Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets lost money in 2016-17, Greensboro Swarm trade for Coron Williams
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Pete Guelli gave us a look at Malik Monk from the team’s photo shoot. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at how the Charlotte Hornets almost lost money in 2016-17, the Greensboro Swarm’s trade for Coron Williams and why Dwight Howard considered retirement in 2015.
Hornets lost money before revenue sharing in 2016-17 (ESPN.com)
"Sources pointed out that by a different accounting measure the league tabulates — operating income, which discards various debt obligations — only 10 teams (rather than 14) lost money before accounting for revenue sharing."
Charlotte was one of 14 teams to lose money based on net income last season. They were also one of 10 teams to lost money based on operating income. Although, after the NBA’s league revenue sharing, the Hornets were no longer in the red. Only nine teams actually lost money after revenue sharing.
Being a small market team, Charlotte must do better business in order to maximize profits. That is not the case for big market teams like the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers who can still make money even if they lose games and make poor business decisions. Despite bordering on losing money, the Hornets’ franchise value continues to rise. Losing the all-star game may also have had something to do with them being in the negative but that’s just my guess.
Greensboro Swarm trade for Coron Williams (Twitter/ @GreensboroSwarm)
"The Swarm have acquired the returning player rights to @coronw13 from the @maineredclaws"
After five years in college with Roberts Morris (4) and Wake Forest (1), Williams has spent the last two seasons with Maine Red Claws in the NBA G-League. In exchange for the 6’0 guard, Greensboro sent the returning player rights to Devin Williams to Maine. Coron will now return to North Carolina to play with the Swarm.
In 50 games last season, the 27-year old averaged 7.1 points per game, 1.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 22 minutes per game. Although he shot under 40% from the field, Williams did manage to shoot 35.2% from three and 88.2% from the free throw line. As for the player Greensboro traded, Devin Williams only appeared in nine games with the Swarm after being claimed off waivers mid-season.
Dwight Howard considered retirement in 2015 (BleacherReport.com)
"On Tuesday, Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated passed along comments from the eight-time All-Star selection about his “miserable” basketball mindset at the time. “The joy was sucked out of it,” Howard said."
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After multiple back surgeries and down seasons in LA and Houston, it makes sense as to why Howard was considering retirement. At that point in his career, nothing was going right. Luckily, he’s stuck with it and has had some good years. Now feeling better than ever with Steve Clifford and Charlotte, hopefully, he can bounce back in a big way with the Hornets.