[The Athletic] Rockets coaching candidates: Getting to know James Borrego
The Rockets finished 30th in assists. The Hornets finished 1st during Borrego’s final season.
“That starts with JB’s ability to instill a selfless style of play, where guys are bought into passing the ball and understand, ‘I have to let it find me..”
— Kelly Iko (@KellyIko) April 13, 2023
by NoBarracuda199
7 Comments
***Introduction:***
>”There are aspects of Borrego’s work he should be proud of, like taking the Hornets from a 23-win team in 2020 to a 43-win team two seasons later, including consecutive Play-In berths. During the 2021-22 season, the Hornets led the league in assists and were sixth in offensive efficiency, per Cleaning the Glass. Under his watch, young players like Cody and Caleb Martin, P.J. Washington, Malik Monk and LaMelo Ball have developed into quality NBA players.
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>But Borrego wasn’t fired on a whim. Defensively, his teams consistently finished in the bottom third of the league in efficiency. During exit interviews, Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak didn’t sound pleased with how little Borrego had used or developed their 2021 rookie class of Kai Jones, JT Thor and James Bouknight. And after failing to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons due to blowout Play-In losses to the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks, it was clear the Hornets had stagnated and management decided it was best for a new voice and a change of direction for the franchise.
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>To get a better understanding of who Borrego is, his style, his tenants and analyzing a potential fit, The Athletic sat down with Hornets assistant coach Nick Friedman, who served under Borrego from 2020-22.”
***Some key sections:***
**How hands-on was he in terms of player development? Looking at players like Ball and Washington, how involved was he in their growth?**
>”It’s everything to him, and he was very hands-on. He watched film with guys religiously, and I respect this about head coaches who have had a player development background. He’s been on the court throughout his career as an assistant. When you do get in that head coaching role, you’re not necessarily running drills, but you have to be very diligent about how you delegate. For instance, I had Terry Rozier for all the years he was here. JB and I would sit down about the plan, go over the plan, and then he would let me execute and he would make sure he’s there to watch and just be involved in the developmental process, but also give you the freedom as an assistant to help a player grow.”
**From an X’s and O’s standpoint, how would you describe Borrego’s pillars or offensive tenants? What is his style on that side of the ball?**
>”First and foremost, as a passing team, we were very solid in our ability to make plays in the paint, make the extra pass, go from good to great shots. Over the past two years, we were in the top five in assists and assist percentage and led the league last year.”
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>”Secondly, where he grew was his ability to play fast. He allowed himself to be comfortable with getting the ball out of the net fast off makes, pushing and getting into early offense. The film speaks for itself; we had one of the best early offenses in the entire league. And then from an ATO standpoint, as crisp in recognizing what he needs to run in those situations as anybody. The amount of times he was able to make an adjustment out of an ATO to get a crucial bucket —I don’t have the stats in front of me, but we had one of the best win percentages in close games.”
**A huge part of this job will be playing to the strengths of the young talent available. How would he augment the styles of Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Şengün? Three players with different skillsets — how would he put it all together, based on what you’ve seen him do in the past?**
>”When you think about Alperen, it’s the playing through your bigs, playing out of (dribble hand-offs), playing out of constant motion. With those three guys, one, you have an elite trail five who has a lot of upside to be a high-level passer.”
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>”Jalen Green: in studying him throughout the whole year, his ability has progressed to be able to make the right plays in the paint for others, but it’s still not there.”
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>”And then Jabari Smith, I see handling upside with him — obviously, it’s going to take him a little bit to grow into his body, the physicality of the game. JB has the background to take a guy like that and turn them into a creator. And there’s definitely ways to put him in those situations, whether you’re playing through him and the trail, you’re playing small-small pick-and-roll. Jalen Green setting, Kevin Porter setting, they didn’t do a lot of that type of action and JB is really good at involving smalls as screeners.”
**What was the defensive philosophy? Did he prefer to run a specific scheme like switching, zone, drop strict man-to-man, or did he like to switch things up?**
>”He and Chad did a great job of being creative and playing a good amount of zone. We played a ton of zone that kind of turned into like a one-through-five switching defense. We never had a true rim protector – our best rim protector last year was Miles Bridges, really. We had to get creative.”
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>”Talking with him over the years, he wants to be able to play in the drop, play with a rim-protecting big. Statistically, the rankings haven’t been there, but personnel-wise, it’s hard at times. But he did a good job of knowing when we gotta muck it up and we’ve got to play these creative type defenses, especially zone, in order to get the job done.”
Eh …give us Atkinson, Nurse, or Udoka in that order
No thanks
I don’t like him for head coach. But if we go with someone like Vogel, I think he’d make an amazing assistant coach that could lead the offensive side of the ball. While things didn’t work out in Charlotte, I don’t think the offensive side of the ball is to blame. 1st in the league in assists is no joke
I’d rather not
Sounds ok, but the defensive issues are something I would worry about. I feel we have let that be too lax for the last three seasons.
I’d be down with him as an assistant coach.