Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets travel to Detroit for second preseason game
Swarm and Sting is a daily roundup of the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Kemba Walker talked about taking the next step as a leader and the video included a lob to Dwight Howard in practice at 33 seconds. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ second preseason game against the Detroit Pistons, the team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses and the NBA’s General Manager Survey.
Hornets travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons in second preseason game (SportsChatPlace.com)
"Even in the preseason, both of these teams are defensive first and can go stretches where the offense is ice cold. Heck, we saw it with the Hornets in their first preseason game, scoring just 82 points."
Charlotte was defeated by the Boston Celtics in their first preseason game. Not only did they struggle to score, but they also failed to take care of the ball committing 19 turnovers. Despite their downfalls, Steve Clifford was encouraged by the team’s defense.This will be the Pistons’ first preseason game and their first ever game in the new Little Ceasars Arena.
This will be Detroit’s first preseason game this year and the Pistons’ first-ever game at the new Little Ceasars Arena. The matchup to watch is between Dwight Howard and Andre Drummond. It will also be interesting to see how Malik Monk, Julyan Stone and the other rookies/new players perform in their second outing.
Charlotte’s biggest strengths and weaknesses (HoopsHabit.com)
"3 Strengths: Kemba Walker can lead this team to improvement, A hopeful improved bench and Don’t count them out of the Eastern Conference. 3 Weaknesses: Lack of big man options, Shooting efficiency from the field and perimeter and Struggles on defense."
For the strengths section, it’s hard to see Kemba leading this team any more than he already has been. Walker is exceeding expectations and has become an all-star caliber player. It’s up to the rest of the team to help improve Charlotte. With Cody Zeller and Malik Monk on the bench, the second unit definitely looks better. The weakened East should help the Hornets get back to the postseason and I wouldn’t be surprised if they snagged a top-five or six seed.
As for the weaknesses, they are lacking a bit of depth in the frontcourt behind Frank Kaminsky and Zeller. If an injury occurs, Charlotte could be in trouble as Johnny O’Bryant would probably the next man up. The Hornets ranked 26th in the NBA in FG% last season at only 44.2%. In order to improve that mark, they will need players to step up, but namely Nicolas Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Considering that this is a Steve Clifford coached team, I expect Charlotte to bounce back from a down year defensively and get back into the top-10 in defensive rating and opponents points per game this season.
NBA General Manager Survey (CBSSports.com)
"One GM picked the Charlotte Hornets to finish third in the Eastern Conference. No other GM had them anywhere in the top four."
Next: Four things to watch for against Detroit
They asked all 30 NBA GM’s a number of questions but one was “which team will be most improved in 2017-18?” and Charlotte received votes for that category. Stephen Silas also received votes for the best assistant coach in the league. Other than that, the Hornets or their players weren’t named. It looks like many have forgotten about Malik Monk as he didn’t get any votes for any of the questions regarding rookies.