Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets sign new TV deal, Week 22 power rankings
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
The Charlotte Hornets are projected to finish the season 10 games under .500 with a 36-46 record. (FiveThirtyEight.com) In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at Charlotte’s new TV deal with FOX Sports Southeast, where the team sits in the Week 22 NBA power rankings and the Hornets’ worst defenders.
Hornets sign new TV deal (BizJournals.com)
"Starting next season, Fox will pay the Charlotte Hornets an annual rights fee in the low-to-high $20 million range, up from about $14 million this season, sources said."
It looks like Charlotte’s cashing in on the NBA’s popularity and are the latest team to sign a new TV lucrative television deal. This new deal will be anywhere from $7-15 million more than the previous one. This shows the growth of basketball in the Queen City and should give Michael Jordan some more spending money to make the team/franchise better.
We’ll see how and if this new deal will impact the Hornets going forward. Still, this deal is nowhere near the Los Angeles Lakers‘ $122 million TV deal. Although, it does close the gap on some of the bigger teams like the Golden State Warriors ($28 million) and the Cleveland Cavaliers ($27 million). (Forbes.com)
Week 22 NBA power rankings (USAToday.com)
"The Hornets, who snapped a five-game skid with a win over Phoenix on Saturday, have the 29th-ranked defense in the NBA over their past six games, allowing 118.7 points per 100 possessions."
Charlotte came in at No. 21 this week which is the same ranking that they had last week. The Hornets went 1-2 this past week with losses to the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets while their only win was against the Phoenix Suns. With a five-game road trip coming up on their schedule, there is a good chance that they could fall further in the power rankings.
The Queen City team ranks just ahead of tanking teams like the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls. At 29-38, Charlotte will most likely end the year under .500 for the 11th time in the last 14 seasons. The Houston Rockets still top the rankings while the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors round out the top-three.
Charlotte’s worst individual defenders (BleacherReport.com)
"Dishonorable Mentions: SG Malik Monk, Charlotte Hornets (minus-6.9), PF Frank Kaminsky, Charlotte Hornets (minus-4.8)"
Next: Re-picking the last five drafts for Charlotte
Malik Monk and Frank Kaminsky were both named among the worst defenders in the NBA at their positions. The only shooting guard with a worse score than Monk is Jamal Crawford with a whopping minus-9.15. As for Kaminsky, the only power forward worse than him is Zach Randolph at minus-5.52. it’s a bit concerning that Charlotte has two extremely poor individual defenders on their team.