Opponent Scouting: Charlotte Hornets. (19-43)
Tonight at 7:00pm EST the Detroit Pistons are on the road in Charlotte to face the Hornets. Both teams are on one day of rest with the Pistons having lost to the Raptors while the Hornets defeated the Heat.
The Them:
The Hornets are very bad. They are slightly less bad than the Pistons, but still very bad. In positive news for them, they’ve won both games since the break and now have 4 straight victories! They enter tonight tied with Houston for the league’s worst offensive efficiency, but their defense ranks all the way up at 23rd.
Led by LaMelo Ball, who has a questionable shot selection but manages to remain a fairly efficient scorer by hitting tons of threes and being a high-level passer. He doesn’t do tons of damage inside and doesn’t draw tons of fouls for a guy who has the ball so much, but he hits some shots that are sheer lunacy. Terry Rozier is a good shooter and defender, like Ball he does most of his work with jumpers and isn’t great going to the hoop or drawing fouls but he’s still a good player if a bit overtaxed on this team. Gordon Hayward is healthy and is still capable of being the swiss-army-knife of the past but only for stretches. Rookie center Mark Williams is playing more having traded away Mason Plumlee, Williams is a legit 7 footer with decent skills/instincts for basic big man stuff although at just 21 years of age he isn’t exactly polished and he doesn’t have much ability beyond the basics for now. JT Thor is in a similar boat though he’s in his second season. Thor is 6’11 and does most of the stuff you need a second big to do but the lack of shooting is trouble.
Dennis Smith Jr. is still holding onto a significant role off the bench, Kelly Oubre Jr. is still athletic, long, and can cause some havoc on both ends of the floor. Nick Richards is another 7 footer who does the basics and not much else off the bench. Kai Jones is non-descript at this point as a young backup big.
This Hornets team has a few good pieces but its mostly ugly. Their biggest issue is that most of their top shot-takers are not efficient scorers and there are very few guys (even less with Plumlee gone) who pick up that slack.
Matchups to watch:
The spider-man meme: I don’t know if they will actually start Wiseman and Bagley, but as of writing Duren is out and Stewart is questionable, even Bojan might be out. So it seems likely we will see them on the floor together so lets see how it goes.
RJ Hampton vs. Settling in: Only made a brief cameo last time out, I really do not want to see Cory Joseph on the floor anymore. The faster Hampton earns those minutes the better.
Pistons offense vs. Shooting: If Bojan is out the lack of shooting in the rotation, and especially the starting lineup, reaches a critical mass. Even if they re-configure the starting lineup there simply isn’t enough shooting to go around. This could be an absolutely brutal offensive outing if the Hornets are on their game defensively.
Isaiah Livers vs. Keeping it up: Connecting to the previous note. After the deadline the Pistons put quite a bit into the “Livers can play” basket. He’s mostly been good but it is time to really solidify himself as a guy for big minutes. If he isn’t shooting the Pistons are in trouble.