Scary Terry: With LaMelo Ball out it seems like Terry Rozier is gonna be the starting PG for the upcoming games. I’ve seen him being criticized for not being able to the play the PG position and rightfully so as he it doesn’t seem like he can. Just look at season, he completely failed to get his teammates involved and he was super inefficient as a scorer.

His season so far has been an interesting one. While his 3 point shooting has been really off he has made up for it with his finishing and mid-range as he managed to score 20+ points in all 6 of his games. He played really well last night against the Magic as he had a very efficient 22 points and made 9 assists. However, he did also have 5 turnovers and 4 fouls. Here’s to hoping we get 2020-21 Terry who managed to take over and lead his team to a play-in spot rather than 2022-23 Terry who sometimes missed contested 3’s and sometimes missed more contested 3’s.

The Hornets don’t really have any other options at the 1 spot as while Theo Maledon is a good defender he is my opinion the worst scorer in the league and Ish Smith is just Terry Rozier but bad. Also if you’re thinking about NSJ starting at the 1, please stop. I am high on him but he’s still really raw and even less of a PG than Terry.

Is Brandon Miller our saviour?: As I previously said, with LaMelo Ball out they will most likely play Terry as the starting PG but that also means that Brandon Miller will likely be the starting SG.

Despite the Hornets losing, Brandon Miller absolutely destroyed the Knicks in his 2 previous games against them. In his first game against the Knicks he got injured at the start of the 2nd quarter but he was absolutely on fire in that game. Recording 11 points and 3 rebounds in less than 10 minutes of play. His shooting numbers were excellent as he shot 5-6 from the field and 1-2 from 3. In his second game against the Knicks he had a career high 29 points. His shooting was once again amazing as he shot 10-16 from the field, 5-7 on 3’s and 4-4 on FT’s. For the Hornets to even have the possibility of winning this game Brandon Miller needs to have another amazing performance against the Knicks.

Gordon Hayward & PJ Washington: In his 5 games since his hamstring injury, Gordon Hayward has averaged 8 PPG on 32.6 MPG. He has had shooting splits of 28/25/75 shooting splits. PJ Washington is as inconsistent ever and is shooting a career low 31.3% from 3 for the season. I hope PJ has 30 bomb rather than a 3 bomb, there isn’t much say about him as he is pretty much impossible to predict. For Gordon there isn’t as much hope. While I am expecting Hayward to do better than 8 points on 28/25/75 shooting, I still think he will play poorly until the Hornets’ 8 day break where he will be forced to rest up.

Mark Williams vs Mitchell Robinson: This is no doubt the worst matchup for Mark Williams in the entire NBA. Mark struggles the most against big rebounding centers who can protect the rim and that is literally just a description of Mitch.

In Mark’s last game against the Knicks he had a statline of 7/8/4/0/1 on 3-5 FG. In the earlier game against the Knicks he had 10/4/2/2/0 on 4-5 but in just 23 minutes of play. Neither of those statlines seem that bad but they are because outside of just protecting the rim, controlling the boards is Mark’s biggest job and we can’t do that shot opportunites don’t open up for him as much and the Hornets just generally get less chances to score.

Mark has however done a solid job defending Robinson as Robinson is averaging 7 PPG on 58.3% FG% against Mark this season. 58.3% from the field is actually bad considering he only takes shots right below the basket. It’s not that I’m scared of Mitch having some sort of Shaq-like performance, it’s just the Knicks controlling the boards will really hurt the Hornets. I honestly wouldn’t be suprised if neither center manages to crack double digit points.