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Southeast Notes: Hornets, Wade, Simons

June 10th, 2018 at 3:19pm CST by Austin Kent

If the Hornets are going to turn the fate of their franchise around, they’ll have to improve how they handle lottery picks. Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes that only one of their seven different top-11 picks since 2011 has been an All-Star.

Bonnell breaks down ex-general manager Rich Cho‘s underwhelming draft portfolio noting that beyond Walker, only one of the remaining six players they’ve drafted in the top-11 has even gone on to be a consistent starter (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist).

To Cho’s credit, Cody Zeller, Frank Kaminsky and Malik Monk can all be valuable rotation pieces for the foreseeable future but it’s hard to justify the selections of Bismack Biyombo and Noah Vonleh.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Pending free agent Dwyane Wade has not decided if he’s going to retire or not. If he returns, Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports tweets, he’d want to return with the Heat.
Not surprisingly, Anfernee Simons was particularly excited to work out for the Magic, the franchise with whom his namesake made his mark. John Denton of the team’s official site writes about the Florida native’s connection to the team and his decision to enter the draft directly out of prep school.
It’s official, the Hawks have made Melvin Hunt, Chris Jent, Greg Foster, Marlon Garnett and Matt Hill assistant coaches under new head coach Lloyd Pierce, the team announced on its website.

Southeast Notes: Olynyk, Hill, Wizards

June 2nd, 2018 at 11:58am CST by marksuleymanov

One year after being part of a Celtics team that made a strong push towards a championship, Heat forward Kelly Olynyk is upset that his season is over, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes. Miami was eliminated from the postseason by the Sixers in five games.

Olynyk signed a four-year pact with the Heat last summer as the Celtics shifted focus to acquiring Kyrie Irving and signing Gordon Hayward. Olynyk was honest in the fact that going home early was a disappointment, but that he is using it as motivation to come back stronger next season.

“Unfortunately, I wish it was us and it was something that makes you leave that taste in your mouth where you want that, you want to experience that,” Olynyk said. “I want that next year to be Game 5 [of the Eastern Conference finals] in Miami, at AmericanAirlines Arena, either playing them or somebody else. That’s the goal. That’s what it’s all about.”

In his first season with the Heat, Olynyk posted career-best totals of 11.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 76 games (22 starts).

Check out more Southeast Division notes below:

Matt Hill, the only assistant coach retained by the Magic from Frank Vogel‘s staff, is headed to the Hawks as an assistant coach, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Hill originally started as a video analyst in the Magic’s basketball operations department.
Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington examined the Wizards‘ possible draft strategy as the team prepares to select players for the first time since 2015. Hughes writes that Washington could use its first- and second-round picks to select either a modern big man, wing player or backup point guard.
It may be enticing for the Wizards to shop their first-round pick, but the team should learn from previous seasons and retain that pick to draft a young player, Hughes writes in a separate story.