Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets doing their due diligence, Kemba Walker snubbed from All-Star Game
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Michael Carter-Williams picked up a minor injury against the Atlanta Hawks and is questionable to play versus the Miami Heat with a left shoulder strain. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets doing their due diligence before the trade deadline, Kemba Walker being snubbed from the NBA All-Star Game and Dwight Howard clarifying his comments.
Hornets doing their due diligence leading up to the trade deadline (Twitter/ @Kroeger)
"Former Cavs GM @dg_riff says #Hornets not doing their job if they aren’t listening to offers for Kemba, but notion that team is actively shopping is just not true."
David Griffin refuted the notion that Kemba Walker is on the trade block. He thinks that the front office is simply doing their due diligence. It makes sense since probably every team in the league is listening to offers and making calls to see who is available before the February 8th NBA trade deadline.
After Michael Jordan came out and said that the Hornets aren’t shopping Kemba, I’m guessing that the original report from Woj was accurate but also just got blown out of proportion. Charlotte’s always been active in the trade market under general manager Rich Cho and that will likely continue this season. They’ve already been one of the most talked about teams leading up to the trade deadline.
Kemba snubbed from All-Star Game (NateDuncanNBA.com)
"In the East, I thought Kemba deserved it. He’s having a really nice year. I would’ve put him in over either [Bradley] Beal or [John] Wall… I would’ve had probably Kemba and Wall."
Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux discussed the players selected to the All-Star Game this year and were in agreement that the Hornets’ point guard deserved to be included. Instead, Bradley Beal, Victor Oladipo, Kyle Lowry and John Wall were the Eastern Conference guards selected by the coaches. Despite having similar or slightly better statistics than some of the other guards, the biggest knock on Kemba is Charlotte’s poor record this season.
If the Hornets were at least sitting in the eighth seed, it probably would’ve helped his case. Although Walker didn’t make it, there is still a small chance that he could get into the game as an injury replacement if one of the All-Star’s suffers an injury before All-Star Weekend which is from February 16th to 18th. If I had a vote, I would’ve put Kemba in over Wall as the Wizards’ point guard is having a down season.
Dwight clarifies “kill” the Hawks comments (MYAJC.com)
"“Everybody took it out of proportion,” Howard said. “We was talking about a UFC fight and I was just like, ‘I’m gonna kill ‘em!’ And they took it out of proportion. But it really doesn’t matter. I’m always going to play basketball and enjoy myself. I have nothing but love for my city, Atlanta. I’m always true to Atlanta.”"
Next: Top-5 biggest All-Star snubs in Charlotte history
Whether or not Howard meant the comments, he did in fact “kill” off the Hawks with a dominant performance. The eight-time all-star put up 18 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks against his former team. I don’t think Dwight has any bad blood towards Atlanta and his comments were most likely a pre-game antic considering how much of a jokester he is.