{"id":76734,"date":"2024-05-09T09:30:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T13:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76734"},"modified":"2024-05-09T09:31:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T13:31:20","slug":"hornets-hire-popular-head-coach-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/09\/hornets-hire-popular-head-coach-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets Hire Popular Head Coach Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After multiple rounds of interviews, the Charlotte Hornets <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/29\/hornets-closing-in-on-head-coach-who-should-they-choose\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">have finally decided<\/a> who will be their new head coach, nabbing Boston Celtics lead assistant Charles Lee.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A new chapter begins. We\u2019re thrilled to announce the new Head Coach of your Charlotte Hornets, Coach Charles Lee! \ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc4f<\/p>\n<p>Presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CorcoranHM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CorcoranHM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hornets\/status\/1788547030161265114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Lee will head to Charlotte on a four-year deal, per ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Charles Lee \u2013 who reunites with Hornets EVP of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson \u2013 will finish the Celtics\u2019 playoff run before moving full-time into the Hornets\u2019 job, sources said. He was part of the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks championship under Mike Budenholzer. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OJbN13izSr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/OJbN13izSr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1788547907236536802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Wojnarowski also adds that Lee will step into his new role full-time at the end of the Celtics\u2019 playoff run.<\/p>\n<h2>Hornets Hire Charles Lee as Head Coach<\/h2>\n<p>The 39-year-old Lee joined Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla\u2019s staff last summer. Prior to joining Boston\u2019s bench, he coached under former head coach Mike Budenholzer with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. With the Bucks, he was promoted to associate head coach in 2022-23. However, he only held that role for one season as Milwaukee fired Budenholzer at the end of their playoff run.<\/p>\n<p>In his 10 seasons as an assistant coach, Lee\u2019s teams have only missed the playoffs once, winning the NBA championship in 2021. In that span, his teams have had the top record in their conference four times. Although most of the credit goes to Budenholzer and Mazzulla, it\u2019s a noteworthy trend that speaks to what Lee is familiar with and would hope to achieve.<\/p>\n<h3>Player Development and Pressing Buttons<\/h3>\n<p>The Hornets\u2019 overall talent level is far below the Celtics\u2019 current roster or the Bucks teams that he coached. Charlotte doesn\u2019t have a perennial All-Star yet, let alone an MVP candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, while there may not be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a> in Buzz City, 2020 No. 3 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/ballla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaMelo Ball<\/a> has gotten off to a fine start in his NBA career. After winning Rookie of the Year in 2021, he earned his first All-Star selection the next season. 2023 No. 2 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/millebr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Miller<\/a> has displayed star potential as well, averaging 17.3 points per game as a rookie. Whether the Hornets use their lottery pick in the upcoming draft or trade it, it may turn into another All-Star-caliber player.<\/p>\n<p>That said, one of Lee\u2019s primary tasks will be player development.<\/p>\n<p>A masterful communicator, Lee\u2019s just young enough to connect with Ball and Miller in the ways his predecessor couldn\u2019t. For all of Steve Clifford\u2019s acumen, he wasn\u2019t able to press the right buttons in Charlotte\u2019s locker room.<\/p>\n<p>This was particularly evident in the way the Hornets played defense. Although their personnel didn\u2019t do them many favors either, Charlotte often played without fire and physicality at that end. If Lee can maximize his team\u2019s upside, especially on defense, they may be the next young team to make a run to the NBA Playoffs. Fortunately, he\u2019s learned from two great defensive coaches in Budenholzer and Mazzulla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After multiple rounds of interviews, the Charlotte Hornets have finally decided who will be their new head coach, nabbing Boston Celtics lead assistant Charles Lee. A new chapter begins. We\u2019re thrilled to announce the new Head Coach of your Charlotte Hornets, Coach Charles Lee! \ud83d\udc1d\ud83d\udc4f Presented by @CorcoranHM \u2014 Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) May 9, 2024 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":76748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1608,62,3],"tags":[4731,49160,823,4557],"class_list":["post-76734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hornets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-brandon-miller","tag-charles-lee","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}