Hornets’ top players, coach Steve Clifford on the keys to a successful 2023-24 season

Ready or not, the moment has arrived.

After a lengthy offseason filled with plenty of off-the-court headlines, including the franchise’s majority ownership changing hands, the Charlotte Hornets can get down to business. A highly anticipated season, which tips off against the Atlanta Hawks at Spectrum Center on Wednesday night, is on deck for the Hornets as they try to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

“I think all coaches would tell you, you’d like to have another week or so,” coach Steve Clifford said after practice on Tuesday. “But everybody has the same amount of time, so it’s all fair. And I understand why they do it. This is quick. This is quick. It’s hard to be as organized as you want to be.”

Naturally, the players’ emotions are a tad different.

“I’m excited,” PJ Washington said. “I’ve been waiting all simmer to get it going for sure. I think everybody is excited as well.”

Consider that an understatement.

“It feels amazing,” Terry Rozier said. “It’s finally here. It’s been a long offseason. This is probably the longest season since I’ve been in the league, so I think I can speak for us all. We are all excited and ready to get back out there.”

They’ll start things off by spending the better part of the next two weeks sleeping on their own beds. Having a three-game homestand — and four of their initial seven outings at home — could benefit the Hornets, allowing them to come out of the gates quickly as opposed to the alternative.

Any boost of positivity can’t hurt a team with a young core that hasn’t had the best of luck in the past two years.

“Yeah, it’s really important,” Gordon Hayward said. “You want to get off to the best start you can so you aren’t counting wins at the end of the season. And especially a team like us. We are not (at the level of) Boston.

“So, we have to get out to a good start and it’s going to be important that we are really more consistent on the defensive end. Because our offense will come and go just like everyone’s offense does, but we’ve got to be consistent defensively to try to help us get wins.”

With such a crucial season on the horizon, the Observer asked the Hornets’ starting five and Clifford for their three keys to finding success during the 2023-24 campaign.

Steve Clifford

Balanced play: “You’ve got to be good at both. Ultimately, that’s going to determine (with) every team with how successful they are. I believe I’m right in this: the last three years, the three champions were an average of like seventh in offense and eighth in defense. If you go back to maybe 25 years, rarely, rarely does a team win it that’s not top-10 in both. There’s been a couple. … But most years, it’s what you have to do to win.”

The mentality of the group: “We have to have a growth mindset. You’ve got to be able to play the games. If you win, come in the next day and get better. If you lose, even with frustration and disappointment, get better. That’s a big part of it.”

Who evolves: “For any team to be a surprise team, there’s always a guy that played better than people thought or a guy that has a comeback year or something like that People ask a lot about the team that won 48 games. That was Nic Batum’s best year of his career.

“It was Marvin Williams’ best year, Kemba Walker was terrific and Al Jefferson … Jeremy Lin’s best year of his career. We had a bunch of guys that had career years and that’s the way it works.”

Gordon Hayward

Defense: “I think defense is an important thing for every team. Playing a certain way, sticking to your principles and not giving up easy buckets. It just allows you to stay in games when for some reason the shots are not falling.”

Getting/taking good shots: “(In the preseason finale against Boston) I felt like our defense in the half-court wasn’t terrible. It was too many turnovers and led to fast-breaks and layups and open dunks for them. It doesn’t matter what type of defense or coverage you have. It’s not going to matter. We’ve got to be able to take and get good shots. And I’m confident with the players, with the shooters we have, if we take enough good shots we’ll hit a lot of them. But we’ve got to get them.”

Staying together: “It’s another big key for us, especially on a young team. When things don’t go well or you fight through some adversity, guys start to go their own ways and think about their own things and think about their own situations, And the best teams I’ve been on always stay together and the teams that win is when everybody benefits.”

Terry Rozier

Being fearless: “Fear is an illusion, Feel is not real. We are going into this with no fear.”

Togetherness: “Because no matter what, there is going to be a lot of outside noise. We might not have the start that we want to have, we might have a great start that we want to have. No matter what, we’ve got to still be present and be where our feet are, and not be worried about the outside noise and stay together no matter what.”

Health: “Stay injury free. (Rozier pounds hands together for emphasis). Some things you can’t control but you do whatever you’ve got to do. If you’ve got to hit the medical staff, if you’ve got to hit the cold tub, you’ve got to do whatever you got to do to stay injury free.

“And to be honest, I wasn’t the best at it. It took me all the way to Year 7, Year 8 to get that. But a lot of guys understand and that’s what takes them and they make that big jump. If you look at old videos like LeBron (James) — and I know I’m using LeBron but — just how many ice packs he had on after the game in Year 2, Year 3.

“He was taking that (stuff) serious then, and you keep stacking those years and put them together, So it’s very important, and I can’t tell nobody when to learn it. But you should learn it, Learn and pay attention to your body and treat your body right.”

LaMelo Ball

Believe: “That’s just what you’ve got to do. It’s life. Everybody has to believe and then it’s going to work. If no one believes, then it ain’t going to work.”

Consistently get better: “Me individually, I try to get better (every day). Doesn’t matter if it’s the defensive end, offensive end always just trying to put it together. Stay engaged, be a leader and do everything I can to help the team.”

Trust: “You’ve got to have trust on the floor. You have trust in your family? You need that. If you don’t have no trust, ain’t (nothing) going to work. That’s life.”

PJ Washington

Stay connected on the defensive end: “If you don’t have a good defense, you can;’t win. So that’s what we are hellbent on this year and that;s our whole mentality going in.”

Make sure we rebound: “It limits their possessions, It helps us get out and get easy baskets, so that is the biggest (key) honestly.”

Play to strengths/get out and run in transition: “We’ve got a lot of guys that can score and get out and run. So, when we get a stop, we’ve got to run and create space for each other so we can play to our strengths, and get in the lane and create for others.”

Mark Williams

Defensive intensity: “I think that’s important because when a team plays Charlotte, they should be like, ‘Aw damn. We’ve got Charlotte.’ Defensively, we’re on our stuff. We’re locked into our coverages, our principles. I think if we do that, that will make us a really dangerous team.”

Health: “I’d say health is wealth. Last year, we struggled with a lot of injuries and that’s something out of our control. But when all the guys were on the floor. We were really good.”

Wanting to win: “I think just every night going out there competing and giving ourselves a good chance to win. A lot of good things can happen with that mindset.

“I mean there’s a reason no team has gone 82-0. It’s a long season. It’s tough. I think the biggest thing is when you lose, just being able to bounce back from that, not dwelling on it too much. And at the same time, you win two in a row, not getting too high on yourself. So, I think just finding that even keel, that balance is the most important thing.”