Charles Lee Exit Interview: LaMelo's Next Step, Progress Made, Emotions of Loss + More

Roughly twelve hours after the loss to the Orlando Magic, the Charlotte Hornets held exit interviews, marking the final time the head coach Charles Lee and players spoke to the media this season.

Here are the highlights from Lee's presser.

Overall thoughts on the season

“First thing that comes to mind is progress was made. The standards and commitment level to try to compete and try to be together rose significantly. I think that the players, in the offseason, set out to train harder, to train together a lot more, and they had a mission coming into this season that they wanted to win more games and wanted to get better, and I think they did that. They earned the respect and changed the narrative about this Charlotte Hornets basketball team and organization. I’m super proud of everything they gave.”

Emotions after last night

“Fired up. Fired up and fueled to get better as a coach. Fired up and fueled for our team to work even harder this summer. If you’re not the last team standing, what you did might have been good, but not good enough. I think the goals and standards around here are really high, so we want to push them forward.”

What LaMelo Ball has to do to take the next step

“He’s got to do it again this offseason and elevate everything he did because what he did was great. 72 games, a ton in a row. He helped us in a lot of different ways. Defensively, the level at which he played consistently was much improved. Offensively, we saw a ton of big moments from him. I think the next step for him is being able to handle physicality, and I think that’s a global thing for our team.”

What this team showed that mirrored previous successful teams he's been with

“The thing that I was really impressed with was the resiliency of this group. The ability to just keep responding in high-pressure situations. The whole end of the year, you’re playing for seeding, you’re jockeying for positioning, and you’re playing the Sixers with a fully healthy roster, you’re playing on the road at Minnesota and at Boston, and they’re still playing for things. I thought our group just continued to respond, no matter what the situation was. There was a fearlessness and a confidence that all really good teams have.”

If there was something he thought the team needed last night that could have helped

“I think we had everything we needed in that locker room last night. We didn’t execute defensively the way we needed to. The emphasis of that game last night was how do we protect the paint? They started the game, their first ten points were all in the paint. That can’t be the case in a win-or-go-home. I don’t think it was we needed another player or something else; we just needed to be better.”

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