Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets waive four players, One record-breaking stat
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Steve Clifford’s side was able to end the preseason with a victory over the Dallas Mavericks. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets trimming their roster, one record-breaking stat from the team last season and a Mavs’ announcer comparing Dwayne Bacon to Joe Johnson.
Hornets waive four players (NBA.com)
"Charlotte Hornets General Manager Rich Cho announced today that the team has waived Terry Henderson, Isaiah Hicks, Luke Petrasek and T.J. Williams."
Of the four players, Henderson made the biggest impact by appearing in two preseason games and averaging four points. As for Williams, he played in three games but only put up 1.3 PPG. Hicks only got playing time in closing minutes of Charlotte’s preseason finale while Petrasek never saw the court during the preseason.
We’ll see if any of these players end up in the G-League with the Greensboro Swarm this year. The Hornets’ roster now sits at 16 total players, including Marcus Paige and Mangok Mathiang who are on two-way contracts, which means that they have one open spot heading into the regular season. The team could sign someone before the season begins but they will probably leave the spot open in case of injury where they would pick up a player to add depth later in the year.
One record-breaking stat (NBA.com)
"Charlotte 2016-17 Season: 11.7% TO%. That was the lowest rate in the 40 seasons since the league started counting turnovers (1977-78)."
Since Steve Clifford joined Charlotte in 2013, he has preached defense and taking care of the ball. The team has responded by leading the league with the lowest turnover percentage for the past four seasons. They’ve averaged under 13% since the 2013-14 season but reached their lowest mark and the lowest mark in NBA history last year.
Not only have the Hornets not turned over the ball but they are doing so at a record rate. That speaks volumes to Coach Clifford’s impact on the team and their IQ/ability to limit turnovers. We’ll see if they can continue this trend going forward in the 2017-18 season after committing turnovers at a 15.8% mark this preseason which ranked seventh.
Mavs’ announcer compares Dwayne Bacon to Joe Johnson (Twitter)
"The Mavs’ announcer said that Dwayne Bacon reminds him of Joe Johnson."
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Being unfamiliar with Dallas’ radio broadcast, it’s not clear who said it but my guess would be their analyst, Brad Davis, who spent 12 seasons in player development with the Mavs. That pretty high praise for the Hornets’ rookie and second-round pick out of Florida State. Although Joe Johnson was a little bigger than Dwayne, they do have similar games as they can each create their own shot and both are great midrange shooters.