2014 Hornets Player Profile: Brian Roberts

THE DESIGNATED SHOOTER

He’s a Hornet once removed.

After joining the New Orleans Hornets in 2012, the team began the process to become the New Orleans Pelicans. Now in Charlotte, he’s once again a Hornet.

His long trip into the NBA started with a four year career at Dayton that ended in 2008. He averaged 16-3-3 and earned about every honor a student basketball star could earn, except one…a draft selection.

For several years he hopped between summer league assignments and international basketball contracts before finally landing a deal with New Orleans. He impressed then coach Monty Williams with his shooting, explosiveness and finishing ability around the rim.

They were unsure then of how many minutes he would get, but an injury in 2013 to starting point guard Jrue Holiday, thrust Roberts into a 43 game starting role. Roberts embraced the challenge and impressed many around the league, averaging 9p-3a-2r for the struggling Pelicans.

His shooting talents are what attracted him to the Hornets, who last year ranked 23rd in 3P% and 27th in 3PA. Now he sits behind Kemba Walker, who isn’t known for spending a lot of time on the sidelines. How Roberts adjusts to going back to a reserve role will be interesting to watch especially because a hungry and potent Jannero Pargo sits behind him.

Doug Branson @QCHDoug

SCOUTING REPORT

Offense

Thanks to Roberts cerebral nature on-the-court, he’s become an impressive offensive player in the league. Not physically gifted with great athleticism, speed, or strength – but he’s just flat out smart.

Not much about Roberts scoring arsenal is flashy, but he does have an underrated crossover. Again, not extremely quick, but he does a great job of using head-fakes to get defenders to bite/off-balanced – BR is always balanced and in control of his own body, rarely getting ahead of himself, or out-of-control. BR is also solid in PnR situations – his strength lies is his ability to yo-yo the hedge defender. Again, BR is a smart basketball player and he’s great at using his head + eyes to keep ball and help defenders guessing. In short, BR is a master of creating space for his shot.

BR’s offensive instincts are to score the ball first. We’ll get to his assists numbers shortly, but let’s be clear on the fact that scoring the ball is priority-number-one when he has the ball. An above-average shooter (36% 3FG ’13-’14), and he’s got a silky-smooth floater when he discovers the middle of the defense – Kemba could stand to learn this shot from BR. One distinct aspect of BR’s jump-shot is that his momentum always needs to be moving towards the basket when letting the ball fly – this is a direct result of poor upper-body strength. It’s not BR’s fault, he’s just always been a smaller dude, and has figured out ways to compromise that weakness. Rarely, if ever, will you see BR attempt a fadeaway jump-shot. This may appear as a weakness, and I guess it is, but it’s also directly correlated with why BR has mastered the skill to bait defenders to their heels with ball fakes, his eyes, and head fakes.

I told you that I’d return to BR’s assist numbers, so let’s try to suffer through this together. Last season, he had an assist % of 24.2 – 33rd in the NBA among PG’s that played 20+ min/game. That’s bottom-50% of this sample of players, but also better than Kemba, for example – so in all seriousness, it’s not that terrible. BR is above-average at reading + manipulating help-defenders, so the potential to be a wizard with the ball is there, but he’s a score-first driven player. It’s just that simple.

Defense

Hopefully I bored you with the offensive portion, because there a’int nothing to write home about with BR’s defense. The ultimate question here is how Clifford will hide BR on defense when he’s sharing the floor with Gary Neal – it won’t be a simple task.

BR gets bullied just about every time the ball finds it’s way to the rim, and he’s unfortunately guarding the ball. In order for him to find success on the defensive end, and not put his teammates in over-help situations, BR must “get up” (you hear Clifford yell it a lot during games) on-the-ball when it crosses half-court. He’s not extremely quick, but he’s got a low center-of-gravity and is capable of harassing his man enough to make him work with the ball – also putting his teammates is potent defensive positions – allowing defense to get set, and making it tough for offenses to get into their sets.

It’s key for BR to stay up on-the-ball, but his effort isn’t consistently there, so he’s often beat off-the-dribble. His lack of physical tools don’t help him here either.

BR is a decent PnR defender when he wants to be – when he’s cued in, BR does a nice job of anticipating ball-screens and sliding overtop of them, forcing offenses to reset. He’s also a fairly rotating defender on the weak-side of the floor – just goes back to him being a cerebral player.

The effort is there for BR on defense most of the time, but he has no physical tools to bail him out on this end. At the end of the day, BR is a below-average defender, but will he become better in Clifford’s scheme? Remains to be seen, but the lineups he plays in will have a lot to do with that.

Spencer Percy @QCHSpencer

VIDEO BREAKDOWN

Offense

Distributing

Dakota Schmidt @Dakota_Schmidt

NUMBER TO KNOW

45.4% — Roberts’ shooting percentage from mid-range

The Hornets’ priorities in free agency were pretty obvious: shooting, scoring, and spacing. Roberts reflects that push.

Charlotte had clear problems from three-point range in 2013, but also struggled just inside the arc. Last season, Roberts hit 43.3% of his two-point shots from 16 feet and out. From 10-16 feet, he was over 50%.

Three-pointers are better for efficiency, but the ability to hit that shot when needed can only help to open up the offense. Bench units with Roberts and Gary Neal will have two solid ball handlers capable of scoring from anywhere, and that gives Clifford options whether he’s playing them together or separately.

One other important number is 42 — the number of starts Roberts made last year. For the most part, Kemba doesn’t stay on the bench long. He’s led the team in both minutes played and MPG the last two years, and he came close his rookie season, too. That doesn’t leave a ton of time for Roberts, which should feel familiar. He played about 15 minutes off the bench in 2013, and that sounds right for this year.

When injury pressed him into service, though, he responded relatively well. In those 42 starts, Roberts averaged 12 points and four assists in 29 minutes a game. Not everyday starter’s numbers, but enough to keep the ship afloat.

Greg Pietras @Handles_Messiah