Charlotte Hornets: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener
2. The rotation looks unsettled
To no one’s surprise, Borrego trotted out a starting lineup of Walker, Batum, Lamb, Marvin Williams and Cody Zeller. The surprise was who came off the bench though. Tony Parker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were used heavily, but the star of the bench was Malik Monk.
Monk was given 33 minutes against the Bucks (more than any starter outside of Walker) and rewarded coach Borrego for his trust. He was the team’s second-highest scorer with 18 points, 12 of which came via 3-pointers. He grabbed four rebounds, tallied two assists and recorded two blocks as well, helping out a Hornets team that struggled beyond the starting lineup.
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The starters only played 9.3 minutes together and 14 other lineup combinations saw at least one minute together, so they didn’t get a lot of chances to completely jell. However, they weren’t a very effective unit, ending with a -11.0 plus/minus mark despite posting 15 points as a unit. They had a through-the-roof 123.8 defensive rating, but couldn’t get anything going offensively.
The three most effective units, according to NBA.com’s plus/minus metric, all included Monk and either Tony Parker, Kemba Walker or both. The team’s most effective unit was Parker, Batum, Walker, MKG and Malik Monk, which played together for 7.3 minutes.
That unit also hit 58.3 percent of its shots from the field, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. The second most effective unit was the combination of Parker, MKG, Monk, Willy Hernangomez and Miles Bridges, which hit 57.1 percent of its shots.
These stats are all a small sample of course, but it shows us that while Tony Parker figures to be heavily involved with the first and second units, there are still question marks after him and Monk.