The Charlotte Hornets Still Aren’t Ready

The Charlotte Hornets Still Aren’t Ready

So NBA preseason is underway and one of the games that stood out to me was the OKC Thunder taking on the Charlotte Hornets on October 5th. Despite half of OKC starting roster being unavailable, there were still many factors I was curious about, more so with Charlotte. What would the Hornets offense look like now that they’re fully healthy? How focused will they be on the defensive end? How would the rookies fair on the court as Kppo, Ryan Kulk, Brener, Nicole Topic, they were all destined to play big minutes? I’d say the majority of these questions were answered, but if I’m being honest, they didn’t leave me with much satisfaction, especially with Charlotte. Not saying the Hornets were terrible, as there were flashes of quality play. However, what bothered me the most was the amount of missed opportunities Charlotte displayed on both sides of the floor. Numerous situations that could have led to positive results had the execution been much better or if there was just more awareness. Let’s first start off with the offensive side of the ball, as this was where it first caught my eye. From the get-go, the Hornets made sure to put an emphasis on screen actions. Almost every play included the screen, whether it was from a big or a guard, and it was for the sole intention of moving guys around and finding mismatches. It’s quite different from the standard pick and roll scheme, since most of the screens being executed were ghost screens, as the ones setting the pick would immediately slip to get past his defender, so that once he retrieves the pass, he’ll have a lot more room to work with. Some of these sets were pretty successful, as it created open looks and caused OKC to work on their rotations. However, not every one of these scenarios were carried out like they were supposed to. And this is where my biggest gripe comes in. While these play calls do provide a nicer flow to the offense, the Hornets players lack the ability to recognize what’s being executed. Whether it’s performing one more step to finish the play or an alternative opportunity presenting itself, the Hornets aren’t on the same page when confronted by these scenarios. As Ston gives the ball to man, Charlotte performs a double drag action. Usman Jane gets caught up in the screens and Carlson isn’t too deep with his drop coverage. This defensive lapse should have been the perfect opportunity for a pull-up three as there was more than enough space. Instead, Trey elects to give it back to Ston who spins his way into tight coverage, turning the ball over. In this play, Miller calls for a Diabate pick. And in the midst of this, Stexton sets a pick as well. Because Ston realized Topic had his back towards the play, his screen would have neutralized both Topic and Jay Will with the right lane being wide open. All that was required was for Miller to see this and drive to the right. Instead, Miller resorts to the pullup and despite Kong getting the offensive board, it was a missed opportunity. A similar play occurred here as Young Blood was trailing Ston but couldn’t switch on to Miller on time due to Barnheiser’s late communication. Seeing this, Jwell decides to help by fronting on the pick and roll, which leads to Barnheiser picking up the rolling Kulk Brener. This led to two defenders on Miller, but for some reason, the third-year guard decided to shoot over both of them. If we look at the play again, Ston was wide open and Miller missed an opportunity to pass to his open teammate. Now, I’m not saying a catch and shoot was available because usually in these scenarios, guys and Barnheiser’s position would have rotated all the way to the perimeter to contest. However, given the fact Barnheiser tried to slow down a huge center and had to immediately rush to the perimeter if the pass was made, a simple pump fake would have sent him flying around and either Sexton would have drawn some fouls or Trey man gets an easy look in the corner. As these examples have shown, there is potential for this offense to grow into a respectable force. All that’s required is one more read to put it into effect. And that’s why it left me feeling kind of frustrated because it felt like the players were in some sort of rush, almost like they had tunnel vision, but for offensive sets. They were just so determined to get one action going yet couldn’t see any other options that were available. I get that Charlotte tried to quicken the pace, but it sometimes worked against them because of OKC’s timely contests and Charlotte’s inability to switch to a second play design. I do want to clarify though that this is a Hornets team that has dealt with an incredible amount of injuries in the past. So, it’s not really surprising that everyone is struggling to fit in. Not to mention the fact that the Hornets offense is much improved in terms of creating looks this early is promising. Bridges has shown he can be a threat when performing ghost screens. Khan was the beneficiary of the constant movement as he had some open threes and you can always count on LaMelo to about some crazy passes. So add the possibility of fixing the aforementioned flaws while gaining more reps and you got yourself a potentially explosive offense. One final thing to note before we switch to the topics is the shot chart from the first half. And to me there is a little bit of concern. As you can see, Charlotte either wanted to let it fly from distance or force it inside, which is nice, but there’s barely any mid-range variety. It’s not like it’s the worst thing in the world as in theory Charlotte has the personnel to make this mix of three-pointers and paint touches work. Diabate and ston are underrated drivers and slashers towards the rim and the perimeter shot making of Bridges Man and Canpple is something to look forward to. Even with all of that, there’s always the chance the team could be cold from behind the ark or that their drives are unsuccessful because of an elite rim protector. You always need a mid-range game in your arsenal. But maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe Brandon Miller could fill in that void easily or maybe they just don’t need midies at all. It’s just something that stood out to me and it’s going to be something that I’ll keep an eye on later on. Now, as for the defense, how did they look? Because this is also something that they need to improve on as they kept leaving opposing players open and they ranked 24th in defensive rating this past season. And my answer is, man, you could argue that it was worse than the offensive execution at times. Now, it wasn’t completely terrible in terms of energy and spirit. I loved it. guys were guarding up front and utilized their wingspan to force turnovers. Sometimes OKC had a tough time executing their pick and rolls because of Charlotte’s hedging and stunting. Plus, there were a few times where OKC occasionally got bailed out by tough shotmaking from Usman Jen and Aaron Wiggins because the defense applied nice pressure. Unfortunately, that’s about as much praise as I can give them because they were so unbelievably bad with their communication. OKC is a team that does a ton of offball movement. It’s one of their keys to success. Doesn’t matter who’s playing, they would always find an opportunity to cut around sleeping defenders. Especially Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins. Those two are deadly. And Jaylen Williams is super super underrated as a playmaker out of the post. If you look at OKC shot chart in the first half, they absolutely feasted inside along with nailing nine threes. LaMelo Ball was constantly getting abused. Bridges will be late on telling guys where to go. Miscommunications were happening on almost every possession. This was one of the worst ones as Young Bloodood and Jay Will perform a quick dribble handoff. And while Diabate is defending the drive, Miller and Bridges are both stuck in similar spots. When Young Bloodood looks up, both Hornets assume they’re guarding the corner and Jen becomes the open man, primed for a dunk before being blocked by Diabate. Here, Topic sets a screen for a young blood cut, but Khan does a good job denying that initial look. Barnheiser then passes to Topic who gets a step ahead of the trailing LaMelo. Because LaMelo couldn’t keep up with Topic, Diabate has to provide help, which leaves an open J will. Thankfully for Charlotte, the pass wasn’t good, otherwise it would have been an easy three, but OKC still scores with Young Blood able to blow by Miller for a layup. This is something I would practice on a lot if I was Charlotte because all of the elite teams do these cuts and offball movement in their sleep. You look at OKC, Indiana, Houston, all of them have schemes or players that specialize in this skill set. Plus, your best player is not known as the best defender and he’s going to be targeted a good amount as this game was a prime example. So, the defense is still another issue the Hornets need to keep improving on. But even with all of those flaws, there is a slight glimmer of hope, which is the potential of second round pick Ryan Kulk Brener. The rookie out of Kraton is the typical rolling back to the basket type big. And despite not having much of an offensive skill set, his height and reach give him opportunities to be an efficient finisher near the rim. This 7 foot one stature also gives him a shot blocking presence. And there were moments where Kulkrunner thwarted some of the Thunder players drives. Here is the best example as Barnheiser gets the screen and he senses LaMelo closing in. So he extends his elbow to create space. LaMelo attempts to draw an offensive foul which isn’t cold and that leaves Ko Brener with an OKC player driving in. However, Quak Brener does a great job pushing off of his left foot to get in blocking position. And with his long height and wingspan, the easy attempt turned into an impossible shot, which leads to a kick out three in the corner. Despite deterring shots at the rim, Kulkbrunner has a couple of conundrums to his game, mainly his mobility. He isn’t the fastest or most agile, something that can be quite worrisome if he gets matched up against fast-paced squads. Furthermore, his positioning against bigs that stretched to four was sluggish and OKC kept capitalizing on these mistakes, particularly Jaylen Williams. Kulk Brener was always late to close out on Jwell’s three-point attempts in the third quarter, and that led to the start of OKC pulling away with the victory. I guess all of this really does emphasize the fact that he is a true old school big, as these are the exact problems players in that specific archetype had to deal with. In spite of that, it’s worth mentioning that no rookie is ever perfect out of the gate, and this was his first game against serious lineups. I can see the vision with Kulk Brener heading forward though, and with more proper development, we could be looking at a rotational piece with a Luke Cornet type of ceiling, which is very crucial considering Charlotte’s previous picks and Mark Williams and Nick Richards didn’t pan out the way they hoped. One last thing before we end the video, though, was Nicola Topic’s performance, and it was a tale of two sides. At least that’s how I think the saying goes. On one hand, you could see the playmaking talent. A couple of his passes left me impressed. In addition, he is confident and not afraid to test his shooting despite missing an entire year of play. On the other hand, he was abysmal defensively. I was harping on the Hornets defense not being good. Topic was right up there. It got really bad on a couple of possessions as Charlotte kept targeting him in screen actions and Isaiah Joe had to make up for the rookie errors. It got to the point where Jay Will was really frustrated and demanded better play, which if you know Jay Will, that doesn’t really happen a lot. He’s a great guy. He has a bubbly personality and is one of the main communicators on the defensive end. So, if he calls you out, chances are you probably messed up. This strategy of targeting Topic helped the Hornets chip away at the lead until coach Dageno decided to sub Topic out and OKC regain control. Again, similar to Koch Brener, I’m not assuming the negative stuff is who Topic is going to be, as I know with more practice and familiarity, these problems should pop up less. However, at the time of this recording, it is reported that he will miss a significant amount of time due to an injury around his privates. Not only is it unlucky timing, it’s a pretty scary injury to have. So, I wish him all the best. I hope his recovery is fast and hope we see him back on the court soon. So, yeah, those are my takeaways. And by the way, shout out Chris Young Bloodood. He was another one of the rookies that got major playing time and he was amazing. He ended up with 20 points, hitting five of his eight three-point attempts. And not only was he sniping, he got some nice layups as well. You could say that out of all the rookies in that game, he was the best one, which is beneficial for him considering he went undrafted. So yeah, not only is he hooping, he has one of the coolest last names in history. Like imagine being called Mr. Young Blood. I mean, that last name could very well be your nickname. That that’s tough in my opinion. But yeah, that concludes this video. Thank you so much for watching. Uh let me know your thoughts, what you thought of this game or preseason, and I’ll see you next time. [Music]

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The Hornets took on the OKC Thunder’s back-ups in a preseason game, and I liked it. Here are my thoughts, as it’s clear the Hornets need more time to get everything going properly.