Here’s a hot take for you: the reason that the Hornets have won five out of their last twenty-five games is because they haven’t been giving Jeremy Lamb enough minutes! Now, was that or was that not the most sizzling, scorching, red-hot take ever? But if you look at the situation closer, you might realize that my hot take, which, on the face of it, seems rather outlandish, is actually extremely accurate. The Hornets have been starting Nic Batum at shooting guard, which is clearly not his natural position, just so they can cram both Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist into the starting lineup as well. Why not bench MKG, shift those other dudes up a position, and start Jeremy Lamb at SG?
Steve Clifford is allegedly some kind of coaching god so of course it goes against the grain to challenge his rotations. However, results have to count for something. The NBA isn’t some kind of fantasy sports vacuum where you put together the best on-paper lineup and run some algorithms and simulations against the other team’s lineup to determine the winner. It’s a real-life sport where, if your lineups suck, you change your lineups until they don’t suck anymore. And my proposal of starting Jeremy Lamb at SG has a real to chance to not make their lineup suck.
I wish somebody would pay me for these insights so I wouldn’t have to live in a cardboard shanty I set up behind Angelo’s Pizza. At least their WiFi is fast.