Hornets stars LaMelo Ball and James Bouknight are given all the reason in the world to be fed up with head coach James Borrego
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LaMelo Ball may be a near-All-Star level player in just his second year in the league. But of course, even that isn’t quite good enough for him to have his coach’s trust.
The Charlotte Hornets had done pretty well in the first half of this game. The team was up 5 points, with a score of 46-51, and everything seemed to be going well. Then, they took their foot off the gas pedal.
They only scored 8 points in the 3rd quarter, while allowing their opposition to score a monster 35.
In case you didn’t watch this game, you might think that the team was terrible throughout the quarter. But the reality is, they were just fine while LaMelo Ball was on the floor.
They were getting good shots but simply went absolutely cold, while their defense somewhat kept up with their opponents. However, when Ball was taken off, the team’s easy offense also stopped. And it seems that, when their easy shots suddenly disappeared, so did their belief, as they suddenly started torpedoing, very, very quickly.
By the end, in a game the Hornets lost 104-86, LaMelo Ball only played 22 minutes. But worse yet, James Bouknight only played 14 seconds. And even those seconds were only because Miles Bridges had to come out of the game due to a shot he had taken to the face.
Both these players had all the reason in the world to be frustrated. And during this game, it seems that one of them was very open about it.
James Bouknight gets ready to explode at head coach James Borrego, as LaMelo Ball tries to hold him back
To be clear here, even if he is a rookie, James Bouknight isn’t the kind of player that should be seated on the bench the whole game.
Bouk has come out and saved the Hornets on multiple occasions, with his scoring, and overall play. And while, yes, he is still a bit rough around the edges, he more than deserves far more playing time than what he is getting right now.
But, while we, and most, if not all fans of the Hornets think so, it seems that head coach James Borrego just can’t. Heck, the man even appeared to say something to his player, that deeply incensed him. Take a look.
Dunno what was said but here’s video of the incident between James Bouknight and Hornets HC James Borrego. https://t.co/QiECLLLjPq pic.twitter.com/uyGiYz2JK9
— Doug Branson (@DougBransonLOH) February 6, 2022
And additionally, the head coach also decided to do this.
LaMelo Ball has only played 6 minutes, 17 seconds in the second half. Still on the bench here with the Hornets getting blown out by 26 in the fourth. Ball has 12 points, only 1 turnover.
— Steve Reed (@SteveReedAP) February 6, 2022
We aren’t sure what Borrego said to make Bouknight as angry as he was. But, at this rate, his actions, and the reactions to him, it seems that the man is quickly losing his locker room. And that can’t bode well for his future with the organization.
