Jeremy Lamb is beginning his time with the Charlotte Hornets much like he began his NBA career: with expectations.
Three years removed from his lottery selection, Lamb isn’t anywhere near the player he was supposed to be. He hasn’t shown he can be an elite scorer at the professional level, and his outside stroke, while not disastrous, has not been nearly as dangerous as initially advertised.
Then again, Lamb seldom played at his last stop. He logged just 2,318 total minutes through three seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Fifty-five players matched or exceeded that benchmark last year alone, per Basketball-Reference. What we’ve seen from Lamb isn’t enough to draw any profoundly positive conclusions, but, for the most part, that’s because we haven’t seen enough.
So much uncertainty is indeed bizarre for a prospect of Lamb’s stature. Drafted by the Houston Rockets with the 12th overall pick in 2012, he was one of the primary carrots in the James Harden trade. Oklahoma City received a platter of first-round goodies, in addition to proven sharpshooter Kevin Martin, but Lamb was a tangible asset expected to grow into a good, if not really good NBA player.
But the perks of playing for a team like the Thunder, a perennial contender at full strength, can quickly turn into drawbacks. Oklahoma City was and remains set in its ways. There is little room for young players to grow in the shadows of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. Harden and Reggie Jackson were anomalies in that sense, emerging as players with superstar promise despite ceding touches and status by default. Steven Adams is probably the extent of how important a novice can be to the Thunder without being shipped out, and even he spent ample time playing behind Kendrick Perkins. Now he’ll jostle for minutes with Enes Kanter, the $70 million man.
Point being: It has been difficult for a youngster to breakout on the Thunder. And because of that, some are left wondering who Lamb might have become elsewhere. The Hornets, it turns out, are betting he would have become someone really special, and they’re hoping he can now become that someone with them.
From CBS Sports Ken Berger:
But the Hornets’ offseason acquisition with the biggest upside, and with the greatest opportunity to assert himself in MKG’s potentially season-long absence, is Lamb. If he wins the starting two-guard job — and, if Batum is playing the three (it’s difficult to imagine how he won’t) — then Lamb either has to make considerably more jumpers or develop his drive game and get to the paint.
“They love Lamb,” said a league source plugged into the dynamics in Charlotte. “He’s really the only long, athletic shooting guard they have now that Batum will be back at the three. He has a chance to be really good.”
This has been the opinion in the Charlotte front office for some time. Sources say the Hornets tried to trade for Lamb long before he finally became available — for pennies on the dollar when Oklahoma City no longer had any use or luxury-tax dollars for him.
Lamb is entering an uber-unique situation in that he isn’t just superficially valued, or genuinely valued. He’s needed. The Hornets offense has been a farce for the last half-decade, and now the integrity of their widely respected defense has been compromised with the loss of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Head coach Steve Clifford also has them shooting a ton of threes during the preseason, a style for which most of his personnel isn’t suited. The Hornets ranked dead last in three-point percentage last year; Lamb’s seemingly unimpressive 34.2 percent success rate would have ranked second among Charlotte players who fired away from deep at least 40 times.
That’s where Lamb’s value is most evident to the Hornets. He’s someone else on perimeter who can create his own shot, but mostly, his outside touch, though still vastly unproven, is evidence that he can also function on or off the ball, making him a weapon unlike any other the Hornets have enjoyed over the years, as they’ve trotted out Kemba Walker, MKG, Lance Stephenson and now Jeremy Lin.
Charlotte, it seems, is willing to give Lamb his shot, not just as an everyday player, but as a starter. So, when this season ends, with Lamb having presumably been given the fairest, most consistent of shakes, we’ll finally have a concrete grasp on what kind of player he actually is, and what type of player he can actually be.
