Charlotte Hornets: Batum Leading Solid Start
The Charlotte Hornets are off to a solid start throughout the first 20 games this season much to the efforts of Nicolas Batum.
The Charlotte Hornets are off to a 12-8 start this season and are currently sixth in the Eastern Conference. A year after winning just 33 games, there was no obvious reason to think they would be in this position early on.
While Charlotte didn’t land a big-named free agent, they did spend time this summer acquiring solid players to help shape out their starting rotation and bench production.
They first decided to abort the Lance Stephenson project by sending him to the Clippers for Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes. Barnes was eventually traded to Memphis in one of the four trades that Luke Ridnour was included in within a six-day span.
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A little more than a week later, the Hornets were able to agree to a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers to acquire Nicolas Batum in exchange for Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh. As the summer continued, the Hornets signed Jeremy Lamb and Tyler Hansbrough. So far, the Batum deal has been one of the most successful offseason acquisitions league-wide.
Batum has been the perimeter scoring threat that the Hornets had mistakenly invested in, but this deal isn’t only benefiting the team’s side. Batum is averaging a career-high 17.2 points per game while also grabbing 6.6 rebounds and handing out 4.5 assists.
Prior to this season even with the acquisitions, the Hornets were still a team that could fight for the eighth seed, but were in no means guaranteed to do so. Getting off to 12-8 start with wins over teams such Chicago (twice) and Dallas while also losing to Cleveland and Atlanta (twice) by five points or less suggests that this isn’t the Hornets we are used to.
More recently, they have been playing without arguably their best player in Al Jefferson due to a calf injury.
Batum has benefitted tremendously since being moved to Charlotte. Throughout his seven seasons in Portland playing alongside LaMarcus Aldridge and eventually Damian Lillard, he didn’t have many responsibilities past being ready to shoot and playing within the offense.
Batum let his former team know how talented of an offensive player he is when he poured on a season-high 33 points against them in a 106-94 victory. What he brings to this team is the ability to knock down the three. Last season between Lance Stephenson and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, defenses could pretty much double-team Jefferson and not think twice.
Last season, Charlotte ranked dead last in three-point percentage (31.8). With the help of Batum’s 40.4 percent success rate from beyond the arc, they now rank 14th (35.1). It isn’t just Batum who is helping the Hornets become a danger from long range. Frank Kaminsky is shooting 41.4 percent and Marvin Williams is shooting 37 percent.
One the defensive side, Batum is averaging 1.2 steals, which ties his career-high from the 2012-13 season. It isn’t an accident that Batum is seeing success in Charlotte. He is more involved in the offense and continues to show why he should’ve been throughout his career.
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As Charlotte looks to build off this strong start, Batum will carry the load along with Walker while Jefferson is out. Once he returns, they’ll be able to work out the kinks they’ve experienced during losses as they prepare to make a playoff appearance, their first since they were known as the Bobcats back in 2013-14.