A Look Inside The Charlotte Hornets’ Go-To Play, & It’s Co-Stars
Kemba Walker and Cody Zeller have never been tabbed as one of the NBA’s best duos. But together, they’ve quietly formed one of the deadliest screen-and-roll chemistries in basketball.
Since the NBA’s inception in 1946, teams have relied on dependable play from the point guard and center position. The two anchors of most five-man units remain as important as ever on both sides of the ball.
There’s a certain poetry that comes with these opposing positions as a whole, an acknowledgement of needing the other on the court. Over the years, the league has shifted from a big-dominant league with a game played close to the basket to a frenetically paced game thriving on open space and controlled by shooting.
Still, the point guard and center are forever intertwined by one play as old as the game of basketball: the pick-and-roll.
And there aren’t many who play that game better than Kemba Walker and Cody Zeller in Charlotte.
The Charlotte Hornets had the second-highest percentage of pick-and-roll possessions in the league at 22.9 percent, behind only the Toronto Raptors.
That number begins and ends with Walker, generating 12.2 possessions per game out of the pick-and-roll as the ball handler, good for first in the league at just a smidge ahead of usage god Russell Westbrook.
Zeller averaged just under 28 minutes a night and only played 62 games this season due to a strained quad, so the volume stats aren’t as eye-popping as Walker’s. But Zeller’s 33.1 percentage of possessions as a roll man illustrate just how much screening and rim running the 24-year-old did. That number was the highest in the association for any player that played over 20 minutes per game.
When flipping on a Hornets broadcast, one doesn’t have to wait long to see some form of the two-man game materialize with Walker and Zeller. Walker’s elite downhill speed, jittery moves and change of pace ability combined with his improved outside shooting make him nearly unguardable for the majority of the league.
Then add Zeller to the equation: a laterally quick, bouncy 7-footer that knows the spots his point guard likes to get to. You’d be lucky to snag a handful of Walker’s jersey to slow his foray into the painted area.
The Hornets often like to initiate the pick-and-roll action as early as possible, particularly if Walker receives a clean outlet. Triggering the switch with a backpedaling center or power forward leaves the big man at the mercy of his array of finishes and pullups.
Charlotte has gotten more creative with how it initiates the action. An elbow toss to Zeller into a quick handoff to Kemba as his defender turns his head isn’t out of the ordinary. This misdirection gives Walker a head start and forces a split-second decision for the opposition.
As far as measuring Zeller’s impact, screen assists are among the few statistics available that show the openings Zeller creates with his screening. In a mere 28 minutes per game, Zeller created 5.9 screen assists, good for third in the NBA. Those created a minimum of 11.8 points per night.
Zeller doesn’t have the width to lay out players like Stevens Adams with his lanky frame, but he’s gotten good enough at flipping screens to be creative at inventing space for his point guard.
Zeller quickly became the team’s best pairing with Walker on the floor, performing at a plus-7.9 per 100 possessions clip when the duo was on the floor together. That number far exceeds Walker’s figure with any other of Charlotte’s surplus of bigs, with Kaminsky being the only other positive pairing.
Zeller’s emergence as a plus-minus superstar this year has been well-documented, with his play in 62 games resulting in a plus-6.0 figure with the former Indiana big man on the floor. Charlotte was 3–17 without him and 33–29 with him. The next closest Hornet, Walker, is the team’s first All-Star since 2010 and closed the season at plus-3.4.
Zeller may be the NBA’s poster child for cliches about intangibles: glue guy, makes things happen, puts on his hard hat, x-factor. Whatever label you want to put on him, there’s little doubt he’s the most important Hornet not wearing Number 15.
Meanwhile, Walker went out and had the most efficient season of his career while simultaneously carrying the largest offensive load he ever has.
It’s hard to find another player in recent years whose shooting has improved as vastly in as short a time. Walker went from shooting 38 percent from the field and 30 percent from deep two seasons ago, to over 44 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from behind the line in 2016–17.
Walker used to plod through the midrange and shoot floaters and stepback jumpers. Now he’s popping even more difficult off-the-dribble rainbows, ankle-breaking stepbacks and backboard-kissing finishes around the rim. Walker’s shot selection difficulty may have increased, but his shotmaking is what has driven his All-Star play.
Kemba accomplished all of this while drawing the third-most charges in the association and guarding his position admirably at 6 feet tall, standing toe-to-toe with the NBA’s Point Guard Murderer’s Row.
It speaks to the outstanding level of talent and health of the league that Walker wasn’t mentioned in most circles as a fringe MVP candidate. It will be interesting to see if he doesn’t receive at least one or two fifth-place votes when the full voting is released in June.
In terms of a single player’s importance to a team, Walker’s season should be mentioned in the next tier below Westbrook, Harden, Leonard and James. Few combined his level of efficiency and volume while playing 79 games on a team that badly needed his best every night.
Head Coach Steve Clifford has crafted a system to allow Zeller and Walker to play off each other. Zeller’s abilities have been enhanced in Charlotte, where he can roam and set screens, protect the rim by positioning and not have to be a low post threat.
Zeller is a career 73 percent free-throw shooter, and many have wondered aloud if he would extend his range, a fantasy we saw come to fruition with Frank Kaminsky’s insertion into the lineup in his absence. Kaminsky and the offense often thrived, but gave up massive amounts of buckets at the other end without Zeller’s linchpin play inside. Whether Zeller’s range increases or not, it’s clear that his value on both ends of the floor is crucial for Charlotte’s success.
Meanwhile, the next step for Walker is to continue his ascension among the very best, most efficient scorers in the association. The Hornets need to do their best with minimal cap space to find a complementary scorer and creator to play off him (i.e. 2015–16 Jeremy Lin) and lighten the load on an undersized franchise player with multiple knee surgeries under his belt.
Walker’s play this season isn’t dissimilar to Isaiah Thomas’ numbers last season.
Thomas earned his first All-Star selection last season, as Walker did this year. Walker went from good to great, and Thomas went from great to MVP candidate. By no means does this mean that Kemba will come out and score 30 points per game next season, but two undersized guards taking a massive leap in their play should be noted in this era where perimeter play reigns.
The Hornets have entered a pivotal point in franchise history. With a core of Walker (age 27), Zeller (24), Nicolas Batum (28), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (23) and Marvin Williams (30) locked up through 2018–19, this will largely be the core Charlotte rolls out for the foreseeable future.
In searching for the answer of who can improve most out of that five, the answer resides in the two pieces most integral to success already. Walker and Zeller have helped to propel each other to previously-unseen levels. Zeller aids Walker with his sturdy screens and backline dependency on the defensive end, while Walker carries the sizable offensive load, manufacturing nearly every shot and rewarding his big man with rim run feeds.
The Charlotte Hornets’ roster is largely comprised of “they are what they are” players. The outlier is Walker, and to a lesser extent Zeller, whose play has improved each season with his minutes load.
Team Owner Michael Jordan said earlier this year in talking about his beloved North Carolina Tar Heels that “the ceiling is the roof.” Going forward, the Hornets’ ceiling and roof will be as high as Walker and Zeller can take them.
All stats courtesy of NBA Stats and Basketball Reference.
