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Play Breakdown: Cousins for 3
The end of the New Orleans Pelicans Tuesday’s loss to Denver game is going to be remembered for the two turnovers Jrue Holiday committed rather than any late game heroics. Other than the obvious (losing) it was a disappointing ending because it seemed like Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry would have been able to draw […]
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Beneath the Screen: Spacing vs. Positioning
Since the 2013 NBA finals ended, much has been written about floor spacing and how important it is to NBA offenses. People look at the 3-point specialists of both the Spurs and Heat and talk about how these players are vital to spreading out a defense, making these shooters critical to their team’s success. With […]
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Beneath the Screen: Let’s Take a Holiday
Since the draft day trade bringing him to the Pelicans there has been a lot of excitement around Jrue Holiday. On twitter and our site we’ve gone into why he’ll be a good fit with the Pelicans, but in today I want to go a little more in depth and look at how his strengths […]
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Beneath the Screen: Blowing Up
A week ago in the game against the Utah Jazz, Monty Williams and Eric Gordon got into a head yelling match. The blowup occurred because of two plays. An inexplicable decision to dribble not only into two defenders but one of his teammates as well, and a complete mental lapse and lack of hustle on […]
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Beneath the Screen: When Time Runs Out
Being an NBA head coach must be hard. Not only do you take criticism when you’re team loses but even when they win on a last second play, as the Hornets did on March 20th against the Celtics, you still hear it. Recently, Monty has taken a lot of heat for his isolation play calls […]
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Beneath the Screen: Upside Down
As I wrote in my post on Tuesday, the Hornets have been breaking out an inverted offense somewhat frequently over the past handful of games. I’m going to illustrate how this creates offense in today’s post. If you want a deeper breakdown of how this works, especially against the Lakers, click here. To the Madistrator! […]
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Beneath the Screen: Give Me Some Space
Good to see you all again! I’m back in the land of video after having trouble with my internet connection for the past few weeks. And I’m here to talk about Anthony Davis. As you may have seen/heard Davis has jumped to the top of David Thorpe’s Rookie Watch list. There are multiple reasons why: […]
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Beneath the Screen: The Extra Pass
Despite the win the other night, the Hornets have looked pretty bad on the court over the past week–with Saturday’s loss to the Timberwolves the worst. After that game Monty Williams had a very interesting quote. “We had 100 possessions, but only had 164 passes. That’s not how you’re going to win games. Typically you […]
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Beneath the Screen: The Passing Bigman
One thing I’ve noticed more and more in the Hornet’s game plan is the effort to get Anthony Davis looks on the blow block under the basket. I looked at the film to see what he’s doing to get open. And it turns out it’s not that hard. No matter how the play is designed, […]
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Beneath the Screen: Cry Me a Rivers?
There has been a lot of discussion here, on twitter, and other sites about whether Austin Rivers should spend some time in the D-League. The reasoning has been centered around his poor play. While he’s obviously not a star player or even a decent rookie, is his play really that bad? There’s no denying that […]
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Beneath the Screen: Gordon’s Struggles
In his post yesterday, Ryan pointed out why the Hornets are playing well despite Eric Gordon’s offensive struggles. I, on the other hand, wanted to see exactly why he is struggling. So I dug into some film and came away with a fairly shocking observation: Eric Gordon has been struggling in the pick and roll. […]
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Beneath the Screen: The Gordon Effect
Throughout his tenure with the Hornets, Monty Williams has been criticized for offense–mainly for a lack of. But after watching almost every game and going through plenty of film in the days after, I contend that Monty is a sneaky good offensive coach. While I think aspects of the criticism this season is valid, I […]
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Beneath the Screen: Anatomy of a Defensive Breakdown
I wanted to switch gears a little bit this week and focus on defense. This season, the Hornets clearly have not played up to the level that their defense-first head coach would expect. The Hornets currently rank 29th in defensive efficiency, giving up 110.1 points per 100 possessions. According to mysynergysports.com the Hornets rank 28th […]
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Beneath the Screen: So Nice To See You Again, Mr. Gordon
With Eric Gordon returning to the team soon, and the Hornets offense looking terrible, I thought now would be a good time to look at how Gordon will help the Hornets offense. When going through film, I was looking at three main areas: Gordon in isolation, as the pick and roll ballhandler, and as a […]
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Beneath the Screen: In Need of Innovation
It’s no secret that the Hornets’ offense has been putrid at times. Rob Mahoney writing at SI.com’s Point Forward summed up the Hornets’ struggles pretty accurately saying, “Coach Monty Williams has his team running its pet play actions well, but executing simple sets reliably shouldn’t soon be confused with resilient offense. At the moment, the […]
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Beneath the Screen: A Rivers Runs Through It
After the Lakers game the other night there was a lot of talk on the site and twitter about Austin Rivers. Some people were labeling him a bust less than 20 games into his pro career. Others see potential but understand this is a long process. The 10th overall pick is going to be a […]
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Beneath the Screen: Ryan Anderson and the Deep Ball
Ryan Anderson has been on fire from 3-point range over the last handful of games. It’s been the one real bright spot for the Hornets (along with the victory over the Clippers). So that means two things: 1) We need to think of a good nickname for him–David Wesley was throwing out Flamethrower the other […]
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Beneath the Screen: 3-Point Defense
In a recurring post throughout the season, Jake will take a look at the inner workings of the Hornets’ offense and defense–what works, what doesn’t and why, as well as how the Hornets can improve. In this week’s edition, Jake takes a look at why the Hornets are giving up so many open 3’s.
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Beneath the Screen: Help Defense
In a recurring post throughout the season, Jake will take a look at the inner workings of the Hornets’ offense and defense–what works, what doesn’t and why, as well as how the Hornets can improve. Today, we look at Anthony Davis on defense.
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Beneath the Screen: Drawing Up a Win
In a recurring post throughout the season, Jake will take a look at the inner workings of the Hornets’ offense and defense–what works, what doesn’t and why, as well as how the Hornets can improve. Today, Jake takes us back to last week against the Jazz and two tremendous plays Monty Williams drew up.