On The Court
By Chris Barnewall
Under Steve Clifford, the Hornets
have been a grinding team reliant
on a top 10 defense that figures to be
respectable (if diminished) without
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. That they’ve
been able to do this with a frontcourt
rotation of Al Jefferson, Cody Zeller,
and Marvin Williams is amazing.
With the loss of Bismack
Biyombo, Charlotte lacks a rim
protector. And yet, they’ve been
successful through Clifford’s
conservative schemes. Instead of
helping on the perimeter, players are
to defend their man. This obviously
requires a huge amount of trust, but
it’s been very successful for them
because it allows the Hornets to bring
those players down low and help
their bigs.
stop penetration and passes from
puncturing defenses at the point of
attack.
Obviously there is going to be
a drop off this season due to KiddGilchrist’s injury, but Charlotte did
upgrade Henderson with Nicolas
Batum. The hope is that Batum,
no slouch on defense himself, can
offset whatever decline on defense
the Hornets suffer with gains on the
offensive end.
The Hornets offense the past two
seasons hasn’t exactly been creative.
They’ve relied on a steady diet of
Jefferson post-ups garnished with
Kemba Walker using up large chunks
of the shot clock with his dribble.
When Walker has it going, he can
be exciting, but when he’s not, there
might not be a worse team to watch
in the NBA.
Players like Jefferson and
Zeller don’t need to be the best rim
protectors in the world, because
That said, the Hornets recent
they’ve always had players like Gerald
preseason has given fans hope of a
Henderson and Kidd-Gilchrist to
new, exciting team. They’re bombing
3-pointers at an absurd 25 per game
rate, pinging the ball around at a
pace not seen since they lost Josh
McRoberts. They still have moments
where Walker or Jefferson stop the
ball to attack perceived mismatches,
but they haven’t been as common as
in years past. This change in offense
could completely overhaul the
Hornets’ fortunes.
Will Charlotte be a good
defensive team? Most likely they will,
because Cllifford is a good coach
that knows how to get the best out
of his guys. Will they be at the level
they were the previous two seasons?
That isn’t as likely, because the loss
of Kidd-Gilchrist can’t be overstated
enough.
However, their new offensive
system might just be good enough
to save the season given the influx
of playmakers in Batum and Jeremy
Lin, and improved 3-point shooting
across the roster.
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