How the Charlotte Hornets Plan to Follow the Boston Celtics Blueprint
no good way to transition this there but here’s how we’re going to connect the dots to Charlotte Hornets Charles Lee is an assistant on the on the Boston Celtics he will soon take over as the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets and West to me he is actually how I think about the offseason for the Hornets we’re going to preview their offseason here because he’s a bud disciple he worked under bud I think since 2014 until bud is let go and then he ends up on the Boston staff so he goes from the motion based offense of the Bucks and the and the Hawks and all of that to the the the Celtics and the Missoula and the threes and what they’re doing here and he’s going to apply that to a very different circumstance that is headed by lamelo ball that I think is a roster really lacking a lot of other else that has drafted really woefully over the last several years that is really lacking an identity that is in need of something but has lamelo and I’m kind of I I consider myself a lamelo skeptic uh I’m not I’m really concur see where he’s going to go his best season came with a that he buted heads with because he maybe coached him too hard which is just like a weird thing but what Charles Lee does and how they shape the roster around that identity to me is the most fascinating part of this off season and you could tell me they could do anything and I would be like sure that seems like a reasonable plan but I I think this is going to take time but I I wonder how you balance it with having lamelo on the contract he’s on with you know at least you know are you a Mark Williams guide what do you that mean for your draft picks like I I think there are some interesting things here but to me it starts with the coach and it starts with the philosophy of how they’re going to play basketball starting next season and Brandon Miller too who was great as a rookie every bit of a franchise player you’re right to be a lamelo skeptic number one regardless of what you think about his style of play his personality any of this stuff the guy played 22 games last year 36 games a year before that the guy can’t get on the court and he can’t stay on it either so that’s the biggest problem with him fortunately I think that there’s if if you’re if you’re Charles Lee what do you want to bring basically from your past experience Milwaukee under bud with with with the Celtics this year it’s the importance of three-point shooting is what I think he’s going to bring to Charlotte the Hornets are a bottom 10 team in three-point shooting basically every year for the last four or five years they can’t make open shots they suck at shooting they need to get way better at shooting they need to go find better Shooters Brandon Miller is a good shooter I think adding Grant Williams at the deadline was a guy who can hit the threes from the corners and stuff like that so that’s what I basically expect them to do this offseason use whatever they can to make moves to basically just become a better shooting team I think that’s probably where you start because booner was all about three-point shooting he was very big on the math he was very big on spacing the floor obviously Joe moula talks about it all the time too you need to find shooting if you’re Charlotte they’re going to have a bunch of cap space I think you’re going to see any shooters that are out there it would not surprise me if they went out and tried to overpay them I do not think that they’re a Clay Thompson landing spot Clay’s not going to Charlotte but can you go find those guy can you go find an elite shooter whether it’s in free agency or trade even if it’s an overpaid shooter can you do the OKC thing where you say okay we’ll take your overpaid player as long as he shoots 38% from three-point range throw us a draft pick we’ll call it good whatever like that’s what they got to go out and do yeah 40 million or so in in expected cap spits which is is something I mean buddy hee would be a name that I I think could be interesting um Gary Tren Jr if you wanted like a little more of of a semblance of a 2way guy that’s the other part of this too is that like I I think if you think about bud and you think about Missoula and you think about what those made those teams successful and W I think frankly what made the The Hornet successful under James Bargo with lamelo was that that team had a two-way identity as much as the offense really worked they at least tried hard on defense and at least had some competitiveness that also just hasn’t really been there there’s been nothing resembling anything really positive there of late you kind of got to get back to that as well I don’t I think they have there’s going to be this is I think again going to take some time but I think finding piece who you can at least have some semblance of of a two-way identity as well is going to is going to be part of that it’s like the guys bud wanted to play during the Milwaukee time the Atlanta time we not just like you know like Kyle corver were not Specialists and specials don’t exist in the NBA now those guys are out of the league right right even like the Sam Hower can hold up on defense but even if his skill is one thing he comes off the bench right he comes off the bench and he plays 12 minutes and maybe he doesn’t play in the finals but well that’s the other thing too is if you’re Charlotte I you want the three-point shooting part of it you need to get better as as a shooting team cuz you just in general it’s really hard to be successful in the NBA if you’re a bad three-point shooting team and sort of the E the second sort of phase of the build is making sure that your three-point Shooters can stay on the floor the way that the Celtics have figured out lately right like they said okay we’ve got three-point Shooters we got guys who we trust to make open jumpers like Drew holiday and Derrick White but they’re also awesome defensively our two Wings Tatum and brown awesome defensively have really worked on their three-point shots throughout their careers we went out and gotten a five Out Center with Christoph spz and Al Horford but it takes a while right you have to kind of go through the Marcus smarts who a little bit more of a one-way player or you know the the other centers that you sort of cycled through and all these other guys that you sort of cycle through it takes a while the Hornets also have the sixth pick in the draft so um you know I think a guy like dton neck out of Tennessee great shooter a little bit better defensively depending on what Scout you look listen to then maybe he gets credit for but I even think a guy like Cody Williams out of Colorado can make sense for them uh Stefan castle out of Yukon perhaps guys who can be a little bit of a two-way presence who can get better as a three-point shooter uh make a lot of sense I think for the Hornets and then you surround those guys with as much shooting as you possibly can uh but the other thing with Charles Lee is’s going to have to figure out a way to coach up lamelo if lamelo is going to he needs to play he’s got the size he’s got everything you would possibly want out of that position where he a twoa player the size thing with him is the strength thing because he’s never been strong enough or even like husky enough like Luca’s at least like got like a frame on him where it’s like even if he isn’t you know hasn’t isn’t always in shape or like whatever he at least has like a body where you can’t really bully him you can bully lamelo on top of the effort not being there and again like I you go you this is you can find quotes from a slam profile from a lot of other stuff of that time where he clearly just did not like how James burgo like put Reigns on him and frankly like friction between it does not obviously these things can run their course but if NBA history West is littered with coaches and their stars like friction is how you get to Greatness like there’s there’s friction between tyou and LeBron there’s friction between SPO and Jimmy Butler go back to the 8S there’s friction between Kareem and magic and Pat Riley like this is the how this works like and to just like bristle at the one coach you win record have you done anything haven’t done a single thing of have success that that that to me makes is like the biggest reason why I’m probably a skeptic on top of the the injury stuff that that that scares me and that that how that works how the Charles Lee Theo thing works and look we have not heard from Charles Lee because he is finishing his duties with Boston but to me the number one question that I want to hear him talk about at his aside from I mean I I think more than Brandon Miller more than anything else is how do you Ma figure out getting the most out of the mle ball going forward that’s the biggest question he’s a Transcendent Talent if he can engage it he’s he’s it’s it’s a very similar situation to what’s happening Trey young in Atlanta right nobody doubts the talent the passing Acumen the vision the basketball feel Elite top 1% Elite stuff but do they want to be coached and do they want to be coached hard and are they willing to be held accountable and are they willing to sacrifice certain things for the bettermen of the team and all these things and when they haven’t proven that their way is a path to success in the NBA and I think we know it’s not the difference between Charlotte and Atlanta is is I kind of think Brandon Miller is the guy I’m building around Brandon Miller I’m not building around the melow ball so would you and so my challenge to him is do you want to be a part of this or not because Brandon Miller is going to be the better player I would be really I don’t think they would do this like Zack low and Jonathan gavone talked about this on on the low post but like it so doesn’t seem like they would do this but like I would really be like what could I get for I would just want to know like what could I get for L I really would want to know like what would a team give up for lamelo considering how much money he’s making what he has and has not done as a pro the injury concerns it would be interesting the injury concerns like who would take the risk like what team I don’t even know what what team is out there that could use a lamelo ball I think me you know Utah could yeah okay look look at look look at us look at us Wes all right let’s make a let’s let’s put a fake Utah Jazz trade we’ll uh we’ll do this one for Tik Tok all right so we got the Hornets and and the Jazz all right Lamela ball he’s making 35 million a year uh on this new extension that kicks in you could you can get the John Collins contract and seon or maybe how many three three firsts two firsts three three three seems like a lot three one’s like got some fugazi protections on it that turns into like two seconds but you can say you got three first something like that makes sense and you can go ahead get a guard who can get downhill and do some stuff for you and call in second you get another big you know so you get a little bit more depth there with John Collins who’s on a decent contract now it’s not as bad as it used to look because it’s only got two more years left um you know they got guys but yeah it would be the picks and if you’re the Jazz you’ve got lamelo ball you’ve got keante George you got Larry marinan this is a team that wants to make a swing and lamelo actually does fit a lot of what Hardy is looking for in terms of the everybody can you know dribble pass shoot everybody’s moving all the time kind of stuff I don’t know could be interesting I just I don’t know that anybody’s going to want to take on lamelo at five years left knowing the injury history I think somebody’s going to say okay what does he look like can he get healthy and then maybe teams if he can look good for the first half of this season or all season maybe it’s something that teams warm up to at the deadline or next summer but uh it would not Shock me if they they seriously tried to explor the m also his value is really low too so maybe it’s not prudent to do this now what are you rushing for if you’re the Hornets you’re not going to be good now yeah and like they shouldn’t be rushing anything even with this draft it’s like if you told me to to cling in at six and we’re like yeah you know like we’re not super sold on on Williams and like we just think clingan’s the best guy in a weird draft I’d be like sure that’s great I’m I’m cool with that I think clingan’s going to be a rock solid Pro and I would I would buy that right you could convince me of anything if I’m if I’m Charlotte here’s what I do not that they’re asking me I like the coaching hire I think Charles Lee is a good hire you’ve got your first two-way wing your number one guy perhaps in Brandon Miller I would try to use the six pick to go get the other guy if it’s Cody Williams if it’s Ron Holland do your work do the scouting go get that guy and lottery ticket yep and then hopefully if you’re lucky this ends up being your version of Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown and then you go from there and I still like Mark Williams whatever doesn’t really matter you see if that pans out you see if the L mow ball thing can work if not you start looking for him but then just spend all of my money on shooting I just do it all on shooting and I just say okay can we at least get a proof of concept this year of what our wings could look like with real shooting around them and if Charles Lee is a real good coach and if this was the right higher and then you go from there and then maybe you can end up trading these guys going forward and whatever like that but I think you need a proof of concept here of we kind of just need to see like a a a a an outline of what it is that we want to do and then we can kind of start filling in the holes after that yeah and look in you have some money to spend the summer you have some contracts you could flip like I I there’s just not a lot of other guys in this roster that I’m I’m super excited about you know and look they and it has not helped that they’ve missed over and over again on drafts last couple years um they missed on Bo Knight they the kai Jones thing they missed on like they they miss and missed they need to draft better new front office in place new ownership in place new coaching place this feels like maybe the the start of something better one hope e
Are the Charlotte Hornets building around LaMelo Ball or Brandon Miller? How will new coach Charles Lee change the Hornets system, and can he replicate the success the Boston Celtics have had on both ends?
Chris Manning and Wes Goldberg preview the Hornets offseason, biggest team needs and potential offseason and NBA draft fits.
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