Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets to sink or swim, Is it time to trade Kemba Walker?
Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
During the Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics broadcast, Jeff Van Gundy, who is a good friend of Steve Clifford, mentioned that the Charlotte Hornets‘ head coach is starting to feel better and that “all signs are pointing to good.” (@bgeis_bird)In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at if Charlotte will sink or swim this season while also diving into if the Hornets should look to trade Kemba Walker and Dwight Howard‘s thoughts about being booed in Los Angeles.
Is it time to sink or swim for Charlotte? (iSportsWeb.com)
"At this point in the season, the Charlotte Hornets should focus on improving their young talent while also finding core pieces that they see playing a major factor in their future success as an organization. Trades will need to be made to ensure an opportunity to free up cap space to sign free agents this summer."
This article suggests that the Hornets should look to sink, for at least this season, by trading large contracts for young players and picks while also giving more minutes to rookies. While that may help them swim in the long run, Charlotte has shown signs of life in the new year and could soon be swimming with their current roster. They went 3-1 during their California road trip with a win over the Golden State Warriors and have won four of their last six in total.
The Hornets play eight of their next nine games at home and are only four games back of the eighth seed in the East with still more than half of the season remaining. Not to mention that they have had the toughest strength of schedule in the NBA up to this point and have the weakest SOS going forward. Everything is in Charlotte’s favor so we’ll see if they can turn things around and start swimming this season.
Should the Hornets look to trade Kemba Walker? (WashingtonPost.com)
"But Walker has just 18 months left on his contract, the Hornets are in the bottom third of the league, and a financial crunch is looming. So the most prudent course of action would be to trade Walker before the NBA’s Feb. 8 deadline. Charlotte finds itself in just about the worst situation in the NBA."
Kemba’s trade value has never been higher and the team is not only struggling but they are hurting for cap space which makes the perfect scenario for them to trade Walker before he potentially leaves in free agency after next season or before they are forced to go into the luxury tax.
This article also mentions two possible trade scenarios: one where Charlotte sends Kemba and Marvin Williams to the New York Knicks in exchange for Frank Ntilikina, Joakim Noah and a 2018 first round pick while the second being Walker and Williams to the Indiana Pacers for Darren Collison, Al Jefferson, T.J. Leaf and a 2018 first round pick.
While trading Walker might be the best option for the Hornets’ future, I can’t see the team trading their best player a year away from hosting the 2019 NBA All-Star Game. It’s more likely that they will look to trade every other player on a big contract like Dwight Howard, Marvin Williams, Nicolas Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to avoid paying the luxury tax before thinking about moving Kemba. Whether that’s the right move remains to be seen but Charlotte will have some tough decisions to make pretty soon.
After being booed in LA again, Dwight Howard thinks Lakers’ fans will “get over it” (Twitter/ @GregBeacham)
"“I don’t think about it. At some point, they get over it. … I had a good time. I thought I played very well, despite just coming off of back surgery and also tearing a labrum, which I guess means nothing to people. Other than that, it’s always fun to come here and play in LA.”"
Next: When was the Hornets' best chance at an NBA Title?
During his lone season in Los Angeles, Dwight put up 17.1 points per game, 12.4 rebounds per game and 2.4 blocks per game while also being named an all-star and third-team All-NBA. Although he didn’t play poorly with the Lakers, I think many of their fans are more upset about him leaving and signing with the Houston Rockets in free agency than they are about his play when he was in LA. Because of him not re-signing with the Lakers back in 2013, they could very well boo him until the end of his career. Or maybe they will get over it.