GT: Suns @ Hornets Wed Dec 17th 7PM EST

[MasterIchiro]

I was ready to abandon my Hyphen doubts, but you're right Fats. I say deal MKG and Lance to Denver for Chandler and Afflalo.

[MasterIchiro]

HOLY **** FELLAS!!!! why was this the gamethread where everyone finally broke. why is anyone here expecting us to win? we are 6-19. we have blown at least 10 4th quarter leads so far. we suck. its a fact.

i guess i am like JDR in that i am rather apathetic at this point. the roster is such a mess and until it improves, there is really no reason to have any expectations other than repeating what has been happening.

definitely agree with the comment about having no margin for error.

you cant finish a game with kemba, lance and MKG on offense or with marvin and jefferson on defense. what you can get away with in the 1st quarter wont fly in the 4th because defenses will take away kemba and jefferson and force the others to make plays. however, MKG is scared to death to touch the ball in crunchtime and lance is a shadow of his former self. neal is usually gassed late in games because cliff basically plays him for 18 straight game minutes to end games.

its just one huge pile of crap from the top to the bottom.

where was zeller? who cares? would it have really mattered? probably not.

anyone else get a kick out of watching cliff's post game pressers on nights like this? he just makes up crap to say. its rather sad actually.

back to MKG - so i guess he is back to not being able to shoot. i think he has made 1 jumper since returning. who knew that having a stress reaction would ruin your jumper. why do i even let myself get excited by MKG any more? its the same thing every season so far. he looks great for the first few weeks of the season, then he gets hurt, then he forgets how to shoot and then he spends the 2nd half of the season in his shame corner. why should we expect anything different this year? its obvious that his jumper is broken again evidenced by the fact that he is passing up jumpers now to drive into 4 defenders in the paint over and over again.

so how far under 500 do we have to fall before the front office gives up this ridiculous dream of making the playoffs this year and starts rebuilding and developing youth? if we are at 11-30 after 41 games would that be far enough under 500?

For me it was Kemba carrying the team to start the 2nd half and the anticipation that fans would negate all of that as soon as the Suns clamped down on him daring the Hornets to explore other options which always boil down to a burnt out Al and a bunch of goons. I knew they would turn on him and scapegoat him.

This is the most embarrassing collection of players surrounding Kemba Walker I could have ever imagined.

There is no need to magnify their massive deficiencies. I already spoke my mind.

The scrutiny of Kemba is completely out of line. He has adjusted to this new motley crew and played excellent basketball for the month.

I have been sensing fans ready to pounce and they chose the wrong game to do it and the wrong time. That's the divide you saw last night.

It was the right time and game to defend Kemba.

Some of the things I said obviously were for shock value but I stand by my statements

MKG can't shoot
Marv is a coward and sucks on D
Al is out of shape and sucks on D
Lance can't get to the lane due to MKG, Marv and Al. Kemba does not provide enough spacing for him. He's not a 3pt shooter but he's trying (and performing well from 3 lately).

That's our starting 5.

It is really easy for teams to get the ball out of Al's hands, swarm on Kemba and let the other clowns dork around out there. They lack the skill to close games because Cho pasted together a bunch of role players with severe limitations.

But Kemba is the 6th man? It's insulting.

December Kemba

.420 .414 .857

That's right. 41.4% from 3pt land.

He has figured it out. He's also driving more and getting to the line more. And he's still 24.

Fans want to step on his dick. I'm going to defend him.

[ball teacher]

The fact that so many wanna dismantle the team because the coach cant make adjustments is crazy to me. Memphis grizz play two pure bigs, a defensive wing, they have Conley and Courtney Lee and they are playing great ball without #spacing issues. Lance played very well last year, what's the problem now? MKG was drafted 2nd overall and had a known jumper issue, so what do we do, have him camp outside then bash him for not being Kyle Korver! We know Al sucks defensively, so do we get our defensive big to play alongside him, no, we get Marv williams, a Sf to play the 4 to "stretch the floor" cause "everyone else is doing it". So instead of removing the coach who's clearly the problem, we have to start moving our players.

Clifford is not a great coach, he's not done anything to warrant the praise he gets. He's not a great motivator, he's not a great x's and o's guy, his teacher Stan Van is also overrated which is why he is also sucking in Detroit with the same suspect rotation problems. B Jennings, Drummond, Monroe (who doesnt even start for #spacing issues) and Josh Smith and they have the record they do? I'd rather we get a coach who doesnt stubbornly coach some unorthodox system even when we dont have the pieces for the system and see what that coach.can do with the same team before we start moving players. That may not happen so we'll have to focus on moving Lance, and MKG for guys who stand around waiting to chuck jumpers and Zeller so we can replace him with a SF that's tall enough to play the 4 but can shoot threes.

[EwingSweatsALot]

I'll agree with MI on Kemba. Kemba was horrendous to start the year. Looked to be another year of sub 40% shooting and a bad contract to boot.

He's played some damn fine basketball over the last few weeks. I really like what I'm seeing from him. Shooting better and his turnovers are way down. I still wish he would see a little better on the break and have a better overall feel of the game, but he is the only reason we haven't been annihilated against some of these western teams lately. Keep this up and he deserves that 12 mil.

[EwingSweatsALot]

:argue: Well just like I said on Radio 610 yesterday,the worst part of 2014 to me is the disappointment we all have of the Hornets. After watching last nights game and Coach Cliffords post game interview,it is now obvious MJ and CHO are about to make changes. Clifford hit it right on the head when he said we are a defensive team and when a team scores 111 points we are not playing any defense. We scored 106 points and last year ,scoring that many points , would win. The Chemistry of this team is wrong and needs to be fixed now or the Hornets first year back in Charlotte will be a failure. I remember posting that to bring in Lance would be a big mistake. I was wrong. It's not Lance as much as it is the combination of our big three.
That's why our second unit has brought us back in several games. It's obvious that 1 or 2 of our starting lineup need to go now before it gets worse..FATS is right..maybe it's Lance and MKG to Denver...I hope it's NOT Lance,Marvin ,fillers to the Nets for Joe Johnson. Hornet's Management has already in the off season made two free agent signings which have not elevated this team to the next level. If we lose to Philly Friday,the value of our players will drop again. NOW is the time for a trade...

If you want to be an elite defensive team like last year and have a defensive identity you don't trade a top 5 wing defender.

What would solve our problems IMO is a legit stretch four paired with a top rim protector at the 5 and a 2 that can spot up and shoot and create some. That then gives you Kemba to run the offense and by having two other guys that can shoot at the 2 and the 4 it allows you to have MKG on the wing.

That won't happen though.

[mrknowitall215]

Another 4th quarter meltdown mostly attributed to bad defense en route to allowing the opposing team to score over 25 points while Clifford believed he needed more scoring on the floor, huh? I've seen this story too many times to count on both hands

[BigSlam]

This is nit picking, but I found it rather weird as well. Zeller got his nose pancaked by a 270 pound man 2 days ago in Cleveland, and pre game Bonnell and Ready were saying that " a mask was on the way, but didn't know if it would be at the arena in time ".

A freaking professional team can't get a damn mask in time to protect one of their starters broken nose? Hell, I could have ordered one and over nighted it and made it fit for Christ sake.

And if Zeller would have taken just one inadvertent hard elbow to that nose tonight he would be out a good stretch of games. Inexcusable.

They aren't an off the shelf item though. Right?

They have to have a mold cast and it needs time to cure after its been poured.

I'd assume they would have had to wait the next day to start the process and it would take more than 24 hours.

I don't hold that against the FO at all.

[EwingSweatsALot]

Another 4th quarter meltdown mostly attributed to bad defense en route to allowing the opposing team to score over 25 points while Clifford believed he needed more scoring on the floor, huh? I've seen this story too many times to count on both hands

Up by 4 and let's have our spacing in. Makes no damn sense. Win the game. Put your best 5 out there. We don't need 30 points to win the game. Put your best 5 out there and close the damn thing out. Not your best 5 offensive players and then let them score 30. It's happened too many times to count this year. For some reason Clifford is untouchable and it's all a roster issue. Clifford ain't working with diamonds, but he sure as hell isn't working with coal. He's urbed too many wins into losses this year on his own decision or lack of decision making.

[fatlever]

I didnt think Kemba was the problem last night. His bad shots at the end were mostly a result of nobody else on the floor being able (or willing) to do anything.

kemba gets blitzed by defenders at the end of games as teams are not scared to leave MKG, hendo and lance. Jefferson gets blitzed as soon as he touches the ball or in many cases even thinks about posting up.

I thought we really needed zeller on the floor to set some good solid screen for kemba to give him some space. marvin and al are so bad at setting screens that their attempts to do so, do more harm than good.

clifford needs to rethink the idea that marvin's shooting provides more spacing than zeller. i'd argue that zeller's ability to set screens provides more spacing than the threat of marvin shooting.

however, in the end, it was our defense that really let us down, which has usually been the case in the 4th quarters. marvin and jefferson just cannot function together defensively and we have seen that combination fail repeatedly this season on defense.

[MasterIchiro]

I didnt think Kemba was the problem last night. His bad shots at the end were mostly a result of nobody else on the floor being able (or willing) to do anything.

kemba gets blitzed by defenders at the end of games as teams are not scared to leave MKG, hendo and lance. Jefferson gets blitzed as soon as he touches the ball or in many cases even thinks about posting up.

I thought we really needed zeller on the floor to set some good solid screen for kemba to give him some space. marvin and al are so bad at setting screens that their attempts to do so, do more harm than good.

clifford needs to rethink the idea that marvin's shooting provides more spacing than zeller. i'd argue that zeller's ability to set screens provides more spacing than the threat of marvin shooting.

however, in the end, it was our defense that really let us down, which has usually been the case in the 4th quarters. marvin and jefferson just cannot function together defensively and we have seen that combination fail repeatedly this season on defense.

And it is specifically Cho that paired Marvin Williams with Al Jefferson on the roster.

[TheKingofSting]

Another fourth quarter meltdown and another time where Clifford blames everything on the players!