Surprised Jeremy Lamb is a Hornets starter? He kind of is, too

Jeremy Lamb won’t resent it if you’re surprised he won the starting shooting guard spot for the Charlotte Hornets.

“If my rookie year somebody had told me I’d be in the league six years later, seven years later, and have a chance to start, I wouldn’t have believed him,” Lamb said following practice Sunday.

Lamb had 31 starts in his 356 NBA game appearances prior to this season. It’s not unheard of for a player to first become a starter on a regular basis at 26, but it’s rare. Lamb’s career trajectory changed in the summer of 2017 when he went to work on his relative weakness - defense - with then-Hornets lead assistant Stephen Silas. He so impressed then-coach Steve Clifford that he became the Hornets’ top reserve.

New coach James Borrego moving Nic Batum from shooting guard to small forward opened a spot for a scorer. The competition for that spot was Lamb versus Malik Monk. Monk missed some practices in training camp with a pelvic contusion, and Lamb performed so consistently that he won the spot.

Borrego has said that while Lamb has a reputation first as a scorer-shooter, he was pleasantly surprised how good a passer Lamb is as well. In the team’s five preseason exhibitions, Lamb averaged 11.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and three assists.

Lamb spent his first three NBA seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He played only sporadically there, but he had a variety of mentors, including All-Stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who taught him how to be a pro.

“They all gave me a little bit of knowledge, and it turned out to be a whole lot of knowledge,” Lamb said. “Even after I got traded, they kept sending me text messages: ‘Good job, young fella. ...Keep working.’”

Ball sharing

One of Borrego’s key goals is raising the Hornets’ assists. They averaged 21.6 assists last season, which was 24th among 30 NBA teams. In the five exhibitions, they averaged 24.8 assists, which was 14th in the preseason rankings.

“Their willingness to trust each other offensively,” Borrego described. “Sometimes that takes a while for a team, and some teams never get it. Coaches can can demand it, coaches can preach it, coaches can show it, but some teams never buy into it. And I’ve seen a buy-in much earlier than I anticipated.”

Lamb said a big factor in that was how receptive the top players on this roster were to change.

“It’s contagious when the best players do it: Kemba, Batum, TP (Tony Parker), Marv (Williams).” Lamb said. “When they are unselfish, it trickles down on everybody else. Whether it was a rookie or a veteran, we passed the ball to them because we’ve got to trust everybody.”

Chealey’s path

Borrego saw a sense of calm in the way undrafted guard Joe Chealy plays that he sensed rubs off positively on others.

The Hornets brought roughly a dozen free agents - mostly players who went unselected in June’s NBA draft - to a mini-camp in July before selecting a summer-league roster. Chealey, a 6-foot-3 guard out of the College of Charleston, wasn’t even invited for the first couple of days of that mini-camp.

But he’s now the only one left: He survived summer league and Hornets training camp to be signed to a two-way contract with the Hornets.

That vibe Borrego referred to is Chealey choosing not to be distracted by things beyond his control, as in whether the Hornets had a roster spot available or the guards already on the roster.

“It’s not my job to worry about all that. It’s’ my job to be ready whenever they call,” said Chealey, who joins Xavier guard J.P. Macura as the Hornets’ designated two-way players. That means they are young, developmental guys who are likely to spend most of this season with the Hornets’ G-League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm.

Chealey, who grew up in Orlando, Fla, averaged 18 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in his final college season. He was in Charleston when the Hornets made the invitation halfway through an early-July minicamp.

“They called me at the last second asking how fast I could get to Charlotte. I got on the quickest flight, in about an hour,” Chealey said. “Just tried to get into practice, and pretty soon we were in Vegas. I’m thankful they called.”

Chealey played in three of the Hornets’ five preseason exhibitions, totaling about 18 minutes. In that brief span, he averaged 4.2 points and 1.2 assists. It was an adjustment for a guy who averaged 35 minutes per game as a college senior.

“It’s hard because you never know when you’re going to get your chance to play. Fortunately, I’ve got a good system around me: my family, my coaches back in Charleston,” said Chealey, who spent time at both guard spots.

“The way the game is being played now, you’ve got to be able to play multiple positions. - find your way onto the court in position-less basketball,” Chealey said. “I can run (teams as a point) or I can be a wing. Wherever they need me. I’m starting out as an extra body and I’ve got to play hard.”

As part of a wide makeover of the Hornets’ basketball operation, new general manager Mitch Kupchak hired former UNC star Joe Wolf as Swarm coach. Macura, who the Hornets signed shortly after draft night, and Chealey replace last season’s two-way players, Mangok Mathiang and Marcus Paige. Wolf began working with likely Swarm players at the end of Hornets practices about a week ago.

“It’s all one big organization, so you feel connected. It’s the same sets we’re running here,” Chealey said. “The Greensboro staff has been here. They are trying to make it as flat as possible, so that the transition can be seamless.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2018 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Surprised Jeremy Lamb is a Hornets starter? He kind of is, too."