Hornets vs Timberwolves: Coach Charles Lee Postgame Media Availability | 11/1/2025

Hornets vs Timberwolves: Coach Charles Lee Postgame Media Availability | 11/1/2025

Yeah, that’s a interesting tale of two halves. Like seriously, um phenomenal attention to detail, defensive intensity, competitiveness, and those f the first half, like two 25point quarters. Um I thought we were really locked in into the Randall game plan and um Reed off the bench and um all the other things that they do as a team, and I thought that we took it away. I also thought we had some pretty good like offensive possessions and being able to play with pace and the pass heads and pass acrosses and then felt like in the third quarter we started that third quarter with um a couple turnovers and then a couple like offensive there was an offensive rebound for Go Bear and we’re just standing next to them. Um a couple transition baskets that I think that like we could have done a better job of crashing and or sprinting back. Uh you can’t just be in no man’s land doing nothing. And then that Dvenenzo stint I feel like really kind of um hurt us too and just kind of falling asleep on some hot guys. But for the most part like decent um decent defensive effort in the second half which is not good enough and when you play a good team you have to be able to put together four good quarters or they make you pay. Um and then I also just thought offensively in like that third quarter ball just got sticky again and it’s like how do we just keep it moving? How do we keep screening and rolling and doing the things that we do to to build the lead that we had? Starting unit wise, you went with three rookies last game. Tonight you went with um Colin and Melo in the back court a little bit again. What are you seeing with that tandem and why did you decide to go with those guys as opposed to Siana and LaMelo in the back court tonight? Yeah, I like uh you know sometimes it’s a defensive thing, but other other times offensively it’s nice when you have two good ball handlers out there, two good primary ball handlers where they can pass ahead, pass across, gives our our second unit a little more balance, get one of them out um early and then come back with them to be able to play with Trey again. So, um, there there’s a little bit of a thought process or a mad scientist approach to it, but I think it helps our team, uh, with a little bit of the balance of, uh, the first unit kind of second unit stuff. You talked about a tale of two halves, Seion, he draws two fouls on illegal screens by just being in the right spot. LaMelo ball, he also draws an offensive foul on someone else. Could you talk about physicality, not only being how much you’re on someone on ball, but just being in the right spot and beating other people to there? No, for sure. and and a lot of being able to beat people to a spot is uh your understanding of like what are they trying to run, what are they trying to accomplish, what are player tendencies. And so um I I do think the physicality is is important. Like you got to be willing to kind of mix it up and and grapple a little bit. Um especially how much they’re going to allow you to to push right up to the envelope of not committing a foul. And I think those guys did a good job. And you know, whether it’s offensive fouls or taking charges, you got to be able to put your body on the line a little bit in an effort to try to stop the other team. LaMelo Ball got to the line for the first time in almost nine quarters tonight in the fourth quarter. With his game specific, what I guess how do you think he can draw more contact and get to the line more? It’s a great question that I will not touch. Um, we’ve talked you’ve talked a lot about physicality, especially these last few games. I know there’s obviously a physical component to it in terms of size and getting bigger. How do you go about teaching that as a skill set and playing through physicality, whether it’s offensively or defensively? Okay. So, defensively, number one, uh, you know, I want our guys to continue to, especially like number one in a a one-on-one situation. Can we close the gap a little bit more? Uh, you know, there’s still a couple possessions where, um, you can tell they’re passers. They’re sitting there, they’re triple threat, they’re out near half court, they’re probably running some offball action behind you. Get into the ball. I think that’s one area of physicality that you can bring. Um, the second one is like in pick and roll situations. So, the guy that’s guarding the the the primary ball handler or the on ball guy, closing the gap, refusing to be screened, showing your hands, making like making an impact on that ball handler that he’s not able to come off so free freely. Um, and then also if you’re guarding the screener, like sometimes I think our our bigs do a really good job of um steering the screener, especially when they know that we’re going to be in red situations to not allow them to get out so quick and be able to roll behind or put two on the ball. And so that’s kind of some of the elements defensively I think where we can see some of the physicality. Defensive rebounding is always one of those where you know it ain’t gonna be perfect. It’s hard to always come up with a drill to do it. It’s really like who wants it more and who’s willing to kind of just get a piece of someone and stop their positive momentum. Um and then offensively uh I think that part of the skill set is number one being willing to like set up your guy at times if you want to run a half court set. But the thing that I think that when we’re at our best, we’re playing with the pass ahead or pass across that allows defenses not to really crowd you and get up in you. As you saw some of the guys tonight when we made our good rim reads, we’re kicking it out. We’re either shooting it or an immediate drive to get people off of our body and then making the appropriate uh shift in rim reads. You mentioned how early in the third quarter there were some turnovers there and it feels like some of that was also like you said playing your best, pushing the ball. How do you balance the push and pull with, hey, when we play faster? It also might make us more susceptible to having early turnovers as well. Yeah, I think some of it is the feel of the game, where are we? Um, what kind of advantage I think that we can create or seeing who the primary ball handler is. Um, just having a little bit of the feel and the flow. Um, and then other times, what’s the lineup like? Uh, you know, do we have a guy that I think is going to be able to play enough pick and roll early in the clock or something? Or how can we put these players in the best position possible? So, it’s a little bit of, like you said, feel and push and pull of, okay, now we need a half court set, other teams making a run. Let’s try to get the ball in this specific player’s hand or you continue to play with some of our great turbos and autos and running habits and and create a little bit of confusion with our three-man actions. With Brandon’s timetable kind of being uncertain right now, how can this team, for lack of better words, kind of tread water when LaMelo Ball is out of the game offensively where some of those lineups, you know, you have Colin Saxon as a primary ball handler, but if they have a Jamie Dams or someone on him, it really makes his job way tougher to kind of get everyone in in in their set correctly. Yeah. And that’s where, you know, again, it’s it’s a little bit of the feel. I don’t think it’s treading water. I think we have a lot of really good basketball players uh that just have to have a better feel or I have to have a better feel of like how to put them in better position. So, I have to continue to learn the group and make sure that we’re in successful spots. But, I don’t think it’s a treading water thing. It’s like committing to who we are and and then I need to be able to help them as

Limited 2025-26 Memberships Available Now: https://www.nba.com/hornets/tickets/hive-society

👀 SUBSCRIBE HERE 👀 https://www.youtube.com/hornets?sub_confirmation=1

📱 Follow us on social! 📱
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hornets
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hornets/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hornets/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hornets/

👕 Get Your Merch! 👕 http://www.hornetsfanshop.com/