The Charlotte Hornets have faced more than their fair share of curveballs this season. More often than not, they’ve hit home runs in response. The last week has presented the latest set of breaking balls to the Hornets as their injury reports grew longer and longer seemingly with each passing day.
It all culminated in an unlikely start for rookie Vernon Carey Jr. on Friday against the Nets. And an even unlikelier response from the big man.
Carey scored nine points in the opening five minutes as part of his 21 points in 35 minutes, surpassing his season total of 33 minutes. His fast start propelled the Hornets to a 14-point first-half lead and though it wasn’t enough for another improbable win on the season, it was enough to leave a lasting impression.
“This is why we drafted him,” head coach James Borrego said. “There’s a knack, there’s a feel that you can’t teach and this kid’s got it. We’ve been eager to see it out there. We just haven’t had the opportunity and tonight, we had that opportunity and we used it. I thought it was great. His feel around the rim, his hands, his feet, his ability to rebound. He blocked a few shots. He impacted the rim. I thought he was fantastic tonight.
Carey wasted no time finding his way onto the scoresheet as Miles Bridges’ pocket pass led to a layup 40 seconds into the contest. The next possession saw Carey knock down a mid-range jumper.
After Jalen McDaniels and Bridges scored on the next three possessions, Carey knocked down another mid-range jumper before capping off his hot start with a 3-pointer to put Charlotte up 18-9 and force a Brooklyn timeout.
In total, Carey scored nine points in the opening 4:48, surpassing his season total of eight points coming into the night.
“I felt like I did pretty well,” Carey said. “I just took what the offense gave me and just stayed aggressive and just shot the ball with confidence really. That’s the biggest thing the coaching staff told me to just go there play with confidence.”
Officially, the Hornets were down six players, five of those either starters or regular rotation players. Unofficially, Charlotte may have been down more as Cody Zeller did not see the court during the game and comments from Borrego afterward seemed to suggest he was not available.
It forced Borrego to make a decision on Thursday to go to Carey, a decision he withheld from his big until Friday morning’s shootaround to keep level-headed.
“We’ve been watching him – our staff, myself – we’ve been watching him in these in these workouts,” Borrego said. “Obviously, there has not been a tremendous amount of that. But I think we saw a piece of this in the (G League) bubble. I think all of us saw his potential in the bubble. And we’ve just been waiting for this opportunity. We have a rotation and we’ve been rolling with that group. But this kid’s got something to him. There’s something with this kid that we got to keep tapping into, keep evaluating, keep developing, but he’s gonna be a heck of a player for us.”
The two shared conversations leading up to and during Friday’s game. It’s all part of the challenging and unique season the rookies have had thanks to COVID protocols and the condensed schedule.
“I feel like I’m just really locking in,” Carey said. “I felt like, especially this year with everything COVID and all the restrictions that we have, I feel like every rookie had to lock in just a little bit more than they usually do and just pay more attention to detail and just be more focused.
“I’ve been saying this from the beginning of the year,” Bridges added, “I’m really happy for the rookies and how well they’ve been getting better every day and how well they’ve been taking everything. I mean, they didn’t have a chance to have Summer League, they didn’t have a chance to have a draft combine, all that type of stuff that I had as a rookie. They were just thrown into the fire so I’m happy for Vern that he’s finally getting a shot.”
After taking advantage of his opportunity, Carey may have played himself into more minutes moving forward. Borrego noted after that game that he would have to “look very hard at” adding Carey to a big man rotation that has been fluid this season with Bismack Biyombo and Cody Zeller each starting and coming off the bench at times.
The franchise clearly sees Carey as one of the pieces of the future after giving him the biggest contract of any second round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Ultimately, Friday’s home run after yet another curveball dealt to the Hornets this season may serve as a launching pad into the future for both the franchise and Carey.
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