Are we sure this guy isn’t going to suddenly bail before he can officially sign? I’m not making a joke, I really want to see this official. I hope he isn’t using it for leverage to get a different job elsewhere.
Does he have a family? And if any “family decisions” would lead him to renege on the offer?
This is a legitimate question. Hornets PTSD.
@Plowright on the All Hornets Podcast mentioned 3 coaches with connections to JPeterson, Mike Budenholzer, Kenny Atkinson, and Steve Clifford. 
Certainly it’s different for each organization, but that’s in a broad sense how I’ve understood it. Dividing responsibilities to have a better focus on important areas.
Perhaps Peterson would focus on roster & coaching while a GM would focus on scouting & training/medical staff (in addition to general budgeting, etc.) And then perhaps shared responsibilities in areas where they’re both strong. But that’s all a guess on my part, for sure.
Peterson was on the Woj pod
Great! On to the next game where we compete for two and a half quarters to late in the third quarter before the other team goes on a run and gets ahead by fourteen or more points and we make it close a few times but ultimately just lose another game. I realize coach Clifford has had to deal with a lot of injuries to key players on the team but that s*** was happening earlier in the year when everybody was healthy. We win four straight after the trade deadline and everybody likes the players we have but soon after reality sinks in. When it is different players but the same old scenario and results who is to blame? I want to support coach Clifford but dang nabbit it is hard to do!
Case in point we added two new additions to the team in Marques Bolden and Aleksej Pokusevski and neither has been activated to see what they might contribute to the team. My biggest beef is Marques Bolden not being able to show what he can do. Why sign him to ten day contracts if he has no chance to be a mainstay on the team?
Isn’t that, essentially, the pattern most times a weaker roster plays a better roster? While we have absolutely improved our rotation with the deadline trades, we’d still be a Lottery bound team, even when fully healthy. We’re bottom 5ish without LaMelo and Mark.
If a player gets cut from another roster, why would the expectation be that they’d be good enough to crack our rotation? In his four years in the league, Marques Bolden has appeared in 11 games total, starting zero. Two of those 11 games are with the Hornets. In those 11 games, he averaged 4.4 minutes of court time, 6.5 minutes with the Hornets. We’re doing our due diligence.
Cliff not too long ago said what I’ve assumed for a while: he’s plating the guys who are the most ready and have put in the work because it adversely affects the development of the other players and the team to do otherwise.
Not saying that’s a reason to keep Cliff, but I don’t blame him for not playing guys that were basically signed to be emergency players.
Against teams like the Spurs, Wizards, Pistons, Blazers nothing changes, etc,etc…? Before and after the trades the games we lose far too often follow the same pattern and winning teams or losing teams beat us by around the same margin. Teams make a big play then go on a run and we have trouble answering those runs enough to win or at least not lose all our games by the same margin.
I didn’t see anybody making post about how much weaker our talent was when we went on our four game winning streak and five wins in our last six games right after our trades. In fact a lot of people were saying how we got a lift in talent. As I thought the Clifford effect was bound to take over. I knew that kind of winning was not sustainable.
As far as Marquise Bolden goes, he didn’t get a chance to show he could contribute anything worthwhile till late in a couple of games we never had a chance to win. Hard to give a failing or passing grade to him under those circumstances. Coach Clifford is a bad coach yet he is justified in not giving a player like Marquise Bolden at least 10 to 15 minutes in the heat of basketball games it was obvious we never had a chance to win! In coach Clifford I trust none the less!
Wasn’t much of an emergency if that player who is called up is not needed. The point in signing such a player is to see what he can do. Based on how well Marquise played in the G-League I would say he was more than just an emergency player. He earned the right to get 12 to 15 minutes of playing times in a couple of games. It is not like coach Clifford is protecting his so called hard working team from an attitude that would rub off and keep them from winning games. The season is more or less over and based on the way games have gone, our Hornets will lose 80% or more of their remaining games. Now is the time to call up a few more G-League players and see what they can do. At this point what exactly do we have to lose?!
Our roster, without doubt, got better after the deadline. I don’t think anyone’s disputing that. But, without LaMelo and Mark, this roster still isn’t good enough to get into the playoffs, over the course of a season. And, when one of the weaker teams in the NBA plays mid to good level teams, they tend to compete for 3/4s and then get beat when it counts and the better team knuckles down. That was my point.
The fact we’re unable to beat Washington is absolutely a worry, and part of that has to be down to Cliff. Opinions can, and frankly should, be nuanced. Just because I have defended Cliff doesn’t mean I want him as the HC of the Hornets. I’d love him as the No.2, but he simply doesn’t adjust well enough and is too rigid to be an HC, IMHO. That said, it grinds my gears that as soon as anything goes wrong, some people shove most, if not all, of the blame Cliff’s way. I’ve become a de facto defender of Cliff due to, what I perceive to be, an over the top dislike of him.
The way Cliff sees it (and I mostly agree) is that you have to play the guys best prepared both to build culture and to position your emerging stars to be the most successful. If you want Miller to develop (which should be the absolute most important thing right now), you need to put guys around him that know their roles and allow him to develop positive habits within the flow of the game. So, I don’t think he’s going to just throw a guy a bunch of minutes (and for this argument, I’d say 12-15 is a bunch of minutes) unless they’re appropriately prepared.
The timeless debate here is do you throw a player in a game to let them develop, or do you focus more on practice for that development, waiting to play them until they’ve shown certain habits? I get both sides, but I think the critical piece that’s overlooked is the impact said playing time is having on the other guys on the court. Part of our issue the last several years is having so many guys who don’t know what they’re doing that nobody really develops good habits.
As far as my point about him being an emergency player, I think it’s both emergency and using that opportunity to find a diamond in the rough. But at the end of the day, I think it’s more about finding a warm body in case you have more injuries than it is focusing on that guy as a development player. Was that part of the equation? I’m sure, but at the end of the day, a lot of those guys are signed just to be available as a warm body when the roster is thin.
Thank you. Fair enough.
On All Hornets Podcast @Plowright said they’re still looking to hire a GM. Hadn’t heard anything about that for awhile. Was wondering if that was still the plan.
[https://sny.tv/articles/knicks-mitchell-robinson-significant-discomfort-left-ankle]
The Hornets expressed significant interest in hiring Brock Aller to Jeff Peterson’s new front office, SNY has learned. Aller, the Knicks’ vice president of basketball and strategic planning, was Leon Rose’s first significant hire after he took over as team president in 2020.
Aller has been instrumental salary cap strategy, general strategy and contract structure for New York. The Knicks, under Aller, have signed several players to contracts that descend in value year over year. These deals are generally viewed as team-friendly because they provide cap space/flexibility as the contract ages.
Charlotte had contact with Aller about a position, sources say. Based on everything that’s happened over the past four years, I’d assume New York would do what it had to retain Aller.
Beyond the dictionary definitions of insights and analysis, what does this role mean in reality? He’s like a chief strategist?
He’s the one to research ankle braces and convince LaMelo to wear them…
Oh shit, both research AND convince in the same role? That’s really advanced metrics-stuff right there.
