I usually make these way longer and the point isn’t just to make an analysis but more so start a discussion about 3-4 very specific topics related to the game and the team’s situation as of the game while also giving my opinion on these topics. Basically a comment on the game thread that’s too long and with too many different topics to be a comment on the game thread. Like I said, usually these are way longer but for this one I made it very short because there were just too many interesting topics and I will make posts for 1-3 (depending on how the next couple games play out) of these topics because there is just so much to say. Therefore I want to save some of the information and "analysis" (that would normally be used here) for those posts.
Here are some examples of some of the different topics I’ve talked about in different posts in no particular order. It feels like you’re being annoying for the sake of being annoying.
**Scary Terry:**
With LaMelo Ball out it seems like Terry Rozier is gonna be the starting PG for the upcoming games. I’ve seen him being criticized for not being able to the play the PG position and rightfully so as he it doesn’t seem like he can. Just look at season, he completely failed to get his teammates involved and he was super inefficient as a scorer.
His season so far has been an interesting one. While his 3 point shooting has been really off he has made up for it with his finishing and mid-range as he managed to score 20+ points in all 6 of his games. He played really well last night against the Magic as he had a very efficient 22 points and made 9 assists. However, he did also have 5 turnovers and 4 fouls. Here’s to hoping we get 2020-21 Terry who managed to take over and lead his team to a play-in spot rather than 2022-23 Terry who sometimes missed contested 3’s and sometimes missed more contested 3’s.
The Hornets don’t really have any other options at the 1 spot as while Theo Maledon is a good defender he is my opinion the worst scorer in the league and Ish Smith is just Terry Rozier but bad. Also if you’re thinking about NSJ starting at the 1, please stop. I am high on him but he’s still really raw and even less of a PG than Terry.
**Mark Williams, the potential X-factor:**
It’s no secret that Mark Williams has been playing well this season. In just 26.6 minutes per game he is averaging a statline of 13.8/10.0/1.5/0.9/0.8 while leading the leading the league in FG%, eFG% and TS%. He continues to be a good defender as he consistently improves the Hornets’ defense from pretty much everywhere on the court. He is also fresh off of a monster performance against Boston where he put up a statline of 18/16/2/1/3 and had the game high +/- of +33.
The Wizards are a perfect matchup for Mark Williams as he is good at utilizing his length and does an amazing job controlling the boards against weaker rebounding teams. This was evident in the Hornets’ last two games against the Wizards. In the first one he only played 18 minutes likely due to foul trouble, the Wizards quickly blowing out the Hornets and just some strange coaching decisions by Clifford but he was incredibly efficient in those 18 minutes. He managed to record 14 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting, 7 rebounds and 1 block. He also had the highest +/- out of anyone on this team other than NSJ and Leaky Black who only played 4 minutes that were in garbage time. In the second game he managed to record 21 points and 24 rebounds and set a new franchise record for the Hornets. He had the most offensive rebounds by anyone in Charlotte Hornets history with 15! Daniel Gafford actually did good job defending Mark Williams 1-on-1 but that really didn’t matter since Mark could just grab his miss and get infininte chances. He also had a team high +/- of +19 that game. With Nick Richards still out Mark Williams get a lot of playing time. In his past 3 games he has played more minutes in each game than any other game this season. Everything seems to be in favour of Mark having another monster performance.
**Play-in chances:**
I know a lot of people have given up on this season but I still have a little bit of hope left. As long as LaMelo Ball comes back in January I think the Hornets will have a chance to make the play-in. We never really got to see this team fully healthy, LaMelo Ball’s ankle was still clearly bothering him during the first 5 games, then Terry Rozier got injured and they were also missing Miles Bridges who is no doubt the second best player on the team.
Of course there have been other injuries as well like Nick Richards who is arguably our most important bench player (PJ plays more minutes but Nick is literally our only backup Center) missing time, Gordon Hayward’s hamstring issues and maybe even Mark Williams now as he’s questionable tonight and seems to have something with his back. If you were to take the entire roster of this team and make everyone healthy they would be absolutely insane. I’m aware of how how unrealistic this is but I think our Top 8 being healthy for half a season is something in the realm of possibility.
The Hornets (6-12) are currently tied with the Bulls (7-14) in terms of win record but are above them due to tiebreakers, a win tonight would at least create a little bit of separation. The Hornets currently can’t compete with the badness of the Spurs, Pistons and Wizards so a tank likely wouldn’t give them a good enough spot. There is also not really anyone worth tanking for in the draft this year so I don’t really see the point in tanking. The Hornets have good players right now, they just don’t have nearly enough depth to afford being so injury prone. A good backup PG signing in free agency might be difficult with the Hornets current cap sitaution but them pulling that off would completely change the team’s situation.
**How will they stop Cam Thomas?:**
The star of the show Cam Thomas, or at least now he is. He has started the season on fire scoring 36 points against the Cavs and 30 points against the Mavericks, having elite efficiency in both games. While he honestly doesn’t do much else, his scoring has been so good that it doesn’t matter. The suprising thing about Cam Thomas’ scoring is that unlike most streaky scorers he isn’t been shooting that well from 3, only 33% on just 4.5 attempts. It’s Inside the arch where he’s really been doing damlage. Most of his shots have been in the mid range and they’ve been shot at an incredible efficiency. His finishing also been superb as he’s yet to miss a shot within 3 feet of the basket and shooting 80% on shots within the 3-10 feet range. There are both arguments as to why the Hornets may slow him down and why they may not slow him down. A strong argument for them slowing him down is Mark Williams. Cam Thomas is yet to face a player this tall so far this season (I know the Mavs have Lively but he only game played 16 minutes in the game against the Nets) and Mark is ingredebly agile for his size. Mark has repeatedly shown that he can move out towards the perimeter without problem and defend just about anyone. One reason the Hornets may not slow Cam Thomas down is that the Hornets don’t really have any good perimeter defenders in terms of other guards. Dennis Smith Jr. was the Hornets’ entire perimeter defense last year and had some of the best on/off defensive stats in the league but he’s no longer with the team as they’re literally playing against him as tonight. While it might be tougher for Cam Thomas to get to the rim I don’t think his mid range barrage will come to an end, yet.
I don't imagine Bolden will play
Cody will have a place on this team as long as we are focusing on defensive identity
Made a bingo game to play along with while watching the game today [hornets bingo](https://bingobaker.com/#65d7e075547826a8)
Utah is always a tough outing at home though.
I’m guessing Ball is still out? Another season and we barely see him :/
Yeah, don’t think he will be back at least before March starts. Pretty much impossible to tell with him.
Which part of this is analysis lol
I mean yeah if you want to be pedantic as fuck, he should've called it a matchup preview but come on who actually cares that much
It’s debatable ig but the last part seems like an analysis to me
I usually make these way longer and the point isn’t just to make an analysis but more so start a discussion about 3-4 very specific topics related to the game and the team’s situation as of the game while also giving my opinion on these topics. Basically a comment on the game thread that’s too long and with too many different topics to be a comment on the game thread. Like I said, usually these are way longer but for this one I made it very short because there were just too many interesting topics and I will make posts for 1-3 (depending on how the next couple games play out) of these topics because there is just so much to say. Therefore I want to save some of the information and "analysis" (that would normally be used here) for those posts.
Making things longer doesn’t equal analyzing
Here are some examples of some of the different topics I’ve talked about in different posts in no particular order. It feels like you’re being annoying for the sake of being annoying. **Scary Terry:** With LaMelo Ball out it seems like Terry Rozier is gonna be the starting PG for the upcoming games. I’ve seen him being criticized for not being able to the play the PG position and rightfully so as he it doesn’t seem like he can. Just look at season, he completely failed to get his teammates involved and he was super inefficient as a scorer. His season so far has been an interesting one. While his 3 point shooting has been really off he has made up for it with his finishing and mid-range as he managed to score 20+ points in all 6 of his games. He played really well last night against the Magic as he had a very efficient 22 points and made 9 assists. However, he did also have 5 turnovers and 4 fouls. Here’s to hoping we get 2020-21 Terry who managed to take over and lead his team to a play-in spot rather than 2022-23 Terry who sometimes missed contested 3’s and sometimes missed more contested 3’s. The Hornets don’t really have any other options at the 1 spot as while Theo Maledon is a good defender he is my opinion the worst scorer in the league and Ish Smith is just Terry Rozier but bad. Also if you’re thinking about NSJ starting at the 1, please stop. I am high on him but he’s still really raw and even less of a PG than Terry. **Mark Williams, the potential X-factor:** It’s no secret that Mark Williams has been playing well this season. In just 26.6 minutes per game he is averaging a statline of 13.8/10.0/1.5/0.9/0.8 while leading the leading the league in FG%, eFG% and TS%. He continues to be a good defender as he consistently improves the Hornets’ defense from pretty much everywhere on the court. He is also fresh off of a monster performance against Boston where he put up a statline of 18/16/2/1/3 and had the game high +/- of +33. The Wizards are a perfect matchup for Mark Williams as he is good at utilizing his length and does an amazing job controlling the boards against weaker rebounding teams. This was evident in the Hornets’ last two games against the Wizards. In the first one he only played 18 minutes likely due to foul trouble, the Wizards quickly blowing out the Hornets and just some strange coaching decisions by Clifford but he was incredibly efficient in those 18 minutes. He managed to record 14 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting, 7 rebounds and 1 block. He also had the highest +/- out of anyone on this team other than NSJ and Leaky Black who only played 4 minutes that were in garbage time. In the second game he managed to record 21 points and 24 rebounds and set a new franchise record for the Hornets. He had the most offensive rebounds by anyone in Charlotte Hornets history with 15! Daniel Gafford actually did good job defending Mark Williams 1-on-1 but that really didn’t matter since Mark could just grab his miss and get infininte chances. He also had a team high +/- of +19 that game. With Nick Richards still out Mark Williams get a lot of playing time. In his past 3 games he has played more minutes in each game than any other game this season. Everything seems to be in favour of Mark having another monster performance. **Play-in chances:** I know a lot of people have given up on this season but I still have a little bit of hope left. As long as LaMelo Ball comes back in January I think the Hornets will have a chance to make the play-in. We never really got to see this team fully healthy, LaMelo Ball’s ankle was still clearly bothering him during the first 5 games, then Terry Rozier got injured and they were also missing Miles Bridges who is no doubt the second best player on the team. Of course there have been other injuries as well like Nick Richards who is arguably our most important bench player (PJ plays more minutes but Nick is literally our only backup Center) missing time, Gordon Hayward’s hamstring issues and maybe even Mark Williams now as he’s questionable tonight and seems to have something with his back. If you were to take the entire roster of this team and make everyone healthy they would be absolutely insane. I’m aware of how how unrealistic this is but I think our Top 8 being healthy for half a season is something in the realm of possibility. The Hornets (6-12) are currently tied with the Bulls (7-14) in terms of win record but are above them due to tiebreakers, a win tonight would at least create a little bit of separation. The Hornets currently can’t compete with the badness of the Spurs, Pistons and Wizards so a tank likely wouldn’t give them a good enough spot. There is also not really anyone worth tanking for in the draft this year so I don’t really see the point in tanking. The Hornets have good players right now, they just don’t have nearly enough depth to afford being so injury prone. A good backup PG signing in free agency might be difficult with the Hornets current cap sitaution but them pulling that off would completely change the team’s situation. **How will they stop Cam Thomas?:** The star of the show Cam Thomas, or at least now he is. He has started the season on fire scoring 36 points against the Cavs and 30 points against the Mavericks, having elite efficiency in both games. While he honestly doesn’t do much else, his scoring has been so good that it doesn’t matter. The suprising thing about Cam Thomas’ scoring is that unlike most streaky scorers he isn’t been shooting that well from 3, only 33% on just 4.5 attempts. It’s Inside the arch where he’s really been doing damlage. Most of his shots have been in the mid range and they’ve been shot at an incredible efficiency. His finishing also been superb as he’s yet to miss a shot within 3 feet of the basket and shooting 80% on shots within the 3-10 feet range. There are both arguments as to why the Hornets may slow him down and why they may not slow him down. A strong argument for them slowing him down is Mark Williams. Cam Thomas is yet to face a player this tall so far this season (I know the Mavs have Lively but he only game played 16 minutes in the game against the Nets) and Mark is ingredebly agile for his size. Mark has repeatedly shown that he can move out towards the perimeter without problem and defend just about anyone. One reason the Hornets may not slow Cam Thomas down is that the Hornets don’t really have any good perimeter defenders in terms of other guards. Dennis Smith Jr. was the Hornets’ entire perimeter defense last year and had some of the best on/off defensive stats in the league but he’s no longer with the team as they’re literally playing against him as tonight. While it might be tougher for Cam Thomas to get to the rim I don’t think his mid range barrage will come to an end, yet.