Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets meet with Ettore Messina, Worst offseason move of the last 10 years
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
Former Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford met with Phoenix Suns‘ officials. (Twitter/ @WojESPN) In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ interview with Ettore Messina, the team’s worst offseason move of the last 10 years and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist‘s meeting with George Springer.
Charlotte meets with Ettore Messina (Twitter/ @paxer89)
"Ettore Messina had a four hour long meeting with the @hornets yesterday, according to @Gazzetta_it . The meeting was positive but no final decision was taken. Hornets have still to interview other candidates but Messina is definitely in consideration for the job."
Messina became the second coach that the Hornets have interviewed so far after they had already met with Jay Larranaga. A couple things worth noting is that it was a long interview and that it was “positive.” It’s unclear who was at the meeting but it was surely led by new general manager Mitch Kupchak.
It looks like Charlotte wants to exhaust every resource and make sure that they get the right person to be their next head coach. While Ettore is still a top candidate for the job, Kupchak and company will likely want to meet with other names like David Fizdale and Jerry Stackhouse. A final decision could still be a few weeks away or more.
Hornets’ worst offseason move of the last decade (TheSportster.com)
"To make matters worse, the Hornets drafted him ahead of all-stars like Damian Lillard, Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal, and Draymond Green. It is safe to say the Hornets missed on this pick and if they would have drafted one of the all-stars instead, they would have a player to build around today."
Charlotte has missed with a number of their draft picks in recent years but selecting MKG over a number of all-stars and solid role players may be the biggest miss. Not only did they pass on the big name players listed above but they also missed out on Harrison Barnes, Austin Rivers and Evan Fournier who are all better scorers/shooters than Michael. Even Will Barton, Khris Middleton and Jae Crowder were taken in the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft.
Obviously, the biggest mistake was not getting Bradley Beal. The Hornets needed a wing player and a shooter but instead of taking Beal, they went with Kidd-Gilchrist. Bradley is now an all-star averaging more than 22 points per game. A backcourt duo of Kemba Walker and Beal would’ve been something special and could’ve been dominant in the Eastern Conference.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist meets with George Springer (Chron.com)
"“The goal is to impact somebody somewhere,” Springer said. “For me to get in touch with him and for kids to see there’s people everywhere, it doesn’t matter if you play big league baseball, are in the NBA or are in construction, we’re all humans and it’s good to not feel alone.”"
Both MKG and Springer both stutter and have had to deal with their speech impediment while being in the public eye as professional athletes. Interviews are never easy but it has got to be a lot tougher when you have a speech impediment. Credit to both Michael and George for wanting to help others who deal with similar issues.
Next: Hernangomez has made Zeller expendable
After seeing Springer win the World Series MVP last year, MKG reached out to the Houston Astros’ manager to set up a meeting with the all-star outfielder. Kidd-Gilchrist and Springer can both be inspirations to people dealing with speech impediments.