Rescue 911: Hornets can't keep simply relying on Gordon Hayward to bail them out
Charlotte needs a much more balanced scoring attack or else there will be more nights like Friday.
His numbers are really good, so good they have him on a career-best trajectory.
Even prior to his 34-point outburst against Chicago on Friday night, Gordon Hayward’s uptick in production was already eye-popping. The Hornets’ main offseason target is seeing a hefty increase across the board in many key categories.
Points. Field-goal percentage. Beyond the 3-point line. Free throws.
Mix it together and one would probably think it’s added up to success for Hayward’s new team. Well, it would if it wasn’t for one small problem — a deeply sputtering offense around him.
The Hornets, who entered the evening ranked 24th in offense at 107.8 points per game, aren’t consistently giving him anywhere close to enough assistance. It happened once again, this time in a 123-110 loss to the Bulls despite having five days off in between games.
Besides Devonte’ Graham’s 24 points — all but two coming in the first half — and PJ Washington’s 16, no one else had a decent touch and Charlotte simply couldn’t churn out a satisfactory amount of offense to hang with the fourth-best scoring team in the league.
“There’s other bodies out there that have to produce,” a visibly frustrated coach James Borrego said. “To be a good team, to say, ‘Gordon go save us every single night from start to finish,’ that’s not a good ball club. That’s not what we are looking for. Other guys have got to step up and play better.”
It’s not happening frequently enough and it’s a reason the Hornets are in the midst of a season-worst four-game losing streak with a looming back-to-back scenario in Orlando on Sunday and Monday. They desperately need more balance and could use an increase in bench production. Not even a reserve role by Cody Zeller in his return after missing 13 games with a broken hand bridged the scoring gap.
“Everybody just has to come ready to play — be aggressive,” Graham said. “I feel like everybody knows their role and what they bring to the team, and we just got to make sure we bring that every night. Starting with the starters and then it’ll just trickle down. So, as one of the leaders on the team, I got to do a better job of making sure everybody is ready to go and we keep that energy the whole game.”
Hayward suggested they were too stagnant.
“I think we have to try to stick to what we’ve been doing, which is ball movement,” he said. “I think tonight’s something where the turnovers really crushed us in the first half for sure. I had four of them and they weren’t really pressuring us. They just made us indecisive and I think we just didn’t attack like we’ve been attacking. I think that’s something that allowed them to transition, and we didn’t get our defense set and now they’re attacking us. And it seemed like they converted almost every time in that regard. We got to be better taking care of the ball, that’s for sure.”
LaMelo Ball, in particular. After beginning the season with a nifty assist-to-turnover ratio hovering around 3-to-1, he’s posted at least five turnovers in two of his last three games. He’s averaging 3.3 turnovers during the Hornets’ losing skid.
Borrego sometimes conducts one-on-one film sessions with Ball, breaking down the action that’s occurring while he’s on the court. In molding rookies, dealing with the negatives along with the positives is a part of the rollercoaster. They go hand-in-hand.
We’ve seen the brilliant flashes by Ball. Like the triple-double, nifty passes and youthful exuberance has injected the organization with a significant boost in a variety of ways.
“He’s done a lot of good things for us, especially our offensive end, pushing our pace, getting us great looks,” Borrego said. “He makes us better, especially offensively and that’s without me even coaching him a whole lot. He just instinctively has this knack to make things happen offensively.”
While doing so, he sometimes stacks up the miscues like he did against the Bulls, turning it over on five occasions in 17 minutes. He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter and only logged 1:17 in the second half in total.
Cutting back on the turnovers are a necessity and it’s one of the things Borrego pointed out to Ball in their film study leading up to the game, underscoring the importance of proper tempo.
“He’s been going 100 miles an hour,” Borrego said. “He’s trying to make plays every single time he touches it, which is great. Love that mentality. That’s what makes him special. But there’s moments to slow down and run stuff and get us certain looks. And that’s on me to coach him. So it’s really figuring out those moments. How to use Gordon, how to use Terry (Rozier), how to use Tae around you, and you and not always having to be the guy to make the play.
“And that just comes over time. He’s just going to learn that and watching film and understanding what we wan to do. That’s part of his growth and development. I’ll guarantee you six months from now he’ll be a lot better. That’s a really positive thing for us.”
But in the interim, Borrego wants Ball to also focus on locking in on the less glamorous side of the ball. Make sure he knows where to be for weak-side help. Understand the rotations in coverage. And adjust to what he’s seeing.
“Every game is so different,” Borrego said. “Just because it looks OK one game because it’s a certain coverage and it’s clean, in the next game it’s different. The league is different. You have to adapt and you have to learn personnel. You have to learn tendencies. You have to learn different sets and we are throwing a ton at this guy. We are in different coverages, we are in deferent defenses. We are doing a lot defensively right now, which is not ideal for a young guy. But I know he’s capable. And that’s what I’m asking him to do. ‘I need more from you defensively.’ And he’s more than capable of handling that.”
The TOs made the difference last night, but Terry, Miles, and Melo all had off nights, and Bulls had WAY too easy time getting to the rim. We had some stretches of good D - and how bout Melo's steal after his own missed FG! - but there were also many times where too many guys were playing with arms down by their side. Plus, that late 0-7 stretch made a difference.
We need more O production from Miles and Bis (whole other story there). And Caleb, but I think his shots will start falling in more. He's been playing week from eyeball test.
Have a good weekend, Rod.