22. Charlotte Hornets
Starters – Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, MKG, Marvin Williams, Frank Kaminsky
Bench – Ramon Sessions, Marco Belinelli, Jeremy Lamb, Cody Zeller, Roy Hibbert
Is Marco Belinelli worth a first round pick?
If you’re laughing at my joke, know that that’s exactly what the Hornets did on draft night on one of the more questionable moves of the offseason. We’ll come back to this later.
The Hornets were one of the more remarkable teams to watch throughout the season as they embraced the small-ball movement and found wild amounts of success thanks to the career resurgence of Marvin Williams (yes, that Marvin Williams) and Cody Zeller tapping into whatever potential he had left.
The only change to the starting lineup I have is Frank the Tank at the 5 as he is younger and I think is a slightly (ever so slightly) better improvement over Zeller. Clifford may roll out the same starting 5, so don’t just pencil in mine.
Ramon Sessions can have games where his offense is like watching paint dry, and others where he is on fire all night long from all over. He’s not the worst backup PG you can have, but he’s not the best either.
Marco Belinelli is a solid spot up 3-point shooter, but nothing else really. Sessions will (hopefully) set him up for plenty of 3’s.
Jeremy Lamb is forced to play out of position at the 3, but is one of the few players left on the roster that can play the backup 3. He was signed to an extension by Charlotte after they acquired him, but then received little playing time. Who knows what their plan is with him. When he’s given chances, he can catch fire, and I like watching him play so Clifford should listen to me. (Kidding, I’m kidding).
Cody Zeller is a more than qualified reserve, who, like I said earlier, could start, but I think would be better suited as a Ryan Anderson-like reserve.
Finally, Roy Hibbert was signed to…. uh…..play basketball? He SHOULD come off the bench, but may start. If he does come off the bench, he can get back to his Indiana form. *gasp* *pulls out bag of popcorn for the heat from the haters*
All of the players on the bench unit are scorers with a little more added defense (Roy Hibbert is over 7 feet tall for crying out loud, he will block some shots people), hence the ranking. Clifford will have to monitor this unit’s minutes though, as they are just as prone to give up a lead as they are to maintain it.
Next: No. 21