Great to see some familiar names still posting here.
I love the hire for the story but who knows how this will work out. Going to be fun to watch either way. Count me in!
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Clifford wouldnāt have been my choice, but heās far from the worst coach weāve ever had. The circumstances of his hiring are more bothersome than the hire itself. But itās always more about the players than the coach anyway and we do have better players this time around. Interested to see what he can do with this group. I expect heāll be on a very short leash so heāll need earn their trust quickly. If guys donāt buy in, the encore will likely be short lived. But if he can implement a defense that doesnāt permit multiple warm up 3s every game, this just may work.
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Welcome , glad to see you back. Looking foward to your post.
From the FO to Hive Members earlier today
Dear Hive Society Member,
Iām excited to officially welcome back Steve Clifford as the new head coach of your Charlotte Hornets. As many of you know, Steve previously served as our head coach from 2013-2018. Ultimately, we determined that Steveās previous head coaching experience, knowledge and philosophy made him the best coach for our team.
Coach Clifford, who was most recently a coaching consultant for the Brooklyn Nets in 2021-22, has eight years of head coaching experience with the Hornets and Orlando Magic, leading his teams to the playoffs in four of those seasons (twice in Charlotte). He has a proven track record of improving defenses as evidenced by his teams finishing in the NBAās top 10 in both points allowed and defensive rating in five of his eight seasons. Coach Clifford returns to the Charlotte bench as the second-winningest coach in franchise history.
As Iāve stated since I arrived in Charlotte four years ago, one of our foundational tenants will always be player development. We will continue to work with our players to help them reach their full potential. Coach Clifford has a history of maximizing playersā talent and an ability to get the most out of them. He has helped many NBA players improve, develop and expand their skill sets, including Kemba Walker (Charlotte) and Nikola Vucevic (Orlando), who became first-time NBA All-Stars while playing for him. We believe that Coach Cliffordās player development work will build upon the previous strides that we have made in this area with our players.
We have a young, exciting team ā one that plays with pace, shares the basketball and excels on the offensive end of the floor. Coach Clifford is committed to playing with the same offensive pace that you ā our most loyal fans ā are accustomed to seeing the last few years at Spectrum Center. He will continue to emphasize these strengths on the offensive end of the floor, while providing additional attention to our defense. He brings more than 20 years of NBA coaching experience and has demonstrated the ability to develop strong relationships with his players. I look forward to working with Coach Clifford as we continue to build our team.
Finally, I want to share with you that Iām more excited than ever about our future in Charlotte. I believe that we are building something special with our talented, young core of players. As a Hive Society Member, your continued support has been instrumental in the growth of our team, and the home-court advantage you create at Spectrum Center will continue to be a key factor as we look to take the next step.
Thank you for being a member of our Hornets family.
Sincerely,
"The Dude"
President of Basketball Operations & General Manager
Charlotte Hornets
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Thatās a reassuring letter to be honest. He talks about a lot of the worries we all have with Clifford. If he actually does what this letter says and brings his defensive chops, we may be in a good spot. One thing I will be glad to seeā¦. We should actually guard them 3 point line now.
Hahaha, I like how you placed āThe Dudeā under his signature! You made me actually go double check my email, lol.
Two really weird things about the letter:
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It does not state how long the employment agreement is (ie 2, 3, 4 years). I thought it weird that I could not find that information on any news reports but to now see that number omitted from the letter raises questions and indicates secrecy.
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āThe Dudeā went out of his way to provide assurances about the young players and tempo. That tells me that those were concerns about Cliff during the hiring process. All the more reason to know how long heās here.
There is something fishy going on.
Informative post!
Interesting recent (2022) podcast with Steve Clifford talking about defensive philosophy and principles and other related topics: āSlappin' Glass Podcast: Steve Clifford on Elite Defensive Fundamentals, Productive Practices, and Conducting a Post Season Analysis {Brooklyn Nets} auf AppleĀ Podcasts
Thereās also a video interview version on YouTube.
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Reported as 3 years, 4 million per, last year is an option, assume thatās our option. The Dude is a HP thing, if you type in his name this board auto-replaces (that goes back a while). The actual sig looks as such (excuse the dark mode).
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LOL!
And just like that Iām committed for another year to HP.
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Three years w the last being an option - great! Then it should be clear to everyone (players, Cliff, prospective future Hornets head coaches, us, etc) that heās a transition coach. This is exactly what the doctor ordered.
The last year option makes it the exact timeframe that I suggested - 2 years (the franchise heals, players value defense, a new set of interested prospects) and then we all move on to a new coach in 2024.
Hopefully we wonāt have to move to a new coach at that timeā¦.
Alright guys.
This young roster simply needs an experienced, vocal, and disciplined coach.
Enter Clifford. Who is the extreme of those things. Rigid, unwavering, and stubborn. So he kind of fits the bill, but also is a little concerningā¦.because heās too rigid.
This could be a spectacular failure. I think Clifford could improve the team and help the defense, but Clifford teams always have a ceiling of achievement. And itās not a particularly high ceiling, but the floor is higher too.
Last thing and then Iāll shut up.
How we got to Clifford is such a joke and disaster. Shit show.
I can just about guarantee you that the reason why MDA isnāt the coach right now is because MJ was cheap and didnāt want to pay MDA what he wanted. And two, the assistant coach issue. I bet MDA also wanted to bring in some of his own assistant coaches, and MJ said no because he has the cheap assistant coaches locked into contracts to save money.
This team will never succeed with MJ at the helm. Never.
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Listened to this today and was very intrigued by his answers. Couple of takeaways:
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He clearly is a bball junkie who is seeing the game in ways none of us will every hope to see.
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I love his approach to teaching. He had so many great points grounded in reality of how people learn, what to focus on, and when to push. I especially appreciated how he talked about his own preparation for conversations or coaching sessions to maximize impact. His coaching talks with the Panthers staff was pretty interesting too, adding perspectives to how he coached.
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He sounds like heās much more in tune with the modern game than people want to give him credit. The talk about his approach to defense (which addressed offensive decision making) was pretty insightful.
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Itās clear that, like Kupchak, he sees an economy to what can be addressed in terms of coaching young players but also how players can reasonably grow over the course of a calendar year. Part of Kupchakās concerns with drafting two first rounders was so many young players needing attention and time and not being able to adequately meet their needs. It sounds like SC will have a plan in place to grow players before the season starts, but then itās going to be up to the players to really push themselves because there isnāt a lot of time for development (in terms of coaches training) in the NBA during the season.
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Appreciated his comments about playing sets that are simpler and likely to lead to better outcomes, but also talked about how much it impacts things negatively when guys have a deficiency so the rest of the team has to compensate through more mental decisions, which can lead to breakdowns. I think thatās important as we criticize coaches for not playing young players: they have to be thinking about the rest of the team and ensuring the rest of the guys on the floor can be successful.
Great show. It was great to hear SC talk basketball, which he clearly loves.
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I didnāt catch that but it sounds really interesting. Thanks for the summary. Along those same lines, it reminds me of how Draymond was describing Iguidolaās role on the Warriors. He mentioned that even though he mightāve only played 77 seconds in a particular game, those 77 seconds were important because a lot can happen in a short period of time in terms of momentum if guys are making mental mistakes. The reason he played as opposed to a younger player is because he could be trusted in that moment.
A lot has been said about Clifford in that regard, but all coaches want to play the guys they can trust. Thereās a balance that has to be struck of course, as young players are going to make some mistakes and need the opportunity to play through them. But itās also on the young player to have a certain level of preparation and maturity in order to earn that trust. Mitch and Mike obviously believe that Clifford will be able to strike that balance. We shall see.
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Very good points here. As much as some of you donāt want to hear this, you can do more damage playing a young kid who isnāt ready than just throwing him to the wolves and say fight for your life.
Iāll use Bouknight as an example. I loved the pick but it was obvious he didnāt have NBA functional strength for a guard, much less defensive rotations down as two major issues. In his mind, itās obvious he thought he was ready because he can score - but on several occasions you can see him try to work in ISO situations and he couldnāt win and he was throwing grenades back to the top as the shot clock was about to expire.
Young kids have to humble themselves and work - Kai has been a great example of that. The greats always talk about having those moments and those vets that taught them the ways of being the best. Charles Barkley always talks about how Moses Malone showed him the way as an example.
We have the GOAT and while itās not his job to necessarily do that, I wish he would do that a little more often with these guys. The other part of that is the young guys have to listen and absorb it too though.
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Brilliant stuff!
This is the main area where I like SC. He will teach young players the fundamentals on D, heāll explain why theyāre essential, and players will earn their minutes accordingly. Iām all for this. Monk was clearly too immature to deal with this approach, but thatās on him, not SC. I bet, if he was honest with himself now, Malik would do things differently if he could go back.
As long as SC allows the offence to flow and work at pace, weāll be a much better team. To be fair to him, SC hasnāt really had the opportunity to develop an offence around a player like LaMelo. Kemba was great, but he wasnāt near the facilitator LaMelo is, so the offence was high pick and role because thatās all we were capable of doing at a good level. Having continuity on the coaching staff is a plus as SC can lean on them, find out what the messages going to the players were and tweak according to what he sees. I doubt heāll want to tear the offence down as, for all he may have a fairly rigid approach to things, he seems a humble man who bases his opinions and philosophies on his experiences. Heās learning lead.
Finally, SC is going to LOVE Williams and his rim protection. With his standing reach, he can impact plays around the rim without leaving his feet, thereby limiting potential for fouling. I think, by mid-point in the season at the latest, Williams will be starting and playing good, fundamental D.
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Iām with you coach, but Iād have to add a caveat to what youāre saying.
I think the kids need to struggle on the floor. Itās how they learn. Sure, I agree to everything to what youāre saying. They need patience, practice, development, etc. All of that. But they still need real NBA minutes to put that into practice.
Struggling for a while isnāt a sign of failure. Itās a part of the growth process. And in fact, with very irregular minutes, Iād expect them to struggle.
They can go do all of those developmental, patient things youāre talking about (and I agree with you on), but they still need to apply it in a real NBA game. And I donāt care how prepared they are, itās still going to be a struggle and hit or miss for awhile.
Look at Miles. It took him a while to really find his footing. But he has. And he did that while logging real NBA minutes too.
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The difference is when you have guys ahead of them in the rotation and youāre trying to take a step and make the playoffs, it makes that very difficult. Part of the problem last season was roster construction.
Borrego obviously felt the pressure and the front office probably wasnāt always clear about how they wanted to go about things - Mitch even said to us he does not dictate playing time, he leaves it up to the HC.
Itās a delicate balance for sure, and there has to be clear and consistent communication on both sides. For all we know, maybe thatās a part of the reason why Borrego isnāt here now? But good points, I feel you.
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