Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
The Charlotte Hornets dropped their regular season home finale to the Boston Celtics. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the team being eliminated from playoff contention, Nicolas Batum dedicating this summer to the Hornets as he will skip Eurobasket 2017 and Steve Clifford getting ejected for the first time in his career.
Charlotte Eliminated From Playoff Contention (Twitter/ John Schuhmann)
"Hornets eliminated. Since birth of the Bobcats, they’ve made 3 trips to the playoffs & missed the playoffs the following year each time."
For the 10th time since the 2004-05 season, Charlotte will not be playing postseason basketball. Now that the playoffs are officially out of the picture, this year can officially be marked up as a disappointment. The Hornets held out hope for as long as possible but in the end, they just couldn’t do enough to squeak their way into the postseason.
Here’s what it would’ve taken for Charlotte to just make the playoffs. The Hornets started the year strong going 18-14 and being in the top four of the East. But this team essentially fell apart and honestly, didn’t look like a true playoff side for a majority of the season.
Nic Batum Commits Summer to Hornets (NBA.com)
"Watch Nic Batum talk to media following Saturday’s loss to Boston where he mentioned his dedication to the Hornets this summer."
There were already rumors that Batum was possibly going to sit out playing with France this summer in Eurobasket 2017. Nic confirmed that he would be committing his summer to the Hornets. That is probably the best move for him as he had a less than stellar season after signing a big contract last offseason.
The swingman has not missed an event with France since 2009 but by dedicating his summer to Charlotte, it shows the importance he places on getting better. This offseason is a great opportunity for Nicolas as he gets the chance to work with his teammates and improve his individual game. He played in the Olympics last summer so this will be his first real offseason working exclusively with the Hornets.
Steve Clifford Ejected for First Time in His Career (SportingNews.com)
"After going 325 regular season games as Charlotte’s head coach, Clifford received a pair of technical fouls in the span of 2:11 seconds and was ejected from a game for the first time in his coaching career."
Next: Hornets Should Have Sight Set on Miles Bridges
With all of the technicals that Coach Cliff picks up, it is pretty surprising that this is his first ever ejection. He’s picked up nine so far this season. Usually, the Hornets’ head coach will pick up a tech in an attempt to spark his team’s play but this time, he was just livid about the refs “missed” calls. One silver lining from Clifford’s ejection was Stephen Silas’ ability to coach and manage the team during Steve’s absence.