Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
A Redditor posted this awesome photo of Kemba Walker in the throwback uniforms against the Milwaukee Bucks. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at Malik Monk and Dwayne Bacon being on assignment with the Greensboro Swarm, the Charlotte Hornets‘ naughty or nice list and Dwight Howard continuing to reach new heights.
Charlotte assigns Monk and Bacon to the Greensboro Swarm (Twitter/ @PeteGuelli)
"Malik Monk and Dwayne Bacon scheduled to get some run for @greensboroswarm tomorrow. Get there if you can. If not @NBATV at 1pm."
After being benched, the Hornets’ rookies will get their chance to shine as the primary players with the Greensboro Swarm. Monk has been benched because for defensive reasons while Bacon saw fewer minutes once Nicolas Batum returned from injury. It will be interesting to see how they play in their G-League debuts.
This is probably only a one-game appearance as the Malik and Dwayne will most likely return to Charlotte for their game on Wednesday. Still, this is a chance for both of them to showcase their skills and hopefully, build some confidence going forward. This could also be a bit of an experiment as the Hornets could assign Monk and Bacon later in the season if they continue to sit on the bench and not get any minutes.
Hornets: Naughty or Nice List (HashtagBasketball.com)
"Nice List – Kemba Walker: Walker continues to be Charlotte’s best player and one of the league’s most talented point guards. Even as the Hornets have struggled this season, he’s been a consistent offensive threat that’s kept the team from falling apart completely. If there’s any chance of the team making it back to the postseason, it’ll be thanks to Walker."
Charlotte’s nice list was pretty short but that shouldn’t be a surprise considering how poorly the team has played so far this season. Kemba, Dwight Howard, Jeremy Lamb and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were among the few who wouldn’t coal in their stocking. A surprise mention on the nice list was Treveon Graham who has become a spark plug off of the bench in recent weeks and breaking his career-high in points twice within the month of December.
As for the Naughty list, Nicolas Batum, Michael Carter-Williams, Johnny O’Bryant, Malik Monk and the coaching staff were included. While all of these are warranted, we’ll see if they can turn things around in the second half of the season and slowly make their way onto the nice list for next year. For Nic, he will need to get healthy, MCW needs to start making layups, JOB needs to stop shooting so much and Monk probably just needs to defend a bit better if the coaching staff ever gives him playing time.
Dwight Howard and Moses Malone in a league of their own (Twitter/ @Jkubatko)
"The @hornets Dwight Howard has 252 career games with at least 15 points and 15 rebounds. The only player with more such games since the ABA-NBA merger is Moses Malone."
Next: Rumor: Hornets could look to trade Batum or MKG
Although I’m not exactly sure how many 15-points, 15-rebound games Moses Malone had throughout his career, I’m inclined to think that Dwight will surpass the Hall-of-Famer before his career is all said and done. Howard already had nine 15/15 games so far this season after only putting up 12 such games last year. Since he has played in over 980 games throughout his career, the eight-time all-star averages a 15-point, 15-rebound game about once every four outings.