The Charlotte Hornets have seen some improvement in their results. They have won three of their last six games, including wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Utah Jazz, and, most recently, the Denver Nuggets. However, Golden State Warriors veteran Draymond Green doesn’t buy into that argument. He believes the Hornets are openly tanking this season to gain an unfair advantage in the upcoming draft. They travelled to San Francisco and were beaten 116-136.

“The Charlotte Hornets is a team that’s tanking right in your face in plain sight,” the Warriors floor general said on The Draymond Green Show. “The fact that they have LaMelo Ball coming off the bench, I found very interesting.”

Green also questioned their use of star player Ball, who was clearly in rhythm but was restricted to playing off the bench. He played only 21 minutes against the Warriors, recording 15 points, four rebounds, and two assists. Uncharacteristically, the All-Star point guard had an off shooting night as he converted only one of his eight three-point attempts that game.

“They are a much worse team and so easy to guard when LaMelo’s not on the floor,” Green continued. “When we played them in Charlotte, LaMelo had it going. He hit multiple threes in a row, he had got their team going, and then in the third quarter, he came out at about the five-minute mark, maybe, and did not come back in the game, no matter what was going on… until the fourth quarter with four minutes left.”

Green is talking about the game that happened right before New Year’s in the Spectrum Center. Ball scored 27 points, five rebounds, and five assists, while shooting an efficient 7 of 10 from deep. Despite scoring well, he still wasn’t the name on the Hornets’ list with the most minutes.

“There’s nothing to explain,” Green cumulatively added. “That’s tanking right in front of your face. In plain sight.”

The 2021 Rookie of the Year has had his fair share of injuries, and therefore, the Hornets’ management is looking to tread carefully with the young guard. They are intentionally using him from the bench, as he is on a minutes restriction. It is part of head coach Charles Lee’s strategy to use him in a way that allows the 24-year-old to play crucial late-game minutes (in theory), despite his restricted time.

Despite all of this, Ball is averaging 19.9 points, 5 rebounds, 7.6 assists on 27.5 minutes per contest this season while shooting 41.4% from the field. The point guard has also averaged 19.8 points, 5.9 assists, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 25.3 minutes over the last nine games, while making seven starts.

Around Christmas, the NBA reiterated its no-tolerance policy against tanking in a board of governors meeting. They’ve instituted new rules to limit tanking to the very least.

Green now clearly believes that the NBA should penalize the Hornets for dropping the ball before mid-season. When asked about why the star guard hasn’t been starting some games, both the player and coach have pointed to load management as the primary reason.

Draymond Green drops a shock warning for Hornets HC for playing lackadaisical defense

The Warriors cruised past the Hornets, who employed a weird defensive strategy of crowding Stephen Curry; that left others open, and the hosts made them pay. They went 51-93 (54.8%) from the field while converting 23-52 (44%) from beyond the arc.

Draymond Green called out Lee’s defensive strategies, labelling them ‘gimmicky’. The veteran finished the night with 20 points, three rebounds and six assists. He drained four out of his eight attempted three-pointers, the highest on the night.

“They put the big kid just in the middle of the paint, and so I want that big kid to know, you guard me like that, I’mma shoot your face off,” Green said. “That’s what we say. Also, I mentioned after last game that their coach played this gimmicky defense, and I had to make them pay because I’ve seen coaches get fired for playing that defense, and it just doesn’t work.”

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The Hornets did keep Curry quiet as he finished with only 14 points. But the strategy was so flawed that it allowed others to take advantage of the situation and score freely. Lee needs to bring more refinement and cohesion to this young roster defensively, which is 15-27 for the season. However, games like this could surely urge the front office to take a drastic call.

But for now, Green wants the NBA to reprimand them, as he believes they are tanking through their shady use of Ball, and also playing lousy defense.