The Charlotte Hornets finished their preseason games with a discouraging loss against the Dallas Mavericks. During these friendly games, the team recorded three losses and just one win against the Oklahoma City Thunder. When getting ready for an NBA season it is important not to focus on the final scores but we can take something away when thinking about the player rotations for James Borrego.
The coaching staff decided, as it always happens in the preseason, to make everyone play during the games going deep with the players on their bench. Especially in the first two quarters of every friendly game, Borrego was trying to get his main core of players the right chemistry.
Getting to mesh with your newest teammates is probably the biggest point of emphasis during this period, especially with the amount of roster moves the Hornets had this offseason. Injuries and health and safety protocols happened and held back some of the most important players of the team, making the staff rethink rotations every game.
The first element that needed to be addressed was the starting five and it was pretty clear that Borrego wants Miles Bridges to get the start in favor of PJ Washington. The way last year ended, with the Bridges takeover, convinced Borrego to get to this decision.
Another important point of emphasis is related to the bench organization. After the main 7 players (Starting five, plus Washington and Kelly Oubre Jr.) it was very unclear how Borrego wanted to address the lineups and we finally got some insight during these four preseason games.
It is going to be a very long season and rotations can change in a week but the coaching staff made their ideas a little bit clearer with the organization of the team during the preseason. Let’s dive more into it.