Over The Top: The James Borrego Thread

[yosemiteben]

usage is a metric. its not a turn of phrase

No ****, I'm pretty aware of what usage means. What's your point? You were the one that introduced usage into the conversation by saying Devonte is high usage, despite the fact that he talks 5th in usage on this team.

[DY_nasty]

usage is a metric. its not a turn of phrase

No ****, I'm pretty aware of what usage means. What's your point? You were the one that introduced usage into the conversation by saying Devonte is high usage, despite the fact that he talks 5th in usage on this team.

if you're referring to it as a metric, then its not some 'interpretation' like you're implying

devonte's is notably higher than what it should be compared to other guys in similar roles around the league. it is what it is.

and im starting to think that a lot of the opinions here are really exactly that - opinions specific to just here. graham's usage is higher than guys like haliburton and josh hart when he isn't playing better than either. and its a constant, there's been no adjustment really.

if you're upset say as much instead of blowing a lid bro

[euphorbus]

Coach Borrego needs to go now. Tonight.

Too many basketball, soccer, and especially football coaches, at all levels, care more about winning one stupid game than taking care of their players. Coach Borrego is one. Freaking idiot.

Thanks for taking care of the future of the franchise and one hell of a great young man, coach. If you prefer business terms instead of personal, you just blew up $1.5 billion.

[DY_nasty]

wild how jb talks all this lovely stuff about keeping guys rested and managing minutes throughout the year but he somehow reinserts lamelo several times in a game that's out of reach when the kid is holding his wrist all night

dont even know what to say anymore

[yosemiteben]

It just feels like setting up a false narrative - Graham's just a poor shooting chucker with unreasonably high usage.

The reality is that this season Devonte ranks 157th in the league in usage https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced/?sort=USG_PCT&dir=-1&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season, and 95th among guards (link).

No player with a USG % below 20% can reasonably be called high usage player.

Haliburton does have a surprisingly low usage given his efficiency, but that makes sense as a non-primary scoring rookie. I'm sure Kings fans wish he shot more.

[euphorbus]

I asked this in the game thread, but it still bothers me. If the Hornets scored a season-low 11 points in the first quarter, and did not score their fourth basket until 4:36 was left, why was Malik Monk sitting on the bench? He's the best bench scorer and was fourth man in, near the beginning of the second quarter. A coach has to adjust faster than that. And why did the coach only call one timeout, halfway through the quarter, while the team was being embarrassed on national television? The announcers were making fun of the Hornets' defense all the while.

[Rich4114]

I asked this in the game thread, but it still bothers me. If the Hornets scored a season-low 11 points in the first quarter, and did not score their fourth basket until 4:36 was left, why was Malik Monk sitting on the bench? He's the best bench scorer and was fourth man in, near the beginning of the second quarter. A coach has to adjust faster than that. And why did the coach only call one timeout, halfway through the quarter, while the team was being embarrassed on national television? The announcers were making fun of the Hornets' defense all the while.

All very legit questions that I think we'd all appreciate some insight around. Why did we feel like it made sense to double Lamarcus Aldridge like it was 2010 while BKN has elite 3pt shooters waiting on the perimeter? JB's up tempo pass a lot offense is really nice, but why do we include guys like Biz and Cody Martin in such an offense? Why do we setup Cody Zeller for open threes he won't hit? Run the offense, fine but don't stick guys who can't execute those positions in the game if you're going to run it. Yesterday we just flat out **** our pants. I hope they bounce back today, but they're missing a huge amount of offense and playmaking which means it's going to be the Martins show and I don't really look forward to that.

[GoBobs]

I am happy he was trying some different looks on defense, to bad all of them looked like ****. The defense has been terrible all year and I don’t have confidence JB can fix it. If it can’t be better than this we might as well get M Dantoni for offense.

[Roll Tide 09]

A lot might have been due to injuries, but the rotations are much better now. McDaniels and Washington starting is actually a very good call. Bringing Zeller off the bench is also a really good call.

[DY_nasty]

can't hate on the results. keeping the ship afloat with all these injuries is amazing

[Braggins]

A lot might have been due to injuries, but the rotations are much better now. McDaniels and Washington starting is actually a very good call. Bringing Zeller off the bench is also a really good call.

He pretty consistently seems to figure things out. It often takes him a little time, but hes willing to make big changes and he doesn't really take that much time to make the right adjustment when you consider the circumstances of this season and how little time the team has to practice and implement new strategies.

I wonder if the plan is to finish the year with PJ at center with McD starting? I could even see him considering PJ as the long term center if they don't find a better solution.

Rozier/Graham
Melo/Monk
Hayward/Martin?
McD/Miles
PJ/Cody

Once you accept that we just don't have any kind of answer for the few really dangerous giants in the league and we are better off just playing to our strengths, this rotation actually makes quite a bit of sense.

[BigSlam]

Amazing how much the narrative changes when we’re winning!!!

[DY_nasty]

Amazing how much the narrative changes when we’re winning!!!

we've been winning all year

doesn't make starting biyombo over cody any smarter

[BigSlam]

Amazing how much the narrative changes when we’re winning!!!

we've been winning all year

doesn't make starting biyombo over cody any smarter

I mean, we've won just a sniff over 50% of the time all year.

There had been a lot of posters saying JB should be fired during times like Jan when we lost 9 games out of 14.

[luciano-davidwesley]

JB's done some good things this year and he's done some dumb things as well. I'm still on the fence.

But credit where credit is due inserting McDaniels into the starting lineup has been a master-stroke so far.

[DY_nasty]

Amazing how much the narrative changes when we’re winning!!!

we've been winning all year

doesn't make starting biyombo over cody any smarter

I mean, we've won just a sniff over 50% of the time all year.

There had been a lot of posters saying JB should be fired during times like Jan when we lost 9 games out of 14.

keeping the ship afloat and overall positive while missing some of the most dynamic guys on the team (even when he didn't believe in giving significant time to two of those guys at *multiple* points this season ) is significant. the team could've checked out and they wouldn't have been wrong too either.

but coaching isn't just win/loss. some things are dumb and its okay to say as much. they don't stop being dumb just because you lose later rather than sooner. playing down to both OKC and the Milwaukee Stunt Doubles is concerning as hell, but a wins a win. and winning ugly is important when you're trying to build consistency.

[euphorbus]

Sports Illustrated interview with James Borrego:

https://www.si.com/nba/hornets/news/an-interview-with-james-borrego-part-i

Yes, he really likes Devonté Graham.

[DY_nasty]

Sports Illustrated interview with James Borrego:

https://www.si.com/nba/hornets/news/an-interview-with-james-borrego-part-i

Yes, he really likes Devonté Graham.

good read

fwiw i loved the stuff he's pushed regarding the culture here. its no longer steve clifford literally working himself to death, guys are more ready to own and study up. that's good for everyone.

the actual game management and long-term development stuff is shaky as hell though. the graham project in particular went from absolutely amazing development statement to disastrously off the rails this year to the point where its clear that our coaching staff struggles with being objective when it comes to certain players.


but at least he didn't say anything like "protect graham at all costs i was scared when that came up. ngl

[Rich4114]

I think with JB, once you get into his good graces you are locked in there for a very long time regardless of play. That’s why we’ve seen so much reliance on Devonte and the twins because of how they were playing right before the pandemic shut down. He has to accept that spark is gone for now and he’s got other pieces on this roster that will help him win games. I mean that’s all moot now since they’re literally all injured, but I will die on the hill of we should’ve been playing Monk as soon as he was cleared off COVID instead of the twins.

Also we need to remember that for as good of a job that Mitch has done lately, he has failed JB in a big way by not being able to find C help and I suspect the Hayward and Batum thing really moved him away from any focus on fixing that position this season.

Lastly, I think having almost no G league this season hurt the development momentum we had. I think one of Richards, Riller or Carey would have a role in the rotation at this point had they been able to have training camp and more g league time like McDaniels and the Twins last year.

[BigSlam]

I think with JB, once you get into his good graces you are locked in there for a very long time regardless of play. That’s why we’ve seen so much reliance on Devonte and the twins because of how they were playing right before the pandemic shut down.

The fact that JB toggles between which Twin plays and which one doesn't disproves this.