Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the latest and greatest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
In some minor injury news, Treveon Graham missed the final two summer league games for Charlotte with a hamstring strain. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ new assistant general manager, Dwayne Bacon’s 29-point explosion and how Kemba Walker got Michael Carter-Williams to the Queen City.
Hornets promote Buzz Peterson to Assistant GM (RealGM.com)
"The Charlotte Hornets have named Buzz Peterson Assistant General Manager. Peterson’s promotion to Assistant General Manager comes after serving last season as the Senior Advisor to Basketball Operations."
Peterson is a longtime friend of Hornets’ owner Michael Jordan. He will now succeed Chad Buchanan who left the organization to take the General Manager role for the Indiana Pacers. Buzz will now work alongside Rich Cho. From 2007-2009, he was Charlotte’s Director of Player Personnel.
The Hornets chose to promote from within rather than hire someone from the outside to come in and work under Cho. Even though Peterson doesn’t have a history of being a general manager, he has coached over 490 college games as a head coach and 25 plus years of being an assistant/head coach. Hopefully this move pay soon off for the Hornets in the long run.
Bacon drops 29 points in final summer league game (BleacherReport.com)
"Dwayne Bacon poured in 29 points in 31 minutes to lead the Hornets to a closely contested victory over the Magic to capture fifth place."
Dwayne Bacon ended his first summer league experience on a high note. Right after the game, he was rewarded with a three-year deal from the Hornets. The win over Detroit saw Charlotte finish in fifth place at the Orlando Pro Summer League after going 3-2 in five games.
Even though Treveon Graham sat out the final two games, he had an impressive showing as he averaged 17.6 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Overall, this was a good summer league outing for the Hornets as they were able to get to get back look at their young players despite being with Malik Monk.
Kemba wanted to get MCW in Charlotte (CharlotteObserver.com)
"“I’m the one who got that deal done,” Walker said after an appearance at the Hornets’ summer basketball camp at Charlotte Latin. “I’m the one who called Jeff, I’m the one who talked to MCW. I spoke to everybody – MJ (owner Michael Jordan), Rich (Cho, the general manager)."
Next: CHA plans to target sixth big and third PG in free agency
It speaks volumes that Kemba wanted MCW in Charlotte. The All-Star point guard had nothing but praise for the former Rookie of the Year. Walker is taking the next step in becoming more of a vocal leader for the Hornets. Now, Carter-Williams will have to repay Kemba by having a bounce back season next year.