Charlotte Hornets: 3 candidates for a breakout season in 2018-19
1. Jeremy Lamb
Consider this another plug for Jeremy Lamb as the Hornets’ starting shooting guard for 2018-19. If he is, he will reward the team handsomely for putting him in that role. Lamb handled a big increase in minutes and had the most productive season of his career in 2017-18.
Lamb played in all but two games for the Hornets last year, just the second time in his career he’s played in over 70 games. He also was given the starting nod in 18 of those games. Three of his starts were among the best 10 performances of his season according to Basketball-Reference’s Game Score.
| Date | GS | MP | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | PTS | GmSc ▼ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-11-03 | 1 | 35:05 | .667 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 4 | 5 | .800 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 27 | 28.2 |
| 2017-12-20 | 0 | 28:28 | .647 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 8 | 10 | .800 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 25.7 |
| 2017-11-22 | 0 | 37:15 | .529 | 3 | 8 | .375 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 20.4 |
| 2018-01-02 | 0 | 23:15 | .545 | 3 | 5 | .600 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 17.1 |
| 2018-01-22 | 0 | 26:45 | .583 | 3 | 6 | .500 | 1 | 2 | .500 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 16.6 |
| 2017-10-29 | 1 | 30:47 | .600 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 16.4 |
| 2017-10-25 | 1 | 29:18 | .571 | 3 | 5 | .600 | 5 | 6 | .833 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 16.0 |
| 2017-11-20 | 0 | 20:59 | .667 | 1 | 4 | .250 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 15.3 |
| 2018-03-13 | 0 | 23:16 | .556 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 6 | 6 | 1.000 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 15.3 |
| 2018-02-27 | 0 | 26:57 | .778 | 1 | 2 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 14.9 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/10/2018.
The best game of Lamb’s season came back in a November start at the beginning of the season. He nailed all three of his 3-point attempts, only missed one free throw and shot 66.7 percent from the field as a whole. Lamb also tallied six assists and nine rebounds in that game, numbers he would tie or exceed only a few other times throughout the season.
Lamb has shown improvement nearly every season of his career. His Player Efficiency Rating has gone up nearly one point (or more) in each of his seasons, outside of last season, when he hit a 17.0 PER for the second year in a row.
His True Shooting percentage has grown as well over time, reaching 55.0 and 55.9 percent, respectively, in each of the last two seasons. He also had a career high 4.9 win shares last season.
Next. Ranking all 30 starting NBA shooting guards for 2018-19. dark
Lamb has shown he can handle an increased role with Charlotte in his short time there and should be primed for a breakout campaign, even in a new offense.