Official 2021-2022 Charlotte Hornets Thread : Bouknight, Jones, The LaMelo Era

There are some idiots calling into WFNZ right now. My God.

Guy saying Kemba should be a 6th man and McLemore can play point :lol:

Sounds like the radio guys are big advocates of Ben... It's obvious Bonnell wants Len... 3 hours to the draft and I have no idea what we're gonna do
 
guy on the bobcats board says he has real info that our board is

1.ben

2. len

3 trade with Minnesota

says sessions to MIL for 15 has actual traction and that we like Giannis  all fwiw
 
I thought Sessions was a Godsend for this team last year. If he hadn't gotten injured, I see 2-3 more wins on the board (doesn't sound like a lot until you remember we only had, what? 22?).

Would NOT want to deal him.

Not very sold on McLemore. I think he's a great player and has All Star potential, but MAN I feel like we need to jump on help inside if it's possible. EVEN if it's a risk.

Playing some ball myself tonight so probably won't catch the pick live......GO HORNCATS!!! (<----That's the name I'm going with this year)
 
Sessions for a first round pick, 15 at that, is a steal for us. Especially since his value would never get any higher. I like sessions a lot but that's a trade you can't really pass up
 
Wow the Bobcats managed to **** up and not get Noel even though he was still available. That's unbelievable honestly, I was assuming he would be gone by the time it was their pick, but he was still available and he didn't get picked. Crazy.
 
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Well, we knew this Zeller thing was a possibility. All we heard about was how he was Cho's guy from the start.

He can run the floor, and face up well, but has limited post moves. I guess we took the best non-injured big man available, haha. So while I'm not exactly jumping up and down on the couch, I don't have a gun in my mouth either.

Was really hoping after that pick we were going to make SOME kind of move to get into the late first round.
 
Zeller pick gets booed by fans at Bobcat draft party
Since I am officially on vacation for the next week or so, I didn’t officially cover the NBA draft. But I did help increase the Charlotte Bobcats’ crowd by almost one percent at their free draft-day party, taking two of my sons (ages 15 and 12) and three of their teenaged friends to the main concourse at Time Warner Cable Arena.

There we watched the first few picks of the draft with probably 600-800 other fans. And the reaction from those diehards after the pick of Cody Zeller? Well, let’s just say they were underwhelmed.

No, let’s say more than that. Let’s describe it, because it was quite a scene.

As the No.4 pick approached, the crowd mostly wanted Kansas guard Ben McLemore or Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel. So when Zeller was announced by NBA commissioner David Stern, the immediate reaction from the Bobcat fans was a stunned “OOOOOHHHH” of disbelief, followed by a lot of booing, followed by at least one chant of “Bull----, Bull----.” I recorded it and just listened to it again on my iPhone, and the amount of vitriol was really amazing. It sounded almost like when NBA commissioner David Stern walked out to give the first few picks and the New York crowd booed him heatedly.

And the Zeller pick made a couple of people happy, too.

Was I one of the happy people? Well, no. As I wrote in the newspaper Thursday, I wanted the Bobcats to take Zeller’s teammate, Victor Oladipo. Unfortunately, he went at No.2. But I also wrote that Noel was the right choice if he were still there at No.4, and he was, and they didn’t take him.

Maybe we’re all very wrong. Maybe Zeller was a great choice and the Bobcats’ braintrust – particularly general manager Rich Cho, who seems out on a limb on this one -- will be proven right.

But the Bobcats certainly didn’t win the public-relations war Thursday night. Although the party itself was a nice and well-organized event, many of those fans filed out shortly after the Zeller pick, grumbling to themselves.


Read more here: http://scottfowlerobs.blogspot.com/2013/06/zeller-pick-gets-booed-by-fans-at.html#storylink=cpy
 
Never been a fan of outright booing your teams decision. You might disagree with it, but silence is golden I think. Disheartening to hear that information.

I honestly wonder how many of those people would have NOT booed had it been "With the 4th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Charlotte Hornets select..."

I try to make it to 2-3 games a year (I live a few hours away), and last year there were always the Back The Buzz crowd chanting for the Hornets. I always understood that they wanted the name back, and I GET that. BUT, just changing the name doesn't make the team any better. It's sad when it looks like it's the "Thing to Do" in CLT to hate on the Bobcats. Getting behind your team would be a lot easier.

That being said, I personally would not have made that pick.
 
CarolinaKickG said:
Never been a fan of outright booing your teams decision. You might disagree with it, but silence is golden I think. Disheartening to hear that information.

I honestly wonder how many of those people would have NOT booed had it been "With the 4th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Charlotte Hornets select..."

I try to make it to 2-3 games a year (I live a few hours away), and last year there were always the Back The Buzz crowd chanting for the Hornets. I always understood that they wanted the name back, and I GET that. BUT, just changing the name doesn't make the team any better. It's sad when it looks like it's the "Thing to Do" in CLT to hate on the Bobcats. Getting behind your team would be a lot easier.

That being said, I personally would not have made that pick.
Click to expand...
The fans have been through too much bs to not boo imo. 

And I agree wholeheartedly that I would have stayed away from that pick as well. 
 
First post in this thread. Glad to see other Charlotte fans. Gotta say I didn't like the pick, but hey all we can do is see how this plays out.
 
not to dereail the thread, but are you guys really getting back the Hornets' name?
 
07:14 AM ET 06.28 | Thursday night's winners ranged from the obvious in Anthony Bennett, to the Pelicans in New Orleans, and the Timberwolves in Minnesota -- but who was the night's biggest loser? Charlotte Bobcats: Well, at least they're used to being here. Not only did they reach for a player, but they reached for a guy who could wind up being a block magnet. And he may not be considerably better, at least immediately -- than Byron Mullens. Think about that. In a draft with so many good scoring weapons, they took a big with huge concerns about his ability to finish at the rim despite his size. Just not a great look with them taking Cody Zeller.
 
Cody will be a good player, you guys should be happy. It was a solid pick. Cody has his issued but a lot of them are very fixable. He will be a 16ppg scorer in this league.
 
Signed Troy Daniels out of vcu. Good shooter.

Invited seth curry to summer league but he cant play yet. Hopes to get camp invite.

QO extended to Hendo, not mullens
 
Charlotte Bobcats interested in free agent Utah Jazz center Al Jefferson

The Charlotte Bobcats have reached out to representatives for Utah Jazz center Al Jefferson to gauge his interest in signing here, an NBA source confirmed to the Observer.

However, Dallas Mavericks shooting guard O.J. Mayo, who has been linked to the Bobcats in some media reports, does not appear, at least yet, to be in their plans.

CBSSports.com first reported overnight that the Bobcats are pursuing Jefferson, who completed his ninth season in the NBA. At 28 Jefferson has career averages of 16.4 points and 9.0 rebounds.

Jefferson would address an obvious concern for the Bobcats, coming off a 28-120 record over the past two seasons: They have minimal low-post scoring, allowing teams to guard them without double-teaming. A versatile offensive game was one of the attributes that caused the Bobcats to draft Indiana 7-footer Cody Zeller fourth overall in Thursday’s draft.

The question is how much Jefferson would cost, in both salary and guaranteed years, and whether he’d still be a contributor once the Bobcats are improved enough to make a playoff run. Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins told the Observer last month that he’s wary of overpaying a free agent just to show progress.

Jefferson turned pro out of high school and has played nearly 20,000 NBA minutes, so while he’s under 30, he’s relatively high-mileage. He’s not known as a particularly strong defender, with opponents often attacking him in the pick-and-roll.

The Jazz is going through a transition with its big men. Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter are both on the roster looking for more playing time. Jazz management is also mulling whether to re-sign power forward Paul Millsap.
 
A bug’s life: A second act for the guy inside the Hugo costume

By Rick Bonnell
rbonnell@charltoteobserver.com
Posted: Sunday, Jun. 30, 2013

Jeff Siner - jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
For 17 years, Michael Zerrillo was Charlotte Hornets mascot, Hugo. Hugo was one of sports' most exciting mascots. He started his career in Charlotte and left with the team to go to New Orleans.

You don’t go to school to become a professional sports mascot. So there was no one around to teach Michael Zerrillo that every mascot has an expiration date.

He figured that out on his own in the spring of 1995 when an accident on an air-pressure catapult tore his Achilles tendon and several ankle ligaments.

If you lived in Charlotte in the ’90s, you undoubtedly saw Zerrillo perform without ever knowing his name or seeing his face. A former Arizona State gymnast, Zerrillo was the second Hugo, beloved mascot of the Charlotte Hornets. He played the fuzzy teal-and-purple bug from 1990 through 2007, moving with the team from Charlotte to New Orleans and briefly to Oklahoma City when Hurricane Katrina forced a temporary relocation of the NBA franchise.

Now 48, Zerrillo is back in Charlotte in an entirely different profession: He’s building services coordinator for the office tower that is part of the NASCAR Hall of Fame complex. Instead of doing back-flips and high-fiving little kids, he makes sure tenants get moved in and out of office space or that inventory at NASCAR Digital’s production studios arrive on time. Zerrillo sees both tasks this way:

Make people happy every day.

“He’s got a gentle heart. As soft a heart as anyone I’ve ever known,” said Marilynn Bowler, formerly the Hornets’ vice president of public affairs. “He identifies with people. I’ve never heard him say a bad thing about anyone.”

Bowler became Zerrillo’s surrogate mother in Charlotte after the Hornets hired him in his 20s over dozens of applicants. The original Hugo was a dancer, but the team wanted a more acrobatic performer. So they consulted with Bob Woolf, the Phoenix Suns “Gorilla” – essentially the mascot of all mascots in the NBA.

Bowler hinted around with Woolf that they’d be interested in hiring him if he was of a mind to move. Woolf said he had a friend, a fellow Arizona State gymnast, and “anything I can do, he can do.”

So the Hornets brought in Zerrillo for a tryout. He flew from Phoenix to Charlotte on a red-eye, and with no sleep, as Bowler recalled, “he knocked the socks off that audition.”

A Southern encounter

There’s no template for being a mascot. You make it up as you go along, whether it’s riding a unicycle or roller skating or – this was Zerrillo’s first challenge on the job – testing if you can do a standing back-flip while wearing that bulky costume and heavy clown-like shoes.

Zerrillo drove to Wilmington, where a cousin was playing Leonardo in one of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies. He needed his cousin to spot him as he attempted stunts in the Hugo costume. On the way there, Zerrillo spotted something in a small town he still remembers vividly 23 years later: two men dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb, carrying a large wooden cross.

“That was eye-opening,” Zerrillo recalled. “That’s when I knew this wasn’t (hometown) Syracuse or Phoenix.’’

It was Bowler’s job to make him feel welcome as he fast-tracked through two months of training before the 1990 season-opener. Bowler called Zerrillo’s mother to find out his preferences, stocking an apartment near the Charlotte Coliseum with soda, candy bars and snacks. Meanwhile the Hornets were figuring out the holes in their new mascot’s game.

“Dancing was a challenge,” Bowler recalled. “You assume that anyone as coordinated as Michael could just step out on the floor and dance. No. It takes years of practice to do that, and he had two months. But he pulled it off.”

Zerrillo quickly became a daredevil, coming up with the “Super Hugo” alter ego, so he could perform the more risky stunts in teal tights. Team owner George Shinn loved the increasingly spectacular feats, whether it was rappelling from the Coliseum’s ceiling or finding ever more dangerous ways to launch his body at the rim for a dunk.

Over time, Woolf helped place three more of his former gymnastics teammates in the mascot business, and they brain-stormed constantly. Their coach, Don Robinson, sometimes teased Arizona State’s basketball coaches, “I’m putting more guys in the NBA than you are.”

The bug in the mirror

But being a mascot wasn’t just stunts, it was about making a connection with people without speaking.

“It’s hard to convey what you’re thinking,” Zerrillo said. “You spend a lot of time in front of the mirror (in costume) thinking, ‘Oh, that’s what it should look like.’ ”

He had a special knack for making kids – even the very young – comfortable with Hugo.

“Gymnasts are always teaching young kids, so I knew how to come up to them without seeming scary,” said Zerrillo, who has a daughter, Bella, and son, Oliver. “It’s really about getting what (reaction) people give back to you.”

By the spring of 1995, Zerrillo was experimenting with a catapult that could thrust him from outside the NBA 3-point line to the rim – about 25 feet. It required him to plant one foot on the catapult’s spring board to trigger the device.

In preparation for a playoff series between the Hornets and the Chicago Bulls, Zerrillo attempted the stunt, and the worst happened. Maybe he planted his foot wrong or maybe the air-pressure was miscalibrated. But he ended up on the floor with the torn Achilles and numerous other injuries.

The surgeries it took to repair those injuries were so extensive that Zerrillo recalls his case was brought up in a medical school discussion. A doctor described the damage as “like stepping on a land mine,” to which a medical student replied, “Why would somebody do that?”

That question – why keep doing Hugo’s crazy stunts? – became a recurring theme. Over time, Zerrillo suffered a ruptured disc and had multiple neck surgeries. He tore tissue in one of his shoulders. He had surgery on both knees to remove torn cartilage.

Time to move on

Through it all he took a “show must go on” attitude. One time, when a doctor diagnosed appendicitis, Zerrillo asked if he could still perform that night. The doctor asked him to consider what it would be like vomiting inside Hugo’s head. Zerrillo relented and had the appendectomy.

So he and wife, Andrea, came to the realization this Hugo gig was coming to an end. He was living part of each year in New Orleans or Oklahoma City so that Andrea and the kids weren’t constantly uprooted. With kids to raise, it was time to come home to Charlotte.

Zerrillo had his real estate license and figured a booming city like Charlotte offered plenty of opportunity. That was 2008 – the outset of the great recession – so plans changed. A friend was helping to coordinate construction on the NASCAR Hall of Fame and needed help. Zerrillo didn’t know construction, but his people skills fit well with the job. Eventually it led to his current position.

He likes this job because every day is different. But it’s not the same as living a bug’s life.

“There’s a definite high in hearing 24,000 people cheering for you,” Zerrillo said. “But any job where you constantly help people is rewarding.”

As you might expect, Zerrillo is all for the Charlotte Bobcats’ planned name change to the Hornets. He’d also favor a shift back to the teal-and-purple bug rousing Charlotte crowds.

“I’m behind it, I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “Whatever happens with the Bobcats, I hope people embrace (the new nickname) and they go all out.”

Today, it’s difficult to distinguish where Zerrillo ends and Hugo begins. How does Zerrillo describe his alter ego?

“He’s approachable. Lovable,” Zerrillo said “A person you’d always want to hang out with.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/20...-life-a-second-act-for-the.html#storylink=cpy
 
That was a good time NBA draft

Seth Curry will get a long look from an NBA team. I hope that team is not the Charlotte Bobcats. Pressure here on the player to perform and the team to retain him would be tremendous. Let him go to city in which neither his older brother or father played and show what he can do. What can he do? He can get open. He can play a little point. And he can shoot the three.

Speaking of perform, a reader wrote to say that the fellows in his barbershop think Duke's Mason Plumlee will be a better pro than Nerlens Noel. If you need a reason to grow your hair, this is it.

C.J. Leslie of N.C. State has NBA talent. Be interesting to see if he proves it.

I liked the Cody Zeller pick much more after hearing Rod Higgins and Rich Cho explain their rationale. But I still don't like it.
The Boston-New Jersey trade is a blockbuster that makes sense for both teams. New Jersey gets better and Boston, which was going nowhere with old players, gets younger. But poor Gerald Wallace. The man invests what he has in the game. He gives up his body. He is still the most beloved player in Bobcats' history. And he goes from Charlotte to Portland to New Jersey/Brooklyn and, now, to Boston. And he's only 30.

No matter what you thought of the picks of your team or any other, that was a compelling draft. If you were bored, the NBA is not your sport. David Stern was hilarious. He's funnier than Roger Goodell. I'm serious.

I've heard several commentators say that Aaron Hernandez's problem is that he hangs with a bad crowd. Couldn't other members of the crowd say the same thing about Hernandez?
 
Jefferson could offer Bobcats inside scoring


By Rick Bonnell
Rbonnell@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Jul. 01, 2013


Whether or not Al Jefferson is interested in being a Charlotte Bobcat, whether or not there’s a price he and the franchise would agree on to sign here, this much is clear:

Jefferson, 6-foot-10, would address a problem that has plagued the Bobcats for years: a lack of low-post scoring that allows opponents to guard without double-teaming any Bobcat.

An NBA source confirms the Bobcats reached out to Jefferson’s representatives once free-agency began as Sunday became Monday in the Eastern Time Zone. CBSSports.com first reported the Bobcats’ interest in Jefferson about 1 a.m.

Jefferson will visit with the Bobcats on Wednesday, according to a league source.

It’s a logical thing for the Bobcats to at least explore. They finished last season with the NBA’s worst shooting percentage (42.4 percent) and third-worst points per game (93.3). Coach Mike Dunlap, who lasted a single season in the job, often said the Bobcats’ only easy points came at the foul line.

Two incumbent starters in the frontcourt – small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and center Bismack Biyombo – combined for just 14 points per game. Although new coach Steve Clifford is searching for ways to create better shot opportunities for Kidd-Gilchrist, it’s clear the third member of Charlotte’s frontcourt has to be a scorer.

That’s in part why the Bobcats used the No.  4 overall pick Thursday on Indiana forward-center Cody Zeller. It’s also why they would at least investigate the availability of unrestricted free agent Jefferson.

Back-to-the-basket scoring is a valuable NBA skill and it’s not so common these days, with so many big men straying to the perimeter for jump shots. Jefferson, having completed his ninth NBA season, has career averages of 16.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 50 percent shooting from the field.

The Bobcats’ half-court offense was spotty last season, with numerous shot-clock violations. Jefferson would provide point guard Kemba Walker with a reliable target for passes late in possessions.

The flip side of that is determining how much Jefferson has left, as the Bobcats try to assemble a sustainable playoff team around young players.

Jefferson is 28 – not particularly old for an NBA player – but the issue with him is more mileage than age. Jefferson turned pro out of high school and has played nearly 20,000 NBA minutes already in nine seasons. He was durable in Utah the past three seasons after suffering a knee injury earlier in his career.

While a strong scorer and a solid defender, Jefferson has never been a particularly effective defender, with opponents targeting him in the pick-and-roll. At-the-rim defense is nearly as much a problem for the Bobcats as the lack of low-post scoring.

It’s unclear who else is interested in Jefferson or what his salary demands might be. It’s possible he’d re-sign with Utah, but the Jazz has reason to start transitioning to the younger big men on the roster.

The Jazz drafted Enes Kanter and traded for Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter as the frontcourt of the future. Jazz management could also possibly re-sign power forward Paul Millsap.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/01/4141923/jefferson-could-offer-bobcats.html#storylink=cpy
 
I'm not convinced younger Curry can play the point in the league. Would much rather Myck Kabongo get a look, or even a Brandon Paul, both of which went undrafted I think? Was secretly hoping Lorenzo Brown would go undrafted and we could give him a look. Dude has game.

The Jefferson quandry is quite interesting. It's encouraging to see us willing to go for someone "bigger" in name than of recent history though, so as long as we don't pull-a-Bobcats and way overpay him I'd be okay with it.
 
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