The Charlotte Hornets have been much improved since our last edition of the Mailbag, but there are still blemishes, and they aren’t few in number
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Since our last edition, the Charlotte Hornets have looked like a very, very different team. We will say the improvements have not been few in number. Heck, we even see hope for a position in the team now, that we didn’t see before without a high-profile trade!
There is a lot to talk about here. So, let’s get into it already, shall we?
Positive: Nick Richards
The Charlotte Hornets need to be thanking an almighty power right now because frankly, Nick Richards has been a god-send this season.
So far, the 23-year-old hasn’t played an awful lot of minutes for the franchise during their games. However, his time on the court is most definitely increasing, and with very good reason.
The 7 footer has shown the ability to protect the rim at a very high level, while also being a lob threat on the other end of the floor. And at the end of the day, that’s all the Hornets really need him to be.
As long as Richards can stay out of foul trouble during games, he will likely be a very important piece for the franchise this season.
Negative: LaMelo Ball’s shot selection
In the first edition of the Hornets TSR Mailbag, we argued that James Borrego needed to let LaMelo Ball off the leash a bit, and give him more minutes to catch a rhythm during games. And to the head coach’s credit, he has done exactly that since. So why is the player still having so many bad shooting nights?
Well, the biggest reason here is, his shot selection. As per NBA.com, 38.7% of his shots this season are pull-up attempts rather than anything else. This is the highest amongst all his shots.
It gets worse though. The man is attempting 6.8 pull-up attempts per game, and only converting 2.5 of them per game. That is just 36.9%.
Unfortunately, that isn’t even the end of it. During recent games, the Ball brother has started to fall in love with long mid-range shots that couldn’t be more contested than they are already.
Needless to say, this needs to stop, or at least be decreased. Otherwise, Ball may never be an efficient player in his career.
Positive: Terry Rozier is looking scary again
Initially, when Terry Rozier returned from his ankle injury, he looked more like a shell of his former self, rather than the real thing. His burst was missing, his shots weren’t falling, and frankly, it looked like the man lacked confidence.
In the last three games, Terry Rozier has scored 32, 27, and 15 points, on very impressive efficiency. Simply put, he has gone back to being that guy for the Hornets. And frankly, we absolutely love it!
Negative: The Charlotte Hornets’ team defense
Yep. This is still a thing.
Yes, there is hope in terms of internal defense. But, the team’s overall quality on that end of the floor needs to improve, and quickly too.
As things stand, the team stands just 28th in the entire NBA in defensive ranking, only beating the Grizzlies and Lakers in that regard.
At the end of the day, this roster has shown that it has the quality to be at least in the middle of the pack in that regard of the game. Now, they need to find a way to be consistent with it.
Positive: A Winning run of games
In their last 10 games, the franchise has gone 8-2. That is incredible.
It wasn’t an easy schedule either. During this run, they had to face the Grizzlies, Knicks, Wizards, and even the Warriors.
The fact that this team was able to win such difficult games, despite all of their glaring areas of weakness is huge. It shows that they have the ability to not only covers the chinks in their armor but also go forward and give their opposition problems.
This may be a young team. But if they can continue this trend, we could be looking at a future contender within the next 5 years.
Negative: Miles Bridges needs to do more
The Charlotte Hornets’ candidate for MIP this year, may have finally started to falter.
While Terry Rozier has been rising up during the last three games, Bridges has been falling off a bit.
In the period in question, the man scored just 6, 11, and 18 points.
To be fair to him, he was still a +13, +9, and +9 in those games respectively. However, if this team is to succeed against the best in the NBA, Bridges needs to have better scoring games for the franchise.
