The Charlotte Hornets are coming off a very disappointing season a year ago, where they were expected to at least make the playoffs but failed to do so. The Hornets instead finished in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and had only 33 wins a year after winning 43 games. Going into the 2015-16 season, the Hornets have made some big changes, including moving on from Lance Stephenson and Gerald Henderson and acquiring Nicolas Batum. The Hornets reportedly consider Batum a huge piece and will run their offense through him, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer.
In the past two years, head coach Steve Clifford has run his entire offense through Al Jefferson in the post. Jefferson is a very good offensive player, and that worked two years ago, but last season, he had a down year and the Hornets struggled when he struggled as they didn't have a backup plan. This year, Clifford vows that will be different, especially with the addition of Batum.
Batum is a very good NBA player but isn't exactly considered the type of player you would run your offense through. The France native is more of a Jack-of-all-trades type of player that can and will do everything to help his team win. Clifford, though, compared Batum to Hedo Turkoglu when he was on the Orlando Magic and he thinks that he could have that type of impact.
"He's in a similar place to where Turkoglu was in Orlando as far as size and exceptional feel for the game, if he's open, he shoots it. If he's not, he'll drive. He's as instinctual as you can ask of a player, and you can't coach that," said Clifford.
Batum may actually be the third best scorer on the Hornets roster, behind Jefferson and Kemba Walker, but like Clifford said, he has a very high basketball IQ and knows how and when to make the right plays. The 26-year-old is entering his eighth season in the NBA and in his career, he has averaged 11.2 points per game with 14.3 points per game being his career high back in 2012-13 with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Batum will definitely make the Hornets a better team due to all of the different things he can do on the court, but it will be interesting to see how he does as the focal point of an offense, as he has never been that before. In Portland he played third fiddle to LaMarcus Aldridge and Damien Lillard while he did all of the dirty work, now in Charlotte, the expectations for him go up quite a bit and he will likely have much more responsibility.
