For so long the Charlotte Hornets were an existential crisis masquerading as a basketball team. Now with LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Gordon Hayward together, the Hornets are the most fun team in the league.
Monday 8 February 2021 14:46, UK
They don't have a winning record. They probably won't get further than the first round of the playoffs. They're paying Nicolas Batum $27m spread across the next three seasons to play for the Clippers. But forget all that and enjoy the Charlotte Hornets for what they are: beautiful, teal chaos.
This is of course, in large part, down to the new bright young hope LaMelo Ball. Thank the basketball gods Charlotte selected him third overall. It would have been too much to bear to see this franchise pass up a player as electric as this for yet another Cody Zeller or Frank Kaminsky.
Ball is a slinking, devastating menace of a point guard with a handle to die for, 360-degree court vision and a fearlessness you can't teach. In short, he's a guaranteed future All-Star and a player Charlotte will, hopefully, eventually, build a contender around.
They had that with Kemba Walker, of course, but didn't so much build around him as set the entire house on fire.
Watching Ball throw lobs for the airborne (Sky) Miles Bridges has quickly become the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the NBA. Maybe the entire universe.
Ball only has to float the ball in the vague direction of the rim, in fact he could probably throw it blindly anywhere in the arena, and Bridges will take off and slam it down like he has an ongoing personal vendetta against the hoop and its immediate family.
Hornets fans have even started calling them 'Airbnb'. That nickname alone could singlehandedly save 2021.
Even better, Ball has a healthy penchant for behind-the-back and no-look passes, transforming every fast break into a highlight reel play-in-waiting.
Whereas this would typically result in a turnover rate to make Russell Westbrook blush, Ball is averaging just 2.5 per contest and 3.3 per 36 minutes. That's a steady mark for a rookie point guard as probing as he is, albeit in a small sample size. By comparison, the equally flashy Trae Young was throwing it away four times per game in his rookie season.
Elsewhere, the signing of Gordon Hayward has gone better than just about anyone expected. Possibly even Gordon Hayward.
In the offseason the former Celtics wing chose the Hornets over his hometown Indiana Pacers in a sign-and-trade deal worth $120m over four years. While this is still undoubtedly a huge amount of money to be paying a 30-year-old, let alone a 30-year-old only two seasons removed from a fractured tibia and dislocated ankle that caused him to miss the entirety of the 2017/18 season, Hayward has been a quiet revelation in Charlotte.
He's averaging a career-high 23 points per game whilst chipping in with six rebounds and four assists. Essentially, he's an elite secondary scorer and ballhandler; a walking bucket if you need him to be and a fill-in-the-gaps player if you don't. Both his on-ball and off-ball defense remains about as good as any at his position.
For Ball, having the steady, calming presence of Hayward alongside him not only eases the substantial pressure he faces as a rookie point guard and inevitable face of the franchise, but also gives him the freedom to do the following:
Sometimes it's important to know the offense doesn't live and die by your hands, meaning you can jack up a Harlem Globetrotter rhythm three just because you feel like it. It'd probably make John Stockton sick to his stomach but for the rest of us, it's exhilarating.
In only his third season with the team, head coach James Borrego has done an excellent job of easing Ball's transition to NBA basketball, given that the 19-year-old did not play college ball at UCLA as expected (in part due to a shoe deal and the signing of an agent threatening his eligibility) but instead chose to begin his professional career early, first in Lithuania before suiting up for the Illawarra Hawks in Australia's NBL.
Whilst most Hornets fans have understandably clamoured for Ball to start every game and play huge minutes, the former San Antonio Spurs assistant was initially cautious with the prodigious talent now at his disposal. The patience seems to have paid off.
Ball didn't earn his first start until start of February, during a win against the Miami Heat. He has since started four straight, including a monster 34-point, eight-assist, four-rebound performance during a loss to the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Charlotte lost two of those games, as expected, to two genuine contenders in the form of the Jazz and the Philadelphia 76ers, at this moment the two best teams in each conference. However, you only need to look at their most recent game, a 22-point blowout win against the Washington Wizards, to see real cause for optimism.
The Hornets blitzed the Wizards from the opening whistle and didn't let up until garbage time, scoring 30+ points in the each of the first three quarters. Sure, there wasn't much defense played and sure, it was the Wizards, but Charlotte's core seven-man rotation looked well-balanced on the night.
Ball hit his open threes, a serious pre-draft concern slowly being refuted, whilst Bridges and the resurgent Malik Monk were livewires off the bench, with the former grabbing 14 boards, six of which were on the offensive end. The man carries an invisible trampoline with him at all times.
Whilst Coach Berrago's shortened rotation, and indeed Ball's starting spot, will likely be disrupted by the return of Devonte Graham from a groin injury, the early signs are good. Upgrade their current big man rotation of Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo (yes I'm talking to you MJ, do the right thing!) and suddenly the Hornets are a solid playoff team in the East, no small feat given where they were last season.
Which, if you needed reminding, was bottom of the league in points per game, pace and second bottom in offensive rating. They're just about middle of the pack in those statistics now but expect them to climb over the next few years as they gradually hand the reigns of the franchise over to Ball.
For so long the Hornets were a miserable franchise, propping up the league and existing only for the sake of it under the majority owner Michael Jordan and former general nanager Rich Cho.
For now, they've found LaMelo Ball, and something like the pure joy of basketball again.
