Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets rookies need to play in the G-League, Jeremy Lamb’s career night
Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
Dwayne Bacon threw down the first dunk of his NBA career and it was pretty impressive. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at why the Charlotte Hornets should send both of their rookies to the G-League, Jeremy Lamb‘s career night and Stephen Silas unable to explain Nicolas Batum‘s poor play.
Hornets’ rookies need run in the G-League (BleacherReport.com)
"Monk would ultimately have a chance to build back some confidence in the G-League, where there will be less pressure and more freedom to play through mistakes. Bacon needs the G-League to continue getting reps and improving each aspect of his game."
The reason Charlotte should send Malik Monk and Dwayne Bacon to the G-League isn’t to punish them. If both rookies are just going to sit on the bench and rack up DNP-CD’s, then the best move for them is to play with the Greensboro Swarm. It would allow them to develop their games against pro players and get consistent minutes.
Malik and Dwayne have both shown promise at the NBA level but their time/youth is best wasted by not playing. It would bring more fans to Swarm games and Charlotte would get a better look at what their rookies can do when they are the focal points of a team. A move to the G-League shouldn’t be seen as a demotion but as an opportunity for these players to grow their games and show that they deserve playing time with the Hornets.
Jeremy Lamb’s career night (RotoBaller.com)
"Charlotte Hornets guard/forward Jeremy Lamb scored 32 in a loss to Toronto on Wednesday. Lamb made eight of his first nine attempts, finishing 11-for-17 and 8-for-10 from the line"
Jeremy Lamb had himself a game. Even though no other player played particularly well against the Raptors, the UCONN product had arguably the best game of his career. He scored 14 of his 32 points in the second quarter and had 19 points total in the first half. Jeremy had 14 of the team’s 21 points in the second period.
Lamb became the first player since Ben Gordon in 2012 to score 30 points off of the bench for Charlotte. He also became the first reserve player to score 30 points in less than 30 minutes since Dell Curry in 1994. It’s too bad that his stellar game couldn’t result in a win for the Hornets.
Stephen Silas has no answer for Nic Batum’s poor play (CharlotteObserver.com)
"“I don’t know, I don’t know. I wish I had an answer for you,” acting Hornets coach Stephen Silas said when I asked about Batum’s night."
Next: Reason to have hope for the Hornets
In the loss to the Raptors, Nicolas finished the game with 0 points and only shot the ball once in 26 minutes. Batum is making $22 million this season and is the Hornets’ second-highest paid player but he completely disappeared versus Toronto. Unfortunately, this has far too often been the case for Nic. At this point, one has to wonder if he is the most overpaid player in the NBA. Even if his limited production is injury-related, he hasn’t been good enough this season.