It may reflect poorly upon the Hornets brass, but this is a team that is carefully figuring out new ways to not just improve, but to be more efficient.
It’s a sensationalist world we live in these days, especially when it comes to NBA reporting.
In our previous article, we covered how Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee was receiving praise from around the NBA, but with that he was also on the butt-end of some criticism.
And a lot of it stemmed from how Lee had handled Hornets superstar LaMelo Ball. It all started on January 8 in a game against the Indiana Pacers.
It was Charlotte’s third game in four nights and given Ball’s long-lasting injury history, Lee opted to start the game with his superstar on the bench – the first time in Ball’s career since his rookie season where he is a reserve.
Since then, Lee had him coming off the bench on two separate occasions – one of them being against the Golden State Warriors. Longtime Warrior, and unafraid to speak his mind, Draymond Green said on his podcast that he was flabbergasted at the Hornets benching Ball and that this was all a ploy to tank.
"[Saturday] night we start our meeting and we're going through the staring lineup and I'm looking, like 'Melo not playing?' and they're like 'No, he's playing. He's coming off the bench' and I'm sitting there looking like 'Huh? What? He coming off the bench?'" Green recalled.
"You have a point guard that is built to set all of those guys up, and he's on the bench on that team, I don't get it. They are tanking in plain sight. And you know they aren't looking to trade LaMelo, because they're bringing him off the bench. You'd be playing him, so everyone can see him and get excited. So they're really just tanking in plain sight and I think that sucks."
Yet, what’s gone unnoticed is that in the past 21 games, Ball has been available and has seen the floor.
That just so happens to be the longest stretch of consecutive games that Ball has played in since his sophomore season where he not only played 75 games, but also made it to the All Star Game.
Hornets legend and color commentator Dell Curry saw the correlation of Ball being benched to his sudden availability on the floor.
A lot of talk about 'LaMelo is not starting'... you're not paying attention to what's happening in the big picture, and that's he's available to play on a nightly basis,” Curry poignantly added. “That changes the landscape of this team..."
Ball’s fragility has been a touchy subject amongst the Hornets brass, so much so that they tossed around the idea of him not being on the team this past offseason.
However, in this recent stretch, and with how dominant the Hornets have been with Ball on the floor with Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller and Moussa Diabate the Hornets may suddenly be more open to seeing a future with him.
The biggest priority for the Hornets? Keeping Ball fresh for the fourth quarter.
With his thorough injury history, Lee and GM Jeff Peterson are consistently looking to find ways to make him more accessible when the games matter the most.
And currently, the Hornets only have a 5-16 record in games decided by 10 points or less.
Had even half of those 16 losses were wins, the standings would look a whole lot different.
“There’s been some games where Melo even agrees that he should come off the bench to make sure that we have more fourth quarter minutes for him when it is winning time, even though obviously the whole game is really important and every possession is really important," Lee said after a Tuesday practice last week.
Charlotte already ruled out any trade possibilities for the season, and reports have come out that the team will reconvene after the season is over.
Whatever happens this season will be crucial to the future of Ball on this franchise, but it’s fair to say that a playoff appearance isn’t out of the question.
Because of this span of winning four out of their last five games, the Hornets, who were once far from the 10th seed for the NBA’s Play-In, are now inching closer to that spot – now only 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Hawks as of this writing.
On the surface, the benching of Ball seems like a negative play, but what if this was for his best interest? If Ball is OK with it, and it seems like he is, then everyone wins.
Hornets Roundtable also offers a fan community and message board. We’d love to have you join us to talk all things Hornets. Click the “Join” button at the top of the page to join our community for free.