Steve Clifford is Extremely High on James Bouknight: 'He's Got Starter's Talent'
James Bouknight's career in the NBA has been an adventure, to say the least.
He rarely saw the floor as a rookie which led to some frustration on the bench. During the 4th quarter of a blowout loss to the Miami Heat, Bouknight was visibly upset toward former head coach James Borrego who decided to not leave him in the game. Just a week and a half later, Bouknight was ejected from his floor seats at a UConn basketball game for using his cell phone which turned into a little bit of a scene. Then in the offseason, he had surgery to repair a tendon on his right pinky finger which caused him to miss valuable experience playing in the Summer League.
This year, it's about Bouknight getting back on track and taking a significant step forward in becoming a key piece to the Hornets' rotation. Whether he sees a lot of minutes out of the gate is to be determined, but the current focus is to shake the rust off and learn what is expected of him.
Through two preseason games, Bouknight hasn't lit the world on fire but that's to be expected given the lack of minutes he's played since entering the league and catching up on the time he missed this offseason due to the injury. In the two games, he's combined to score seven points on 2/14 shooting, including 0/7 from the arc with four assists, and five turnovers.
It may not be the most promising start, but he does have head coach Steve Clifford in his corner.
"I'm high on him," Clifford said following Wednesday's preseason loss to Indiana. "Listen, you can say it, it's been a struggle for him these two games. He was hurt all summer. He didn't get to do a lot. He didn't play a ton his first year. And I told him at the bench at the end of the game, they're going to have to go through this, these guys. I mean, there's not many guys that come into this league and play well right away. Now Melo did, but there's not many guys that do that. In many ways, Bouk hasn't played many minutes. He's got real talent. Like I'm talking real talent, like starter's talent. The other thing about him that I'll say that's different is he delivered in college. He was drafted on two things - potential, but also performance. With the way we do it now and this is the same with every team, you draft now on potential. So a lot of these guys everybody be saying why aren't they playing? Look at their college stats. They're going to be good players eventually but they haven't played well yet anywhere - he has. I mean, that guy was a great player in college. And to me, it makes a big difference when you're watching him play because when he scores 12 points, he wants 20. I think he's a little bit different than a lot of these guys throughout the league."
That tight-knit relationship is something that didn't exist a year ago for Bouknight and the head coach. Something as simple as that can help give a player confidence to do his job at a high level and when there's no tension, it allows the two sides to have honest conversations about a certain play, game, etc.
"He's been a great coach," Bouknight said of Clifford at Media Day. "When you got a coach that really believes in you and wants to see you be great, it's dope. There's nothing like it."
After Clifford spoke highly of Bouknight, I asked fellow guard LaMelo Ball what he's seen from the second-year guard and whether or not he believes the game is starting to slow down for him.
“Bouk’s definitely got talent. Then again, this is still like his first NBA games right now, so it always just takes a little process. Just seeing what you can do, the gaps, just reading the whole NBA game, so as soon as he gets that, I think he’ll be straight. We both try to help each other, be there for each other, but like I said, there’s nothing like going out there, playing, and seeing for yourself.”
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