Willy Hernangomez has a second chance to grow

After a promising rookie year that saw him earn First-Team All-Rookie honors, Willy Hernangomez was traded from the New York Knicks to the Charlotte Hornets amid frustrations about playing time from the 23-year-old big man. At the end of the 2016-17 NBA season, Hernangomez was seen as a potential cornerstone to grow with Kristaps Porzingis and shape a new future for the Knicks; instead, the Spanish center has lived at the end of the bench, playing in about half of the team’s games and only nine minutes per contest when he did see the floor.

The demotion to the bench isn’t entirely on Hernangomez. The Knicks moved Carmelo Anthony in the offseason and brought in Enes Kanter, another young, talented center with much more experience at the NBA level and much more polish on the offensive end of the floor. The roster construct just didn’t work in Hernangomez’s favor, especially once the Knicks started off much better than anyone expected. They were playing .500 basketball through the first 36 games and had an outside shot at making the postseason — all a recipe for playing proven veterans over young upstarts trying to figure it out.

Moreover, the Knicks employ way more bigs than today’s NBA should dictate. Kyle O’Quinn, Lance Thomas and Michael Beasley were all competing for minutes with Hernangomez behind Porzingis and Kanter, and head coach Jeff Hornacek wanted to see Hernangomez “take a spot” in the rotation instead of expecting he’d see playing time because of his performance as a rookie. Regardless of dynamic, Hernangomez and his camp weren’t happy with the situation, and he will have another opportunity to prove he belongs at this level in Charlotte.

Finding playing time shouldn’t be as hard in Charlotte, but it isn’t going to be easy for Hernangomez, either. He’ll play behind Dwight Howard and compete with Cody Zeller for the backup minutes. Zeller just got back after undergoing minor surgery on Dec. 11 and has logged about 16 minutes per night in the three games since his return. If Hernangomez is going to take the majority of the backup minutes, he’s going to have to play like he did toward the end of his rookie season.

With Charlotte, he’ll play alongside Kemba Walker, who has been excellent in the pick and roll, an area that Hernangomez can absolutely thrive in — not just because of his ability to finish, but because of his playmaking abilities. Of all qualifying rookies last season, Hernangomez was 10th in assist percentage and second among rookies taller than 6-8 to Dario Saric. Hernangomez sees the floor incredibly well and, when they shared the floor together, was exceptional at finding Porzingis for easy buckets. That will bode well should he ever see minutes with Howard. Considering that the Hornets are 29th in assisting on made buckets, this alone makes him an asset.

The Knicks force-fed Hernangomez clips of Marc Gasol, another Spanish native, in the hopes that he could slow down the game and allow his patience to dictate his decision making. In Charlotte, he’s going to have to think a bit more on his toes moving from a team that was 19th in pace to one that’s currently 10th. Because of his age, there will be some growing pains, but because of the way Hernangomez sees things from possession to possession, the learning curve shouldn’t be too steep.

Charlotte, already one of the NBA’s best rebounding teams, will also benefit from Hernangomez’s nose for the ball. Of the same group of qualified rookies from last season, he was the only player with a rebounding rate over 20, and only three others had a rebounding rate over 10. When Howard leaves the floor, the Hornets see the number of rebounds they pull in drop by 4 percent, a gap that should tighten with Hernangomez filling in.

Right now, it’s hard to tell how great of a move this was for Charlotte simply because we just haven’t seen Hernangomez play much this year. If it’s because he wasn’t showing enough in practice in New York, that raises a whole host of questions. Yes, the Knicks' frontcourt rotation is deep, but there isn’t so much talent that Hernangomez should have been the odd man out. If it was a work ethic issue, those usually aren’t problems that are solved overnight, and if it truly was a talent question, then Charlotte would have been better off holding on to the two draft picks it gave up to bring him in.

It’s likely a combination of both, and in this scenario, it is entirely up to Hernangomez to make the best of his second shot. The Hornets are seven games under .500 but only two slots out of the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. If Hernangomez can find a bit of the magic that made him Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month last April, the Hornets might be able to make a post-All-Star break push for that final spot, which is currently held by a Philly team that’s on the cusp of figuring everything out.

He’s not all the way through his second year, and it’s already been a crazy ride for Hernangomez. After a season of complaining about a lack of playing time, he has to produce when on the court to prove that the request to be traded was warranted. He’s a fun player when he’s fully engaged, so conventional wisdom suggests, at the very least, we should want to see him succeed. He hasn’t earned anything yet, but in Charlotte, Hernangomez might take what should be his.