Charlotte Hornets and the Arena

[ah59396]

I approve of this signing.  I still think we are not going to make the playoffs.  But still happy with the signing.

[CLTProductions]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13817763/michael-kidd-gilchrist-charlotte-hornets-indefinitely-torn-labrum

 

Wellllllll that sucks 

[HopHead]

Hornets are cursed.. One of the best wing defenders in the league gone for the year. They won't be able to survive without MKG as well as the Panthers have without KB. Would love to be wrong though.

[Rufus]

Another reason why I think it is time to get rid of preseason action.

[cltcane]

The Hornets have picked Greensboro as the location of their new NBA Development League team that will begin play next fall.  A formal announcement is expected Tuesday.  Asheville, Fayetteville, and Greenville (SC) were the other finalists.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nba/charlotte-hornets/article41379882.html

[grodney]

A new season is underway....17 points in the 2nd quarter....16 points in the 3rd quarter...39% shooting vs 49% for opponent....6/24 3-pointers vs 12/20(!) for opponent.  

81-1.

 

[ah59396]

I don't think I've ever been less excited about a Hornets season.  I mean, what do we have to look forward to?  Best case, we are a 6 seed and get a crappy draft pick after we get blasted in the 1st round?  Yippee...  

This team has literally nothing to build around at this point.  I'm at the point where they just need to dump the entire front office, blow the whole team up and go back to 20 win seasons until we can actually land a player we can build around.  I just have no clue what the "plan" is.  Do we have a single player that we think we could build a championship team around?  I don't think so.  Looking at our starting 5, I think we have 1, maybe 2 guys that are actual NBA starters.  Ugh.  Being a Bobcats/Hornets fan sucks and I'm running out of patience.  

[HopHead]

^And the sad thing is, is that we actually finally have a good coach. I'm not sure how much people have listened to Clifford do interviews and talk X's and O's but the guy is good. Problem is finding the pieces to fit this Hornets puzzle. And yea, the starting lineup doesn't exactly scare anyone with exception to Big Al and maybe Kemba. When MKG went down, this team really took a hit. He'll never average 20+ pts a game but he fit this team so well with his defense and hustle. I got a little excited in preseason when it looked like we might actually have some legit perimeter shooting, but was brought back down to reality last night. Hope there is a way to figure this out. I've never envisioned the Hornets being a flashy team with 2 or 3 big stars like OKC, Cavaliers (old Miami Heat), etc but more of a blue collar team like San Antonio where the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. 

[ah59396]

^And the sad thing is, is that we actually finally have a good coach. I'm not sure how much people have listened to Clifford do interviews and talk X's and O's but the guy is good. Problem is finding the pieces to fit this Hornets puzzle. And yea, the starting lineup doesn't exactly scare anyone with exception to Big Al and maybe Kemba. When MKG went down, this team really took a hit. He'll never average 20+ pts a game but he fit this team so well with his defense and hustle. I got a little excited in preseason when it looked like we might actually have some legit perimeter shooting, but was brought back down to reality last night. Hope there is a way to figure this out. I've never envisioned the Hornets being a flashy team with 2 or 3 big stars like OKC, Cavaliers (old Miami Heat), etc but more of a blue collar team like San Antonio where the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. 

 

Yeah, I have a hard time imagining Charlotte with a big time superstar.   I'd love to follow San Antonio's model, the problem is that San Antonio still has really good players.  We are basically attempting a poor man's San Antonio.  I mean, Duncan, Aldrige, Parker, Ginobli...these guys aren't just warm bodies like Marvin Williams or Jeremy Lin.

 

Cliff's a good coach.  And he's probably going to get fired after this season because I'm confident we arent' going to make the playoffs and the front office will react by just doing something.  Hopefully Cliff get's a job with a franchise that has a clue and blows it up.  It'll be a darn shame when we lose him.  I have no passion for this Hornets team and it makes me sad.  The season ticket people called me about packages and I just started laughing on the phone.  I felt bad about it but...c'mon man.  Sure I'll spend a couple hundred bucks to go see Spencer Hawes and Frank Kaminsky!

Edited October 29, 2015 by ah59396

[HopHead]

 

Yeah, I have a hard time imagining Charlotte with a big time superstar.   I'd love to follow San Antonio's model, the problem is that San Antonio still has really good players.  We are basically attempting a poor man's San Antonio.  I mean, Duncan, Aldrige, Parker, Ginobli...these guys aren't just warm bodies like Marvin Williams or Jeremy Lin.

 

Cliff's a good coach.  And he's probably going to get fired after this season because I'm confident we arent' going to make the playoffs and the front office will react by just doing something.  Hopefully Cliff get's a job with a franchise that has a clue and blows it up.  It'll be a darn shame when we lose him.  I have no passion for this Hornets team and it makes me sad.  The season ticket people called me about packages and I just started laughing on the phone.  I felt bad about it but...c'mon man.  Sure I'll spend a couple hundred bucks to go see Spencer Hawes and Frank Kaminsky!

Totally agree with the poor man's Spurs... That was kind of what I was getting at. I think that's the model, just don't have the same players as SA. 

It's funny to me how the Hornets are spending so much money with merchandising, improving the arena experience, adding a new D-League team, etc but we're left with a roster that has mostly guys that would be bench players on other teams. I actually think Kaminsky is going to be a good player in this league. He has long range shooting which is rare for a guy his size. I just don't know how much of an opportunity he will get this year. I have season tickets again this season and will be there Sunday (I like to be tortured). Thankfully the Craft Beer Garden isn't far away, lol. 

[Higgs Boson]

I'm actually not much of a Clifford fan.  Local media way over hypes him, but I guess compared to the garbage coaches we've had in the past, he's pretty much Phil Jackson. He runs a boring, outdated offense.  Constantly makes poor rotation decisions and his defensive reputation is overrated.  MKG single-handedly makes Clifford look like a good defensive coach.  Doesn't matter if you replace MKG with decent defenders like Henderson, Lance, Taylor or Batum our defense is one of the league's worst without MKG.

Anyway, Big Al has to go.  Al would have been a star in the 90's, but his style of play doesn't lead to wins in today's game.  Kemba might have to go as well.  Dude just pounds the ball into the ground.  Both players are the antithesis of good ball movement.  Cho needs to go as well.  Since he's taken over, dude's had the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th, 9th, and 9th picks in the draft along with a few late firsts and a crazy amount of capspace.  Not a single, even borderline All-Star.

One of the drawbacks of hosting the NBA All-Star game in 2017 is that Jordan isn't going to want this team to be much under .500 over the next two seasons, so I wouldn't expect a proper rebuild until after then.

[Higgs Boson]

Jeremy Lamb just received a contract extension, 3 years @ $7 million per.  I'm cool with this.  He has some nice upside and with the cap going up, it could end up being a real bargain.

Anyway, the team looked a little better on Sunday.  If they could find a halfway decent center that plays a little defense and fits with the rest of the roster, they could climb their way into the playoffs.

[grodney]

Now THAT was a fun game.  130-105 against the Bulls.  30+ points every quarter (37 in the first).  52% shooting, 61%(!) from 3.  22/23 free throws.  52-33 rebounding edge.  Only 9 turnovers.  Wow.

Obviously they can't count on that kind of shooting every night, but I'd love to see that kind of energy.

 

[HopHead]

^At one point the Hornets were shooting 70% from behind the arc last night. I think they finished at 61%. For them that's just insane to be able to shoot the 3 like that. If they can even come close to that 61% on a regular basis they will be a much better team.

[CLTProductions]

Now THAT was a fun game.  130-105 against the Bulls.  30+ points every quarter (37 in the first).  52% shooting, 61%(!) from 3.  22/23 free throws.  52-33 rebounding edge.  Only 9 turnovers.  Wow.

Obviously they can't count on that kind of shooting every night, but I'd love to see that kind of energy.

 

I appreciate every loss the Bulls are given. Especially if it's by the Hornets so thanks!! 

[grodney]

If they can even come close to that 61% on a regular basis they will be a much better team.

Ha ha, that's an understatement!  The best team in the league last year shot under 40% from 3-pt.  And they had exactly one game at 60%, and "only" 10 games at 50% or better.

In 2460 team games last season, there were 28 occurrences of 60% or higher, and only 4 of those were on as many attempts as the Hornets took last night (in other words, some of those were like 3 of 4, or 4 of 6).

So yeah, it was quite extraordinary.

The 60.9 for Charlotte was the best so far in this young season.  

p.s. How cool is the NBA.com stats page?!?!!

 

Edited November 4, 2015 by grodney

[grodney]

I promise I won't comment after every game....but after shooting 61% from 3-pt last game, the Hornets started 1-of-15 from 3-pt last night....yet led most of the way.  They finished 6/27 (22%) and had an impressive 14 point win at Dallas.  Even shooting that poorly from 3-pt, they shot 49% overall, helped greatly by Big Al having a crazy-good night, shooting 15/18.

Fun game and a great win.

 

[HopHead]

Big Al was virtually unstoppable last night. He abused Dirk Nowitzki on several occasions too. Also of note, that was Charlotte's first win in Dallas since 1998. Bring on the Spurs! 79-3!

[grodney]

Amazing and weird win last night, to pull the Hornets to 0.500 at 4-4.  The bulk of the final stretch was played by starters Batum and Marvin, with reserves Cody, Lamb, and Lin.  They got the Hornets back into it (they were down 10 after 3), and Clifford stuck with them.  Starters Big Al, Kemba, and PJ scored 4, 9, and 5, on 2/10, 2/11, and 2/8 shooting.  Have I mentioned how crazy it is that PJ is starting after not even being able to get off the bench some games last year?

With the game tied, the Hornets got an inbound under their own basket with something like 2.2 seconds left.  Cody's defender pulled off him to help on Lin, and Cody got a layup.  There was 0.4 showing, but they adjusted it to 0.6.  Knicks called timeout and chose to inbound in the frontcourt (holy crap do NBA rules keep it interesting!).  Inbound came to Porzingas who immediately drained a 3 for the Knicks win!  But wait, on video review, the ball was BARELY still touching his finger when time expired, so they waved off the bucket and the Hornets win!  Wow.

p.s. I miss MKG.

 

 

 

[HopHead]

Amazing and weird win last night, to pull the Hornets to 0.500 at 4-4.  The bulk of the final stretch was played by starters Batum and Marvin, with reserves Cody, Lamb, and Lin.  They got the Hornets back into it (they were down 10 after 3), and Clifford stuck with them.  Starters Big Al, Kemba, and PJ scored 4, 9, and 5, on 2/10, 2/11, and 2/8 shooting.  Have I mentioned how crazy it is that PJ is starting after not even being able to get off the bench some games last year?

With the game tied, the Hornets got an inbound under their own basket with something like 2.2 seconds left.  Cody's defender pulled off him to help on Lin, and Cody got a layup.  There was 0.4 showing, but they adjusted it to 0.6.  Knicks called timeout and chose to inbound in the frontcourt (holy crap do NBA rules keep it interesting!).  Inbound came to Porzingas who immediately drained a 3 for the Knicks win!  But wait, on video review, the ball was BARELY still touching his finger when time expired, so they waved off the bucket and the Hornets win!  Wow.

p.s. I miss MKG.

 

 

 

I just got home from an out of town trip last night, turned on the game with less than a minute to go. What a crazy ending. I really like this 2nd team lineup that Clifford has going with Lin and Lamb. They've rallied this teams a few times already this year. 

[cltbwimob]

On November 4, 2015 at 9:37:37 AM, Jayvee said:

I appreciate every loss the Bulls are given. Especially if it's by the Hornets so thanks!! 

The Hornets gave you a gift tonight 102-96

Its obviously been all about the Panthers this year, but at 11-8 the Hornets aren't doing too bad themselves, especially considering MKG is out.

[cltbwimob]

Really surprised no one is talking about this.  After all the doom and gloom that was predicted before the season started, the hornets are 13-8 which is their best start in franchise history as far as I am aware, and they are doing it without Al Jefferson and MKG.  They are currently one game out of the lead in the east.  With the Panthers, Hornets, and Davidson all playing well this year, it looks like Charlotte may actually be a sports town. Now if only the Checkers and UNCC could get it going...

Edited December 10, 2015 by cltbwimob

[HopHead]

6 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

Really surprised no one is talking about this.  After all the doom and gloom that was predicted before the season started, the hornets are 13-8 which is their best start in franchise history as far as I am aware, and they are doing it without Al Jefferson and MKG.  They are currently one game out of the lead in the east.  With the Panthers, Hornets, and Davidson all playing well this year, it looks like Charlotte may actually be a sports town. Now if only the Checkers and UNCC could get it going...

Well, to be fair, this town isn't used to all this winning.. We are still in a state of shock! Lol. Batum is playing well above anyone's expectations. He had a triple double last night too. He will get paid next year, just hope it's in Charlotte.

[grodney]

1st in the Southeast.  2nd in the East.  4th in the NBA.  On Dec 10.  Mark it down.  Quite fun after losing MKG and starting 0-3.

 

[cltbwimob]

2 hours ago, HopHead said:

Well, to be fair, this town isn't used to all this winning.. We are still in a state of shock! Lol. Batum is playing well above anyone's expectations. He had a triple double last night too. He will get paid next year, just hope it's in Charlotte.

True, Charlotte is not used to seeing so much winning.  Batum really has stepped up, but so have a lot of others.  It is cool though that we have no real superstar players on the team, and yet they are getting it done.  It was also cool to see them thump Miami.