Jeremy Lamb Reflects on his Big Year

Back during the beginning of the season, Jeremy Lamb began showing signs of becoming an impressive NBA player. He was putting up career numbers while filling in for the injured Nicolas Batum in the Charlotte Hornets starting lineup.

Batum has since returned, moving Lamb to the second unit. He’s continued to thrive off the bench, making him a dark horse candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year award.

Basketball Insiders recently caught up with the sixth-year veteran after a recent game in Los Angeles against the Clippers to discuss the breakout year that he is having. Lamb reflected on his previous stop with the Oklahoma City Thunder and how that prepared him for what was to come.

“When I first got into the league, I was playing behind All-Stars. I was young so it was tough for me to get on the court,” Lamb told Basketball Insiders. “But I learned a lot. Those times I wasn’t playing, that prepared me for when I’m here to be able to compete and play.”

Since we looked at Lamb’s impressive season back in early November, he’s put up more remarkable numbers. His previous career-high in scoring prior to this season was 26 points, which he set last year on Mar. 13 against the Chicago Bulls.

He surpassed that on Nov. 27 with 27 points against the San Antonio Spurs. A bit more recently on Dec. 20, he tailed a new career-high with 32 points against the Toronto Raptors.

“It’s been good, I’ve just been trying to keep working,” Lamb told Basketball Insiders. “There’s more of an opportunity here, I’m just trying to take advantage of it.”

It’s a little bit difficult to picture Lamb winning the Sixth Man award given the production of guys like Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford. But the fact that his name is being mentioned as a possible candidate is a testament to the hard work that he’s put into his game since arriving in Charlotte.

He still has another year left on his contract after this one, and regardless of how the Hornets season ends, he’s eager to continue proving that he belongs in this league.

“I just want to keep working and keep getting better. Like I do every year, I play hard and get better,” Lamb told Basketball Insiders. “At the end of the season, I build on things I can build on, learn from things I need to learn from and go into the summer ready to work some more.”

And it remains to be seen where the Hornets go from here. As it stands, they sit in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, five games behind the eighth-place Indiana Pacers. They got off to a decent start at 5-3, but they hit a rough patch where they lost 15 of their next 20 games. Despite that, Lamb is still confident in this group.

“Knowing it’s an 82-game season, we’re just trying to get better and trying to turn the season around for the team,” Lamb told Basketball Insiders. “Hopefully we could make a push and get into the playoffs.”

Perhaps giving the Hornets some confidence in being able to get on the right track is their recent West Coast road trip. They finished the trip 3-1, with wins over the defending champion Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings. It’s the type of road trip that could jump-kick a team in a positive direction.

“Yeah, it gives us confidence. Like I said, it’s an 82-game season. We can’t just play good one game and not play good the next,” Lamb told Basketball Insiders. “We got to continue to play together and play as a team. Good things will happen.”