Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets’ future salary cap, Mourning never wanted to leave
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
With Ersan Ilyasova and Willie Reed being signed, Jordan Hill and Terrence Jones are still viable options to sign. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ future salary cap, a question surrounding Dwight Howard‘s fit with the team and Alonzo Mourning says that he never wanted to leave the Queen City.
Hornets’ future salary cap (HashtagBasketball.com)
"The summer of 2018 brings another offseason where the Hornets are over the salary cap. The offseason of 2019 is when things get very interesting for the Hornets."
Charlotte won’t have a significant amount of money to spend in free agency until at least 2019. Even then, it will mostly depend on if Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marvin Williams opt into their player options. Also, both Kemba Walker and Dwight Howard will be free agents that offseason with the former being the most important.
Walker could be in for a big payday when he hits the open market at age 29. Limited flexibility could be seen as a negative with limited opportunities to get better but it could be a positive for the Hornets. All of their most important players will be locked up for at least the next two years which gives them a chance to compete in the East for this season and the next.
Big question surrounding Dwight Howard (CBSsports.com)
"In theory, acquiring Howard acquisition makes a lot of sense for the Hornets. The price tag wasn’t high, and they were inconsistent on defense last season. Charlotte can’t afford to let him eat up possessions with post-ups, cramp its spacing or hurt its ball movement."
The only way Howard will work for Charlotte is if he avoids being a back to the basket offensive player. While he can be mildly effective in that aspect, the team would be better suited if Dwight focuses on rebounding, defending and being a pick and roll big man. Hopefully, Steve Clifford can get the eight-time all-star to buy into the team’s style of play.
The Hornets need Howard to play more like Cody Zeller rather than like Al Jefferson. At this point in his career, he is no longer the 20+ point per game scorer he was in his prime and now must be more of a role player. It would also be a boost if Dwight was able to add an outside shot to his game like he said he’s been working on. (FTW.USAToday.com)
Alonzo Mourning never wanted to leave Charlotte (CharlotteObserver.com)
"Basketball Hall-of-Famer Alonzo Mourning says he never wanted to leave Charlotte, and would have taken less in salary to remain with the Hornets in 1995."
Next: Clock is ticking on Weber and O'Bryant
Even though Zo says he never wanted to leave, the then-owner says otherwise and that Mourning declined a contract that would’ve made him the highest paid player in the NBA at the time. Both could be saying these things just to save face because we’ll never know what truly happened. Although, who knows what could’ve been if the Hornets would’ve kept the Hall of Fame big man.