Charlotte Hornets: 3 free agency targets from the Orlando bubble

De’Anthony Melton

De’Anthony Melton and his unique playstyle was a bit of a fan favorite with hardcore NBA followers this past season. Melton is a combo guard that can run on or off the ball, and defend point guards, shooting guards, and occasionally forwards.

His box score numbers aren’t particularly special, averaging 7.6 points per game whilst only shooting 28.6% from 3 on 4.3 attempts per 36 minutes. However, Melton’s impact metrics(1.98 PIPM, 0.10 RPM, 0.30 BPM 2.47 RAPTOR) are pretty good all-round, reflecting his contribution to the game extending beyond simple box scores.

Melton primarily breaks his bread with his extreme affinity for the ball; literally, he excels at locating and making plays on the basketball defensively. The below video shows Melton making an array of savvy plays to regain possession, often sneaking behind unaware opposing players to grab the ball from under their nose and score easy baskets in transition. His general strong defensive instincts allow him to succeed in a variety of roles on the defensive end.

However, Melton struggled in the bubble as Memphis almost missed the play-in game despite having a 3.5 game buffer on the chasing pack of Portland and New Orleans, with his shooting splits (26% from the field, 15% from 3, 39% from the FT line) enough to make Michael Carter Williams blush.

Part of the reason for his offensive woes might have been the absence of Tyus Jones; this is talked about in greater depth in another article by Joe Mullinax, but essentially the absence of the steady Jones forced Melton into a slightly unfamiliar point guard role that Melton took some time to adjust to.

Alternatively, perhaps Melton’s struggles were simply an originally streaky shooter going through a rough patch against stronger teams…either way, Melton had a disappointing bubble performance that may have reinforced questions about his long-term fit on the Memphis Grizzlies, given their star PG Ja Morant is a below-average shooter himself.

However, for most of the season, De’Anthony Melton was a positive impact player, with or without Tyus Jones. Many Grizzlies fans’ favorite lineup involved Morant, Melton, Dillon Brooks, Brandon Clarke, and Jackson sharing the court. This super-small lineup had an impressive +30 net rating this past season owing to the collective energy and athleticism of the 5 players involved.

"Bottle Poppers (VERY rough working title, open to suggestions) : Ja, Melton, Brooks, Clarke, JJJ Lineup from memphisgrizzlies"

The Charlotte Hornets currently lack a “point of attack” defender; someone who can navigate ball-screens and stay in front of perimeter defenders. Even though guys like Malik Monk, Jalen McDaniels, and Miles Bridges are athletic perimeter defenders capable of getting stops in isolation, they all struggle at navigating screens(also, the less said about Devonte’ and Terry’s on-ball defense, the better…)

This weakness of the Charlotte Hornets means opponents can get easy advantage off the pick and roll against the Hornets, which forces the Hornets big men into impossible 2 on 1 scenarios.

Melton could help solve these issues; his technique navigating ball-screens is good, and even when he can’t fight over the screen he can use his 6’8.5″ wingspan to get steals from behind. In the first game of the bubble, Melton hounded Portland’s famed backcourt in that “point of attack role” helping cut the Blazers offense off at the source.

For further analysis of Melton’s game, @Akelly on Twitter wrote a great piece on Melton’s game for Peachtree Hoops which you can check out here. Something interesting that Akelly mentioned was the CBA rules surrounding Melton, who qualifies for the “Gilbert Arenas provision” as a restricted free agent who has only played 2 years in the league.

"Melton’s cap implications are somewhat complicated, but Memphis cannot offer much more than about $9.5 million per year, via Early Bird Rights, depending on where the 2020-21 Salary Cap ends up. However, under the Arenas provision, which applies to restricted free agents who have only been in the league for one or two seasons, competing teams cannot offer a first-year salary more than the non-taxpayer MLE… With thanks to both PTH’s own salary cap guru Bob as well as PTH alum Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, that deal would look like this — assuming current salary cap projections — on Memphis’ cap sheet, if they chose to match: 2020-21 – $9,755,000 2021-22 – $10,242,750 2022-23 – $14,671,027 2023-24 – $15,331,223 As you can see, the increasing amounts, especially in the last two years of the deal, would give Memphis something to think about."

Whilst some may balk at investing a 4-year deal into De’Anthony Melton(and honestly I do too), his age and his ability to address the Charlotte Hornets’ deficiencies mean he would be shrewd acquisition in free agency.