A team that averages second in the league in points per game, then you must feel that this is a top team in the league, a strong contender for the championship, such a team, the ceiling is very high. A team that averages points per game and loses points per game is the bottom of the league, and it is one of the contenders for the championship, such a team, there is no lower limit. But when these two statistics are concentrated on one team, it's really hard to determine what level this team is at.
This team is the Charlotte Hornets, either on the way to a winning streak or on the way to losing streak. In fact, it is easy to understand that the Hornets have a strong scoring ability, which gives them the ability to beat all opponents when they feel hot, including the game that just ended, they beat the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks. But poor defense also makes it possible for them to lose to any team at any time.
Offense is absolutely a team's upper limit, defense is definitely a team's lower limit, so the Charlotte Hornets are a team with a high ceiling and a very low lower limit. This team has a lot of offensive points, the defenders are Lamelo Ball and Rozier, the front line Shanghai Ward plus Bridges, the inside line is slightly weaker, and Plumlee can barely use it. But the Hornets' benches, Oubre and Washington, both have terrifying scoring explosiveness, which is like the X factor for the Hornets.
The number of scoring points, combined with Ball's organizational ability, makes this team the third highest average in the league in assists per game, behind the Warriors and Spurs, the Suns and Nuggets and the Nets, all behind them. The Hornets' assist-to-turnover ratio is the league's number one, absolute team basketball, which sets him apart from last season's Trail Blazers. The Blazers' offense was strong and defensively weak, but that team wasn't playing team basketball.
Although the Hornets' defense is very poor, but their steals number fourth in the league, the number of blocks in the league eighth, from here, the Hornets are a top defensive team, so why is this?
The Hornets are a young team, averaging the league first in the number of rounds per game, which naturally led to their average loss of points per game in the league, but the Hornets' average defensive efficiency per game is only in the third-to-last position in the league, which shows that the number of rounds is not a fig leaf for the Hornets' poor defense. First of all, the Hornets' protection of backcourt rebounds is not good enough, defensive rebounds rank in the league's fifth-to-last position, the Hornets' opponents can average 48.2 rebounds per game, the league's second most, followed by limiting the opponent's shooting percentage and three-point shooting rate, these data are also ranked in the league's bottom position.
In the young team, no one wants to do dirty work, reasonable things. Once the hope of a championship is seen and the team introduces defensive players like PJ Tucker, then the team is naturally competitive. However, teams with poor defense have difficulty going far in the playoffs, but for this Charlotte Hornets, being able to enter the playoff stage is already a success.