Lowe piece on Kemba's future with Charlotte

[amcoolio]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/kemba ... extension/

Lowe doing a great job as always, while Bonnell writes about where the Hornets are going to find Biyombo's backup

[Diop]

Interesting reading that Hendo joined MKG in undergoing a jumper reconstruction.

Is that the first time we've heard that?

[LamarMatic7]

Interesting reading that Hendo joined MKG in undergoing a jumper reconstruction.

Is that the first time we've heard that?

I certainly hadn't heard that.

I love how Lowe from time to time will drop some sentence out of the bigger picture from something he's seen when visiting team practices or talking with the players and it actually ia a huge revelation.

[LamarMatic7]

solid write-up as always by Lowe. One thing he got me on from Kemba's analysis was the few times Kemba drives to the basket. I suppose that if I was asked to guess, I'd say that Kemba's about league average when compared to other PGs but I wouldn't expect him to be among the guys with the least drives. Freaking Mario Chalmers drives more per game than him (or how about Will Bynum who averages two times less minutes than Kemba).

[Liver_Pooty]

Fantastic read. As said I found the Henderson working on redoing his shot interesting. Everything in that article was spot on.

[Liver_Pooty]

Interesting reading that Hendo joined MKG in undergoing a jumper reconstruction.

Is that the first time we've heard that?

Yes sir

[LofJ]

We need to keep Curry's free agency in 2017 in mind during our negotiations with Kemba. I know it's 3 years from now, but the more we pay Kemba the harder it will be to justify breaking the bank for Curry. That said the bright side of us drafting defensive players that need time to develop their offense (Biz, MKG) means that we could very well sign them to deals below their true value, which will make it easier for us to spend lavishly on someone like Curry. Three years is a long time in the NBA, but we would be foolish if we weren't at least considering the possibility of bringing Curry home in 2017.

[HornetJail]

Since this isn't an electronics lab report, I naturally had to read this right here right now . Excellent article, though I think Lowe sells Kemba short just a tad. Kemba's size really doesn't hurt him as much as the article suggests. Sure he gets blocked at the rim kind of often and guarding a supersized guard in the post would just be icky, but when you think about how many point guards are his size and smaller (there are several) his size really doesn't hurt him all that much. Hopefully most GMs see Kemba as an Isaiah Thomas caliber player rather than a Kyle Lowry caliber player. It's articles like this that actually keep me hopefully we'll get him for less than $10M a year.

And you guys know that I want nothing than to see Biyombo/MKG/Lance/Curry/Kemba or Biyombo/Vonleh/MKG/Curry/Kemba or Al/MKG/Lance/Curry/Kemba as our 2018 championship starting five.

[fatlever]

i would be curious to see the numbers between kemba's drive to the rim in 13/14 vs 12/13. kemba's reluctance to go in the paint last year really bothered me since it seemed like he had made a point of getting in the lane more under dunlap. kemba really settled for those long pull-up 2s off the pick, something that we mentioned a lot during the game threads last year. obviously our god awful spacing was a factor and will continue to be a factor every minute that MKG is playing with a broken shot and no confidence.

as for the salary - i would be concerned about anything north of 11 mil. i am also OK with letting this drag out to next summer as well.

[yosemiteben]

Someone tweet Zach Lowe and tell him that he is the patron saint of the Charlotte Hornets. So awesome that he chooses to devote so much time to delving into our team.

[Chuck Everett]

Hilarious, that Lowe hasn't written about that horrific contract Gordon Hayward received, yet he feels it's in the best interest of the Hornets to lowball Kemba Walker. 11-12 million for Kemba is a good contract. He has been great for Charlotte. Not his fault Hendo and MKG can't shoot worth a damn.

[Liver_Pooty]

Hilarious, that Lowe hasn't written about that horrific contract Gordon Hayward received, yet he feels it's in the best interest of the Hornets to lowball Kemba Walker. 11-12 million for Kemba is a good contract. He has been great for Charlotte. Not his fault Hendo and MKG can't shoot worth a damn.

No need to low ball, but also no need to rush things either. I'm not in any type of hurry to do anything with Walker until he proves he can improve his shooting.

[Chuck Everett]

Sure, that's a fine position to take as well. However, if you gave Kemba, Batum and Matthews, his shooting would look a lot different simply because he'd have more room to operate. The Hornets have had the worst shooting wings in basketball for years now. Hopefully Lance can help fix that.

[Zombiesonics]

Where are these gigantic pgs who are masterful on the block? size is not the issue as much as is shot selection. there are many worst defensive pgs who are deemed superstars (curry, kyrie, lillard). he needs to chill on those 5-15 nights though

[ball teacher]

solid write-up as always by Lowe. One thing he got me on from Kemba's analysis was the few times Kemba drives to the basket. I suppose that if I was asked to guess, I'd say that Kemba's about league average when compared to other PGs but I wouldn't expect him to be among the guys with the least drives. Freaking Mario Chalmers drives more per game than him (or how about Will Bynum who averages two times less minutes than Kemba).

Kemba rarely attacks opposing starting point guards without a pick to free him up, if there is a screen and a big switches on Kemba, his eyes light up and he goes into attack mode. If a backup point is in the game, Kemba also plays more confident and is more aggressive. The other starting point guards are usually bigger and just as athletic as Kemba so he really needs a pick to free him up. Almost all pg's use the pick like we do now, the game is changing, no more one on one breakdowns to get to the rim, now everyone, even the pg's seem to use it to get open. Kemba may just use it a little more cause of his size.

[LamarMatic7]

Hilarious, that Lowe hasn't written about that horrific contract Gordon Hayward received, yet he feels it's in the best interest of the Hornets to lowball Kemba Walker. 11-12 million for Kemba is a good contract. He has been great for Charlotte. Not his fault Hendo and MKG can't shoot worth a damn.

first off, not only did he write about Hayward but since then he has constantly dropped one-liners about Utah having to over-pay 3 million per year by not extending Gordon last autumn. so nothing hilarious here.

second off, you can't make the comparison between us and Utah. we're a good team that wants to become great. Utah is still in the middle of a painful re-building process. Utah basically didn't lose anything by over-paying Hayward since losing him would be a big and unnecessary setback in the re-build (they would basically set themselves two years back. imagine that team with Derrick Favors as their best plate) and they're unlikely to have to spend that much money these next couple of years anyway.

meanwhile, as Lowe said, if we over-pay Kemba at this point we risk being stuck in "just good" mode. and at no point did he suggested that we should "lowball Kemba". in fact, he mentioned more than once that they should try and evade angering Kemba. yet not over-spending is a good idea.

two totally different situations.

[LamarMatic7]

Where are these gigantic pgs who are masterful on the block? size is not the issue as much as is shot selection. there are many worst defensive pgs who are deemed superstars (curry, kyrie, lillard). he needs to chill on those 5-15 nights though

Zach acknowledged that overall Kemba is a positive on the defensive end, but as he said - if we ever meet a team with a big point guard in the playoffs, it could be the end for us just because of that. And I can easily see that happening. For all of the struggles Deron Williams has been through, per example, against Kemba he will back him down from the three point line and create havoc just because we have to scramble all around the floor. It can become a real disadvantage. We had a real tough time because of some of these match-ups last year against Brooklyn.

who are these gigantic PGs? well there doesn't have to be a dozen of them. as he said: "He competes his ass off, but if the Hornets ever meet a point guard with post-up skills in the playoffs, they could be toast." It's a simple acknowledgment that if we ever come across one it could be a painful thing to cost us a potentially great season. There are John Walls and Derrick Roses out there.

[Zombiesonics]

Where are these gigantic pgs who are masterful on the block? size is not the issue as much as is shot selection. there are many worst defensive pgs who are deemed superstars (curry, kyrie, lillard). he needs to chill on those 5-15 nights though

Zach acknowledged that overall Kemba is a positive on the defensive end, but as he said - if we ever meet a team with a big point guard in the playoffs, it could be the end for us just because of that. And I can easily see that happening. For all of the struggles Deron Williams has been through, per example, against Kemba he will back him down from the three point line and create havoc just because we have to scramble all around the floor. It can become a real disadvantage. We had a real tough time because of some of these match-ups last year against Brooklyn.

who are these gigantic PGs? well there doesn't have to be a dozen of them. as he said: "He competes his ass off, but if the Hornets ever meet a point guard with post-up skills in the playoffs, they could be toast." It's a simple acknowledgment that if we ever come across one it could be a painful thing to cost us a potentially great season. There are John Walls and Derrick Roses out there.

KW plays wall quite well. And defends him well. But I get your point, I remember holiday toying with him once last year, passing over his head and stuff. But that can't be the crux of getting paid or not, guys like parker/curry are at the same disadvantage. He just needs to desperately raise his % from the field and continue becoming a prolific distributor. I can't agree with lowe when he considers him an average starting pg, you can't just replace walker with lin and call it day. He brings a lot of leadership to the table.

[fatlever]

andre miller and kyle lowry, two more guards who have bullied kemba around in the past.

overall, cant complain too much with his defense. almost every good defensive player will have a few holes that are exploited by a particular type of player.

lowe should have mentioned tha kemba is one of the best i have ever seen at breaking up a 2+-on-1 fast break by guessing where the pass is going and deflecting it or stealing it.

[JDR720]

i would be curious to see the numbers between kemba's drive to the rim in 13/14 vs 12/13. kemba's reluctance to go in the paint last year really bothered me since it seemed like he had made a point of getting in the lane more under dunlap. kemba really settled for those long pull-up 2s off the pick, something that we mentioned a lot during the game threads last year. obviously our god awful spacing was a factor and will continue to be a factor every minute that MKG is playing with a broken shot and no confidence.

as for the salary - i would be concerned about anything north of 11 mil. i am also OK with letting this drag out to next summer as well.

Don't know about drives, but in 12/13 he took 551 shots in the paint and 352 midrange shots, last season he only took 362 shots in paint and 425 midrange shots