Growing pains: Rough road losses pile up for Hornets as trade deadline looms
Latest stretch underscores Charlotte's need to improve its roster for playoff run
When their chartered flight took off earlier in the week, bound for the base of the Rocky Mountains, things were really looking up for the Hornets.
They had rattled off four consecutive victories, leaping their way up the Eastern Conference standings and building some momentum at the outset of their second-half schedule. Smiles abounded, all led by the infectious one that seemed to be so every-present on LaMelo Ball’s face. The pendulum was swinging in Charlotte’s favor, and doing it just in time for Ball’s first homecoming as a pro.
That pendulum has suddenly transformed into wrecking ball, though.
Beginning their five-game road trek with three straight defeats — the latest coming at the willing hands of the L.A. Clippers 125-98 on Saturday night — has the Hornets staring at a losing trip no matter what happens in San Antonio and Houston. And save for a stretch against the Lakers in the second half on Thursday, the games weren’t close.
“It’s not been our finest basketball these three games,” Gordon Hayward said. “We can be a lot better, that’s for sure. We’ve got to try to pick ourselves up here, try to stay together, stay positive. It’s a season of ups and downs and we’ve kind of been through it already, so there’s no reason to hang our heads. We played three really good teams.”
During their stumble, there’s been more than a few reasons for the Hornets’ struggles. Near the top of the list is Hayward’s inconsistency on offense. He had posted single figures in three of his last four games prior to stepping foot on the Staples Center court on Saturday and registering 17 against the Clippers.
Admittedly, that’s not going to suffice for them to have sustainable long-term success.
“I think I certainly haven’t been playing some of my best basketball, either,” Hayward said. “I thought tonight I was a little bit more aggressive and I thought that was good. But I’ve got to continue to be more aggressive for our team. I think we need that. I think we are better when that’s the case.
“It’s not always necessarily aggression for my own shot. But certainly aggression of getting to the paint, driving and kicking, trying to get our team going, going downhill. All of those things are included. Pushing it in transition, so that’s why I’ve got to try to keep doing that.”
Call it more growing pains and the rights of passage of a mostly young team.
“Our guys are getting experience against top-level competition,” coach James Borrego said. “These are the elite teams in the NBA. And these teams — trust me — they didn’t just arrive at where they are at today. This has taken years and years. I can go down that roster and I can give you Kawhi Leonard and where he is today. Paul George, where he was at as a rookie and where he is today. I can go up and down. Lou Williams, they’ve got tons of vets over there. Nic Batum. Part of my group, they are seeing this for the first time.
“And that’s OK. This is the process you have to go through. You have to go through the fire, but that fire, it shapes you and forms you, you know? And the goal right now is not to get our heads down. … That’s my challenge now as a head coach is to continue to keep moving forward. And we’ll be there some day. I have no doubt about that.”
Reaching that hopeful perch could be difficult unless they find an answer to solve their interior deficiencies. If nothing else, this tough stretch the Hornets are immersed in further underscores something we pretty much already knew: they’re extremely thin up front and just don’t have enough to compete consistently with upper-echelon teams that boast talented, sizable front courts. They’ve yielded no fewer than eight offensive rebounds in the any of the first three games on the trip, a critical flaw that directly resulted in a slew of second-chance opportunities.
Given the Hornets’ small margin of error, allowing extra possessions is one of the main ingredients in their recipe for an upside down disaster cake. They just can’t keep yielding those kinds of things consistently. They aren’t constructed to overcome them. So it seems anyway.
Borrego, however, isn’t waiting for reinforcements from GM Mitch Kupchak.
“We’ve got enough here,” he said. “We’ve got enough bodies. I stay out of that. This is my group. So that’s for Mitch and our group to discuss and figure out. But I like our group and we are going to roll with these guys.”
Thursday’s trade deadline is rapidly approaching. Attempting to upgrade the roster while ensuring he doesn’t sacrifice any of the Hornets’ most important assets is the fine line Kupchak has to toe.
Because on one hand, not maximizing the franchise’s opportunity to break its nearly five-year postseason drought could stifle the growth of some of their younger players like Ball. On the flip side, the Hornets’ usually-conservative executive could be enticed to tweak something and take advantage of a vacant roster spot he’s been holding on to.
With so many teams in contention for a playoff berth — fourth place and ninth in the conference are separated by just three games — it could also cloud the market. That may be a key underlying factor in whether there’s someone worthy enough who’s available for the right price.
What it all means for the Hornets and seeing exactly what Kupchak elects to do will be a fascinating thing to track this week.