Talk about a breath of fresh air.
For the first time in a decade, the Charlotte Hornets have legitimate playoff aspirations. They currently own the nine seed in the Eastern Conference with dreams of clawing further up the standings following the All-Star break.
A major reason for the Hornets’ success is their second-year head coach and the staff he has assembled in Charlotte. Let’s take a look at Charles Lee’s first-half performance and hand out some grades for the job he has done with these Hornets.
Player Development: A-
Brett Davis-Imagn Images
There may not be a player development story in the history of the Charlotte Hornets better than that of Moussa Diabate. His rapid growth from ‘depth big on a two-way contract’ to ‘starting center on the best five-man unit in the NBA’ has been immense in the Hornets’ run up the Eastern Conference standings. And while Moussa deserves the brunt of the credit for maximizing his talent, Lee and his staff deserve some shine too.
Charlotte’s player development plan from the grassroots of the Las Vegas Summer League to the highest level of their NBA program has done an unbelievable job at taking talented players and getting them to flourish on the biggest stage.
Diabate is the most sterling example, but other young players like Tidjane Salaun, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Sion James, have all benefitted from the Hornets’ development program that Lee and his staff have completely overhauled in their two years in charge.
X’s and O’s: A
Charles Lee and his staff’s rollicking offense gets the majority of the credit here.
The Hornets have built one of the league’s most exciting offensive attacks that maximizes the otherworldly strengths of their superstar talents. Each of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Kon Knueppel have been weaponized to their fullest extent in Charlotte’s motion-heavy, pass-first, three-point centric offense.
After sputtering early in the season due to some growing pains and issues with player availability, the Hornets have the 11th best offensive rating in basketball. Zoom in a bit, and the Hornets have the second best offense in the league since December 18th (the date LaMelo returned from his most recent ankle ailment), and an 18-11 record in that time that is the sixth best in basketball.
It’s not just their offense, though.
In the same ‘since December 18th’ timeline, Charlotte actually boasts a top-ten defense too. The Hornets have leaned into an analytical defensive approach centered around three things: limiting corner threes (they allow the fewest in the NBA), winning the possession battle by limiting opposing offensive rebounds (they allow the second fewest in the NBA), and ceasing opposing trips to the foul line (they allow the third lowest free throw rate in the NBA).
It’s not flashy. Charlotte’s defense is fundamentally sound, trading highlight-worthy steals and run outs for heady gap discipline and timely rotations from all five players. But what they lack in flash, they make up for in substance, and major credit is due to the coaching staff for building this borderline elite unit without a single All-Defense level player on the perimeter.
Rotations: B
There have been some times where I have questioned Charles Lee’s late-game decision making in terms of who is on or off the court.
Putting the LaMelo Ball of it all aside, because any decision revolving around his availability late in games or on back-to-backs deserves far more context than many give, Lee has absolutely improved in this area over time.
Much of his improvement can be boiled down to player availability. For weeks Charles Lee was pigeonholed into using players like Antonio Reeves, Liam McNeeley, and Drew Peterson late into fourth quarters because his options on the bench were limited. Each of those three have a ton of potential and assuredly grew during those tense fourth quarter stretches, but Charlotte’s improvement coincided with those player’s minutes getting replaced by steady veterans like Grant Williams and Josh Green.
All that being said, Charles Lee now has a fully healthy roster that he is using to its full potential late in games. The Hornets’ seson-long net rating (-3.4) in ‘clutch minutes’ ranks 20th in the league, and their total of nine clutch wins this season is among the lowest in the NBA.
Pulling data from the same dates as above, December 18th to present, the Hornets’ net rating improves to -0.1, good for 15th in basketball, and their five clutch wins in that time period is tied for the 14th most in the league.
Overall grade: A
As a whole, Charles Lee and his staff are doing a masterful job this season.
Their ability to both maximize their star talent on offense and make chicken salad out of chicken-you-know-what with a relative lack of game-breaking talent on defense has been admirable. Lee is up to fourth in odds to take home the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, and that feels like a fair ranking.
Charlotte has their guy leading the bench, and he is a major reason for the team’s propulsion into playoff contention.
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