Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Dwight Howard is a double-double machine and has now recorded seven in nine total games so far this season. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ best trades of all-time, a season preview for the Greensboro Swarm and Kemba Walker snubbed from the NBA MVP ladder.
Charlotte Hornets best trades (CharlotteObserver.com)
"1. Dwight Howard from Atlanta for Miles Plumlee, Marco Belinelli and an exchange of second-round picks: It was a bit of a risk how Howard would fit in with the established Hornets, but so far, it’s been all good."
Rick Bonnell ranks the top-10 trades in Hornets’ franchise history and puts the Dwight Howard deal at the top of the list. That move is followed by the Nicolas Batum trade, the move for Stephen Jackson in 2009, dealing for Emeka Okafor, the Jason Richardson trade in 2007, getting Josh McRoberts from Orlando, acquiring Mo Williams during the 2014-15 season, moving Glen Rice for Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell, the Jeremy Lamb trade (2015) and obtaining Courtney Lee in 2015-16.
It’s still crazy to think Charlotte got a future first-ballot Hall of Famer in D12 for nothing more than a couple of rotation players and a second-round pick swap. With the way Howard has played, it looks like the Hornets fleeced the Hawks in that trade. This could very well go down as Rich Cho’s best move as the GM of the team.
Greensboro Swarm preview (Greensboro.com)
"No player from last season’s Greensboro roster is on the Swarm’s opening-day roster. 37-year-old Damien Wilkins making the Pacers this season. Guards Archie Goodwin (Nets, Blazers) and Xavier Munford (Bucks) are not currently on rosters. Mike Tobey (Spain), Perry Ellis (Australia), Rasheed Sulaimon (France) and Cat Barber (Italy) are playing overseas."
Charlotte’s G-League affiliate will look much different this season than they did last year. With all the new faces, head coach Noel Gillespie will have his work cut out for him as the Swarm attempt to make their first ever G-League playoffs this year after going only 19-31 during their inaugural season. Greensboro’s projected starting lineup is PG. Marcus Paige, SG. Charles Cooke, SF. Jalen Jones, PF. Luke Petrasek and C. Mangok Mathiang.
The big name players to watch are two-way players Paige and Mathiang as well as T.J. Williams, Petrasek and Terry Henderson who were all on the Hornets’ training camp roster. Sam Thompson could also be a key player for the Swarm as he has some NBA experience in the summer league and preseason. Dominic James is the oldest player on the team at 31-years old and the only one over the age of 30.
Kemba snubbed from NBA MVP Ladder (NBA.com)
"1. Giannis Antetokounmpo, 2. James Harden, 3. Russell Westbrook, 4. DeMarcus Cousins, 5. Blake Griffin, 6. Stephen Curry, 7. LeBron James, 8. Kyrie Irving, 9. Kevin Durant, 10. Andrew Wiggins, 11. Joel Embiid, 12. Marc Gasol, 13. Aaron Gordon, 14. Victor Oladipo, 15. Kristaps Porzingis"
Next: Nic Batum targeting November 15th return
I’m not saying Kemba should be the favorite to win the MVP award or even in the top-five but not in the top-15 is insulting. For one, he’s averaging more points and assists than Kyrie Irving. Not to mention that he is also outscoring Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Marc Gasol Aaron Gordon, Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook while leading his team to an above .500 record without their second-best player in Nicolas Batum.