Power Ranking Charlotte Hornets Players Heading into Final Month of Season
Do the Charlotte Hornets currently have a roster capable of making one final spirited playoff push? The last chapter of the regular season will be telling when it comes to where everyone stands on this team, both in 2014-15 and beyond.
This brutal road trip has gotten to them, as the Hornets have dropped four of five to slip to ninth place in the Eastern Conference. They have gotten inconsistent play out of mostly everyone aside from Gerald Henderson and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
As a result, the power rankings for this group are markedly different than they were early in the season or at any other point during the year.
When evaluating where everyone on this roster stands with 13 games to go, we will take a number of things into account. Players will be ranked based on the following aspects:
- Overall ability level
- Recent impact
- Importance to the team's success
Hopes of winning 50 games were quickly dashed in 2014-15, and finishing over .500 is just about out of the question as well. After so much inconsistency and underachievement, many tough questions are on the horizon.
Let's examine how these Hornets stack up.
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11. Brian Roberts
Understandably, Roberts has seen a huge dip in his minutes since the Mo Williams acquisition.
When Roberts was brought in as a free agent this past offseason, it looked to be a crafty move to fortify one of the league's weaker benches. His veteran poise and shooting acumen were going to be stabilizing forces with so many young talents around him.
That has not been the case.
Roberts is posting career lows across the board, with his 30.7 percent success rate from deep and 2.3 assists a night proving to be the biggest letdowns. His struggles pushed the front office to acquire Williams to save this season.
The 29-year-old point guard has played just once over the past six games after shooting 0-of-10 with one assist in 24 minutes of futility against the Washington Wizards on March 9.
Roberts' recent downturn has made him another bench casualty, as Clifford continues to shorten his rotation.
12. Troy Daniels
Daniels came over from Minnesota in a trade with Mo Williams on February 10 and has played just 15 minutes total in that span. Why he can't crack the lineup more than that is a mystery.
His three-point shooting is a legitimate weapon that the Hornets could use, given their constant woes from distance. Daniels has hit three of his six attempts in his limited minutes, but he still finds himself buried behind Kemba Walker, Brian Roberts and Williams.
13. Jeff Taylor
Taylor has slid down the depth chart all the way to the end of the bench due to the emergence of MKG and the rejuvenation of Gerald Henderson. His numbers have suffered a similar fate.
Taylor has missed 15 of 16 shots since the All-Star break. Even Dikembe Mutombo couldn't play enough defense to make up for that kind of offensive futility. Don't expect to see him on the floor much anytime soon.
14. P.J. Hairston
According to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer, Steve Clifford said that Hairston "hasn't developed any way to play to make his teammates better." If that doesn't signal that you're in the doghouse, well then I'm not sure what does.
Hairston's shot selection has been a nightmare all season. He has shot just 32.1 percent from the floor, though he has done much better in games where he has received big minutes. He hasn't even seen the court since February 10, the final game before the All-Star break, when he scored 16 points against the Detroit Pistons.
15. Noah Vonleh
The 19-year-old rookie has not seen the floor much this season, much to the chagrin of Hornets fans. There have been plenty of times Charlotte could have used his athleticism and scoring ability, but Steve Clifford has yet to give him consistent time.
Vonleh undoubtedly remains a key cog in Charlotte's future, but now is just not his time. He has scored eight points combined in February and March.
It is a shame to see the two talented rookies at the end of the bench.
10. Jason Maxiell
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Maxiell has never been much of a scorer, but even his defense has not been a huge asset of late. Charlotte brought him aboard to provide a veteran voice and has now been forced to play him a little bit more than anyone would have hoped.
The veteran out of Cincinnati does what he can to provide some blocks and rebounds for this team, especially with Cody Zeller missing games due to a shoulder injury this month. However, he just isn't the kind of guy you want seeing major minutes late in the season for a playoff contender.
Charlotte still relies on Maxiell when it faces bigger teams, but he won't see the court sometimes otherwise. He has played 14.3 minutes per night in March, with mostly uneventful results. He is another black hole on offense for a team that already has too many of those.
The fact that we are through six guys on the depth chart and have yet to get to anyone who consistently avoids the dreaded "DNP-CD" on a nightly basis is troubling.
9. Lance Stephenson
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This one hurts to even write. If there was an exact opposite of the NBA Most Improved Player award, Lance Stephenson might be the overwhelming favorite this year.
At no point during the year has he ever looked like himself. Stephenson quickly worked himself into the doghouse after coming over as the piece that was supposed to vault Charlotte to the next tier in the East. Instead, he knocked the team down a peg. His awful performance and poor fit likely could prove to be the demise of this entire regime and era of Charlotte basketball.
That is exactly how bad Stephenson has been. Instead of becoming a huge threat, the team is now questioning every piece. His rebounding and assists haven't been too bad at 4.9 and 4.3 per game, respectively, but he has not taken the next step in his development. He is just 24 and coming off a breakout campaign with the Indiana Pacers last year, when he posted five triple-doubles.
Stephenson's field-goal percentage has plummeted from 49.1 percent to 37.6 this season. He has scored 20 points just once all year and has not clicked with fellow guard Kemba Walker. He has gone from Eastern Conference Finals assassin and LeBron James adversary to a forgotten ninth man on a floundering team in just months.
Look for those trade rumors to heat up again this offseason. There will surely be suitors who hope to reignite Stephenson's flame.
8. Bismack Biyombo
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After four seasons, we can pretty much accept that Bismack Biyombo will not be turning into Serge Ibaka 2.0.
To his credit, he has continued to improve. According to Basketball-Reference.com, his offensive and defensive ratings are at 115 and 99, respectively, both career highs. His offense mostly consists of putbacks and garbage buckets, but he is still an effective enough player to warrant more minutes than he gets.
Maxiell should never see the court over Biyombo. That much is a certainty. It was a shame he missed all of January with a knee injury, because Biz was in the midst of the best stretch of his career right before going down, highlighted by three emphatic double-doubles in five games.
The numbers do not lie. Charlotte is a noticeably better team when Biyombo is on the floor. His impact on defense is a big asset, although it is hard to run him out there for huge minutes when he isn't producing on offense.
It will be interesting to see where the 22-year-old stands when he hits restricted free agency this offseason. He has definitely been on an upward trajectory, and Charlotte's other young bigs haven't done enough to push him off the floor yet.
7. Marvin Williams
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If you believed that losing Josh McRoberts and replacing him with Marvin Williams would play a role in the demise of this team, you were 100 percent correct.
It is easy to compare the two, since Williams came aboard on a two-year, $14 million deal shortly after McRoberts took his talents to South Beach. McBob was second in the entire NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio last year behind Chris Paul, and his unique skill set was a major reason why the Hornets were successful last year.
Williams is still the same player he has always been. He hits a solid 37 percent from three-point range. He plays underwhelming defense and rebounds much worse than you'd like from a 6'9" guy. Maybe Michael Jordan thought he could light a fire under a fellow North Carolina Tar Heel, but it hasn't happened.
The former No. 2 overall pick in 2005 is still sixth on this depth chart because he has been hot of late. Williams is the only guy consistently hitting from long range for this bunch, as evidenced by his 45.3 percent shooting from three in the second half of the year.
Statistically, March has been his best month of the season at 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He may never live up to his extraordinary hype and talent level, but he is a solid rotational guy for the Hornets.
6. Cody Zeller
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Much like Biyombo, Zeller also got injured at an unfortunate time. After sputtering all year, he finally put together six consecutive double-digit scoring outputs before succumbing to a shoulder injury on March 9.
Zeller has definitely improved across the board since last year. His shooting has gotten better due to his increased confidence and ability to play within the system, as seen by his big spike in assisted two-point field-goal percentage from 65.1 to 84.8 percent.
He hasn't made good on his No. 4 overall selection yet, but he is on his way. It is clear what kind of player he will be in this league, but he just has to hone his craft and improve defensively. Zeller is and will be a high energy guy who runs the break, spreads the floor a bit, and fills the stat sheet a bit as a complementary piece. He often gets overpowered and outworked by longer players due to his smaller wingspan; he will have to learn to use his athleticism better to mitigate that shortcoming.
March has been Zeller's most consistent month at 9.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per night. The Hornets are not the same team without his athleticism in the lineup: They were 5-0 this month before he went down and have gone 2-7 since. He was settling into a niche, and the whole team was feeding off it.
As a whole, the Hornets are 12-5 when Zeller scores in double figures in 2014-15 and just 18-34 when he doesn't.
Consistency and aggressiveness are two things he still needs to master to become a great player. Maxiell's presence on the floor is an embodiment of the fact that he still struggles in that department.
5. Kemba Walker
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It is difficult to assess Kemba Walker. After four seasons, he is still somewhat of an enigma.
He is still posting 18.1 points and five assists per night this season, and he was scorching hot before going down with a knee injury on January 14. His six straight games over 28 points before succumbing to the pain provided yet another glimpse of what he is capable of but still made you wonder why he can't do it more often.
Hot and cold is the name of the game for Walker. He has shown he can get scalding hot for long periods of time. He got hot enough last year to carry Charlotte to a playoff berth, much like he rampaged through the Big East and NCAA tournaments during his junior year of college to an improbable national championship at UConn.
But we can't ignore the numbers. He is shooting less than 40 percent for his career and has done so in three of his four years. Charlotte just inked him to a four-year, $48 million extension banking on his talent, but is he more of a great sixth man than a star point guard?
Walker hadn't taken to his new bench role until the past two contests, where he posted 22.5 points per game with 13-of-13 shooting from the line to go along with 10 assists and no turnovers. Any chance of the team making a run down the stretch hinges on his acceptance and success in this new slot.
4. Gerald Henderson
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The numbers don't tell the whole story for Henderson. He was a forgotten man after the Stephenson acquisition and saw his name surface in plenty of trade speculation, but Charlotte has to be glad he is still in teal and purple.
Henderson has assumed more of a playmaking role and less of a prominent scoring one. Early in the year, he rarely saw extended minutes behind Stephenson, but he has since cranked up the production. His play in the month of March has been fantastic at 14.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists on 45.8 percent shooting.
Hendo hasn't been the main course, but he packs a big punch as a side dish. This team would have fallen flat had he not stepped up his playmaking ability. Ball movement and outside shooting consistently plague the Hornets, and those issues are much less problematic now that Henderson has altered his game a bit. Few expected that from the five-year veteran who had hit a snag in his development.
With a player option for 2015-16, it remains to be seen what will become of him after the season ends. He may not be in Charlotte's long-term plans, but it needs him desperately right now.
3. Al Jefferson
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Are we beginning to see the twilight of Al Jefferson's career?
Big Al has always been one of the league's elite low-post scorers. You'd have a hard time coming up with more than a couple of names who can outwit him on the low block, but his act is growing a little old.
Last year, the crew rallied around Jefferson. He passed out of double-teams well and packed a punch on defense like he dialed back the clock five years. Now, he looks older and less reliable. The offense feels much more forced running through him.
Jefferson's offensive rating is at a career-low 102, and he is averaging just 1.07 points per shot, which is fifth-worst on the team.
Funneling the ball to Jefferson has run its course. This team cannot continue the way it is going by using him as a crutch. When he was the new big addition, it was effective because it instilled confidence in the young guys and provided them with a veteran option who can lead the way. Now, it has halted the growth of the team as a whole.
Posting 16.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game is good, but it isn't otherworldly. Jefferson is still a great player, but he is starting to show signs that he cannot carry this team anymore. With one year left on his deal, the Hornets might have a tough decision to make this offseason.
2. Mo Williams
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It appears the Mo Williams train has cooled off a little.
After coming over in the aforementioned trade from the Timberwolves, Williams was hitting everything. Canning 19 threes in your first five games with a new team is one way to make a good first impression.
To the surprise of no one, that hasn't kept up. Since Walker has come back, Williams has had to adjust his role to accommodate him, and it isn't going as smoothly. Aside from his revenge game on March 22 in Minnesota, he has fallen on tougher times. He is still playing well and is sporting great numbers of 17.8 points and 7.3 assists in the month of March, but the bar was set unreasonably high by his early success.
He was never going to be the savior of this team. Do not forget that he was brought in to mostly be a stopgap until Walker recovered from his injury, and he succeeded in doing that tenfold.
With 13 games left, Williams and Walker have to drive the ship together. They have shown that they can carry the torch individually but haven't yet learned to do it together. Developing that chemistry is the only way to get this group into the playoffs.
Williams is also a free agent after the year and likely won't factor into Charlotte's long-term plans. Regardless of what happens down the line, the Hornets need to ride this train until the wheels fall off.
1. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
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Who would have thought MKG would end this season at the top of the Hornets power rankings?
His development has been undeniable. All that talk prior to the season about his revamped jumper fell on deaf ears because we had all heard it before. But then, he started to show it off. That excruciating hitch was much less pronounced, and MKG was actually stroking outside shots without hesitation.
The biggest result from his newfound offensive skill was a spike in his confidence. MKG would often float through games early in his career, but now you cannot watch the Hornets for five minutes without him jumping out at you. Kidd-Gilchrist is posting career-high numbers of 11 points and 7.5 rebounds thus far. He has also blocked a shot in nine straight games and has 12 double-doubles on the year.
For another example of his confidence, look no further than his recent bold claim that he intends to be the best defender this league has ever seen.
This is not a flash in the pan, either. The 21-year-old has kept up this level of production for the better part of three months, and it is time to give him his due. He is getting better and better as the year goes on and is continuing to add to his arsenal. He runs the break and gets to the line four times per game as well now, which just feeds into his new array of talents.
If there is one thing to be taken from the 2014-15 Hornets campaign, it is that Kidd-Gilchrist is a cornerstone player worth building around. We knew that when the Hornets lost 10 games in a row after he got hurt in November, and we know that now after an extended stretch of offensive success.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.
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