The Hornets Must Make a Lineup Change, and It's Not Benching Sion James

The Charlotte Hornets don't have their preferred starting lineup right now. They've had that lineup available for all of six minutes. So for now, they're having to get creative. Sion James is starting, as is Grayson Allen. In an ideal world, they'd come off the bench.

Many Hornets fans would say that James should come off the bench regardless. It's easy to understand why. He's sporting a 44.5% true shooting, and his net rating is decidedly negative. But actually, the Hornets are slightly better in his minutes.

The Hornets are 1.3 points better when James plays, per Cleaning the Glass. In truth, I expected that number to be very negative, but it's not. His defense helps, although he certainly hampers the offense.

Regardless, benching him is not the lineup change the Hornets need to make right now. Maybe Grayson Allen would be a better starter in place of Kon Knueppel when Brandon Miller is back, but the difference is insignificant (+2.8 in Allen's minutes).

The lineup change the Hornets need to make is starting Ryan Kalkbrenner over Moussa Diabaté. Last year, the Hornets took off when Diabaté took Kalkbrenner's spot, but the two have flipped this year. Diabaté was one of the NBA's best on/off players last year (+10.7), but that's not the case this year.

Maybe it's because he benefitted from playing with LaMelo Ball, but Diabaté's impact is clearly not there anymore. The Hornets are -21.5 with him. That translates to -37 expected wins. That's a huge, huge swing. If nothing else, Diabaté going to the bench might be addition by subtraction.

Charlotte Hornets small forward Moussa Diabate (14) is fouled by Brooklyn Nets power forward Michael Porter Jr. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

And not only that, but behind him is one of the NBA's most impactful players. Kalkbrenner is sixth in the entire NBA in on/off with a +29.3 mark. The only players more impactful are Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic (the two MVP contenders), Alex Caruso, Dylan Harper, and Ryan Dunn.

That's an absurd list to be on, but it also means that you can pick any other NBA superstar and Kalkbrenner has been a more positive force for his team. This was more or less the case with Diabaté last year, and he earned a starting spot. Now, Kalkbrenner is earning one.

There could be some small sample size tricks being played right now. It's certainly possible that Kalkbrenner is as impactful as he is because he doesn't play as much. But he plays almost 19 minutes a game compared to Diabaté's 29. It's not as if he's only on the floor for a few minutes.

Regardless, it's a change that makes sense now for a desperate Hornets team. When Diabaté was out, Kalkbrenner started and helped a deeply banged-up team throttle a fully healthy Cleveland Cavaliers. Isn't that more of what we all want to see?

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