the hornets emptying the paint for malik monk

using actions to occupy the help and open up the weakside

james borrego and the charlotte hornets have become one of my favorite teams to watch in 2021.

borrego is extremely good at designing sets that draw the defense's attention to one side of the floor and pull them away from where he wants his guys to attack.

take a look at this play:

lamelo ball brings the ball up, passes it to bismack biyombo, who passes it to pj washington at the high post.

the hornets set up a stagger on one side of the floor with melo and biz setting screens for cody martin in the corner:

this draws the attention of pretty much the whole sacramento kings defense. it also completely empties out the paint. look at the space here:

then it's a simple backdoor cut from malik monk and bounce pass from pj for a dunk:

here's the same exact concept, but using a horns set instead of stagger:

very nice.

related: the hornets manipulating normal help principles

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