It's the Dog Days of Summer: Here's what worries me

[Eoghan]

I really don't have high hopes for Batum's playmaking to make a big impact b/c unlike McRoberts or even back to the Diaw days, the only time this team's had an offense that looked passable was when a versatile big could penetrate off of screens and dribble hand-offs. This was a big part of the McBob magic, he could shoot (sort of), drive and kick or finish if he was unchecked. Defenses actually had to guess when he went into a DHO.

Batum has the ability to do this but I'm 90% certain that in Clifford's Mayan calendar Batum is cemented as a wing and only bigs are allowed to set any important screens in his offense. All I can say for sure is that Batum won't commit nearly as many basketball illiterate plays as Hendo did.

[Braggins]

I agree completely. With his style of play, the better the teammates the less effective (or more detrimental) Kemba becomes. At least if he were taller, a better shooter, defender, ball mover, etc he could play off the ball or be additive on defense.

When in his career has his play become more detrimental with an improved supporting cast?

Even last year the narrative of he had to shoot cause his crummy teammates is bunk. The team was better with Williams, shot better, passed better, higher efg%, more efficient etc..

The problem with Kemba is he dominates the ball, even though Batum will be the best distributor. But when Batum has the ball that means Kemba is "spacing" the floor. A conundrum for sure.

You are talking about a roughly two to three week span of good play by Williams that happened after he had spent all season playing limited minutes and then was thrown into a starting spot being completely rested. His defense was atrocious, we still had a losing record over that span, and his play fell off a cliff pretty quickly and ge also shot below 40% from the field. I dont think that his little run is a strong argument for anything really. It would be like me ignoring everything except Kembas December run and acting like that proved he was a good first option. I really dont know anyone could watch last season and come to the conclusion that Kemba was simply taking too many shots because hes a ballhog and not because we didn't really have better optionss. I wish he would have just passed to Hendo or Lance at the end of every shot clock to show how silly some of these arguments are.

He obviously had a bad year last season but so did almost everyone on our roster. The only people who looked reasonable last season were players with no offensive responsibility (MKG and Cody). Kembas efficiency was atrocious last season, but relative to the rest of the roster it was average'ish. We had one guard on our roster that played relevant minutes and shot over 40% from the field. All last year proved was that roster and system didnt work and Kemba shouldnt be a 1st option.

[Liver_Pooty]

I'm actually pretty worried about MKG. Not worried about what he is going to do on the court, but I think expectations of him are a tad too high right now, and need to be tempered by fans. I firmly believe its going to take at least another year or two for him to hit threes at a half decent rate, if he ever does.

[yosemiteben]

My worry with MKG starts and ends with his health. If he stays healthy, he'll be fine even if he never extends his range.

And agreed with Braggins again. Last season was just an all around train wreck.

[Liver_Pooty]

My worry with MKG starts and ends with his health. If he stays healthy, he'll be fine even if he never extends his range.

And agreed with Braggins again. Last season was just an all around train wreck.

He does need to extend his range at least a little bit. A wing who can't shoot at all from 3 is problematic. He will get there eventually though.

[Mystical Apples]

When in his career has his play become more detrimental with an improved supporting cast?

Even last year the narrative of he had to shoot cause his crummy teammates is bunk. The team was better with Williams, shot better, passed better, higher efg%, more efficient etc..

The problem with Kemba is he dominates the ball, even though Batum will be the best distributor. But when Batum has the ball that means Kemba is "spacing" the floor. A conundrum for sure.

You are talking about a roughly two to three week span of good play by Williams that happened after he had spent all season playing limited minutes and then was thrown into a starting spot being completely rested. His defense was atrocious, we still had a losing record over that span, and his play fell off a cliff pretty quickly and ge also shot below 40% from the field. I dont think that his little run is a strong argument for anything really. It would be like me ignoring everything except Kembas December run and acting like that proved he was a good first option. I really dont know anyone could watch last season and come to the conclusion that Kemba was simply taking too many shots because hes a ballhog and not because we didn't really have better optionss. I wish he would have just passed to Hendo or Lance at the end of every shot clock to show how silly some of these arguments are.

He obviously had a bad year last season but so did almost everyone on our roster. The only people who looked reasonable last season were players with no offensive responsibility (MKG and Cody). Kembas efficiency was atrocious last season, but relative to the rest of the roster it was average'ish. We had one guard on our roster that played relevant minutes and shot over 40% from the field. All last year proved was that roster and system didnt work and Kemba shouldnt be a 1st option.

I don't think Kemba is a ballhog. But since he's a smallish pg who isn't a good ball-mover or shooter, he does what he does best - dribbling and safe passes to nowhere. The problem for his team is that he's even less valuable without the ball in his hands (thus the conundrum). The fact remains there's no empirical evidence to suggest his play translates into positive contributions for the Hornets. Hopefully that changes this year.

[Mystical Apples]

And I do think Kemba has value to a team but not as a starting guard leading a team in shots and usage. His skill set would be better employed as a scoring third guard off the bench similar to Jamal Crawford.

[Cheeze]

And I do think Kemba has value to a team but not as a starting guard leading a team in shots and usage. His skill set would be better employed as a scoring third guard off the bench similar to Jamal Crawford.

And you can't fix short. Even though Prince reportedly took people to school on the court while wearing some serious elevator shoes.

[Mystical Apples]

And I do think Kemba has value to a team but not as a starting guard leading a team in shots and usage. His skill set would be better employed as a scoring third guard off the bench similar to Jamal Crawford.

And you can't fix short. Even though Prince reportedly took people to school on the court while wearing some serious elevator shoes.

Would be epic though if he signed. Had no idea he balled with Fletch.