Hornets 2nd 10 Games (2-8)

[JMAC3]

Diabates minutes dropping out of nowhere for no reason after the Milwaukee win is just another bone I have to pick with Chucky

I kind of get it vs Brooklyn because they were playing 5 out on offense all game so it made more sense to have Grant be able to defend a bit better on the perimeter. Especially if Diabate wasn't going to punish them on the other end for playing small.

Cleveland was more of a headscratcher but we trailed most the game so maybe we just prioritized offense to get back into game.

[yosemiteben]

I knew the East was bad, but I did not know we are currently 1 game out of the 5th seed. That's embarrassing.

Also we are 1-6 on the road. Maybe that's the result of having such a 3 heavy offense?

[yosemiteben]

Read on Twitter

Interesting concept from Lee that crashing the glass helps transition defense by forcing the other team to box out and not leak out on the break.

[KembaWalker]

Read on Twitter

Interesting concept from Lee that crashing the glass helps transition defense by forcing the other team to box out and not leak out on the break.

Kinda makes sense, you get enough Cliffords out there preaching to ignore the offensive glass and get back as top priority and give it a few years and suddenly teams are complacent and lazy on their fundamentals taking the rebounds for granted and you’ve found a potential advantage to exploit. Lots of this stuff is probably cyclical, only thing here to stay is launching 3s

[JMAC3]

So EPM is different this year, supposedly predictive. Everyone hated it thus far so they released the old version today via tweet. Not sure if this is sticking around or going to end up behind a paywall, but here is where Hornets landed through 15 games.

https://dunksandthrees.com/stats/player

LaMelo Ball
Overall EPM + 3.2 92nd% (28th best in league)
Off EPM 98%
Def EPM 8%

Brandon Miller
Overall EPM + 2.1 86th% (52nd best in league)
Off EPM 78%
Def EPM 86%

Cody Martin
Overall EPM + 0.7 73rd% (99th best in league)
Off EPM 44%
Def EPM 93%

Moussa Diabate
Overall EPM -0.6 54th% (169th best in league)
Off EPM 25%
Def EPM 91%

Miles Bridges
Overall EPM -0.9 46th% (195th best in league)
Off EPM 73%
Def EPM 6%

Nick Richards
Overall EPM -0.9 46th% (196th best in league)
Off EPM 71%
Def EPM 8%

Grant Williams
Overall EPM -2.1 28th% (264th best in league)
Off EPM 53%
Def EPM 7%

Tre Mann
Overall EPM -2.3 25th% (274th best in league)
Off EPM 41%
Def EPM 14%

Seth Curry
Overall EPM -2.4 24th% (279th best in league)
Off EPM 26%
Def EPM 39%

Taj Gibson
Overall EPM -2.4 23rd% (283rd best in league)
Off EPM 22%
Def EPM 52%

Josh Green
Overall EPM -3.9 6th% (344th best in league)
Off EPM 33%
Def EPM 1%

Vasa Micic
Overall EPM -4.1 5th% (349th best in league)
Off EPM 1%
Def EPM 65%

Tidjane Salaun
Overall EPM -4.6 3rd% (358th best in league)
Off EPM 2%
Def EPM 35%

[JMAC3]

Brandon Miller
Overall EPM + 2.1 86th% (52nd best in league)
Off EPM 78%
Def EPM 86%

Defensive improvement has been massive since last year.

[EmpireFalls]

lol @ Salaun’s numbers

[yosemiteben]

Perfect timing to have a bunch of games

Read on Twitter

[JMAC3]

As bad as we have played, we are 2 games out of the 6 seed. If we could just figure out a way to win 3-4 games in a row it would be a massive swing this early in the year. We need to get 1 or 2 more bodies healthy for that to happen.

[Rich4114]

As bad as we have played, we are 2 games out of the 6 seed. If we could just figure out a way to win 3-4 games in a row it would be a massive swing this early in the year. We need to get 1 or 2 more bodies healthy for that to happen.

I feel like a lot of fans want to tank again for Flagg. I wish it was that simple. Adding Flagg or Bailey to this team would be something else, but I think what a lot of people fail to realize is that young teams with talent don't usually win in the NBA unless there's also vet experience and really good role players. There's too much on the shoulders of LaMelo and Miller right now and another rookie won't help that for another season or two at the earliest.

That said, there are some winnable home games coming up. Last night was one, but the depth caught up to us in the final quarter as expected. However, Orlando was almost as banged up as us and still had plenty of NBA talent to help support Franz at the end.

If Jeff is going to ride with this roster the whole way (and I think he might) then I think we're going to be in treadmill land anyway and have a really long shot at a top 3 pick. I would just try to improve the roster we have via trades, get healthy and see if we can get these young players some actual high stakes games experience finally.

Anyway, it's time to beat Miami and then Atlanta at home. Two games earlier in the season we could have won. In fact, we've been in almost every game this season except 2 that I can think of. It won't be sustainable if LaMelo needs to score 40 a game though.

[JMAC3]

2-8 through 2nd set of 10 games. Rough.
7/10 were games within 6 pts in scoring margin.

For the Season we are 25th in Off Rating, 18th in Def Rating and 24th in Net Rating.

Last 10 games we are 26th in Off Rating, 19th in Def Rating and 27th in Net Rating.

[Rich4114]

We should keep these going for each 10 game chunk

[Chapelchilla]

They are hustling and keeping games close but with all the injuries they can't close it out. Probably fine, we need to tank somewhat to keep the pick and get another piece in here.

[KingCat]

Kinda insane we are in the same exact situation as last year with having half a dozen key guys injured. Silver lining is this draft class looks much stronger than last time.