Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets best young duo, MKG to return to starting lineup

Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.

Philadelphia 76ers‘ rookie, Markelle Fultz, is set to miss the team’s next three games as he deals with shoulder soreness. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the best young duo on the Charlotte Hornets‘ roster, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist set to make his regular-season debut and Malik Monk‘s early struggles.

Hornets’ best young duo (BleacherReport.com)

"Cody Zeller isn’t starting at center for the Charlotte Hornets after the organization moved to acquire Dwight Howard over the summer, but he remains one of the NBA’s most underrated bigs. Ditto for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who has used defensive prowess and athletic transition play to overcome a still-broken jumper that makes him a liability on the scoring end."

For a team not known for their youth, Charlotte has a number of quality young players including Malik Monk, Dwayne Bacon, Frank Kaminsky and Treveon Graham. Despite entering his sixth NBA season, Michael is only 24-years old with still plenty of time to develop. Although MKG and Zeller aren’t all-stars, both could be productive starters for the Hornets for five-plus years.

Although we haven’t seen much out of them, rookies Monk and Bacon have huge upsides. By the end of the season, they may be considered Charlotte’s best young duo. Kaminsky, who is only 24-years old, is starting to look like a real offensive threat for the Hornets is another one of their promising young players under 25.

MKG to return to starting lineup (NumberFire.com)

"Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is set to make his season debut on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets."

MKG will start at small forward for Charlotte in their game against the Denver Nuggets. Although, his minutes will be extremely limited. Steve Clifford told the media that Kidd-Gilchrist will have a minutes restriction of only six to seven minutes per half. That means he will play around a maximum of 15 minutes in his regular-season debut.

Michael missed the Hornets’ first three games of the year after being away from the team with an excused absence. It will be interesting to see how Charlotte’s rotation changes with MKG back in the mix. Dwayne Bacon or Jeremy Lamb will return to the bench which means Treveon Graham will probably see few minutes.

Looking at Malik Monk’s early struggles (Twitter/ @AndrewDBailey)

Next: Greensboro Swarm add three players through G-League Draft

Of NBA rookies who’ve played at least 50 minutes so far this season, none have been worse than Malik Monk. Even though he is really struggling on the offensive end, I don’t think this trend will continue for long. The Charlotte Hornets’ lottery pick will eventually find his groove as he is too talented to continue playing like this. On a positive note, Dwayne Bacon came in at No. 7 between top-five picks Jayson Tatum and De’Aaron Fox.