Charlotte Hornets
The 2021-22 Charlotte Hornets can be defined by improving their win total by 10 games, but also by suffering another blow-out loss in the Eastern Conference Elimination Play-In Game.
What did we learn?
The Hornets fired James Borrego.
Definitely a surprising move. This was the Hornets’ best season in six years after all.
Borrego seemed like a good head coach, but he did have a tendency to always ride with the hot hand, and he didn’t play the rookies very much. He also never got a fully healthy Gordon Hayward — although counting on that at this point seems like a fool’s errand.
The Hornets with Hayward were very good once again. Prior to Hayward’s sprained ankle/foot that derailed this season on Jan. 21, the Hornets were 26-20, sitting in 7th place in the East, rocking the #3 offense in the NBA and buzzing on a red-hot stretch of winning 10 out of 13 games. After that? The Hornets played sub-.500 ball, a record of 17-19 the rest of the way as the offense slipped down to 12th.
As stated in our Season Preview, “The actual winning in Uptown will likely hinge on Gordon Hayward’s health once again. Hayward is the piece that really unlocks everything for James Borrego.”
The injury bug seems permanently attached to him.
But this Hornets team was still a lot of fun!
Charlotte’s top-flight offense over the first few months of the season was predicated on pristine ball movement, starting with LaMelo Ball and continuing with everybody’s unselfishness and willingness to set up other’s success. The Hornets finished 1st in the NBA in assists per game at 28.1 dimes a night.
LaMelo averaged 20.1 points, 7.6 assists and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 38.9 percent from 3 on high volume of 7.5 attempts per game, becoming the 4th-youngest All-Star ever (passing Zion), albeit as an injury reserve.
Miles Bridges (friend of the blog!) had a piping-hot start to the season that saw Bridges earn Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Bridges, in a contract year, became so much more than just the best power dunker in the game, matching LaMelo’s 20 points per game after his previous career-high average was 13. He also posted a career-high in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
Not only did LaMelo and Bridges both average 20 points per game, but they both scored an identical career-high of 38 points this season.
Bridges dropped his career-high 38 points at MSG on MLK Day. He had nine games of 30 or more points this season after having just three such games in his first three seasons in the league.
LaMelo scorched the Celtics for his career-high 38 points in Boston in early-Feb., passing his previous high of 36 points set two months earlier against the Bucks when he made eight 3s. (Remember when the pre-draft knock on LaMelo was his shooting?)
The 2021-22 Charlotte Hornets had a third player average nearly 20 points a night. That would be one Terry Rozier, not far behind at 19.3. The fourth quarter remained Scary Terry’s specialty. In fact, the Hornets had three players finish in the top-20 for total fourth quarter points: Bridges (14th), Rozier (18th) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (20th).
Oubre looked like a completely different player from his brief Warriors’ stint, finishing fourth in the NBA in bench points and becoming the second-fastest Hornet to hit 100 3-pointers, trailing only Baron Davis. Oubre almost broke Klay Thompson’s record for most 3s in a quarter! He hit EIGHT 3s in the fourth quarter of a random early-Jan. game against the Pistons.
Exactly three weeks later, the Hornets hung a franchise-record 158 points on the Pesky Pacers.
Other monster Hornets wins included beating the Nets in Brooklyn to spoil Kyrie’s home debut and finally taking down the Jazz, a team the Hornets hadn’t beaten since January of 2018.
Isaiah Thomas provided a big spark for this team down the stretch upon his arrival to Uptown. The Hornets went 12-5 in games with IT in the lineup, and he was featured in some crunch-time lineups.
But even IT couldn’t help the Hornets in that play-in game in Atlanta. They got punched in the mouth in the play-in once again.
There is a seriously fun and high-octane team here with a lot of potential lingering within. It feels like the Hornets are a healthy Hayward away from being a real playoff team.
But dammit if that doesn’t feel like such a long way.
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Additional Notes
Last year in our Hornets Season Review, we raved about the Hornets supreme small-ball lineups with P.J. Washington at the 5, but the best Hornets 5-man lineup this season had PJW at the 4:
LaMelo, Rozier, Bridges, Washington and Plumlee posted a net rating of +9.2 in 327 mins.
Defense was a big issue, in particular protecting the rim. We have been clamoring for the Hornets to trade for Myles Turner for years now. Although his injury history is almost as bad as Hayward’s…
The rooks — James Bouknight, Kai Jones and JT Thor — didn’t play a whole lot. (Perhaps that was some of the disconnect between Borrego and the front office.) But Bouknight and Thor still both made Power Dunk City and it’s only a matter of time for Jones. This is a big-time power-dunking team that finished with the second-most dunks out of all 30 teams.
Mason Plumlee switched free throw shooting hands, much to the delight of Eric Collins.
Another Eric Collins classic: “Trying to stop Montrezl Harrell when he’s close to the basket is like trying to put socks on a rooster!”
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
This Hornets team will be so much fun they’ll create their own lightning. Over 38.5 wins.
Hornets 2021-22 record: (43-39)
Yes! The Hornets hit the Over and still fired their coach lol.
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What’s Next?
The Hornets have the lucky #13 pick in the draft as well as #15 from the Pelicans from the Devonte Graham sign and trade.
Top priority: restricted free agent Miles Bridges.
Our beloved Hornets have hired Kenny Atkinson! He’s only the coach that we have been recommending for every team for two years now. [Update: Per Woj, Atkinson has decided to remain as a top assistant for the Warriors and will not become the Hornets head coach after all… *big sigh*]
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Favorite Hornets Highlights of the 2021-22 Season:
Eric Collins remains undefeated.
