Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
The Golden State Warriors completed their sweep of the San Antonio Spurs to advance to their third straight NBA Finals appearance. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we take an in-depth look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ offseason, three potential prospects to draft at No.11 and the franchise is still chasing a championship.
Hornets’ In-Depth Offseason Preview (RealGM.com)
"Under Steve Clifford, the Charlotte Hornets have shown a trend: big improvement and a playoff berth, followed by a drop off and missing the playoffs. A year after making the postseason with 48 wins, Charlotte stumbled in an injury-plagued year and won just 36 games."
Keith Smith has the backup point guard spot as the biggest position of need for Charlotte this summer. A critical internal decision for the front office will be if this group of players can improve or not. Smith also has the Hornets trending down and their leadership stability as neutral. They will have almost no cap space but looking at the rest of the NBA, they will have the 18th most cap space this offseason.
It will be an interesting summer, to say the least for the Hornets. Rich Cho has his work cut out for him. That “can this group improve?” question is an interesting one. If they can’t, then it may be time to blow the team up and try to rebuild. Charlotte, once again, is in a tough spot. With the right moves, they will probably end up back in the playoffs next year.
Three Prospects to Draft at No. 11 (iSportsWeb.com)
"Charlotte badly needs another star player on their roster. They have won three playoff games since 2002, and all of those games came in 2016 vs. the Heat. This year’s draft may be the best chance Charlotte has at landing this star player, as there is undeniable talent stretching far down the mock draft boards."
Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson and Malik Monk are the three names listed in this article. Two of those three in Tatum and Jackson will definitely be off the board by the time Charlotte picks. They will probably be selected in the top-five. As for Monk, there is a slight possibility that he could fall to the Hornets but it is still an unlikely outcome.
While I agree that the team does need a star on the wing, there may not be one available at No. 11. They may have to trade up in order to grab a “star” this year even though this draft is pretty deep. Malik would be the best case scenario but I’m not banking on it happening just because he will probably be taken in the top-10 but we’ll see how the draft plays out on June 22nd.
Charlotte’s Still Chasing a Championship (SportsOnEarth.com)
"Their franchise history is a little bit confusing, but regardless, they’ve never made it to the big time. As with everyone on this list from the Eastern Conference, they’ve got LeBron James (not to mention a bunch of other, better teams) standing in their way for a long time."
Next: Hornets interested in signing Euroleague MVP
Not only have the Hornets never won an NBA Finals but they have never made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. After 27 seasons, the organization is still searching for their first ever ECF appearance and NBA Championship. Sadly, it doesn’t look like that day will come in the foreseeable future.