Hornets Lineup Talk

[Benjamin Linus]

From nba.com

The Hornets’ offense scored just 97.2 points per 100 possessions, the worst mark among NBA teams in the preseason (also ranking last in 3-point percentage at 23.9%). But that broke down to 109.0 per 100 in 88 minutes with Ball on the floor and an anemic 86.9 per 100 in 104 minutes with him off the floor.

The Hornets outscored their opponents by 27.5 points per 100 possessions in 58 minutes with LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, P.J. Washington and Mark Williams on the floor together. But that group was a minus-11 in less than 16 minutes against Boston on Thursday.

[fatlever]

when was the last time this franchise had a player who was near top of the league in FTA? Off top of my head, I'm guessing Kemba, Dwight and Crash are only player to finish in top 20 in the past 20 seasons.
edit: nailed it, only Dwight (for the wrong reasons), Kemba and Wallace have finished in top 20 in FTA. Wallace did it 3 years in a row.
Side note: I maintain that Crash is still the most underrated player in franchise history. Dude was so good, when healthy.


22-23 - Rozier, 59th, 3.5/g
21-22 - Melo, 46th, 3.2/g
20-21 - Melo, 50th, 3.2/g
19-20 - Graham, 49th, 3.7/g
18-19 - Kemba, 21st, 5.5/g
17-18 - Dwight, 7th, 7.7/g
17-18 - Kemba, 15th, 5.5/g
16-17 - Kemba, 30th, 4.5/g
15-16 - Kemba, 22nd, 5.4/g
14-15 - Kemba, 25th, 4.6/g
13-14 - Kemba, 35th, 4.5/g
12-13 - Henderson, 21st, 4.5/g
11-12 - Henderson, 44th, 3.7/g
10-11 - Jackson, 41st, 4.6/g
09-10 - Wallace, 11th, 7.2/g
08-09 - Wallace, 17th, 6.4/g
07-08 - Wallace, 13th, 6.9/g
06-07 - Wallace, 23rd, 6.2/g
05-06 - Knight, 35th, 4.6/g
04-05 - Okafor, 37th, 4.7/g

[JDR720]

I don't see that changing any time soon either unless Mark becomes a scoring threat outside of putbacks and lobs. Pretty much everyone else is a finesse player.

Miles should/could be that guy, but he's always taken a weirdly low number of FT's.

[Liver_Pooty]

when was the last time this franchise had a player who was near top of the league in FTA? Off top of my head, I'm guessing Kemba, Dwight and Crash are only player to finish in top 20 in the past 20 seasons.
edit: nailed it, only Dwight (for the wrong reasons), Kemba and Wallace have finished in top 20 in FTA. Wallace did it 3 years in a row.
Side note: I maintain that Crash is still the most underrated player in franchise history. Dude was so good, when healthy.


22-23 - Rozier, 59th, 3.5/g
21-22 - Melo, 46th, 3.2/g
20-21 - Melo, 50th, 3.2/g
19-20 - Graham, 49th, 3.7/g
18-19 - Kemba, 21st, 5.5/g
17-18 - Dwight, 7th, 7.7/g
17-18 - Kemba, 15th, 5.5/g
16-17 - Kemba, 30th, 4.5/g
15-16 - Kemba, 22nd, 5.4/g
14-15 - Kemba, 25th, 4.6/g
13-14 - Kemba, 35th, 4.5/g
12-13 - Henderson, 21st, 4.5/g
11-12 - Henderson, 44th, 3.7/g
10-11 - Jackson, 41st, 4.6/g
09-10 - Wallace, 11th, 7.2/g
08-09 - Wallace, 17th, 6.4/g
07-08 - Wallace, 13th, 6.9/g
06-07 - Wallace, 23rd, 6.2/g
05-06 - Knight, 35th, 4.6/g
04-05 - Okafor, 37th, 4.7/g

Maggette was supposed to be that dude, but he was beyond washed by the time we got him.

[HornetJail]

when was the last time this franchise had a player who was near top of the league in FTA? Off top of my head, I'm guessing Kemba, Dwight and Crash are only player to finish in top 20 in the past 20 seasons.
edit: nailed it, only Dwight (for the wrong reasons), Kemba and Wallace have finished in top 20 in FTA. Wallace did it 3 years in a row.
Side note: I maintain that Crash is still the most underrated player in franchise history. Dude was so good, when healthy.


22-23 - Rozier, 59th, 3.5/g
21-22 - Melo, 46th, 3.2/g
20-21 - Melo, 50th, 3.2/g
19-20 - Graham, 49th, 3.7/g
18-19 - Kemba, 21st, 5.5/g
17-18 - Dwight, 7th, 7.7/g
17-18 - Kemba, 15th, 5.5/g
16-17 - Kemba, 30th, 4.5/g
15-16 - Kemba, 22nd, 5.4/g
14-15 - Kemba, 25th, 4.6/g
13-14 - Kemba, 35th, 4.5/g
12-13 - Henderson, 21st, 4.5/g
11-12 - Henderson, 44th, 3.7/g
10-11 - Jackson, 41st, 4.6/g
09-10 - Wallace, 11th, 7.2/g
08-09 - Wallace, 17th, 6.4/g
07-08 - Wallace, 13th, 6.9/g
06-07 - Wallace, 23rd, 6.2/g
05-06 - Knight, 35th, 4.6/g
04-05 - Okafor, 37th, 4.7/g

Maggette was supposed to be that dude, but he was beyond washed by the time we got him.

even washed Maggette averaged 6.5 in just 27mpg, he just didn't play enough to quslify

[fatlever]

miles should be a guy that lives at the ft line, but weirdly doesn't
melo is just really bad at drawing/selling fouls, but he should eventually be in top 20 every year

[Rich4114]

miles should be a guy that lives at the ft line, but weirdly doesn't
melo is just really bad at drawing/selling fouls, but he should eventually be in top 20 every year

LaMelo is looking like he might land in the top 20 this season based on how he’s been so far.

[Rich4114]

Ok so we need a third center. We can’t go on with just Mark and Nick. If one gets hurt or there’s foul trouble, we’re screwed. Who is out there that can be our emergency big? Grizz signed Biz. Anyone else who can grab rebounds and be in the way available? Seems like Nnaji just isn’t ready or available.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Nerlens Noel, Gorgui Dieng, Derrick Favors, JRE, and Khem Birch are probably the best free agent bigs.

Kaminski if we want a shooter lol or Dieng.

I'd be going with JRE, Dieng or Noel.

[CuseMayne]

I vote Noel. He's solid.

[Diop]

Surprised Clifford hasn’t pushed for Birch.

[HornetJail]

give me Nerlens over these turbo-bums

[fatlever]

Theo, Thor and Nick are not NBA level rotation players. Need to move on from them by next season. I dout Bryce and Bouk will ever be either. Move on from them. Maybe still hope for Bryce but i doubt it.

[Rich4114]

Theo, Thor and Nick are not NBA level rotation players. Need to move on from them by next season. I dout Bryce and Bouk will ever be either. Move on from them. Maybe still hope for Bryce but i doubt it.

Eh, I think Nick and Theo are capable enough. McDaniels was more productive in games than Thor so far. But the reality is, this team lacks depth and experience. If Cody's knees are cooked, we are severely lacking in the perimeter D department. I really hope we can get him back and he's healthy, very soon. But regardless, this team needs to shuffle pieces around. We need a third C (Kai burned a golden opportunity IMO) and we need a junkyard dog type guy to give spot mins off the bench.

[SWedd523]

Theo, Thor and Nick are not NBA level rotation players. Need to move on from them by next season. I dout Bryce and Bouk will ever be either. Move on from them. Maybe still hope for Bryce but i doubt it.

Disagree on the first three. Argument on Theo and Nick should be whether or not they function as a primary backup. They're both NBA players. Thor still has a couple of years as a 13th man to figure it out. He's cheap and has enough tools to be fine in his seat at the end of the bench.

[JMAC3]

NBA rotation player to me means they are in your top 10 every single night or at least would be on most teams.
Maledon is a 3rd pg, he should not be every night rotational player. Hence why nobody signed him and he is back on a 2 way deal. Same with Ish Smith, not a real rotation player in the NBA.

Thor also not a real rotation player IMO. He is more of a 12th man that sometimes can play if the matchup is right, foul trouble type. If he isn't making standstill 3s he is pretty much worthless on offense and isn't a true difference maker defensively.

Nick though has proven he is a solid rotation piece, he has been bad to start the year but we have a large enough sample size that says differently.

McGowens and Bouknight are 14th/15th man types who should never be counted on to play and just be in the teams development program. They would be fine in that role if we didn't have Ish, NSj and Thor also on the roster.

[fatlever]

Yeah, that's what I meant by rotation player, that they're in your top ten.

Theo and Thor should not be in any team's top 10 rotation players. Nick in his current form is much better suited as if third string Center.

Getting Miles back and hopefully a healthy Cody back will certainly help. But neither of those really solve the giant hole we have at backup point guard and potentially back up Center.

[SWedd523]

Yeah, that's what I meant by rotation player, that they're in your top ten.

Theo and Thor should not be in any team's top 10 rotation players. Nick in his current form is much better suited as if third string Center.

Getting Miles back and hopefully a healthy Cody back will certainly help. But neither of those really solve the giant hole we have at backup point guard and potentially back up Center.

They aren't though.

They're only getting the minutes they are because Cody and Frank are injured and Miles is sitting out. Still have Ish to consider as well.

[GoBobs]

We have a coach that doesn't make adjustments so lineup talk is kind of silly but....

We should probably try starting Nick Richards. There are a lot of teams that you just can't play drop coverage on and we can't ask Mark to switch on to guards. This would also help us to be faster up and down the floor out of the gate. Right now we are getting lit up every first quarter.

[JMAC3]

Probably time to make a swap in the starting lineup.

G. Hayward - T. Rozier - P. Washington - L. Ball - M. Williams
109.8 Orat 120.4 Drating -10.6 Net Rating.

Main Bench Units have negative net ratings too so not much we can lose.