Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets climb in Week 20 power rankings, One player to target in free agency
Welcome to Buzz City Beat, a daily roundup of the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
After falling to the Boston Celtics, the Queen City team’s chances of making the playoffs dropped from 29% to 25%. (FiveThirtyEight.com) In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at where the Charlotte Hornets sit in the Week 20 NBA power rankings, why they should target Fred VanVleet in free agency and the Greensboro Swarm’s loss to the Erie BayHawks.
Charlotte climbs in Week 20 power rankings (USAToday.com)
"Could the Hornets end up making a playoff push? Their season-best four-game winning streak has them 1 ½ games behind Detroit, and they own the tiebreaker. Eighth-place Miami, meanwhile, is four games ahead of Charlotte."
The Hornets moved up one spot from No. 21 in the Week 19 power rankings to No. 20 this week. Despite winning five straight games and their first four outings after the All-Star Break, Charlotte didn’t gain a lot of ground in the power rankings. They swapped spots with the Los Angeles Lakers who went from No. 20 to No. 21.
The Houston Rockets reclaimed the top spot in the power rankings while the Golden State Warriors, the Toronto Raptors, the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers rounded out the top-five. With a tough stretch of road games coming up against playoff-bound teams, there’s a good chance that the Hornets could fall back in the rankings. Although, if they pick up some big wins over those same teams, they could climb a few more spots.
Why the Hornets should target Fred VanVleet (BleacherReport.com)
"Targeting Fred VanVleet is a nice hedge against all possible directions. The Hornets are getting slaughtered when Walker isn’t on the floor, so they need a competent backup floor general who helps them achieve relevance now. They also have to plan for a potential reset."
Charlotte’s main position to upgrade this summer is at backup point guard. Michael Carter-Williams just hasn’t been good enough to help the team weather the storm when Kemba Walker goes to the bench. The Hornets have been looking for a solid backup PG /sixth man since Jeremy Lin left.
VanVleet would be a good option but it may be tough to pry him away from Toronto as he is a restricted free agent this summer meaning that the Raptors could match any offer sheet that he signs. Couple that with Charlotte’s limited cap space, and it’s a difficult task. The Hornets could offer the Full-MLE (Mid-Level Exception) which is worth $8.6 million and it may be enough to get Fred who is averaging 8.1 PPG and 3.1 APG this season.
Greensboro Swarm lose to the Erie BayHawks (Gleague.NBA.com)
"The Erie BayHawks (22-19), NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club, took down the Greensboro Swarm (13-27) tonight, 129-122, inside Erie Insurance Arena. Erie has completed as four-game regular season series sweep over Greensboro."
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Terry Henderson‘s 24 points and Sam Thompson‘s 21 weren’t enough for Greensboro to get their first win of the season against Erie. After a hot start with the team, Damien Wilkins had a bit of a down game in this one with only 13 points. The Swarm have now dropped three consecutive games and will look to turn things around versus the Sioux Falls Skyforce next time out.