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 Queen City team is set to take on the Memphis Grizzlies in the second night of a back to back and are expected to beat Marc Gasol and company who have lost 21 of their last 22 games. (WinnersAndWhiners.com) In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at where the Charlotte Hornets‘ future outlook ranks among NBA teams, Dwight Howard‘s historic performance and Steve Clifford praising New York Knicks‘ head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Charlotte Hornets’ future outlook (ESPN.com) – Insider
"No team has seen a bigger decline here than the Hornets. There are two reasons for the sudden drop-off: the future of the roster and no resolution on the next GM. The rosters lack of flexibility to improve in the offseason – based on contracts that offer little value in return (outside of Walker) – has Charlotte facing a rebuild but without a clear plan to do so."
ESPN ranked every NBA team’s outlook over the next three years and Charlotte came in dead last. After ranking 19th last season, they fell all the way to No. 30 this year. It’s easy to see why considering the Hornets’ salary cap situation coupled with their lack of young talent. The future doesn’t look all that promising in the Queen City.
Their next general manager will need to figure out a way to either add to Charlotte’s current squad to make them a contender or trade all of their seemingly untradeable contracts to start a rebuild. A decision will also need to be made regarding Kemba Walker and if they want to trade him for assets or re-sign him to a max-deal. The real problem for the Hornets isn’t their all-star point guard but instead all of the underperforming and overpaid players surrounding him.
D12 records fastest 30-30 game in NBA history (IG/ @BasketballForever)
"1) Dwight Howard – 34 mins, 2) Kevin Love – 41 mins, 3) Swen Nater – 41 mins, 4) Wilt Chamberlain – 44 mins, 5) Moses Malone – 44 mins, 6) Elvin Hayes – 48 mins"
A 30-30 game is impressive but it’s even more impressive considering that it only took Dwight 34 minutes to do so when it took other members of the 30-30 club more than 40 minutes to do so. He set a number of season, career and franchise records during the course of the game. It’s crazy to think that Howard finished with 32 points and 30 rebounds because he only had four points and 10 boards at halftime.
After the game, Howard said that he was inspired by a text message that he got from a friend at halftime that fired him up. Whatever his friend said, it worked because the eight-time all-star put up 19 points and 12 rebounds in the third quarter alone. Not only did Dwight achieve this feat but on the same night, he also passed Jerry Lucas for 16th all-time on the NBA’s rebounding leaderboard.
Steve Clifford praises Jeff Hornacek (Twitter/ @IanBegley)
"Steve Clifford on Jeff Hornacek: “He’s a very good coach. He’s done a good job. You can’t lose (Kristaps) Porzingis and then, to me, start judging the coach.”"
Next: The Charlotte Hornets best-kept secret
Hornacek’s future with the Knicks is uncertain but Steve Clifford seems to believe that he is the right man for the job. The Hornets’ head coach said that Jeff is a “terrific coach.” Clifford and Hornacek could be in the same situation this summer as Charlotte could be evaluating their head coaching position and may be looking to fire Steve and move forward with someone new. In the end, that decision will most likely be up to the next GM that they hire.