Charles in Charge: The Charles Lee Thread

[fatlever]

Read on Twitter

?t=MjleatiKZCz-TVh8E08BGA&s=19

Lee long response on our slow pace

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

[wilson115]

As horrible as our offense has been, Charles doesn't sound clueless talking about it at all.

[fatlever]

Read on Twitter

Not really Charles Lee related per se come up but we lost the head of our Health and performance staff going from full time to a part time to deal with a family matter back in Michigan.

[KembaWalker]

This guy was the top dog of the big medical team the Schnotkin proponents were so excited about. Going to tally this whole project as another fat L on the Schnotkin report card but best wishes to the dudes family

[JDR720]

Is it time to have the "Do we Dunlap him" discussions yet?

[Bassman]

Is it time to have the "Do we Dunlap him" discussions yet?

Sadly a fair question. But…no way Peterson stacks all his other early blunders with a cherry on top by sacking Lee. Nor do I think the owners would want that done so soon. Excuses galore exist to blame this putrid season’s performance apart from Lee’s guidance.

[SWedd523]

I thought this was all part of the 4D chess master long term success plan?

Firing him would seem to signal that's either horse **** or they're admitting game

[Hornet Mania]

I always preach patience with new coaches, at least for the first year or two (Clifford's second stint was an exception, but he also wasn't really new). I just think it sends an awful signal to other prospective coaches and often these guys get thrown into no-win situations like ours and it's impossible to succeed.

All that being said, Charles Lee has given me no reason to think he's an NBA HC since Summer League and even that is looking more and more like fools gold. We're disorganized every night, we constantly get off to poor starts, and there is no noticeable improvement as the season has progressed. At an individual level the only players who seem to have taken a step forward are NSJ and KJ Simpson, and those are baby steps towards being possible rotation players on a decent team.

The only thing that speaks well of Lee is that the team tends to not quit, at least until this past week. They'd get down by 20+ points in the first half and then claw most of it back. That indicates the players will fight for him and aren't just rebelling against a known moron. I'd weigh post-season player interviews heavily when deciding whether to bring Lee back for a second year. If the players swear up and down he's telling them to do the right thing and they aren't for reasons (they suck, they forgot, they went rogue) that might be enough to give him a mulligan but right now I lean towards firing him for poor performance even under these circumstances.

[Rich4114]

My issue with Lee is the things he says make it seem like he's just parroting corporate America speak from motivational book that don't actually work in practice there let alone in a professional sports environment. Like when he says "we're gonna be obsessed with daily improvement" it actually annoys me. So I'm very suspicious on him. He gets a free pass though because I don't see how anyone can be expected to win games with the way the org is being run right now and the players available. You can't do tanking things and then fire the head coach for not winning enough. So we're gonna have to wait until Jeff puts a competitive roster together (or attempts to, since he has NOT attempted to yet) and then see if Lee can work with that or not.

[EmpireFalls]

Lee has us in #30 of the current power rankings.

https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2024-25-week-20

Congrats to Coach Lee! What an achievement!

[yosemiteben]

I'm very sympathetic to Lee about having to field a rotation that constantly changes in unpredictable ways. There is no consistency in availability, even guys like Mark and Melo who have been healthy are routinely out for injury management. It is super difficult to build a competitive team when no one has any consistency in roles or expectations.

[Braggins]

I honestly don't feel very good about Lee but Im not ready to throw him under the bus after one season, especially given the circumstances.

[HornetJail]

Lee will get another year for the same reason Salaun gets his 3rd year option. We're not bailing this fast on the first two moves of Peterson's Hornets career in one season, no matter how disastrous they are.

The seat should be warm though. If he's still this bad of a coach with another top 5 pick, and hopefully more depth on the roster, he shouldn't make it to the 2026 offseason, and I've seen no reason to believe he should.

[Rich4114]

Lee will get another year for the same reason Salaun gets his 3rd year option. We're not bailing this fast on the first two moves of Peterson's Hornets career in one season, no matter how disastrous they are.

The seat should be warm though. If he's still this bad of a coach with another top 5 pick, and hopefully more depth on the roster, he shouldn't make it to the 2026 offseason, and I've seen no reason to believe he should.

Pretty much. It would take a Udoka level scandal for Lee to be removed this soon so we'll see one full year next year too. If it's in the realm of this season, he absolutely should not survive. Many times coaches don't survive one season like this but the newness of the ownership group and GM provide Lee an extra life.

[JMAC3]

Charles Lee is just not the answer, he says all the right things but on the court we are terrible consistently.
We have 14 wins, 13 of those LaMelo has played.

We are 1-22 without LaMelo this year.

Lee basically is bringing no value, it is simply whether LaMelo plays. We are still terrible but we are 13-24 with LaMelo and have a chance.

Trading LaMelo and keeping Lee would be such a Hornets move.

[yosemiteben]

Well yeah, Melo is literally the only facilitator on the active roster right now. It's not Lee's fault that he's been given a rotation half made up of guys with literally zero meaningful NBA rotation experience and zero creation or facilitation skills, and only one member of the rotation that is a plus primary ball handler or facilitator.

[amcoolio]

He’s one and done. He gets them to play hard but is completely overmatched every night. Unless there is a Canales turn around the next month it’s over

[JustBuzzin]

He’s one and done. He gets them to play hard but is completely overmatched every night. Unless there is a Canales turn around the next month it’s over

JJ Redick should have been our hire. How did we let him leave the building smh

[EmpireFalls]

He’s one and done. He gets them to play hard but is completely overmatched every night. Unless there is a Canales turn around the next month it’s over

Owners are all buddy buddy with him and Jeff. They go way back to the Hawks days.

He’s coming back even if we lose the next 20 games by thirty. Welcome to the MJ era all over again.

[JMAC3]

Charlotte choosing to keep Lee who is probably the 28th best coach in the league at best out of 30 coaches and trading LaMelo who is the 40th best player in the NBA out of 450 players.

Make it make sense lol.