With a dismal 76-103 loss, the book has now closed on the Hornets 2016-17 season. A season where they outscored their opponents, but ended up 10 games below .500. A season where all of Steve Clifford’s “Jesus Christ”s and “mothereffer”s could not stop them from blowing close game after close game. A season where they for some reason traded for Miles Plumlee’s gigantic contract. Sorry Hornets fans. Stuck in no man’s land once again.
Not to say there weren’t some bright spots. Mike Tobey, for instance. He was really good. Also Kemba Walker. But mostly Tobey. Tobey and Jeremy Lamb. Those are the core pieces that the Hornets should be trying to build around if they want to return to the playoffs next year. Lamb had his most efficient season to date, scoring almost 10 points per game and having those monster rebounding nights that got everyone all excited.
I was kidding about the Tobey thing, but I’m not even joking about Lamb being a core piece. For real. For really real. All he needs is a consistent role and I bet he can score 15 a game. Maybe that wouldn’t be best for the Hornets win totals, but hey, maybe they should try out this tanking business for a bit. See if they can have better luck than the last time they had the worst record in the league (never forget Derrick Brown, tank commander).