Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets climb in Week 6 power rankings, Moving Nic Batum’s contract
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Dwight Howard‘s 49 career 20/20 games lead all active players with the second closest being Kevin Love who has 16 in his career. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the where the Charlotte Hornets landed in the Week 6 NBA power rankings, why Kemba Walker and Cody Zeller are so effective in PnR situations and potentially moving Nicolas Batum‘s contract.
Hornets climb in Week 6 power rankings (USAtoday.com)
"Only Sacramento and Chicago have worse records on the road this season than the Hornets, who have lost eight of their nine games away from the Spectrum Center."
Charlotte moved up one spot from the No. 23 ranking in Week 5 to No. 22 this time around. They came in just ahead of the Brooklyn Nets (23) and just behind the Los Angeles Clippers (21). The Queen City team went 2-2 this past week. They are now on a two-game losing streak with those defeats coming to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the San Antonio Spurs.
Until the Hornets start to win on the road, they will linger around the 20’s in the power rankings. The first step is getting back to .500 as the 8-11 Hornets’ haven’t been at that mark since November 6th when they were 5-5. The Boston Celtics still hold the No. 1 spot while the Houston Rockets leapfrogged the Golden State Warriors for No. 2. The Cavs also made a significant jump from No. 8 to No. 4.
Kemba and Cody Zeller are the best pick-and-roll combo in the NBA (BleacherReport.com)
"Cody Zeller has been a decent roll man—hardly a surprise from the 2016-17 third-place finisher in screen assists per game. But the Charlotte Hornets become a show-stopping pick-and-roll bunch because of their primary ball-handler. Slowing Kemba Walker is just about impossible."
The pick-and-roll is Charlotte’s best mode of attack on offense. The screen creates space for Walker to attack the rim, hit three’s and also find open teammates. As for Zeller, he is still a great PnR player despite getting fewer minutes behind Dwight Howard this season. He is shooting 59.1% in PnR situations. Looking at the numbers, there might not be a better pick-and-roll ball handler in the NBA than the Hornets’ point guard.
More than half of Kemba’s points come in the pick-and-roll as he averages 11.6 points in those situations and he is averaging 22.3 PPG this season. Of players who average at least eight pick-and-roll possessions a game, no one has a lower turnovers rate than Walker (9.2%). Besides Jeremy Lin who only played in one game this season, no other player in the NBA ranks in a higher percentile than Walker (89.2) with the closest being Damian Lillard (88.6).
Moving Nic Batum’s contract (US.BlastingNews.com)
"the Hornets aren’t going to have an easy time moving some of their overpaid players – including Batum. Unless general manager Rich Cho decides to throw in a future draft pick in the package, the Hornets are figured to go over the cap next season"
Next: LeBron praises Kemba's offensive ability
Nicolas is still owed over $70 million over the next three years and he has a $27.1 million player-option for the 2020-21 season. Based on his current performance and the fact that he’s still dealing with a torn ligament in his elbow, it makes trading him almost impossible. Unless Rich Cho can use some magic, it’s unlikely Batum gets traded this campaign. If they do decide to move the Frenchman to help create cap space, it will happen either over the summer or in a couple years.