Quote :

"is it just me or is Cody Zeller really, really slow"

Pretty sure it's just you. He's white and goofy-looking, but he's not slow.

He's 7 foot and beats most of the guards down the court on fast breaks. He also gets by defenders with ease when they guard him closely. Zeller needs to improving on a lot of things (finishing at the rim mainly), but speed is the least of his problems. He looks like he added some strength, which should help him finish. Now just needs to start hitting his jumpers.

[Edited on July 14, 2014 at 6:05 PM. Reason : ]

7/14/2014 6:02:44 PM

I guess I'm focusing on his ball-handling when posting up

7/14/2014 6:06:05 PM

Yeah, he's not explosive at all down there. Maybe that's why he looks slow.

The summer league team is pure garbage and Ewing has no idea what's he doing, but Vonleh looks way better than I thought he'd be offensively, even if his shots aren't falling. Very Chris Bosh-esque. He's going to be beastly in a few years.

7/14/2014 6:12:02 PM

Quote :

"The summer league team is pure garbage"

7/14/2014 7:44:55 PM

cody zeller needs to improve his tiny hands

7/14/2014 8:15:54 PM

the zeller's have good straight line speed but arent quick

7/14/2014 8:27:00 PM

Quote :

"Now notice I didn’t say Charlotte is no better than it was at the end of the 2014 season, when the then-Bobcats made the playoffs and lost four straight games to Miami. Adding first-round draft picks Noah Vonleh and P.J. Hairston certainly will make some sort of positive difference, assuming Hairston doesn’t get in trouble again and stays on the court. That is not a sure bet, especially if he keeps trading cars with the likes of Josh Gordon and punching teenagers in pickup basketball games. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/14/5044145/scott-fowler-charlotte-hornets.html#storylink=cpy"

Scott Fowler not afraid to go after a fellow alumnus

[Edited on July 14, 2014 at 11:42 PM. Reason : .]

7/14/2014 11:42:40 PM

apparently considering Lance Stephenson now, according to Bonnell

7/15/2014 10:43:54 PM

LANCE

7/15/2014 11:25:21 PM

Lance to the Hornets is official per Rick Bonnell:

https://twitter.com/rick_bonnell/status/489346838772723712

7/16/2014 6:37:07 AM

YEAAAAA

kick rocks Hendo

That's at least a 4 seed team as it stands right now.

7/16/2014 7:14:12 AM

Rick Bonnell looks like an idiot, with all the national writers claiming repeatedly that the Hornets wanted Lance while he maintained steadfastly that they did not.

7/16/2014 8:00:43 AM

Anything but actually. He's been scooping all those guys on news so I'm inclined to believe him before fucking Chris Broussard.

It is possible the Hornets did an about face after Heyward fell through...

7/16/2014 8:24:26 AM

As recently as 2 days ago he was claiming that there was no interest, but somebody in Lance's camp was planting rumors that the Hornets were interested in order to drive up his price. Meanwhile, all the national writers knew that the Hornets were interested and working with Lance's agent.

The Hornets beat writer not only got out-scooped by national guys, but was flat-out wrong about the whole thing. How does that happen?

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 8:32 AM. Reason : 2]

7/16/2014 8:31:15 AM

what the fuck are you talking about?

Bonnell reported it first. He's embedded with the team daily. People thought Lance made sense because he did, but only after Heyward fell through.

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 8:38 AM. Reason : I don't get why you're trying to shit on Bonnell. He's done a fantastic job this offseason.]

7/16/2014 8:35:53 AM

I'm not a huge Lance Stephenson fan, but 3 years with team option for 3rd year sounds like solid deal to me. 9 mill/year seems like a reasonable deal from the Hornets point of view. I was kinda worried the Hornets may panic a bit and over pay or give him too many years...but I'm pleased with what they got.

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 8:50 AM. Reason : d]

7/16/2014 8:49:17 AM

9 mil is a god damn steal in this market for Lance. Completely makes up for the Marvin overpay

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 9:01 AM. Reason : s]

7/16/2014 9:00:53 AM

First PJ, then we lose McRoberts, now Lance. Hopefully the coaches can keep what team positive chemistry we had last year going...

7/16/2014 9:02:24 AM

Just exile PJ to the D League and they'll be fine. Kemba should be able to keep him in line.

7/16/2014 9:17:02 AM

any chance they could still make a push for Boozer? What a damn defense that could be.

7/16/2014 9:18:34 AM

Boozer & defense?

7/16/2014 9:26:19 AM

hahaha the twin1.5 towers

7/16/2014 9:26:57 AM

Stoked. First good news of the offseason.

7/16/2014 10:43:42 AM

Quote :

"any chance they could still make a push for Boozer?"

I want no part of boozer. He hasn't played hard in 3 years and he's never played hard defense.

7/16/2014 11:19:25 AM

^Agreed. I think the Hornets are covered at PF with Marvin, Zeller and Vonleh. Marvin is as good of a shooter as McRoberts was, but a better defender and rebounder. Stephenson will more than make up for the loss of McRoberts' passing.

I also think Zeller makes a big leap this year and pushes for starter minutes at PF. He would be nasty on the break in combination with Lance and MKG. That's 3 big, FAST guys who can finish at the rim.

7/16/2014 11:37:27 AM

7/16/2014 11:55:35 AM

My reaction to the signing

<script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Oh, and we're not letting Jeepin get off easy with his Boozer = defense post. That will stick with him forever.

7/16/2014 1:10:21 PM

The thing that really excites me about Lance is his on-ball defense. He's a good rebounder and playmaker, but he's downright nasty when locking down other team's best option.

With him, Kemba, and MKG at 1-3, our perimeter defense is going to be insane. Good thing too, because our interior defense is pretty shitastic.

7/16/2014 2:05:37 PM

7/16/2014 4:56:34 PM

Unbelievable signing. He's clearly a max guy we got at a fraction of That.. Really unbelievable.

We're a stacked regular season team I'm thinking 48-50 wins if we stay healthy.

Unbelievable defensive team now especially when biyombo is on the court.

With Miami and Indiana taking giant steps back the east is wide open. Washington lost ariza which sets them back.

We are a great bet for the over and to win the east I guarantee it. Gonna book Vegas flight this week probably

7/16/2014 6:31:40 PM

anybody watch that game against the Mavericks?

game winner https://vine.co/v/MQe6pUlnlmH

7/16/2014 6:33:05 PM

^^ win the east with cleveland like they are? if irving gets hurt maaaaaaaaybe, but we're a big al injury away from being middle tier again

7/16/2014 8:39:12 PM

Yeah I'd really like us to sign another center for some much needed depth. Our backcourt (especially SG) is incredibly deep. Maybe Hairston could sub in at SF? He's definitely built for it.

^^And yeah, that last second shot was incredible. That guy will probably never be heard from again, but at least he got us one win in the Summer League

7/16/2014 8:58:31 PM

biggest eye roll ever at the last paragraph of this Fowler piece

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/16/5048183/lance-stephenson-will-make-hornets.html#.U8clMfldV8E

Quote :

"And remember, this sort of thing worked once before for awhile for the then-Bobcats – when Stephen Jackson helped lead the team to a playoff appearance in 2010. Jackson had a history even more checkered than Stephenson’s. So here we go. Crank up the rollercoaster. That click-click-click sound you always hear as the coaster gets pulled to the top of the tallest hill? That’s what the Hornets and their fans are hearing. Hold on tight, because there’s no getting off now."

7/16/2014 9:25:32 PM

he's such an Amaechi

7/16/2014 9:31:18 PM

Love how LANCE has the bitch boi beat writers in Charlotte all up in arms.

This team is still one piece from being a legitimate contender, although I'm not even sure you need to be that in the East. Still, it'd be nice if we could turn Henderson into a knockdown 3 point specialist or a Center

[Edited on July 16, 2014 at 9:57 PM. Reason : sign fells]

7/16/2014 9:55:21 PM

7/16/2014 9:58:22 PM

Where are these two pics from?

7/16/2014 10:49:29 PM

^ ESPYs?

7/16/2014 11:24:48 PM

Bonnell is 10000000% sure we want nothing to do with Boozer. Thank god.

This has the potential to be one of the best sports seasons for both the Hornets and Panthers in a long time.

The future is bright for Charlotte sports right now.

7/17/2014 7:10:51 AM

PJ killed it again last night...

7/17/2014 7:37:23 AM

Quote :

"This has the potential to be one of the best sports seasons for both the Hornets and Panthers in a long time."

There can be only one

7/17/2014 8:14:26 AM

Quote :

"This has the potential to be one of the best sports most overhyped disappointing seasons for both the Hornets and Panthers in a long time few years."

FTFY

7/17/2014 8:52:09 AM

Quote :

"There can be only one"

THERE CAN BE ONLY NONE

7/17/2014 9:48:37 AM

Hairston had a nice reverse alley oop a few min ago

he's gonna be a pretty good player

and now I go do this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN0XRkSyhwM

7/17/2014 5:19:11 PM

Vonleh is garbage.

Hairston is legit.

Synopsis.

(TJ and Hairston would have been a nice combo )

7/17/2014 5:35:53 PM

vonleh isn't as good as a guy almost 4 years older than him? WHY?

vonleh is a project. he isn't going to get tons of minutes this year.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/15/5046198/charlotte-hornets-steve-clifford.html#.U8hPj0D-uuo

i'm glad to read that clifford isn't a moron when it comes to young players.

7/17/2014 6:37:20 PM

Vonleh has shooting skills and looks like he can defend. Unfortunately, he currently looks like garbage in the post offensively. He'll end up a valuable NBA player at some point but the problem with him being so young is that day may come in another uniform.

Hairston is a chucker who just had his best day in the god damn summer league where he finally achieved the impossible feat of shooting 50% from the floor

For reference, Courtney Fells had 19 points on 8-15 shooting in the same game.

7/17/2014 9:08:05 PM

hairston is good. you can't miss that. i just wonder how long he can stay clean off the court.

7/17/2014 9:44:52 PM

^^ You're a motherfucking buzzkill. Is it ok for people to be excited about this team without you taking a piss on it?

Vonleh should look like shit on the block because he's never going to be there. He's baby Bosh. Way more likely to shoot a 3 or drive than drag his man to the block and try to put a move on him.

[Edited on July 17, 2014 at 9:56 PM. Reason : ...]

7/17/2014 9:54:21 PM