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This early in the season there is not enough data so I'm just cutting and pasting information on our opponents from season previews. There's more information than most fans probably have time to read, but for those who are interested, here it is. This is from The Athletic.
Charlotte Hornets (Previously 19th)
The Charlotte Hornets had a great season, but they still have much to prove. They struggled to score, and their defense was susceptible to giving up baskets and offensive rebounds. They turned the ball over too much. And yet, there was a brief period in which James Borrego’s squad took the league by storm. Gordon Hayward was fantastic until he got hurt. LaMelo Ball was fantastic until he got hurt. Despite not having any real size, the Hornets used a lot of versatility to try to compete. They’re going to hunt out being the team nobody wants to face.
Thing I’m looking forward to the most: The LaMelo Ball Show, of course. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what this kid can do on an NBA court. The proverbial “It Factor”? He is saturated in it. Ball makes this Hornets team must-see television on League Pass. - Zach Harper, The Athletic
Hollinger’s 2021-22 Charlotte Hornets preview: Lineup, roster, prediction, can they play without a center?
2020-21 season: 33-39 (10th in East), 22nd in offense, 18th in defense
Out of the blue, it was a pretty wildly entertaining season for a Charlotte franchise with few such campaigns on its resume. While the Hornets ultimately fell short of the playoffs, their presence in the Play-In Tournament was a surprise in and of itself.
It all started when the Golden State Warriors gift-wrapped a franchise player to the Hornets by inexplicably taking James Wiseman ahead of LaMelo Ball; Ball dazzled with his full-court pushes and passes and went on to win Rookie of the Year. Gordon Hayward, meanwhile, was a strategic overpay and gave the Hornets an offensive fulcrum in the half court; they were 24-20 in the 44 games he played.
Terry Rozier added in a career year, fine-tuning his 3-point shot while playing entirely off the ball for the first time. Devonte’ Graham might have been the best backup point guard in the league. Coach James Borrego’s player development started paying off in other areas; not just with Graham’s and Rozier’s emergence, but with recent draft picks like Miles Bridges and P.J. Washington.
Borrego’s use of Washington as a de factor center was perhaps the most intriguing element to Charlotte’s season. Washington isn’t even a small-ball five; he’s just a 6-7 forward playing center. But between the surfeit of good perimeter players and the lack of quality in the middle, this was Charlotte’s best lineup. Four-man lineups with Rozier, Bridges, Graham and Washington were a scalding plus-92 in 294 minutes … on a team that otherwise was outscored by 231 points.
The key was how much shooting they had on the floor with those groups. The Hornets weren’t good at much else — they were a bottom-10 team in 2-point shooting and a top-10 team in turnover rate — but they could shoot. Charlotte ranked 14th in 3-point accuracy and seventh in frequency, numbers that spiked in that four-game grouping with Washington at five (the Hornets shot 41 percent on 3s and launched them at a well-beyond league-leading rate). While their other centers and deep subs couldn’t stretch the floor, and Ball was an iffy proposition as well, five core players — Hayward, Rozier, Washington, Graham and Malik Monk — shot 37.5 percent or better from 3 on significant volume.
The downside to this smallness, of course, was the defense. Charlotte was savaged on the glass, finishing 28th in defensive rebound rate, and lineups without Cody Zeller or Bismack Biyombo were often overwhelmed. With near-zero rim protection, the Hornets were last in 2-point defense; relying on an aggressive scheme to compensate for this, they also gave up the second-most 3-point attempts.
There were positives: Charlotte fouled surprisingly little for a team that had a size disadvantage — only two teams hacked less — and was sixth in forcing turnovers. Overall, the defense was pretty close to league average but needed a nod from Lady Luck to get there. Charlotte’s free throw “defense” was a big factor, with opponents shooting a league-worst 74.5 percent from the stripe. That alone was likely worth two extra wins.
You can see where Charlotte’s mindset is with the selection of Jones and Thor, who might be the two most similar players drafted by the same team in the same draft since David Kahn was cornering the market on point guards. They believe in their player development system, and they want fleet, switchable forwards that enable them to play fast and centerless.
I don’t mean literally, of course; the Hornets will field a team with five players, and one of them will defend the other team’s center and be defended by that player. But Charlotte dipped its toe pretty deeply into the small-ball revolution a year ago, and its offseason personnel moves suggest the Hornets may try to keep pushing the envelope on this as far as they can.
One should note the fact Charlotte was relatively successful with this owed as much to sheer talent as to scheme — playing small with Washington at center was the way to put its five best players on the floor. Nonetheless, other teams have shown that a five-out scheme with enough perimeter offensive talent can be devilishly difficult to defend against.
The other advantage Charlotte has is it can play both small and fast; both point guards’ preferred mode is helter-skelter transition, and with other runners and shooters up and down the lineup, Ball won’t lack for company on the break.
The tantalizing piece of this puzzle is the Hornets leaning into a future small-ball identity with players like Jones and Thor — not power players by any stretch, but the type who could potentially switch everything on defense and hit a 3 on offense.
It all starts, of course, with Charlotte being able to play halfway decent defense and not get creamed on the boards with the small arrangement. Watching this experiment unfold (if, indeed, that’s the direction the Hornets go) should be one of the season’s more fascinating sub-plots.
Projection
Last season was a shot in the arm for Charlotte, but this year might be more of a retrenchment. Let’s start with the obvious: I don’t really know how this team won 33 games last year in the first place. A lot had to go right to get them to that number, and a couple of them (Rozier’s career year, the invisible magnets diverting opponent free throws, etc. ) won’t necessarily carry over.
One would think the youth on the roster would continue pushing Charlotte forward, particularly Ball entering his second season, and perhaps that ends up being the case. But the Hornets also have a lot of countervailing factors. Losing Graham will leave a dent, for starters; minus both him and Monk, there is less shooting than a year ago. Charlotte, in general, will have less depth, with two rotation slots likely committed to rookies and an amazing five recent second-round picks filling out the bench.
The center position, more obviously, looms as an obvious concern.
Perhaps Charlotte leans into small ball well enough to run opponents regardless and render that concern irrelevant — there’s a chance this team is just so fast that the size doesn’t matter — but we need to see it first. Overall, I’m excited to see how this plays out, but my better judgment tells me this team needs to take one more step back before it can step forward.
Prediction: 29-53, 12th in Eastern Conference
Charlotte Hornets (Previously 19th)
The Charlotte Hornets had a great season, but they still have much to prove. They struggled to score, and their defense was susceptible to giving up baskets and offensive rebounds. They turned the ball over too much. And yet, there was a brief period in which James Borrego’s squad took the league by storm. Gordon Hayward was fantastic until he got hurt. LaMelo Ball was fantastic until he got hurt. Despite not having any real size, the Hornets used a lot of versatility to try to compete. They’re going to hunt out being the team nobody wants to face.
Thing I’m looking forward to the most: The LaMelo Ball Show, of course. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what this kid can do on an NBA court. The proverbial “It Factor”? He is saturated in it. Ball makes this Hornets team must-see television on League Pass. - Zach Harper, The Athletic
Hollinger’s 2021-22 Charlotte Hornets preview: Lineup, roster, prediction, can they play without a center?
2020-21 season: 33-39 (10th in East), 22nd in offense, 18th in defense
Out of the blue, it was a pretty wildly entertaining season for a Charlotte franchise with few such campaigns on its resume. While the Hornets ultimately fell short of the playoffs, their presence in the Play-In Tournament was a surprise in and of itself.
It all started when the Golden State Warriors gift-wrapped a franchise player to the Hornets by inexplicably taking James Wiseman ahead of LaMelo Ball; Ball dazzled with his full-court pushes and passes and went on to win Rookie of the Year. Gordon Hayward, meanwhile, was a strategic overpay and gave the Hornets an offensive fulcrum in the half court; they were 24-20 in the 44 games he played.
Terry Rozier added in a career year, fine-tuning his 3-point shot while playing entirely off the ball for the first time. Devonte’ Graham might have been the best backup point guard in the league. Coach James Borrego’s player development started paying off in other areas; not just with Graham’s and Rozier’s emergence, but with recent draft picks like Miles Bridges and P.J. Washington.
Borrego’s use of Washington as a de factor center was perhaps the most intriguing element to Charlotte’s season. Washington isn’t even a small-ball five; he’s just a 6-7 forward playing center. But between the surfeit of good perimeter players and the lack of quality in the middle, this was Charlotte’s best lineup. Four-man lineups with Rozier, Bridges, Graham and Washington were a scalding plus-92 in 294 minutes … on a team that otherwise was outscored by 231 points.
The key was how much shooting they had on the floor with those groups. The Hornets weren’t good at much else — they were a bottom-10 team in 2-point shooting and a top-10 team in turnover rate — but they could shoot. Charlotte ranked 14th in 3-point accuracy and seventh in frequency, numbers that spiked in that four-game grouping with Washington at five (the Hornets shot 41 percent on 3s and launched them at a well-beyond league-leading rate). While their other centers and deep subs couldn’t stretch the floor, and Ball was an iffy proposition as well, five core players — Hayward, Rozier, Washington, Graham and Malik Monk — shot 37.5 percent or better from 3 on significant volume.
The downside to this smallness, of course, was the defense. Charlotte was savaged on the glass, finishing 28th in defensive rebound rate, and lineups without Cody Zeller or Bismack Biyombo were often overwhelmed. With near-zero rim protection, the Hornets were last in 2-point defense; relying on an aggressive scheme to compensate for this, they also gave up the second-most 3-point attempts.
There were positives: Charlotte fouled surprisingly little for a team that had a size disadvantage — only two teams hacked less — and was sixth in forcing turnovers. Overall, the defense was pretty close to league average but needed a nod from Lady Luck to get there. Charlotte’s free throw “defense” was a big factor, with opponents shooting a league-worst 74.5 percent from the stripe. That alone was likely worth two extra wins.
You can see where Charlotte’s mindset is with the selection of Jones and Thor, who might be the two most similar players drafted by the same team in the same draft since David Kahn was cornering the market on point guards. They believe in their player development system, and they want fleet, switchable forwards that enable them to play fast and centerless.
I don’t mean literally, of course; the Hornets will field a team with five players, and one of them will defend the other team’s center and be defended by that player. But Charlotte dipped its toe pretty deeply into the small-ball revolution a year ago, and its offseason personnel moves suggest the Hornets may try to keep pushing the envelope on this as far as they can.
One should note the fact Charlotte was relatively successful with this owed as much to sheer talent as to scheme — playing small with Washington at center was the way to put its five best players on the floor. Nonetheless, other teams have shown that a five-out scheme with enough perimeter offensive talent can be devilishly difficult to defend against.
The other advantage Charlotte has is it can play both small and fast; both point guards’ preferred mode is helter-skelter transition, and with other runners and shooters up and down the lineup, Ball won’t lack for company on the break.
The tantalizing piece of this puzzle is the Hornets leaning into a future small-ball identity with players like Jones and Thor — not power players by any stretch, but the type who could potentially switch everything on defense and hit a 3 on offense.
It all starts, of course, with Charlotte being able to play halfway decent defense and not get creamed on the boards with the small arrangement. Watching this experiment unfold (if, indeed, that’s the direction the Hornets go) should be one of the season’s more fascinating sub-plots.
Projection
Last season was a shot in the arm for Charlotte, but this year might be more of a retrenchment. Let’s start with the obvious: I don’t really know how this team won 33 games last year in the first place. A lot had to go right to get them to that number, and a couple of them (Rozier’s career year, the invisible magnets diverting opponent free throws, etc. ) won’t necessarily carry over.
One would think the youth on the roster would continue pushing Charlotte forward, particularly Ball entering his second season, and perhaps that ends up being the case. But the Hornets also have a lot of countervailing factors. Losing Graham will leave a dent, for starters; minus both him and Monk, there is less shooting than a year ago. Charlotte, in general, will have less depth, with two rotation slots likely committed to rookies and an amazing five recent second-round picks filling out the bench.
The center position, more obviously, looms as an obvious concern.
Perhaps Charlotte leans into small ball well enough to run opponents regardless and render that concern irrelevant — there’s a chance this team is just so fast that the size doesn’t matter — but we need to see it first. Overall, I’m excited to see how this plays out, but my better judgment tells me this team needs to take one more step back before it can step forward.
Prediction: 29-53, 12th in Eastern Conference
