Charlotte Hornets: Troy Daniels Shoots His Way Into The Rotation
Troy Daniels’ hot outside shooting has earned him meaningful minutes for the injury-riddled Charlotte Hornets.
The Charlotte Hornets have been ravaged by injuries all season. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist went down in the preseason and hasn’t played a single game, Al Jefferson was injured, suspended, and now injured again, meaning he’s only played in 19 games.
Most recently, Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lamb and Cody Zeller have had to sit out multiple games due to injury. The fragile nature of his team has made Hornets coach Steve Clifford have to dig deep down his bench to fill out his rotation. Even fringe NBA players like Tyler Hansbrough and Aaron Harrison have had to play first half minutes in the last week — not ideal for a team that actually wants to make the playoffs.
Injuries are never a good thing, but if there’s one positive about fighting through these injuries, it’s been the rediscovery of Troy Daniels. The diminutive shooting guard has been outstanding for Charlotte in 24 games this season, making fans wonder why he hasn’t been getting playing time from the start.
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Daniels is only averaging 5.5 points per game, but he’s shooting a ridiculous 50.8 percent from three-point range. Whenever Daniels enters the game he instantly looks for his shot. Hornets television analysts Stephanie Ready and Dell Curry regularly joke about how quickly Daniels swishes a three-pointer after coming into the game.
He’s a true gunner and lately he’s given Charlotte’s sputtering offense a kick in the pants. After shooting well from beyond the arc early in the season, the Hornets have fallen off drastically. As a team they are shooting 34.8 percent from three-point range, ranked only 17th best in the NBA. Daniels is the only player on the team shooting above 38 percent from deep on more than one attempt per game.
Monday night against the Sacramento Kings, Daniels’ outside shooting brought Charlotte back from the dead, helping them overcome a 15-point deficit to eventually win in double overtime.
Daniels finished the game with 28 points on 8-for-11 shooting from outside, including the eventual game-winner with a defender in his face. The impressive shooting display was reminiscent of prime Jason Terry.
Until going 0-for-2 from three-point range in Wednesday night’s disaster of a loss to the Utah Jazz, Daniels had made at least one three-pointer in eight consecutive games. In four of those games, he made multiple three-pointers. If Daniels gets minutes he’s going to knock down threes; the kid can flat out shoot. For all his struggles to carve out a full-time role in the NBA, he is still a 42.3 percent three-point shooter for his career.
If Daniels’ name rings a bell, you probably watched the 2014 Western Conference first round playoff series between the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers. During Game 3 of that series, Daniels rose up from relative obscurity to make a go-ahead three-pointer with 11 seconds left in overtime. He dominated SportsCenter for the next day before fading back into obscurity.
The following season he played five games for Houston before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Daniels couldn’t find minutes up north and was again traded, this time to Charlotte. Even with the Hornets Daniels was relegated to garbage time, never finding a permanent foothold in the regular rotation.
Daniels has always been able to shoot, but that’s all he’s been able to do. He is generously listed at 6-foot-4, a bit undersized for a shooting guard. He hasn’t been a good enough ball-handler to transition to point guard and his lackluster defense (his career defensive rating is 111) is largely what has kept him from getting regular minutes most of his career.
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That all might be changing. Daniels’ defense has been noticeably better this season, his defensive rating is a career best 108, and he’s even putting the ball the floor, attacking the rim and displaying a pull-up midrange jumper to give his offensive game some versatility (though he’s still only shooting 37.8 percent on two-point attempts).
Even if those improvements in his game start to fade, he should still get minutes if he’s hitting close to 50 percent of his three-point attempts. That type of outside shooting is too important for Charlotte’s spacing to be wasted on the bench.
As players start to return from injury, Steve Clifford will have some difficult decisions to make. How do you find minutes for all of these talented guards? Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lin and Nicolas Batum will obviously continue to get their usual quantity of minutes, but where does that leave Daniels? If he’s going to take minutes away from someone it’s going to be either P.J. Hairston or Jeremy Lamb.
Once Lamb and Cody Zeller return I imagine Clifford will roll with a 10-man rotation until he gets a feel for what his best groups are. That would consist of the typical of starting five of Walker, Batum, Hairston, Marvin Williams, and Zeller with Lin, Daniels, Lamb, Frank Kaminsky, and Spencer Hawes making up the second unit. How he decides to stagger things remains to be seen, but I think Lin and Daniels would pair well together.
Lin’s playmaking out of pick and roll sets should lead to plenty of open three-point looks for Daniels. In 126 minutes together this season that two-man combination is -7.9 points per 100 possessions, but I’d give it more time considering how complementary their skills are to one another.
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Right on cue, Jeremy Lin went down with an ankle injury during their blowout loss against the Utah Jazz, so for the time being this “too many players, not enough minutes” problem may work itself out. If he has to miss a significant amount of time Brian Roberts will get Lin’s point guard minutes and Daniels will get his shooting guard minutes — though that would be a less than ideal scenario for Charlotte.
Once Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returns it’s anyone’s guess how the wing minutes will be divided. It would not surprise me to see Hairston or Lamb moved before the trade deadline if it’s clear that MKG is returning soon.
Considering their contract situations Hairston would be the obvious candidate. Hairston has started 43 games this season because his size makes him Charlotte’s best perimeter defender by default, but once Kidd-Gilchrist returns his role may get substantially diminished due to his limited offensive skill-set. Trading Hairston could open up room for Daniels to continue playing even when the Hornets have a completely healthy roster.
Next: Selecting the All-Star Reserves
Troy Daniels has proven that his hot shooting can win games, just ask Kings fans. Time will tell whether or not Steve Clifford trusts him enough to keep playing him in big situations and make him a permanent part of Charlotte’s backcourt rotation.