Buzz City Beat: Ranking the Charlotte Hornets’ starting 5, Hernangomez to learn from Howard
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Rookie Malik Monk posted a photo of him at the team’s empty practice facility late at night. He may be getting ready for some increased minutes and more playing time. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at where the Charlotte Hornets‘ starting lineup ranks in the NBA, Dwight Howard mentoring Willy Hernangomez and Damien Wilkins leading the Greensboro Swarm once again.
Ranking the Hornets’ starting 5 (BleacherReport.com)
"With these five on the floor, the Hornets outscore opponents by 4.0 points per 100 possessions. For context, only three clubs have a net rating north of that number. There isn’t much self-sufficient scoring here outside of Kemba, but at least Howard is bouncing back after a three-year slide."
B/R ranks Charlotte’s starting lineup of Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marvin Williams and Dwight Howard as the 17th best in the NBA. Even with the team’s poor record this season, the starting 5 has been a bright spot for them. The bench unit has been where the Hornets have run into a majority of their problems this year.
Although, this article does point out that this group is “overpriced and not getting any younger.” Going forward, it’s unclear if this five can continue this level of play but in the most likely scenario, this will be their starting lineup for next season. This group ranks ahead of some playoff-level teams like the Miami Heat and the Utah Jazz.
Hernangomez to learn from Dwight Howard (Twitter/ @NYPost_Berman)
"Hernangomez happy to have a center mentor in Charlotte: “It’s great to have Dwight here. I want to learn so much every day. (Sunday) he gave me advice, and he doesn’t know me a lot. I’m very happy to be with one of the best centers in league. I’m going to learn a lot from him.”"
Dwight Howard has never really played the role of mentor in his NBA career but this is a good chance for him to pass on some of his valuable knowledge to a young big man like Hernangomez. Although they have slightly different skill sets, Dwight has been one of the best centers in the league over the past decade. He is a future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and Willy must take the opportunity to learn as much from him as he can.
It’s an encouraging sign that the Spaniard is so willing to learn. That should bode well for him going forward with Charlotte. Howard is 32-years old and entering the later stages of his career. It’s unclear if the Hornets will re-sign him when his contract runs out after next season but if they don’t Hernangomez could be his replacement so it would be great for Dwight to groom his successor.
Wilkins leads Swarm past 87ers (Gleague.NBA.com)
"The Delaware 87ers (11-25) lost in grueling fashion to the Greensboro Swarm (12-24) by a final score of 119-114. The Sevens led by as many as 11 in the third quarter, but the Swarm’s veteran players, namely 38-year-old Damien Wilkins, iced the game late."
Next: It's time for the Hornets to embrace the tank
The 38-year old Wilkins had yet another impressive game with 27 points, six rebounds and five assists for Greensboro. Since his return to the team, they’ve gone 2-2 and he’s led the Swarm in scoring in all four outings. This has been a completely different team since the addition of Damien Wilkins. T.J. Williams added 22 points off of the bench to help lead the Hornets’ G-League affiliate to their 12th win of the season.