Following trades and acquisitions in the current off-season, the Charlotte Hornets now has seven new players on its roster and head coach Steve Clifford is intent on trying out different combinations on the court when the NBA 2015-16 regular season begins in a few months time.
The combinations may actually include having starting point guard Kemba Walker playing alongside another point guard Jeremy Lin on the court. And if that is to be the case, Lin will not slide to being an off-guard but will also play the same position, giving the Hornets more offensive options on the floor.
In a recent interview Stephen Clifford said that his vision of playing the two point guards together is consistent with the mantra of having two pick-and-roll players on the floor, reports Pro Basketball Talk.
He explained that doing so would put pressure on the defense at one side and they can just switch it to the other. That makes more room to play offense similar to how the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors does.
There is Steph Curry on one side so defences have to load up there, and then there is Klay Thompson on the other side with room to operate That’s what Kemba can do for Jeremy and Jeremy can do for Kemba, adds Clifford.
Interesting concept
Basketball aficionados believe that Clifford do have an interesting concept for an offense in the new Charlotte Hornets team. They also think that it could work on small doses but are not too optimistic of seeing it work all the time the way, the Golden State Warriors does masterfully.
Many also believe that the Hornets head coach will have plenty of things to think about in his rotation other than Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lin because he also has to juggle the minutes for wing players Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Nicolas Batum, and Jeremy Lamb.
Because of the seeming depth of the Hornets compared to last year’s team, some are saying that both Walker and Lin are best playing off the bench to provide the team with an instant offense.
However, the problem with having the two on the court means that they would sacrifice their defense a bit as both Walker and Lin are no first-class defenders. But nobody knows how it will turn out to be if they don’t see the two point guards playing in the court together so it would be interesting to see it happen in the upcoming NBA season.
Things will change for the better for Lin
Jeremy Lin’s shooting coach Doc Scheppler believes that things will change for the better with the Harvard graduate now that he is already with the Charlotte Hornets, notes Fansided.
Scheppler said that he is very excited for Jeremy this year because he is in a much better position with a great coach.
He disclosed that one reason why Lin signed with the Hornets is because of the coach. Apparently Jeremy sat down for two hours with Clifford and after their talk, Lin told him that Steve knows the game and that he reminded him of Peter Diepenbrock, Jeremy’s coach in high school.
Jeremy told Doc that Steve was into X’s and O’s and that they just talked basketball during their two-hour conversation.
Scheppler also added that Jeremy Lin did not fit well with the Showtime franchise because the Lakers were such a dysfunctional team and so poorly coached too. He opined that Kobe Bryant was out there trying to prove himself every day, while minimizing every player around him because he didn’t think they were good and that is sad.
The shooting coach also went into the details of Jeremy’s relationship with Mike Woodson, the head coach of New York Knicks after Mike D’Antoni was fired. Scheppler said that Woodson undervalued Jeremy because he wanted the ball basically thrown into Carmelo Anthony’s hands almost all the time. And Carmelo did not want Lin in New York because it would take away from his thunder.
Scheppler also defended his ward from the negativity of the Houston Rockets announcers when Jeremy was still with the team. He believes that announcers Matt Bullard, Clyde Drexler and Bill Worrell rip Lin into shreds. They never saw in Jeremy his upsides but only his downsides.