Zach Lowe on Hornets: “37 win ceiling, no startable NBA center and a guaranteed bottom 8 defense”

14 comments

1. 37 wins got some rose-colored glasses and stars in the eyes

2. Hard to disagree with anything he says here unfortunately. There’s no strong rebuttal to any of it barring a trade for a legit starting center

3. Pretty reasonable. Gonna have to prove Kalk has what it takes at the nba level consistently and we need the team to be fully healthy for the first time in a long time to even judge.

4. Should’ve drafted Clingan last year

5. yeah it’s easily one of the worst frontcourts in the league. think the draft made a whole lot of sense and we have a ressamblance of a longterm vision that’s somewhat fun to think about, but the bigs being so bad feels an intentional way to sneakly tank our ceilling for one more (maybe last?) year.

6. 37 wins and play-ins would be the dream for this current roster

7. I dont think we are guaranteed a bottom 8 defense. We were 7th worst defense last year and whoever we put on the court at center is going to be better on that end than Mark was last year. We can all agree whether its using your eyes or looking at metrics that Mark was a horrible defender who got bullied despite his length and size. 

8. Yeah he’s exactly right about this. Until we get a legit NBA caliber center (and honestly a defensive stopper at the wing spot) I don’t see us getting over 37 wins. But like he said, we should be interesting.

9. I always say this, but… Clingan was RIGHT THERE.

   The silver lining here is that the Hornets can get to the play-in in the East with a 37 win ceiling.

10. 37 wins would be a huge win and I agree it’s the Hornets ceiling for this year. More realistically this team will struggle to beat most teams and win 23-27 games this season.

11. The 37 wins thing I disagree with. We had 43 wins in 21/22, LaMelo’s sophomore season. I think this team could be better than that team was.

    The thing is, LaMelo was generally healthy that season. So the big variable is his health. If he plays a lot this season I could see 43 or even 45 wins, being slightly better than what we did recently accomplish.]

    In a situation where LaMelo plays 19 games and BMill, Miles, all the rookies have to step up then yeah I do agree that 37 wins is a moonshot. But if LaMelo is healthy, 43 wins is the floor imo.

12. Our best guard defender is,,, Tre Mann? Sexton? Our best wing defender is Josh Green, our second best is… Miles? Our defence is cooked

13. A center will not solve our problems lol. 2 in the league are an issue (focal point) and 1 of them is always hurt.

    Health. A healthy squad guarantees us 40+ wins, since were speaking in absolutes

    Far worse roster did it a few years back

14. The team would need to stay very, very healthy and have multiple things go right to a thoroughly unreasonable degree to be at 37-45.

    Bottom eight defense simply isn’t happening, it’ll be more like bottom two.