NBA: Buzz City Magic 🐝
Why you should be watching LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and the Charlotte Hornets this year.
Charlotte played an incredible game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night, and they showcased all the reasons why LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and the Hornets are must-watch TV this season.
For starters, you’ve got play-by-play man Eric Collins and color commentator Dell Curry anchoring the viewing experience. Collins makes every Hornets play exciting and inspiring, it’s as if he’s orchestrating the momentum of the team as they race down the court. And he has great chemistry with Dell, the father of our favorite point guard who spent 10 seasons with Charlotte from 1988 to 1998. Although he was never an incredibly high usage player—he only averaged more than 30 minutes per have once and his career-high scoring average was just 16 points—Curry was a marksman of his time. From 1991 through 1999 he shot better than 40% from three in eight consecutive seasons, and would end up doing it nine times in a 10 season span from ‘91 through 2001, including a miraculous 47.6% from deep for Milwaukee in the ‘98-‘99 season.
Then there’s the roster that owner Michael Jordan and president of basketball operations and GM Mitch Kupchak have put together over the last few years, highlighted by the third pick in the 2020 Draft and 2020-21 Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball. The Hornets have only made the playoffs three times since Jordan became the team’s second-largest shareholder in 2006, and just twice since he became the majority owner in 2010—all three of those times losing in the first round. The last time they made the postseason was in 2016, when a 25-year-old Kemba Walker and the Hornets took Dwayne Wade (34) and the 3rd-seeded Heat to seven games before being eliminated.
Kemba (81G: 20.9P-4.4R-5.2A), who had yet to be selected for an All-Star team, was joined by SF Nicolas Batum (70G: 14.9P-6.2R-5.8A), PF Marvin Williams (81G: 11.7P-6.4R-1.4A), C Cody Zeller (73G: 8.7P-6.2R-1A), and the Jeremy’s Lin (78G: 11.7P-3.2R-3A) and Lamb (66G: 8.8P-3.8R-1.2A), as the most-played members of the roster under head coach Steve Clifford. Walker was paired in the backcourt with a combination of Lin, Lamb, SG/SF P.J. Hairston (43G: 6P-2.7R-0.6A), and SG Courtney Lee (28G: 8.9P-3.1R-2.1A). The Hornets were bottom five in the league in field goal percentage, two point makes, two point attempts, and offensive rebounds. They went 48-34 and finished 6th in the Eastern Conference behind the Isaiah Thomas Celtics, the Paul Millsap Hawks, Wade’s post-big-three Heat, the still-intact Lowry-DeRozan Raptors, and the conference tormenting Cavaliers led by LeBron James.
A lot has changed since that season. Kemba is now in New York with the Knicks, Batum is a Clipper, Zeller just left for Portland, and Lee, Lin, Hairston, and Williams are all out of the league. And it’s even more clear how much has been changing if we look at the last Hornets team that Walker was on—with the departures of Zeller and guards Devonte’ Graham and Malik Monk, the only person left on the Charlotte roster from that season (2018-19) is Miles Bridges, who was a rookie in Kemba’s final year.
After a good amount of churn in the years since Walker’s departure for Boston, some key moves seem to be leaving a clearer picture of what the team is going to look like going forward:
At center, the Hornets swapped out Zeller and Bismack Biyombo for eight year veteran Mason Plumlee and an expanded small-ball five role for P.J. Washington in his third season in Buzz City.
Charlotte finally doubled down on one of the Martins, keeping Cody and expanding his minutes—up to 25.7 in six games this season compared to 16.3 in 52 games last year—while waiving twin Caleb who has since signed with the Heat.
Jalen McDaniels, who averaged 19.2 minutes per game last year, should be hoping to build on his sophomore campaign in the 2021-22 season. McDaniels averaged 7.4 points with 3.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists, coming off the bench in 29 of his 47 appearances. He shot 54.7% from inside the arc but just 33.3% from deep, a number that he surely wants to improve this year.
Small forward Gordon Hayward thrived in his first year with Charlotte last season, averaging 19.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.1 assists on 41.5% shooting from deep, 49.9% from inside the arc, and 84.5% at the line.
Terry Rozier, who left Boston for Charlotte the year before Hayward, has flourished as a starter for the Hornets, averaging 19.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.1 steals on 39.6% from deep and 47.5% on two-point attempts. In his time in Charlotte, Rozier has set career highs in starts, minutes, points, assists, eFG%, and both attempts, makes, and percentages for field goals, three pointers, two pointers, and free throws.
They’ve also held on two a few young prospects with unclear futures, like Vernon Carey Jr. (20), and they added a few other rookies like Kai Jones (20) and JT Thor (19), and signed 2018 and 2021 second round draft picks Arnoldas Kulboka (23) and Scottie Lewis (21) with their available two-way contract spots.
But really there wont be a whole lot of pressure on head coach James Borrego to figure out what’s going to happen with any of those five guys, because there are more exciting things to pay attention to. LaMelo Ball, who the Hornets selected third in 2020, had a fantastic season for Charlotte en route to Rookie of the Year honors. Ball and 2018 draftee Miles Bridges—who was named the inaugural 2021-2022 Eastern Conference Player of the Week last Monday—have paired to form a high-octane duo that serves as the engine of the offense.
Ball and Bridges averaged a combined 28.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 2.3 steals, and 1.2 blocks in their first season together. Bridges improved his shooting percentages across the board last year, going from 33% to 40% from deep and 48.9% to 59.3% on two-point tries from the 2019-20 season to the 2020-21 campaign. LaMelo is probably hoping that he can do the same thing this year, having shot 35.2% on threes and mirroring Bridges with 48.9% shooting on twos.
Heading into Monday’s matchup with Cleveland, the two were averaging a combined combined numbers to 43.3 points, 13.7 boards, 8.8 assists, 3.2 steals, and 1 block per game. Bridges has been on a tear, averaging 24.6 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.6 steals on 50.8% overall shooting including 61.4% on his two-point attempts across the first seven games.
They may have lost to the Cavaliers (113-110), but it was the second night of a back-to-back and LaMelo put up 30 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Bridges had an off night, going just 4-18 from the floor, but he still had 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. If both halves of Charlotte’s B&B duo are clicking, good luck trying to stop the Hornets.