Category: Charlotte Hornets Blog

The Charlotte Bobcats announced today that guard Gerald Henderson could miss approximately 2-4 weeks after further examination on his left foot confirmed the mid-foot sprain he suffered November 3 at Dallas.

Through two games, Henderson is averaging 12.5 points, 3.0 steals, 2.5 assists and 2.0 rebounds in 28.0 minutes.

According to the Charlotte Obsever, “I drove down the middle of the lane and got fouled. I slipped, and my foot kind of dragged on the ground and turned a little weird,’’ Henderson described. “I got up and felt something was wrong. I just couldn’t put a whole bunch of pressure on it, so I knew something was wrong.’’ The Bobcats will be scrambling to fill all the things Henderson does. Along with being the starting shooting guard he’s been the backup small forward this season. He’s third on the Bobcats in scoring at 12.5 points per game and sixth in the NBA in steals at three per game.”

Charlotte Bobcats President of Basketball Operations Rod Higgins announced today that the team has waived forwards Josh Owens and DaJuan Summers.  The Bobcats roster currently stands at 14 players.

Summers played in six preseason games, averaging 2.3 points and 1.8 rebounds in 7.5 minutes.  Owens did not see any game action in the preseason.

Bobcats Sports & Entertainment owns the Charlotte Bobcats and operates Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena.

Charlotte Bobcats President of Basketball Operations Rod Higgins announced today that the team has exercised the third-year options on forward Bismack Biyombo and guard Kemba Walker.

Biyombo was the seventh overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and his rights were acquired by the Bobcats from Sacramento in a three-team trade that also included Milwaukee. Biyombo appeared in 63 games with 41 starts as a rookie, averaging 5.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 23.1 minutes. He also led the team in rebounds and blocks last season. In seven preseason games this season, Biyombo has averaged 3.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks.

Walker was selected by the Bobcats with the ninth overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.  He appeared in 66 games as a rookie, averaging 12.2 points, 4.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 27.2 minutes. He also recorded the third triple-double in Bobcats history with 20 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds on Jan. 28, 2012 against Washington. In six preseason games this season, Walker has averaged 14.0 points, 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals.

Everyone who played in Charlotte last season is now part of history. They played on the worst team, record-wise, ever in the NBA. Now, unless they win one of their first four regular-season games, they’ll set the record for the longest losing streak this league has seen.

[Gerald] Henderson seemed to take that hardest among Bobcats last season. It’s counter to his nature.

“I’m not a loser. All my life I’ve been on winning teams,” Henderson reflected recently. “When you pretty much lose every game, and you’re trying hard, that’s a tough thing to take. That record, that’s not something I wanted any part of. We’re doing everything we can not to let that happen again.”

Following a 7-59 season there’s been abundant change: The Bobcats have a new coaching staff and five new players who figure to be in the rotation. The holdovers from last season see this as a fresh start.

Still, they’re on a 23-game losing streak, and that didn’t stop with last season. If they fail to win one of their first four regular-season games they’ll break the Cleveland Cavaliers’ record, set the season after LeBron James bolted out of Ohio.

— Reported by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer

Charlotte Bobcats President of Basketball Operations Rod Higgins announced today that the team has waived forward Jeff Adrien and guard Paris Horne.

The Bobcats roster now stands at 16 players.

NBA preseason began on Friday. The first Bobcats preseason game is Sunday afternoon against the Washington Wizards.

The Charlotte Bobcats have signed free agents Jeff Adrien, Paris Horne, Josh Owens and DaJuan Summers to their training camp roster.

A 6-7 forward, Adrien has appeared in 31 career NBA games over two seasons for the Warriors and Rockets, averaging 2.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in 8.3 minutes per game.  He played in eight games with the Rockets last season, averaging 2.6 points and 2.8 rebounds.

A 6-3 guard, Horne appeared in three games with the Bobcats Summer League team in Las Vegas, averaging 5.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 20.3 minutes. He spent the 2011-12 season with BG Gottingen in Germany, where he averaged 10.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 31.1 minutes in 40 games played.

A 6-8 forward, Owens appeared in four games with the Bobcats Summer League team in Las Vegas, averaging 5.0 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.8 minutes. Last season as a senior at Stanford, he was named Second Team All-Pac-12 after averaging 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds, while ranking third in the conference in field goal percentage (.571).

A 6-8 forward, Summers has appeared in 81 career NBA games over three seasons for the Pistons and Hornets, averaging 3.4 points and 1.0 rebound in 10.0 minutes per game.  The 35th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, he played in 15 games for the Hornets last season, averaging 4.5 points and 1.5 rebounds in 13.9 minutes.

The Bobcats training camp roster stands at 18 players.

Former Wake Forest forward Josh Howard is doing some workouts with the Charlotte Bobcats this week, president of basketball operations Rod Higgins confirmed.

The Bobcats’ interest in Howard is still exploratory, as they consider ways to fill out their roster. The Bobcats would like to have another power forward, and have previously considered Antawn Jamison, Kris Humphries, and Carl Landry, who all signed elsewhere. Howard, 6-7, has played both power and small forward.

— Reported by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer

The Charlotte Bobcats today named Dan Leibovitz and Brian Winters as assistant coaches on the staff of new Head Coach Mike Dunlap.  Leibovitz and Winters will join Stephen Silas and Rick Brunson, who officially signed with the team in July.

“It was important to me to put together a coaching staff that mirrors my coaching philosophy and one that will consistently challenge our players to get better each and every time they hit the basketball floor,” said Dunlap. “When I selected my staff I wanted to assemble a group that will care about the players, care about the team and love to teach the game of basketball.”

Brunson enters his fourth year as an NBA assistant coach after previously serving as a player development coach in Chicago (2010-12) and Denver (2006-07), where he first worked with Dunlap. Following his stint with the Nuggets, Brunson served as Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Virginia from 2007-09 before spending the 2009-10 season at the University of Hartford as an assistant coach under Leibovitz. A former standout player at Temple University under Naismith Hall of Fame coach John Chaney, Brunson played in the NBA for nine seasons, appearing in 337 games for eight different teams including Portland, New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Houston, the Los Angeles Clippers and Seattle. His ties to Dunlap also extended overseas in 1996, when he played for Dunlap with the Adelaide 36ers in Australia’s NBL.

Leibovitz brings over 16 years of collegiate coaching experience to Charlotte, joining the Bobcats from the University of Pennsylvania, where he spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater.  Prior to joining the Penn staff, he served as head coach at the University of Hartford from 2006-10.  Leibovitz also served as an assistant coach at Temple University for 10 seasons under John Chaney (1996-2006) and was named Best Assistant Coach in the Atlantic 10 by Street & Smith’s magazine in 2005. Leibovitz played collegiately at Franklin & Marshall College.

Silas is entering his 12th season as an NBA assistant coach and is the lone holdover from the previous coaching staff. He initially joined the Bobcats on December 26, 2010, after spending the previous four and a half seasons as an assistant coach in Golden State.  Prior to joining the Warriors, Silas served as an assistant coach with the Hornets (2000-03) and Cavaliers (2003-05) and as an advance scout with the Wizards (2005-06). Silas originally joined the Hornets in the summer of 1999 as an advance and college scout. Silas also played four seasons at Brown University.

Winters brings a wealth of experience to the Bobcats staff, having been an NBA head coach in Vancouver (1995-97) and Golden State (2001-02), in addition to serving as head coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever (2004-07).  His coaching career also includes time in Atlanta, Cleveland, Denver and Golden State, as well as a stint at Princeton University. The 12th overall pick in the 1974 NBA Draft after a collegiate career at the University of South Carolina, Winters played nine seasons in the NBA, appearing in 650 career games for the Lakers and Bucks with averages of 16.2 points, 4.1 assists and 2.6 rebounds.  He made two All-Star appearances and was selected to the NBA All-Rookie Team following the 1974-75 season.