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The Charlotte Hornets put themselves in a unique position by drafting LaMelo Ball in the 2020 NBA Draft. While a talented prospect, Ball is a bit redundant with the Hornets given both Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham being on the roster.
As Borrego has stated, Ball’s addition will both usher the team into a positionless era but it will also force him and the team to experiment. While that may mean playing the three guards together, it may also mean playing all sorts of different lineups next season.
“We’re going to have to experiment some,” Borrego said. “None of us know how this is going to look. Once we get him in the gym, we’re going to figure it out together. There’s no map right here that we’ve got figured out. We just added an extreme talent that can playmake. I’ll figure it out from here. We’ll figure it out. We have the pieces. We have versatility. We have defense. We have athleticism and length on the floor.
“I expect our guys, obviously, to compete but there’s a lot of versatility here in our playmaking, in our size, in our defense. Expect different lineups.”
Borrego noted that the condensed off-season would mean a drastically shortened training camp and no summer league. For Charlotte, that means much of their experimenting will have to come “on the fly,” as Borrego noted.
“It’s a great challenge but I look forward to it because he’s a very good basketball player,” he said. “It’s my job, our job, to figure that out as we go. What we see in day one of camp and game one of the NBA season, that’s not likely we’ll see that in game 72.
“As we go, we’ll evolve, we’ll adjust, we’ll adapt,” Borrego added. “That’s what we do. We did that last year and I expect it to continue. I like the versatility of our team. We’re adding depth, we’re adding versatility, playmaking, size, competitiveness. Those are all things that win in today’s league.”
The result will likely be lots of growing pains during games early in the season for Charlotte but could pay off in big ways for the franchise in the future.