had a long night, no full recap today...but
The Good:
- If Mitchell Robinson isn't our best player, he sure as hell is our most important. He's got a ton of gravity rolling and pretty much the reverse when he's defending. The impact he has is just nuts and we've got no other interior presence that even comes close to what Mitch does without needing to touch the ball. I pray that ankle injury isn't bad because he's a force.
- I'm already ready to hand the keys to RJ and live with whatever growing pains come out of it. Randle had a solid run late but putting the ball in RJ's hands can weaponize both via PnR. It was obvious on the last couple of plays that the Hornets weren't going to let Randle have anything. I do want to add that while there's still plenty to clean up, I think Julius is visibly trying to adjust and the offense has looked much better for it.
- Another added bonus from Mitch out there, Bobby Portis becomes completely serviceable. That gravity for Mitch means a ton of space for Portis who isn't bad in one on one post up situations and who can knock down the three if you let him get set.
- Taj is freakin' useful.
The Bad:
- Over relying on the zone. I've been tuned to this frequency since last season, so you can call me biased. But this is what we saw last year, the zone can hide guys for a little bit and catch an offense off guard. But you run it for too long and it'll start being picked apart. The Hornets took 48 three pointers last night and eventually guys got hot because they figured out the Zone. Coby White got going the same way in Chicago, got in a rhythm against the zone and stayed hot by the time we had adjusted.
- Frank tried to cheat the screen on that last play which is a luxury you have when Mitch is fully healthy, but not when he's on a bad ankle. The recovery was alright but let's be honest, if it's any other defender we'd mostly be asking why Frank wasn't on Graham in that last play. On the bright side, Frank's playmaking was good (with a couple of mistakes that turned to TO's but you'll make that trade for a 3:1 Ast:TO ratio) and he got inside the teeth of the defense more than some recent outtings.
- In crunch time Fiz got outcoached, period. Look at the difference in the final plays that each team ran. Charlotte went to their hot hand via a bit of decoy action and got him just enough space to get the shot off. New York's best scorer of the night was benched and their best isolation scorer (fresh off hitting a game winning three in the clutch) was made to inbound the ball with no time to get it back. There wasn't enough misdirection to get Randle the rock at the elbow and honestly, the Hornets would be fools to allow it under any circumstance. RJ deserved that take on the night, Morris has earned that shot on the season and while I get that Randle had the hot hand, he should have at least had a screener or some attempt to give him a bit of space to face up without needing a dribble.
The Needs Patience:
- DSJ was bad, but the foul trouble basically cut any chance to get into a rhythm in the offense. His fourth quarter minutes were a waste again too since he was relegated to sitting in the corner and watching RJ or Randle attack. He gets a mulligan but we know damn well that Payton is gonna get every opportunity to supplant both our young PG's; so he's gotta take the excuses to break up the PG rotation off the table soon.
- Knox only got 15 minutes and just didn't seem to have it last night. He should be our zone breaker but Portis stepped up and took that role while Knox saw his minutes cut and 0/3 from deep. I'm not gonna sweat that one, he's been good and reliable from three on damn near every other night.
- I think Dot has been a net positive with everything else he does, but the three ball hasn't been as reliable as I'd hoped. Considering shoulder surgery left him with less time to train in the offseason, that's understandable. But to really unlock his impact, he needs to find the three ball. Especially when the opponents start to employ a zone defense.
PG - Morris/Caruso
Poll
