Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets win first summer league game, Can Cody and Dwight coexist?
Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the latest and greatest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Only one day into free agency and the Charlotte Hornets are already making moves as they signed Michael Carter-Williams to a one-year, $2.7 million deal. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at Treveon Graham dominating during the Charlotte Hornets first summer league game, if Dwight Howard and Cody Zeller can play together and Kemba Walker‘s bargain contract.
Hornets defeat Heat in first summer league game (NBA.com)
"Graham pulled his way inside with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Weber scored 17, grabbed five rebounds and came up with four steals in a 74-67 win over the Heat."
Charlotte has one of the strongest squads at the Orlando Pro Summer League this year as three of their players are already on the team’s roster. Not to mention that they also have rookie Dwayne Bacon playing for them. That experience showed in their first game as Treveon Graham, Briante Weber and Johnny O’Bryant led the Hornets to a win over the Miami Heat.
Graham had a double-double within three-quarters while Weber led the team in scoring. As for O’Bryant, he put up 12 points and three blocks. Their second round pick in Bacon only scored nine points but considering that it was his first NAB game, it was a decent showing.
Can Dwight and Cody coexist? (ShelbyStar.com)
"but there aren’t too many teams left playing those big lineups. The league is trending smaller and more perimiter-oriented, which means we may not see much of Howard and Zeller on the court at the same time."
This is the big question entering the 2017-18 season. For the most part, we know how Charlotte’s rotation is going to work and what each player will likely contribute. With both Howard and Zeller manning the center spot, that might be the team’s strong position as they have two starter caliber players.
It’s subjective who the better player actually is as Cody might be the better fit but Dwight puts up the better numbers. Luckily, Steve Clifford will have multiple preseason games and 82 regular season games to figure out what the best rotation is for the Hornets. It may be a longshot but if the two big men could play alongside each other and somehow compliment each other while on the court together, it would be a huge boost to the team.
Kemba might be the best bargain in the NBA (CharlotteObserver.com)
"It’s not just other point guards who illustrate what a bargain Walker is. Next season he will be the sixth-highest paid Hornet, behind Dwight Howard, Nic Batum, Marvin Williams, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Cody Zeller."
Next: Hornets sign MCW to one-year, $2.7M deal
Kemba will only make $12 million a year through the 2018-19 season. While that may seem like a lot, consider that Jrue Holiday who has only made one all-star game (2012-13) and only averaged 15.4 points per game just signed a deal that will earn him just over $25 million a year over five seasons. Walker gives the Hornets the best bang for their buck as inflation has made average point guards some of the highest paid players in the league.