They said it: Hornets react to recent struggles following their two big wins
Charlotte discusses Devonte' Graham's shooting woes, not overreacting with lineup changes (yet) and overcoming the slow starts
Given some of their lineup struggles, particularly with their starting unit, and the uniqueness of this season, the question was posed pregame before the Hornets squared off with Philadelphia.
How do you know when it’s time to alter things early in the season?
“It’s a tough league,” coach James Borrego said Saturday, “and staying the course, staying disciplined, not flipping too soon — obviously if there’s changes to be made we’re going to make them. But you need some sample size here. We’ve had a shortened preseason, a shortened training camp.
“This is a new group that’s been together for a couple of weeks now and we’re learning each other in a new environment. For everybody. This is not just the Hornets, but throughout the league. You are seeing a lot of highs and lows throughout each game. So we’ve just got to stay the course right now, continue to get better not overreact, just keep getting better.”
A half-dozen games into their season, after losing to the Sixers 127-112, the Hornets have quite a few things to figure out. So with that in mind, here are some thoughts directly from them regarding two key issues that have directly led to their 2-4 record:
HOW TO GET GRAHAM GOING
The Hornets main five of Devonte’ Graham, Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, PJ Washington and Bismack Biyombo has a net rating of minus-26.7. And after another rough shooting display on Saturday by Graham, going 1 for 10 overall and making 1 of 6 attempts beyond the arc, the outside rumblings are beginning to call for LaMelo Ball to replace him in the game-opening quintet.
Graham hasn’t shot better than 37.5 percent in any of the games so far and had made just five of his last 28 attempts. Overall, he’s 18 for 72 this season. That’s why he was spotted on the Wells Fargo Center court following the game, hoisting up jumpers.
Ball has strung five nice performances together after that forgettable debut in Cleveland and is averaging 11.5 points and just about four rebounds and four assists per game after posting 13 points to go with five assists and four rebounds against Philadelphia.
Borrego didn’t sound like someone about to go with a knee-jerk reaction leading into Game 6 of 72. And despite the bumpy showing through the first week-plus, Graham and his teammates don’t appear ready to sound the alarm yet, either.
Borrego: “I’ve just got to help him. That’s on me to help Devonte’. He’s going to do his part, he’s going to get his work in. His shots will fall. But I’ve got to find ways to get him better looks and we’ll continue to work through that.”
Rozier: “We need him. We need him. (He was) in the 3-point contest last year. He can shoot that thing. He’s just got to believe it. I feel like when you are in a position he’s in right now it’s all here (in the head). It ain’t even the arc, it ain’t even nothing else. I think just sometimes we just get inside our own head. But I think he’ll be all right. He’s still contributing 7-10 assists a game and that’s what I need to do more. I need to get more rebounds and stuff like that. It’s a long season. He’s going to hit shots and he’s going to come up big for us. So we are not worried about that.”
Graham: “I’m not making shots. I can’t blame it on nothing else because that’s just looking for an excuse. I’m just not making shots, so that’s on me. … (T)hat’s what happens when you bring other guys in and you’ve got to adjust. I’ve been doing that my entire career, adjusting to whoever we bring in from high school to college. So it’s just me not making shots. It has nothing to do with who’s around me or the plays we call or whatever the case may be.”
ABOUT THE EARLY SLEEPWALKING
One of the common denominators in the Hornets’ four losses? They got off to really lethargic starts. To the point where they found themselves down by double digits early, causing them to play catch up pretty much the entire game.
Even if they were as fit as can be physically, that wouldn’t be an easy chore. But having to expend all that energy simply to get back into the game constantly on the heels of the shortened condensed training camp and quick preseason has to be a difficult proposition.
Graham: “We’ve got to do a better job. That’s definitely on the starters. We can’t let not making shots translate over to defense. We can bring that defensive energy every night, and do our jobs and our assignments and it’ll translate over. We’ll get easy transition buckets. We’ve got to do a better job getting that energy going.”
Rozier: “I feel like the slow starts, we’ve just got to be better as a whole. We’ve got to have each other’s back. I think we get caught in no man’s land, and sometimes we are not being aggressive and we are not putting it all on the line like we really can. I feel like people look at it like it’s early in the game so we really don’t have to play as hard until we are down. But the start is just as important. So I think that we’ve really got to get together and take care of that because it has been slow starts that’s kind of been affecting us throughout the whole game.”
Seems to be a segment of fans who just want Lamelo to start no matter what. But I think he needs to (for now ) stay with that unit that includes Miles. Their numbers are too good together to split them up, right? Just give him starters minutes off the bench.