The Hornets shouldn’t have any regrets when it comes to their offseason acquisition of Dwight Howard, but despite the 32-year-old veteran’s admirably productive season, the team should look into trading him, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes.
Howard has been impressively consistent and durable and the move that the club made to acquire him was worth the risk. Unfortunately for Hornets fans, Charlotte seems destined to rebuild, something that Howard may not be all that interested in and that his arduous $23.8MM 2018/19 contract may complicate.
In 76 games for the Hornets this season, Howard has averaged 16.8 points – his highest scoring output in four seasons – and 12.4 rebounds.
There’s more out of Charlotte tonight:
- Midseason acquisition Willy Hernangomez has had his work cut out for him appeasing Hornets coach Steve Clifford but the young big man appears to be taking the constructive crticisim to heart, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes. “With every player, you have to find a way that you’re comfortable talking with them and they are comfortable talking with you. Serious players, they want a coach who can help them play better,” Clifford said.
- A year of setbacks and injuries has continued into the final month of the regular season. Most recently, the Hornets have watched big man Cody Zeller shut things down for the remainder of the season. “I would say we’re at the stage now where it almost becomes, ‘Why [ask him to play]?‘” head coach Steve Clifford told Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. “It’s so hard to not play for long stretches off the season. Why, with five games left, would we even play him? It makes more sense to me to let him get back to 100 percent and then just start again next [season].”
- A dramatic year has resulted in another disappointing, playoff-less season for the Hornets and now it seems as though Kemba Walker‘s future in Charlotte is far from certain. This week we asked readers what they think will come of Walker’s tenure with the organization. Could Hornets fans be nearing the end of an era?
Good for Howard, do your best. Same
for the team. Honest effort. This team is doomed by the NBA structure. So I’ll barely give a crap until serious tanking reform takes place.
Can’t blame the NBA for the Hornets front office shortcomings. No one forced them to give long term, big money deals to Batum, Marvin Williams and MKG. They were a victim of 2016 FA, poor long term vision and lackluster drafting
While you are right and I agree, I think the other guy is more talking about options going forward.
In a properly functioning sports league, a team should be able to just fix itself and move on. That intentionally sucking for 3 years is literally the ONLY choice the Hornets have right now, tells you there’s a problem with how the league is set up.
Another amnesty clause would be huge to help teams fix mistakes that they’ve made, but going into unguaranteed contracts like the NFL would be terrible for the players and the way the league is set up rewards teams for spending money wisely.
Hornets messed up big time. Players like dwight aren’t carrying teams into the playoffs anymore and you already overpaid for batum and MKG. I think it’s time to get rid of MJ as he’s shown twice he can’t run a franchise.
Dwight wasn’t the issue, He’s actually played well for them. It’s the contracts – Batum, MKG, Williams. Drafting Monk vs Mitchell or even Kennard (monday morning QB, but they’re the pros the scouts get paid to see this).
Dwight puts up some of the most empty statistics in the league
35th in PER last 2 years. Not bad for being washed up.
Clifford needs to go, he’s talking like he got them in the playoffs. There should be no excuse for this team being out of the playoffs with a resurgent Dwight and Kemba leading the way, Clifford is just a horrible coach and reminds me of Byron Scott. He simply does not play the young players and does not let them develop.
You tell me where Monk fits best into Charlottes plans and tell me where Bacon gets playing time from.
Monk should have been the 6th man off the bench period, no one on that roster can score like him aside from Kemba. I’m willing to bet Bacon would torche Batum also if they played one on one.
1 on 1? What are we even doing here
First, it’s torch not torche. Second, for Monk to be the sixth man off the bench he’d have to prove himself ahead of Lamb, Kaminsky, and a healthy Cody Zeller among others.
Another year, disappointing year. I keep watching the Hornet’s losings to teams that are worse than themselves. Not able to hold on to leads for the win. The same old story, look good and still lose. Instead of offloading Howard and, or Kemba the heart of the team, clean house by getting rid of the greenhorns and the overpaid nonperformers. Watch Howard and Kimba will leave, and I don’t blame them, they want to win, play for a playoff team, NOW!!!!