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How does he still have a job as our beat writer...

Let me reiterate importance of three-point shooting to the Charlotte Hornets. Last season, the team ranked eighth in the number of three-pointers attempted per game, at 28.6. But they ranked only eighteenth in three-point percentage, at 35.1%, behind even the Memphis Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks. The only reason it was even that high was because Marco Belinelli and Brian Roberts joined Kemba Walker in shooting over 35%. Those two guys are gone, for good reasons. But who is going to replace their three-point shooting? The overall shooting percentage was only good enough for 26th place in the NBA, out of thirty teams. It is imperative to the success of the Hornets that a couple of rotation players step up and knock down the threes. Otherwise, another losing season will lie ahead.

Looking at you marvin, frank and lamb

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UNCNYC wrote:Too much talent to not make it and be at least a 4 or 5 seed if staying healthy. I'd say about 45-49 wins

I've realized i know absolutely nothing about your team so im stalking your board. Would you mind explaining the reasoning of your post to someone who doesn't know much about the hornets?

I would appreciate it.

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rasta_marley wrote:

UNCNYC wrote:Too much talent to not make it and be at least a 4 or 5 seed if staying healthy. I'd say about 45-49 wins

I've realized i know absolutely nothing about your team so im stalking your board. Would you mind explaining the reasoning of your post to someone who doesn't know much about the hornets?

I would appreciate it.

Sent from my LG-K373 using RealGM mobile app

Speaking on behalf of UNCNY - the case for Hornets winning 45-49

- Team only one year removed from winning 46 wins, tied for 3rd best record in East (tiebreaker pushed to 6th seed)
- Last year team was a ~55 win team with Cody Zeller in the lineup, and ~31 win team w/out

Rarely does a non-superstar prove to be as indispensable as Zeller (10.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.6 APG) was for the Hornets last season. With Zeller, Charlotte went 33-29. Without him, they went 3-17. With Zeller on the court, the Hornets had a +5.4 net rating, similar to the 55-win Rockets. With him off the court, the Hornets dropped to a -3.6 net rating, nearly as bad as the 31-win Knicks.

- Center depth went from weakness to strength
- Bench should be much improved - MCW, Monk, Lamb, Frank, Cody is a much better bench than Sessions, Marco, Lamb, Frank, Hawes
- Assumed improvement from Frank
- MKG full 18 months removed from shoulder injury (he clearly was still not 100% last year, physically or mentally)
- Howard should improve defense, rim protection
- No reason to think Kemba won't sustain his level of play
- Batum completely rested headed into season for 1st time in years, no national team duties
- Hornets lost ton of games in last 5 minutes last year. Advanced stats have team closer to top 10 last year. 0-9 in games decided by 3 points, 0-6 in OT (or something along those lines).

Bottom line, Hornets were much better team last year than record would indicate, especially when Cody was healthy.

fatlever wrote:

rasta_marley wrote:

UNCNYC wrote:Too much talent to not make it and be at least a 4 or 5 seed if staying healthy. I'd say about 45-49 wins

I've realized i know absolutely nothing about your team so im stalking your board. Would you mind explaining the reasoning of your post to someone who doesn't know much about the hornets?

I would appreciate it.

Sent from my LG-K373 using RealGM mobile app

Speaking on behalf of UNCNY - the case for Hornets winning 45-49

- Team only one year removed from winning 46 wins, tied for 3rd best record in East (tiebreaker pushed to 6th seed)
- Last year team was a ~55 win team with Cody Zeller in the lineup, and ~31 win team w/out

Rarely does a non-superstar prove to be as indispensable as Zeller (10.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.6 APG) was for the Hornets last season. With Zeller, Charlotte went 33-29. Without him, they went 3-17. With Zeller on the court, the Hornets had a +5.4 net rating, similar to the 55-win Rockets. With him off the court, the Hornets dropped to a -3.6 net rating, nearly as bad as the 31-win Knicks.

- Center depth went from weakness to strength
- Bench should be much improved - MCW, Monk, Lamb, Frank, Cody is a much better bench than Sessions, Marco, Lamb, Frank, Hawes
- Assumed improvement from Frank
- MKG full 18 months removed from shoulder injury (he clearly was still not 100% last year, physically or mentally)
- Howard should improve defense, rim protection
- No reason to think Kemba won't sustain his level of play
- Batum completely rested headed into season for 1st time in years, no national team duties
- Hornets lost ton of games in last 5 minutes last year. Advanced stats have team closer to top 10 last year. 0-9 in games decided by 3 points, 0-6 in OT (or something along those lines).

Bottom line, Hornets were much better team last year than record would indicate, especially when Cody was healthy.

To add on to this, I remember us being even with the OKC Thunder in terms of point differential right up until Kemba went down with 2 games to go and we torpedoed the last two games of the year. OKC won 47 with that differential, we won 36. That's big when discussing our 0-6 in OT or our 0-9 in games decided by =< 3 pts.

No reason to believe this was anything more than a statistical aberration. If this season repeated itself with the same players missing time and so on, we'd probably be a .500 team

49-33

fatlever wrote:

rasta_marley wrote:

UNCNYC wrote:Too much talent to not make it and be at least a 4 or 5 seed if staying healthy. I'd say about 45-49 wins

I've realized i know absolutely nothing about your team so im stalking your board. Would you mind explaining the reasoning of your post to someone who doesn't know much about the hornets?

I would appreciate it.

Sent from my LG-K373 using RealGM mobile app

Speaking on behalf of UNCNY - the case for Hornets winning 45-49

- Team only one year removed from winning 46 wins, tied for 3rd best record in East (tiebreaker pushed to 6th seed)
- Last year team was a ~55 win team with Cody Zeller in the lineup, and ~31 win team w/out

Rarely does a non-superstar prove to be as indispensable as Zeller (10.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.6 APG) was for the Hornets last season. With Zeller, Charlotte went 33-29. Without him, they went 3-17. With Zeller on the court, the Hornets had a +5.4 net rating, similar to the 55-win Rockets. With him off the court, the Hornets dropped to a -3.6 net rating, nearly as bad as the 31-win Knicks.

- Center depth went from weakness to strength
- Bench should be much improved - MCW, Monk, Lamb, Frank, Cody is a much better bench than Sessions, Marco, Lamb, Frank, Hawes
- Assumed improvement from Frank
- MKG full 18 months removed from shoulder injury (he clearly was still not 100% last year, physically or mentally)
- Howard should improve defense, rim protection
- No reason to think Kemba won't sustain his level of play
- Batum completely rested headed into season for 1st time in years, no national team duties
- Hornets lost ton of games in last 5 minutes last year. Advanced stats have team closer to top 10 last year. 0-9 in games decided by 3 points, 0-6 in OT (or something along those lines).

Bottom line, Hornets were much better team last year than record would indicate, especially when Cody was healthy.

Thanks for taking the time to write that i like zeller quite a bit ( alot of people are down on him)

Based on your points while i was initially skeptical i guess 10 to 12 more wins this season is quite do able for you guys.

And yeah i guess compared to last season your bench should be much improved.

Thanks again for the info.

fatlever wrote:

rasta_marley wrote:

UNCNYC wrote:Too much talent to not make it and be at least a 4 or 5 seed if staying healthy. I'd say about 45-49 wins

I've realized i know absolutely nothing about your team so im stalking your board. Would you mind explaining the reasoning of your post to someone who doesn't know much about the hornets?

I would appreciate it.

Sent from my LG-K373 using RealGM mobile app

Speaking on behalf of UNCNY - the case for Hornets winning 45-49

- Team only one year removed from winning 46 wins, tied for 3rd best record in East (tiebreaker pushed to 6th seed)
- Last year team was a ~55 win team with Cody Zeller in the lineup, and ~31 win team w/out

Rarely does a non-superstar prove to be as indispensable as Zeller (10.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.6 APG) was for the Hornets last season. With Zeller, Charlotte went 33-29. Without him, they went 3-17. With Zeller on the court, the Hornets had a +5.4 net rating, similar to the 55-win Rockets. With him off the court, the Hornets dropped to a -3.6 net rating, nearly as bad as the 31-win Knicks.

- Center depth went from weakness to strength
- Bench should be much improved - MCW, Monk, Lamb, Frank, Cody is a much better bench than Sessions, Marco, Lamb, Frank, Hawes
- Assumed improvement from Frank
- MKG full 18 months removed from shoulder injury (he clearly was still not 100% last year, physically or mentally)
- Howard should improve defense, rim protection
- No reason to think Kemba won't sustain his level of play
- Batum completely rested headed into season for 1st time in years, no national team duties
- Hornets lost ton of games in last 5 minutes last year. Advanced stats have team closer to top 10 last year. 0-9 in games decided by 3 points, 0-6 in OT (or something along those lines).

Bottom line, Hornets were much better team last year than record would indicate, especially when Cody was healthy.

This is a good summary except we won 48 games two years ago not 46.

The weakness of the East and the strength of our primary lineup, depth, and roster age bodes well.

If we stay reasonably healthy I think 45-37 is practically a given. With 50+ very much in play

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50 wins and a Dwight Howard resurgence