Charlotte Hornets Need To Focus On Defense In 2015-16 Stretch Run

By Frank Ewere

The Charlotte Hornets have had an up-and-down season this year. At one point, the Hornets were the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, but they were also in danger of missing the playoffs at another time. Now the Hornets have a 41-31 record and are sitting comfortably in the No. 6 seed.

The Hornets don’t have any stars, but the team does have a defense that is in the top 10 in terms of points allowed. The team was giving up 97.3 points per game last season, and this year they are giving up 101. The absence of defensive specialist Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for much of the season has significantly hurt the team’s defense. Unfortunately for the Hornets, defense is going to be most important thing for them moving forward.

Another reason why the team has regressed slightly on the defensive end is because they have integrated several new players this season. Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lin, Courtney Lee, Jeremy Lamb and rookie Frank Kaminsky III are all new to the Hornets’ system. Batum and Lee are both good defenders in their own right, but it isn’t easy getting used to new teammates and where they are supposed to be defensively.

One of the things that should disappoint the Hornets is the fact that they are worse defensively on the road than at home. On the road, a team can’t afford to be giving points up to an opponent that will probably use those points to get the crowd energized and gain more momentum.

Another problem for the Hornets is that they can’t afford to go big with Al Jefferson next to Cody Zeller because their defense will suffer. Their offense will get better because of a low post presence, but Jefferson can’t move his feet well and is not a rim protector. The Hornets aren’t versatile defensively, but they’ve got to work with what they have since no one new is going to enter the rotation and make them better defensively. The rest of the Hornets’ season lies in the hands of their current defensive schemes.

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