The Hornets need to fix their three-point shooting this summer, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Charlotte shot just 31.8% from beyond the arc last season, the lowest mark in the NBA and among the worst performances of the past decade. Coach Steve Clifford will hire a new shooting coach to replace former assistant Mark Price, who is headed to college as coach of the Charlotte 49ers. The Hornets have worked out Kentucky’s Devin Booker, one of the top shooters in this year’s draft, and they have the mid-level exception available to chase free agents.
There’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Signs point to Adrian Griffin becoming an assistant for new coach Scott Skiles with the Magic, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Skiles is also keeping a spot open for former interim coach James Borrego, whom Skiles replaced, Stein reports, but Borrego may be more likely to wind up with the Spurs, who seem poised to have an opening with Jim Boylen reportedly leaving for the Bulls (Twitter link).
- Magic GM Rob Hennigan gets high marks for building a young backcourt from Brian K. Schmitz of The Orlando Sentenel. In assigning grades for Hennigan’s three drafts since taking over as GM, Schmitz gives a C to Andrew Nicholson from 2012, a B for Victor Oladipo from 2013 and a B-minus to Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton from 2014.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo would like to see the Bucks get some better frontcourt players, acccording to comments he posted on his blog. “We have Zaza Pachulia who really knows how to play basketball and John Henson who will keep getting better and better and some other big guys with potential,” Antetokounmpo wrote. “But we need an athletic, top class bigman. Who will be able to finish plays, score and play effective defense. Who will have the skills to function as the rim protector and set good screens.”