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Charlotte Hornets: Is Jeremy Lamb Ready To Become An NBA Starter?

By Andrew Kennedy

Feb 1, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard Jeremy Lamb (11) dribbles the ball past Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal (3) in the fourth quarter at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 96-81. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 1, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard Jeremy Lamb (11) dribbles the ball past Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal (3) in the fourth quarter at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 96-81. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Playing on an NBA title contender provides a unique opportunity for a young player looking to break into the league. Expectations to carry a load you’re maybe not ready for do not exist. You have time to develop, possibly become a role player, find your niche.

Jeremy Lamb was in this exact spot when he arrived in Oklahoma City as part of the James Harden trade back in 2012. Three years later, his stint there can be considered nothing more than a failure and a pretty big one at that.

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Maybe no one expected him to become the next James Harden, but his inability to ever find consistent minutes as a backup 2 for a team that was thin at that spot eventually resulted in OKC dumping him for nothing in return.

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Fit is as important as anything in the NBA. The list of super-talented players that were never able to make it work because they were in a city with a dysfunctional team or organization is a long one. A change of scenery has done tons of players good and sometimes, much more than ever expected.

We’ll get to find out now which type of player Lamb can be with the Charlotte Hornets.

The position the Hornets have the least amount of depth in is without question the shooting guard spot. Lamb will have to contend with Nicolas Batum, P.J. Hairston, Troy Daniels and Aaron Harrison for minutes at the 2.

Of course, Charlotte can and probably will elect non-traditional lineups featuring two point guards or even ones with players like Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Marvin Williams sliding up to 2-guard, but the bottom line is this is the best opportunity for Lamb to find consistent minutes in his young career. If he can’t do it now, it’s without a doubt on him.

After Lamb won a title alongside Kemba Walker at UConn back in 2011, he started to rise on draft boards. He stayed another year and in a pretty loaded draft, was still a lottery pick.

Lamb’s upside sounds like this: Long, athletic guard with good size and an easy stroke from three with a smooth in-between game.

He showed flashes in OKC. His second year in the league he made 35.6 percent of his 3-point attempts but that fell to 34.2 percent last year. Even more discouraging was his overall field goal percentage sitting at 41.6. If he wasn’t hitting from deep, it was really hard for him to find any other way to contribute. His free throw rate over his career is just .143.

He shot well at the rim, 60 percent two years ago and 70 percent last season, but rarely got to it. Lamb most often appeared like a guy who was unsure of what he should do when the ball found him.

Never getting a chance to start a lot in OKC, Lamb will likely have that chance in Charlotte. The good news is he will be reuniting with Walker, a point guard in which he experienced a lot of success playing alongside in college. But is that enough to get Lamb headed in the right direction?

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    • Lamb will enter his fourth season and that means NBA defenses are pretty familiar with what he is. This is the time in a career where you look to add more things to your game. With Lamb, he’s still trying to get the basics down.

    At 23 years old, it’s definitely not time yet to give up on Lamb. The athleticism is still there. At times he was effective disrupting passing lanes while with the Thunder and he was very efficient in transition. His shot is far from broken, a little dose of confidence feels like all it needs, and he has a respectable handle for a guard his size.

    He can get lost on defense, but he has the physical tools to be a plus on that end.

    If there’s one thing we know about Lamb, it’s that he’s not going to shine with spotty playing time. It’s probably going to take a pretty big investment to reap whatever rewards Lamb can offer, and Charlotte may not be willing to give Lamb that much of an opportunity if it looks at him as a fourth-year NBA veteran that should have his game together by now.

    It’s hard to bet on Lamb at this point, but it’s also hard to imagine him being worse than he was in OKC the last three years. Will he become a consistent starter right out of the gate? Probably not. But potential is there and the new scenery should be the best thing that’s happened in his career.

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