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https://www.yahoo.com/news/hornets-lose-starter-key-detroit-205606258.html



Hornets lose a starter and a key reserve in Detroit, as playoff chase continues


Hornets lose a starter and a key reserve in Detroit, as playoff chase continues


Rick Bonnell

Mon, May 3, 2021, 1:56 PM·3 min read



The Charlotte Hornets have lost another starter and a key reserve as they chase a spot in the NBA playoff play-in tournament.

Small forward Cody Martin, who has started Charlotte’s last seven games, will miss Tuesday’s road game against the Detroit Pistons. So will backup point guard Devonte Graham, ruled out with ongoing right knee discomfort.

Martin sprained his left ankle in a hard fall in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Miami Heat. Graham played against the Heat Sunday after missing Saturday’s home game against the Pistons; Graham suffered a knee contusion against the Boston Celtics last Wednesday.

Martin leaped to defend a shot along the baseline by Miami’s Trevor Ariza. Since Martin made contact with Ariza’s head on the play, Martin was charged with a flagrant foul.

Martin couldn’t walk on his left ankle after that fall and had to be helped off the court. He did not return to the game.

Tuesday could be the Hornets’ 21st different starting lineup this season. They are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at 31-33, looking to secure their first post-season appearance since 2016.

The Hornets are already shorthanded at small forward; Gordon Hayward has been out since April 2 with a sprained right foot. While he is no longer in a walking boot, Hayward doesn’t appear close to a return to playing.

Hornets coach James Borrego considers Martin the Hornets’ best defender, particularly along the perimeter. That was key to Borrego’s decision to move Martin into the starting lineup, with scorers Hayward, LaMelo Ball and Malik Monk all out at the time.

“He sets the tone for our defense. He brings great energy and physicality at the start of games. That’s the No. 1 thing,” Borrego said recently of Martin.

“He does not take one possession off. He’s got to exhaust himself every single night in how he defends. That’s why he’s in that first group and he’s got to bring that every night.”

Martin is a factor in the Hornets’ defense switching frequently this season, since at 6-7 he can guard anyone from a point guard to a power forward, and occasionally centers, too.

With Martin out and Hayward not available, Borrego’s logical options to start at small forward would be Jalen McDaniels and Martin’s twin brother, Caleb. McDaniels started the nine games prior to being replaced by Martin, and continues playing regular minutes as a reserve at both forward spots.

Caleb Martin has played only 14 minutes in the past six games, with Borrego shortening his rotation and Ball and Monk returning from injury.


Gordon Hayward’s status

Hayward suffered that sprained foot April 2 against the Indiana Pacers, and was in a protective walking boot until the past few days.

Borrego said Sunday that Hayward has not yet been able to do much on-court activity.

“I don’t really have any updates on him, other than he’s progressed to be out of the boot. Where that takes us, I just don’t know,” Borrego said. “When he becomes available live (to practice and play), we just don’t know at this point.”


Small ball is a likely option

With Ball and Monk back, Borrego has the option to go small on the perimeter with three-guard lineups. He experimented with that earlier this season and said to expect more as the Hornets close out the last eight games of the regular season.

There are numerous combinations that could go between Ball, Monk, Terry Rozier and Graham when he is back. While that makes the Hornets smaller and sometimes it’s difficult to match up defensively, it puts multiple scorer/playmakers on the court, which causes predicaments defensively for opposing teams.


Bob


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Has there ever been a more jinxed player than Gordon Hayward?

I don’t see him having any impact if the Hornets get in playoffs. This franchise went out of its way for him, through all his injury issues. Guess no one calls him out because they feel sorry for him, and I don’t buy any crap like he went to a small market team, what a great guy, he went there for one obvious reason. Good move by his agent, using the system. Things are going to get only worse for him physically every year going forward.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Has there ever been a more jinxed player than Gordon Hayward?

I don’t see him having any impact if the Hornets get in playoffs. This franchise went out of its way for him, through all his injury issues. Guess no one calls him out because they feel sorry for him, and I don’t buy any crap like he went to a small market team, what a great guy, he went there for one obvious reason. Good move by his agent, using the system. Things are going to get only worse for him physically every year going forward.

Cow,

To add some additional context to this we could have had Myles Turner for Hayward, or we could have what we have which is Fournier and another $11M or so in the TPE kitty to use this offseason.  Turner's biggest advantage over The Time Lord is his health.  Turner gets > 30mpg vs 19 for RWill.  His stats are correspondingly higher with the minutes, but is he really that much better?  He shoots 3s, ok, but otherwise?

If Fournier has finally found his legs he'll be a nice addition.  Now he has to show he can play well in consecutive games.

And who knows who Danny will get with the $11M left over?

I don't wish ill on players' health, that's bad karma, I just wish they have bad games.  It sucks that Gordon is now almost chronically injured, he's a good guy and a good teammate, but Danny's looking like he dodged a bullet when Hayward decided he wanted to go to a team where he'd have a different role.


Bob


.

Bob I rooted hard for him when he was here, I don’t wish an injury on anybody, but when he was signed at that price I was glad we didn’t give him that kind of contract and my feeling with no ill intent was that he was not going to finish the season, strictly based on his recent history. Just being honest that I don’t feel he was fair with our franchise, we gave him as much support as possible and you bolt as soon as you can for greener pastures. Surprised no one brought this up before, we had his college coach and all, guess that’s the state of sports now, get as much as you can. I remember an era when players enjoyed representing a franchise and being loyal.

How can we feel sorry for Gordon, whom I really liked? He made a choice, profited to the tune of $140M, and walked. We are better moving forward now without him. Although we suffered this year, Aaron is emerging, and his development may have been delayed with Gordon on the court.

worcester wrote:How can we feel sorry for Gordon, whom I really liked? He made a choice, profited to the tune of $140M, and walked. We are better moving forward now without him. Although we suffered this year, Aaron is emerging, and his development may have been delayed with Gordon on the court.

Going forward we are so much better with Frenchy and 3Smith at the wings than GH at this stage of his career, next year could be our year, if the 5 position can hold up, imagine if Danny took Gafford in the 19 draft instead of the midgets, we’d be set. We don’t need a superstar at the 5, just a good dirty work defender that can be counted on.

Watched the Bucks edge Crooklyn again. Also the Heat could not get past the Mavs.

With 7 games remaining there is no time to cherry pick wins. We need all of them but the B2B vs the Heat may very well determine if we enter the play in tournament.

If we push up to 6th place we may play the Bucks or Nets.

Nets suddenly are having chemistry and winning issues as they have now lost 4 in a row, teams are able to score on them at crunch time and overall they are a weak rebounding team. Kyrie with a killer Tatum like game, but wasn’t enough. Who knows what’s going on with James Harden?

Lakers another team that is a mess, AD looks nothing like the great player he was last year. LeBron out again and if he can get right, they still have to deal with overcoming their recent discontinuity issues, never a sure thing. Right now they are limping to the finish line.

This would have been a great year for the Celts to compete in the Finals...now if only we could get past the Hawks, Knicks, Bucks, Nets,and Sixers....Philly being the only matchup that really scares me now. Seth Embid and Simmons make them a winning team.

Hayward at some point, will retire a very wealthy man who never reached his full potential because of injury. I was his staunchest supporter here but felt, when he left, that it was a slap in the face of a team that had paid him huge money for four years while he sat on the bench or home in Indiana, injured. He owed the Celtics one healthy year, at least. But, looking at the way things are now, that was never going to happen. He is injured again. That medical report you printed looked like that was a bit of disgust with the whole issue.

He is their problem now, looks like we dodged a bullet here. Seeing him sit on the bench again would really have been a thorn in their side. Too bad, but karma is a bit.....

He did screw us, but karma had us totally dodge a bullet, his body just can’t take the up and down pounding of the game, there’s contact on almost every play, it’s a sport of the fittest. I saw him play a few games before he went out with his latest injury, if you check his game logs, the whole last month before the injury he was on a downward spiral and giving them not much. I commented awhile ago don’t see him getting his starting job back with the young athletic stud Miles Bridges developing fast. 120 mill for a back up? That’s on Jordan

Anthony Davis only played 9 ineffective minutes last night and left in the 2nd quarter with an ankle/foot issue. Don’t know if it’s same foot as his calf injury that kept him out for 2 months?

Charlotte, LaL - Karma baby...

Hayward could have been a great player for us but he could never overcome the injuries. It really is a shame it didn’t work out for him or us.
But, lets be fair, Hayward did not screw us. Hayward became a free agent and could have walked away and signed with anyone. It was his option.
Instead he and his people did try and work out a trade with Indy and maybe some others. They didn’t have to do that.
According to Hayward, he left because he wanted a bigger role on a team and lets face it, he was a 4th option on our team. As far as the $ goes, if one can get it one should get it. It’s a business, just ask I.T., Albert Pulols, Tom Brady and D Wade. Some of those took less money for the team and ended up getting screwed so you really cant blame Gordon for looking out for his family.  Sure it would have been nice if he stuck around but as we all see- he is hurt again.
He’s gone. Boy bye. Looks like Nesmith has a great future along with our other rook so I’m pretty pumped about the future.
Things happen for a reason and i never could figure out what Karma is all about.
I used to hear it all the time from Celtic haters. Haters that felt Red was a dirty MF who used to use dirty tricks on teams like turning the heat off in the locker room etc. we’ve all heard them Believe it or not I would hear things like, Len Bias was Karma, Reggie Lewis was Karma, the 90’s was Karma because Red had too many white players in the 80’s. This is the kind of dumb crap i used to hear from folks and still do from people who hate the C’s. I still don’t know what Karma is and certainly don’t think it has anything to do with any of the above.
S_ _T happens!

Ktron wrote:Hayward could have been a great player for us but he could never overcome the injuries. It really is a shame it didn’t work out for him or us.
But, lets be fair, Hayward did not screw us. Hayward became a free agent and could have walked away and signed with anyone. It was his option.
Instead he and his people did try and work out a trade with Indy and maybe some others. They didn’t have to do that.
According to Hayward, he left because he wanted a bigger role on a team and lets face it, he was a 4th option on our team. As far as the $ goes, if one can get it one should get it. It’s a business, just ask I.T., Albert Pulols, Tom Brady and D Wade. 3 out of the 4 took less money for the team and ended up getting screwed so you really cant blame Gordon for looking out for his family.  Sure it would have been nice if he stuck around but as we all see- he is hurt again.
He’s gone. Boy bye. Looks like Nesmith has a great future along with our other rook so I’m pretty pumped about the future.
Things happen for a reason and i never could figure out what Karma is all about.
I used to hear it all the time from Celtic haters. Haters that felt Red was a dirty MF who used to use dirty tricks on teams like turning the heat off in the locker room etc. we’ve all heard them Believe it or not I would hear things like, Len Bias was Karma, Reggie Lewis was Karma, the 90’s was Karma because Red had too many white players in the 80’s. This is the kind of dumb crap i used to hear from folks and still do from people who hate the C’s. I still don’t know what Karma is and certainly don’t think it has anything to do with any of the above.
S_ _T happens!

Instant karma's gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin'
Join the human race

Lennon Lives!!

Nobody said there'd be days like these!

Ktron, you are always the voice of reason, and yes, karma had nothing to do with Gordon, AD, and Lebron's injuries. I was just being flippant and trying to be funny.

worcester wrote:Nobody said there'd be days like these!

Ktron, you are always the voice of reason, and yes, karma had nothing to do with Gordon, AD,  and Lebron's injuries. I was just being flippant and trying to be funny.

LOL, I know but you know what the latest is about our team and Karma that I am hearing?
All the bad luck with the Hayward injury, the Kylie and Horford leaving, the injuries and the apparent reverse in fortunes the last year or so are being attributed to? Payback for the way Danny treated IT.
I hear it at the barbershop and from non Celtic fans “serves y’all right” That’s Karma for ya!”
Sometimes you do have to wonder but is it Karma?..Well. It’s its some...thing :>)

I T has nothing to do with our current demise. Period.

worcester wrote:I T has nothing to do with our current demise. Period.

Not at all.

Hello, all, Just wanted to say I’m agonizing with the rest here. I think Brad has lost his way and Danny’s errors (almost everything other than 2 Js) are fatal. We have not had an almost decent center since Perk or a good one since Parish. Danny could have unloaded the obvious misfit Kyrie for a center, but snoozed until after the trade deadline and we loozed (sorry). RW is exciting, but so was Oden when not injured. At least we didn’t get stuck with Fultz or I’d propose we go on the road with the Globetrotters. Am I still a diehard fan? You bet, and that’s why I’m POed. Thank you all for posting faithfully! hawk

Bob
MY NOTE:  Not bad for 280#, huh?


.

Truly amazing.

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Has there ever been a more jinxed player than Gordon Hayward?

I don’t see him having any impact if the Hornets get in playoffs. This franchise went out of its way for him, through all his injury issues. Guess no one calls him out because they feel sorry for him, and I don’t buy any crap like he went to a small market team, what a great guy, he went there for one obvious reason. Good move by his agent, using the system. Things are going to get only worse for him physically every year going forward.

Cow,

To add some additional context to this we could have had Myles Turner for Hayward, or we could have what we have which is Fournier and another $11M or so in the TPE kitty to use this offseason.  Turner's biggest advantage over The Time Lord is his health.  Turner gets > 30mpg vs 19 for RWill.  His stats are correspondingly higher with the minutes, but is he really that much better?  He shoots 3s, ok, but otherwise?

If Fournier has finally found his legs he'll be a nice addition.  Now he has to show he can play well in consecutive games.

And who knows who Danny will get with the $11M left over?

I don't wish ill on players' health, that's bad karma, I just wish they have bad games.  It sucks that Gordon is now almost chronically injured, he's a good guy and a good teammate, but Danny's looking like he dodged a bullet when Hayward decided he wanted to go to a team where he'd have a different role.


Bob


.

Btw bob Myles Turner is also out with his own foot injury, how ironic is that...??? Can’t make this stuff up

hawksnestbeach wrote:Hello, all, Just wanted to say I’m agonizing with the rest here. I think Brad has lost his way and Danny’s errors (almost everything other than 2 Js) are fatal. We have not had an almost decent center since Perk or a good one since Parish. Danny could have unloaded the obvious misfit Kyrie for a center, but snoozed until after the trade deadline and we loozed (sorry). RW is exciting, but so was Oden when not injured. At least we didn’t get stuck with Fultz or I’d propose we go on the road with the Globetrotters. Am I still a diehard fan? You bet, and that’s why I’m POed. Thank you all for posting faithfully! hawk

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