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Dwight to Biyombo with a Side of Parker

Jul 08 2018 03:21 PM | Andrew Barraclough in Bismack Biyombo

The NBA league year thing is really bizarre to me. The free agency blitz that took place at midnight July 1 is some peculiar timing issue to prevent tampering or something but how could a guy sign at midnight on the button if he hasn’t talked to whatever team he’s signing with? So, remember back at the draft, which is in the end of the NBA year and picks can’t change hands until after the league year, but you’re making picks for the team you’re trading with? Weird.

We all have A.D.D. when it comes to news cycles. Right now, my brain is all NASCAR and a little World Cup. I thought the draft then free agency, I could turn my Hornets brain off. Not so fast my friends. I was at my brother in law’s birthday party yesterday and the evening news came on while we were eating and it showed Malik Monk reacting strangely when he found out, mid-interview that the Hornets had signed Tony Parker.

Do you go to family events, look at your phone maybe once and either your parents or your significant other, my fiancee screams at me “Put your damn phone away!” Ever happen to you? I love it. Like I’m a grown up. I can look at my phone it doesn’t mean I love you less. I’m a bit defensive and I’m sorry. Still, I have an app that alerts me when the Hornets make news. Tony Parker, like that was weird and I’m telling my brother in law about it, the trade news hits and my sister shouts “MMMBop Bah-Bango is back?!”

Bismack Biyombo was drafted by the Bobcats in 2011, at pick #7. 2 ahead of franchise player Kemba Walker. Great promise and some time, the Hornets let him walk at the end of his rookie deal. Orlando gave Biyombo a pretty hefty contract but as a new era begins in Orlando and Charlotte, the Magic drafted Mo Bamba and the Hornets moved Dwight Howard. It’s just strange coincidences now.

Dwight Howard was a locker room cancer, yeah he rebounded like a man on a mission and averaged a double double, only sitting one game all season. I thought trading him out of town was a good idea but bringing back Mosgov? Timofey was one of new GM Mitch Kupchak’s big mistakes in that summer where I think I got signed to a minimum deal in LA. So doubling down on a mistake on your new team? C’mon. Dwight’s whole thing of getting bought out in Brooklyn and going to Washington, that’s his issue.

The need for a veteran point guard or some size to back up Kemba now that he’s probably not going to be traded, became the priority. Everyone thought Tyreke Evans was headed here, or at least it was an option based on his brother saying something on a radio show in Memphis? Who knows. I didn’t see Tony Parker coming, at all. Tony Parker is a lifer in San Antionio, I guess folks thought he’d go the way of Tim Duncan and the way Manu Ginobili is going. I don’t know how much tread is left on those Michellins (those are French tires, get it?).

This Biyombo trade is blowing my mind. Mosgov and Jerian Grant to Orlando, Biyombo to Charlotte, Julyan Stone to Chicago. I have no idea what anyone gets out of any of these guys. Chicago is making money moves. Mosgov is probably going to help Mo Bamba more than Biyombo would. Biyombo is going to block some shots and pull down rebounds in place of Dwight Howard. But none of these guys is going to change the trajectory of any of these teams.

You have to look at the situation as a whole. Roster last year vs. roster this year. I think the sum total, the Hornets got younger, kinda, Parker definitely doesn’t help. OK, they got more French. I thought of the Dwight trade as addition by subtraction any way. I don’t know how much upside Biyombo really has.

Freeing up time, space, drama makes room for Cody Zeller, Frank Kaminski, Biz and whoever else wants to step into the Dwight void. Some day, I’d love a 30 for 30 on Dwight’s single year in Charlotte. I think there was such a change that pivoted on last season. The roster isn’t being overhauled as much as tweaked. But the vibe is so different.


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