Here’s the Charlotte Observer reporting on the Hornets. And yeah, that’s “Hornets.” The Bobcats are gone. They are the Hornets now. You knew that already, but preseason is approaching so it’s worth repeating.
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Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford made a bold statement Monday about shooting guard Gary Neal’s value.
“Our offense, once he got here, was totally different,” Clifford said.
Bold but not inaccurate. In the 25 regular-season games that followed Neal being traded to Charlotte, the then-Bobcats averaged 104.3 points per game, compared to 95.3 before his arrival. The Bobcats’ shooting percentage improved from 43.7 percent pre-Neal to 45.3 percent with him.
That’s not to say the offensive improvement was exclusively Neal’s doing. For instance, rookie power forward Cody Zeller shot far better from the field in April than in February.
