had worked with him in L.A. So, I already had a relationship and he helps me tremendously.
“But I know the players now, our staff knows the players. We have almost the same staff. I think that’s good for the players. A lot of what we will do will be similar to last year so they will not be starting everything from scratch. I think all of those things are important.”
As is having players driven by the previous disappointments. Clifford raved about the number of guys — a figure that crept up to as many as 13 — that were a part of the optional workouts in September. The sessions were partially organized by veterans Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward, making the coaching staff’s lives that much easier.
“Terry, Gordon, they were great,” Clifford said. “They kind of set the whole thing up. When we do the drills — because you are limited to what you can do — they are the first guys in. So, I really feel like we got a lot out of September.”
Same goes for those offseason film sessions of Clifford and his staff. He assigned specific areas for his coaches to lock into and improve.
And chief among them? Increasing possession productivity.
“We want to run,” Clifford said. “This team was built to run, and so last year we actually did a good job in terms of our pace, getting the ball up and down the floor. But we were inefficient in the first eight seconds of the clock.”
Clifford briefly pauses to reach for a binder chock full of pertinent information gathered from those tedious game-film breakdowns. He flips through a stack of pages thick enough to make a doctoral dissertation look like a handwritten love note.
Within mere seconds, he comes across the data that he’s already familiar with. This is just a refresher to make sure he has the figures exact and correct.
“We were eighth in transition opportunities,” Clifford said. “Obviously, you are playing with pace, but we were 27th in efficiency. So, from watching that a lot of it is sometimes we weren’t good with our early spacing. Sometimes we weren’t good with our decision-making at the basket. So, then that leads to how do you fix it, how do you change it?
“The same thing is true, for instance, playing inside-out. Paint-touch possessions in our league are a big deal. So, we were actually sixth in the league last year in paint touches before we shot, which is a big indicator of efficient offense. But we were 27th in efficiency. So those are the things that you start with.”
Clifford spoke exclusively with The Observer about who’s impressed him most during recent workouts, the next step in LaMelo Ball’s growth, Miles Bridges’ return, Brandon Miller’s versatility, plus his thoughts on the new ownership group led by Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin and more.
Roderick Boone: With Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward, how much do you sense they’re driven to get this going in the right direction as opposed to what’s happened the last few years?
Steve Clifford: Yeah, 100%. I think for both of those guys is they are the two guys that have played in big playoff series. They’ve experienced it. They know that’s the fun of it. They’ve always had good reputations of being team-first guys anyway. But I do think that as you become older you appreciate it more and you realize how hard it is and how well you have to play and prepare.
In the pickup games upstairs, they’ve been the two best players so far, the two most consistent. They are both in really good shape and they are both in a really good place mentally, So I think the two of them have set a great tone.
RB: What have you seen from Miles and how much do you sense he’s motivated to come out and have a big season?
SC: I’ve been surprised because when you don’t play … these guys play so much and you have to go, whatever, a year without playing any five-on-five just because of the situation. I thought he’d be a lot further behind, But he’s obviously spent a lot of time in the gym. You can see it when he works out.
I think his individual skills and stuff are good and he’s on it, but also playing. He was in a lot better shape and everything. So, he’s already getting back to where he was. And we still have training camp and then we have to have a good plan for him through the first 10 games. But he’s put himself in a good spot.
RB: What are your thoughts on Brandon Miller and his versatility allowing you to play him in different positions. How do you think he can help this team?
SC: They like playing with him already just because to me it’s his decision-making. To me, everything makes sense when you watch him. And he can really shoot. But he can really pass. He knows how to play without the ball. He’s been coached. He plays in a way that helps his teammates play better. So, even in pickup games, the ball moves quickly. He knows who he’s on the floor with, where they want the ball and he’s a very quick learner.
So, he’s also coming off the mono. His summer league, he wasn’t quite back to full strength. He’s done a good job in the weight room. He’s gained a lot of that weight back and you can tell he’s getting more and more confident here as we get through September.
RB: What do you think is his strength? Is it shooting guard, small forward, a little stretch power forward?
SC: I would say the strength — and this is so critical in our league now — is that he can play all three, because we are all playing more interchangeable guys, So we have a bunch of guys that are like that. Gordon is like that. Brandon’s like that, PJ (Washington) is like that. Miles can play different positions. Cody (Martin) can play different positions. Frank Ntilikina can play different positions. So, it’s a big part of this now.
And the other part with Brandon is, really the first year it’s hard defensively. But again, he played in the system where they all defended. There were great demands put on them defensively, So, I think that he won’t be able to just play well offensively, but I think the defensive part is going to come quickly to him, too.
RB: You mentioned Frank Ntilikina. I’m guessing how he fits in and what you are going to do at backup point guard behind LaMelo is one of the questions you will have to answer in camp. How will you go about figuring that out?
SC: There’s a lot of ways it can go. We have other guys and obviously we have Terry. You always have things going into camp that you have to figure out and that will be one of them.
RB: How is Cody Martin health-wise now, how much did you miss his presence last season and how much are you looking forward to getting him out there?
SC: Yeah, look guys like him, there’s just not many of them. Tough-minded, very smart player, plays well at both ends of the floor. He’s a winning-type player. He’s a throwback. He’s got great toughness and his teammates love him when he’s on the floor. So, obviously we miss him, we missed him last year.
He’s worked really hard all summer to get ready, and I think he does feel a lot better about where he’s at right now. We just have to be smart because he’s had a couple times where he felt good and then we’d have a setback. So, we’ve got a great performance staff here and they are all over it and we just hope for the best.
RB: What’s the next step for LaMelo to help get the team where you want it to go?
SC: See, I think it’s continued improvement defensively, which he improved a lot last year. And then as much as anything offensively, it’s continue to work on his pick-and-roll game. He can be a great, great pick-and-roll player. We want to get him involved in more pick-and-rolls with different combinations. Not just with centers. With the other perimeter players also. He’s terrific anyway, but that can get his game to the next level.
RB: What is the main thing you want to accomplish in training camp?
SC: Just by the time we start the season, we are all on the same page about how we need to play. To me, that’s what camp is all about. Guys need to get in game condition, they have to get their intensity fight, they have to get their concentration level right. And then, hopefully, what that leads to is a team game so when you start it doesn’t take four games before you are organized.
It’s different now. It’s shorter. We only play four games. When we played eight it was so much easier. But so much of that I feel good about that because it gets back to how hard they’ll work, how well they’ll practice. And we have a good work team, we have a good practice group, a good work group and I feel good about what we can do before we start.
RB: When you look at your roster and see the interchangeable parts and increased depth on the wing in the front court, what are your thoughts on how you guys shape up?
SC: The thing about the injuries when it’s only five guys (on the floor), it’s the amount of injuries. And the bigger part of basketball, with only five guys, is who’s injured. You need to have depth in this league, I feel good about our depth, too. You can’t lose your best players, that’s any team.
So, I think guys have worked hard, they’ve been good with our performance staff if they’ve had rehab staying on top of their treatment. They’ve been great in the weight room and they’ve gotten their stuff done on the court. So that’s all you can do. Last year was hard because we didn’t have a bunch of small injuries. And there’s nothing that you can do about that.
It can happen in practice, it can happen (in games.). But our guys had significant injuries and it’s just part of this league. I believe two years ago we were third in games missed (healthcare and performance director) Joe (Sharpe) was telling me and then last year we were like 28th. But again, this wasn’t a bunch of pulled muscles. There’s nothing you can do about those injuries in pro sports.
RB: How impressed are you with the small sample size you had with Mark Williams starting at the tail end of the season, and what are you expecting from him in his second season?
SC: He made a real positive impact on our team when he started playing more. But a lot went into that. One, he started the season as the third center and he went to Greensboro and played great. Great attitude, played well. When he was here, he practiced well. He got better and better and better, and when he got his chance he took full advantage of it.
When he got a chance to start after we made the trade (sending Mason Plumlee to the LA Clippers), he took advantage of that. He had what I would call a minor setback. He had hurt his thumb late in the year. He had to have a procedure, but with that he was still able to do things. So, it wasn’t obviously the summer he had hoped for, but he had a really good summer.
He’s cleared now, he’s on the court, he’s playing five-on-five and he has a very, very bright future.
RB: We haven’t spoken to you since the ownership change. What’s it been like working with them?
SC: They’ve been great. Obviously, they’ve been here. I think they are getting to know everybody in all areas of the organization and evaluate everybody, watch things closely. They’ve been very involved in trying to find ways where they can make things better for the players, and so I think it’s been positive. And we are off to a good start.
This story was originally published October 1, 2023 at 8:30 AM.
