Charlotte Hornets FALL to 4 In NBA Draft Lottery | Was it RIGGED? | Options at 4

Charlotte Hornets FALL to 4 In NBA Draft Lottery | Was it RIGGED? | Options at 4

Yeah, he did it. I don’t know what to say. It sucks. Every It’s pain. It’s pain right now. We got to voice the pain. All the realism, all the Well, they could take somebody nice at number four. We have what, like 30 days of that still. Like, we’ll get to all of that later. It sucks. It’s painful. We vent. It’s all today. Locked on Hornets. You are locked on Hornets. Your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. In a minute cuz we live. It’s Locked On Hornets, part of the Locked On Network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free. We’re available anywhere you get your podcast. That includes YouTube. There is a sulking Doug Branson. You can find him on a substack every hornetsboxcore.com. You can also listen to him on locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. We appreciate FanDuel. The most important thing you can do on FanDuel, the easiest win on FanDuel is to bet against the Hornets winning the lottery. You will make all of the money. You will make everything. Bet your house on it. This is my financial advice to you. Bet everything you have. Race. Race. Don’t walk. Don’t crawl. Run to your bank account. Withdraw everything. Put it in FanDuel for the Hornets to not get the first overall pick if such a prop exists and then reap the benefits of your pain. Because at least you can get rich. You can get stupid, filthy rich off of the misery that you have watching the Hornets lose the lottery. Look, we’re gonna give voice to all of Hey, at four overall, there are plenty of stars that have come out out of that selection. Russell Westbrook, man, MVP. There are so many. Oh my god, it’s Cody Zeller. Cody Zeller was there. How can you fail at four? We got 30 days of that. I will tell you, if you want to be realistic though, if you really do want to give voice to what Hornets fans are thinking today, and we have some power as content creators, people are coming to us to try to figure out what to think about this. They want to hear us vent. They want to hear all of it, right? But what I will tell you is the FanDuel text line, the world famous text line, as the results were coming in, Mark Tatum was revealing every single logo, it was on fire. It was ablaze. Lots of curse words, lots of asterisk for those that don’t necessarily even like typing out the curse words. A lot of them don’t care and they’ll just let it fly and it doesn’t really matter to them. And we’re talking about like, I don’t know, 10 text messages a second. Not every two seconds, a second. Hornets fans are mad. Hornets fans are really angry on my Twitter timeline, on the text line. I imagine the YouTube comment section is not going to be all that happy as well. They were not happy after the commercial break to see the Hornets logo revealed as the first logo while watching Philly get the third pick, San Antonio get the second pick, and the Dallas Mavericks got the first overall pick. It’s wild. It’s Nico Harrison, his job was just saved. The only way it could have been saved. This was the only way. The only way he was going to get fired. That was happening. That was a foregone conclusion. Unless this took place and it happened, Doug, you were there. Talk to me, buddy. How are you doing? Well, this is this is the game of Monopoly that you’re playing with your siblings and you have Boardwalk and you have Park Place and everyone is sitting just a few spaces before it and and all they need all they need is a six. If they get a six, then they’re home free. But 1 2 3 4 five and you have got their bleeps and they roll a six. That’s that’s what happened with Nico Harrison, but this isn’t locked on Mavs. Uh, you know, I thought as you were going through that and and the cameras came up, I thought, you know, a funny gag would have been for me to have a visual gag would have been for me to have the LJ Grandma glasses on and just slowly take them off. That was my good luck charm. And then, but then as the cameras are coming up, I’m thinking that and I go, “Oh, wait a minute. I’ve already packed that and the big dub hat in my suitcase like as soon as I came back to the joint from from the NBA lottery room. I was like, “All right, that stuff has to go away.” Maybe what you could have done is just had them sideways like you were disheveled and the sideways glasses, maybe just one frame covering one eye and that’s it. How was the experience? How was it trying to hold back your frustration in real time amongst all of these journalists with the utmost integrity here to cover the event? Everybody is professional and you have a lot of passion for the team that you cover. How was the experience up there in Chicago? Uh the experience is really cool. It’s, you know, going into the room it’s it’s a little bit egalitarian, more egalitarian than I thought. I thought the media people would be like shuffled into like a corner and and throw, you know, they throw us a couple of kernels of popcorn every now and then and all the VIPs would be up front, but they really just like unleash you into the room and you can I mean, there are a few sections that are blocked off. Obviously, the tables up front are for the executives and then they’ve got some uh player spots, you know, blocked off, but like I I got up pretty close to the front and got some good camera angles. You can see some pictures on every Hornets box score. So, the experience was cool right up until the moment when uh Mark uh was is it Mark Tatum, right? Mark Tatum rips Mark Tatum. Yeah. Yeah. He rips our hearts out. The annual bearer of bad news for the Hornets. Mark Tatum, you know, sneaky villain. Sneaky Hornets villain. Tobias Harris, right? Uh LeBron James when he plays Michael Jordan. Adam Silver for a lot of reasons. Mark Tatum, sneaky villain to the Charlotte Hornets organization. The There was a funny moment when Adam Silver was trying to get out of the room, you know, exit the room after the lottery was over and the ESPN broadcast is happening behind me and they’re they’re kind of on a raised stage, but the cameras are shooting down so you can see. And I guess Adam Silver was walking over the front row and he didn’t want to exit on camera. Like he didn’t want to be seen exiting on camera. Yeah. So he like ducked down. So and I’m I’m thinking like maybe he’s ducking down because he doesn’t want things thrown at him because of the result that we just saw, which is the Dallas Mavericks being bailed out. They’ve never Now to be fair, they’ve never won the first overall pick in the history of their franchise. They just happen to do it, you know, after they trade Luca Don. That only makes it worse, right? That that only makes it worse. Yeah. Yeah. owned by a a casino magnet. I’ll just leave I’ll just leave that. I want, you know, I’ll just leave that for you. And then the Spurs, my god, the luckiest bleeping franchise in all in the history of professional sports continues to get lucky and jump up to two. And then the Philadelphia 76ers of the three, you know, I actually feel for the Sixers who tried, you know, Daryl my crew, they are trying everything they can do to win and they just had their bodies uh that they had there break down in a in a very significant and sad way. So, you know, the the only worse outcome would have been if the New Orleans Pelicans had jumped into the four spot, knocking the Charlotte Hornets into the seven spot, or if just New Orleans would have been in the top three instead of Philly. That’s right. Those are so to me the third worst outcome happened and you have the Charlotte Hornets at least getting lucky. I don’t know if people I don’t we say this every lottery but I’m not sure that you know we get new listeners all the time and and I’m not sure people are aware of the process but when they select the lottery the pingpong ball combinations they pick they do that for the first pick and then they do it for the second pick and then they do it for the third pick and then they do it for the fourth pick. So it’s not it’s not necessarily that you’re falling. It’s that you just you fall by virtue of you didn’t get one of those slots. And so the Hornets, you know, lucky in some respects that they at least were in four because had some other team jumped to four, then the Hornets would be picking seventh. It was a wild lottery when the results were coming in from 14 through five, it was already jumbled up and we were already understanding a couple of these teams had already jumped up to the top four. So, you felt good and I look hosting at the draft lottery watch party at Legion Brewing. Okay, you probably have seen some clips because media was there to cover it. It was a Hornets put on event and a lot of people were there. Packed house, man. Hornets fans, they wanted good things. There were a lot of people that showed up. So, I was broadcasting for WFNZ, the radio show there. We were doing a whole live thing. We had Terrence Beyond, Paul Bardi, a couple of other guys. What? What was the reaction like in the I’m interested because I I want to tell you what the reaction was like in the in the room in Chicago, but you What was the reaction by the Hornets fans? Yeah, I’m very interested in that as well. I’ll go first. Yeah, it was pain like that. That’s what it was. It’s silence or it was an audible gasp, right? Like it it was it was exasperation from the fans. It was audible. Uh you could hear it. You can see some of the clips. Again, media is covering it now. The Hornets aren’t going to release it. If you get the first overall pick, then all you have to do is go to the Hornets website or the Hornets Twitter account and they would reveal it. This is a celebration. That is the payoff for putting on an event like this. And I do think it’s worth the risk, right? The payoff to get the number one overall pick is worth the event. Even if all of the other outcomes, 86% there’s a chance of you not getting that first overall pick. And so that’s what happened. And then you get the audible gasp, the exasperation of everybody that our microphones pick up, that media is able to pick up. So, I believe Nick Carboni was there from WCNC. Hunter Bailey was there from the Charlotte Observer to cover it. Lots of people and people were not happy. Excited. Get to the commercial break. We last all the way from 14 through 5. We don’t see the Hornets logo. Hell yeah, baby. Anticipation. Everybody’s excited. And then, of course, it’s the first logo opened up in that envelope that Mark Tatum was handling. That was the reaction. And then we saw the teams ahead of him. When I gave you my top five list on Wes and Walker of the teams I would most hate to see get the number one pick, all but the New Orleans Pelicans were up there and Utah. Utah wasn’t in there either, but San Antonio was second on my list. Philly was Dallas was third. Philly was fourth. And they’re all New Orleans is the only worst outcome. New Orleans, if they get the first overall pick, I can’t handle it. Three first overall picks since 2012. And we haven’t had one since 1991. They stole our team. lots of reasons. That would be the only worst outcome in my opinion in terms of who would get first overall. What was the reaction in your room? Uh yeah. Well, let me just speak to that and then maybe we can talk about the reaction in in Chicago um after after the break. But let me let me just speak to what h what what you just described there because I think what people are experiencing is both sort of the irrational reaction to losing a lottery, but it is a lottery, right? I mean, the odds are flattened, but even if the odds weren’t flattened, the winner was a 1.8% chance. I mean, that could happen in a that that could happen in any scenario, whether the Hornets had a 25% chance of the number one overall pick or a 14% chance. It has happened in lots of scenarios to this team. Well, in fact, you know, I think Chicago won a lottery with like really low odds. They ended up they end up and and where’s Derrick Rose from? Is he from Oh, he’s from Chicago. He’s from Chicago. Yeah. Yeah. I think this happened to the Cavs, too, after they lost LeBron. Um and and they got the number one anyway. U well well yeah it happened in 03. We can do the we we can do the lottery rigged conversation next segment. Well okay we’ll say we’ll save that but let me let me speak because let me speak to the pain because I think what a lot of people are feeling there is they haven’t the Hornets haven’t been in the playoffs in 10 in almost 10 years right I mean they they wanted this they needed this to to go on because it’s been so long. And so, you know, that’s that’s the message I think that needs to get to Schlotkin is like, why were people act reacting to this in pain? Would they have been reacting this way had the Hornets not gotten blown out in both of those playin games and moved into some kind of postseason action, even if it meant they were going to get swept in a first round? Like, fans need something to believe in. They need something to go on. And so all this talk about sustainability and wanting to make the playoffs multiple years by not actually making the playoffs, it all comes it it all hits this uh you know head-on collision with fans who are just sick and tired of losing. And so that’s that’s I think Schlotkin needs to like I hope there was a camera feed going and I hope that Schlotkin just rewinds and plays the reaction to that clip and and let it be a message to this to this organization. Get get some postseason action so that people have something to believe in. right ex so that people have something to believe in besides a freaking lottery with 14% odds. That’s absurd that fans have to cling on to that. And I don’t blame fans for doing that. I blame an organization that has been uh complacent and and and giving their fans those kinds of odds. Yeah, they’re not off the hook entirely. I have more thoughts as to why there’s so much that is hinged on the lottery um that we can get through all of that. Still lots to get through. Coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. Everywhere. More lottery reaction. We’ll have the is the NBA lottery rigged? Is it rigged? We have another mock draft. We don’t have any more simulations. We know what pick we have. We do have more mock drafts. That’s all still to come. Locked on Hornets. This episode is brought to you by Hungry Root. Everyone in my house always has something going on. I got like three dogs and a girlfriend. That’s who I have in my house. But everybody’s always got something going on. I call this busy season. I don’t have a lot of time to go grocery shopping or to cook healthy meals uh meals at home. That’s why I use Hungry Root. 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You’re right. This is something that I brought up with you helping me out as well with the whole Pacers point with them having a chance to get to their 10th conference finals appearance since 9394. I got the years wrong by the way yesterday. Just a little correction. It’s been since 1993 1994 that they’ll have been 10 times if they just win one more game against the Cavs. But still, that again averages out about a conference finals appearance every 3 years, which is absolutely ridiculous, especially because we’re covering a team that’s never been there despite their existence since 1988, a couple years break. You get the idea. The Pacers get there without having a number one overall pick. They get there because Danny Granger is a smart pick at 17. They get there because Paul George is a smart pick at 10. When Paul George demands out, they flip him for Victor Oladipo and Damontes Sabonis. When it’s time to move on from Sabonis, they flip him for Tyrese Hallebertton, who might just be a two-time AllNBA player at the uh age of under 25. They make a lot of smart moves. The Hornets have the capability of getting to the promised land with the resources that they have. So, they are not off the hook, right? They are culpable in why Hornets fans feel this way. But Colin brought up a good point on the draft lottery show last night. The Hornets are often the butt of the joke. They catch so many strays. Whether it’s Jason Tatum preaching to a group of campers that you got to play hard every night. It doesn’t matter if it’s Madison Square Garden on a Saturday night or if it’s at the Spectrum Center against the Hornets on Tuesday. People are there to see you, not the Hornets. People are there to see you. Whether it’s Jason Tatum, whether it’s Zack Low is who is talking about bad teams and then consistently thinks of the Hornets as one of those bad teams. And he’s right because they are consistently one of those bad teams. They are so many times the butt of the joke and they’ve done a lot of that to themselves. And then there’s this part where you are in a position to possibly get a first overall pick yet you don’t get it in 2012 despite having the worst record of all time and quite literally being the worst basketball team of all time. and then you don’t get it instead of the New Orleans Pelicans who do and they’ve gotten it a couple times since 2012, including the drafts that have the generational talents with them in Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis. And the Hornets haven’t gotten the first overall pick since 1991. The team has been taken away. You know, there’s been so many things that have been also out of the Hornets control, I think. And I think that’s where the frustration comes in, too. There’s been a lot that has been within their control. They’ve done this to themselves. Three owners. Okay, they’ve had three owners that are a part of the top 10 worst owners of all time list. That’s going to cause a lot of damage. But also results like this, it feels a little like destiny. And I think that’s why you have the sickness, the hope that we’ve used as some kind of branding for some of the segments that we do. Well, they have a coach in Charles Lee who and one of his apherisms is control what you can control. And I would say run that up the chain, buddy. tell tell the ownership group. Tell Jeff Peterson. That’s not a critique of them. That’s they’re they’re early in the process that they are yet to be judged on a lot of this stuff. But that’s what I would tell them. Control what you can control. Look at Indiana. There are a couple of other examples in the NBA of teams that said, “All right, we’re not going to leave our Look, the NBA the NBA basketball gods are dead and Ernston Young killed them.” Like I don’t I don’t know if you think the lottery is rigged or not, but who do you trust less? Ernster Young. That’s That’s what I’m saying. They they don’t call him earnest and young. Don’t do that. I I laugh to keep from crying. That’s um we’re fine. Everything’s okay. Yeah. So, you know, control what you can control. You can control how much you invest in the team and what players you go out and get. Now, now with that control comes risk. You you can be wrong. Um but you can also be right. So, yeah. And we’ll get to more of what they can do at four. You know, I think they can still get a very talented player at four. I mean really honestly you look at first team allNNBA and it’s full of guys that were drafted in the 11 to 15 range forget four. Russell Westbrook was at four. You mentioned him VJ Edgecomb getting a lot of Russell Westbrook comparisons pro comps there. Uh, so yeah, I mean, you know, a lot to still be decided here, but I think the message to take away if you’re the Charlotte Hornets or honestly, if you’re the New Orleans Pelicans or you’re the Washington Wizards or the Utah Jazz, the the the message to take away here is win, baby, win, and let everything else fall how it falls. But this whole idea of losing on purpose or having some, you better be willing to do it for like four or five years, these short-term rebuilds, it’s that’s not an option. You either need to just win or get prepared for like four or five years of this nonsense and that’s going to hollow out your fan base. You want to have the rigged conversation. I to me that conversation is less interesting because you can’t prove anything. To me, the more interesting conversation is the should the should the NBA reconsider how the lottery is structured because they flatten the odds. You know, I was looking this up. It used to be when the lottery was first instituted, the odds were the odds were completely flat. There were like nine envelopes, nine teams in the lottery at the time in like the mid 80s and they just picked, you know, they picked names and they picked, you know, that was it. There were no percentage chances or ping pong balls and it’s gotten more complicated and oscillated between like 25% odds for the number one team to what we to what we have now. And you know, there are a lot of people now howling, oh, how is this going to, you know, work for competitive balance? And maybe there’s an argument east west because a lot of West teams suddenly jump up and and now there’s a Giannis to Mavericks or Giannis to San Antonio conversation that’s going to happen, right? Lots on the table. So, so maybe there, but I, you know, the NBA is as competitive as it’s ever been. Parody is here and a lot of that is due to the CBA. So, I don’t get I don’t get that argument. And I think it has prevented teams from going from as many teams losing on purpose because the Hornets and the Pelicans were just struck by injuries. They didn’t mean to be in this conversation. They just happened to be there. And uh the but you know, you had the Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz that definitely lost on purpose, but that’s two teams. We we too often forget why these lottery why these lottery odds were flattened in the first place. It was because like six or seven teams were doing what Utah and Washington were doing and it was absurd and I don’t want to go back to that. Yeah. So, and okay, rigged conversation. Just to quickly address that. I know it’s not rigged. I know it’s not. There’s there’s there’s not a logical part in my being I’m not 100% convinced. I mean, look, a logical part of my brain says no. And I saw 14 beat writers who would love nothing more than to tell a story about how it was rigged and break the story of the century. They go down to observe all of this stuff and and Ernstston Young is a is a like big four accounting firm although accounting scandals happen. Hello. But like the logical part of my brain says it’s not. But also there’s still a not insignificant part that says this is an entertainment product with lots of money on the line and you know okay. Yeah. No. Yeah. Right. Is there have they I’ve gone with an Oceans 11 reference off camera. I’m going to go with one on camera now. But if you get to Oceans 13, yes, I actually went through Oceans 12 and 13 a couple weekends ago. Solid choice. I did not regret it after my love for Oceans 11. I was scared that that was going to dissipate, but it didn’t. Oceans 13, they manipulate the machines and the dice. And so maybe you could manipulate the ping pong balls to go a certain way. Even if everybody is watching it, we were all watching the dice be rolled at the craps tables in Oceans 13. And somehow they just shifted a certain way for everybody to get a payday. in this case, Nico get a payday. But I’m with you. Uh I guess there is a part of it. I I just I can’t find it within myself to truly make the argument that the NBA is rigged. However, you can’t you have no evidence. You can’t make the argument. All you could do is based on vibes and I don’t it’s but I I would say this. I wrote this for every Hornets box score. Like this is the perfect draft order for this age of like naked in-your-face corruption that we live in. And I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on. you feel that there is something a miss. You feel that there is something corrupt going on in the system. And that that is just the general feeling in this country. And so to have this happen where those three teams line up, it is just like it made me laugh and it made other people in the room laugh. There wasn’t an audible gasp in Chicago. There was not a stunned silence as the ESPN broadcast I think said. There was laughter, nervous laughter. The kind of laughter that happens when the violence in a movie gets so ridiculous that you can do you all you can do is laugh when when things go so incredibly wrong and it feels wrong. It feels dirty and all you can do is laugh. It’s satire. It’s scary movie. It’s Cabin in the Woods. That’s why we’re laughing because it gets to such a ridiculous point. So that was going to be my point. However, if you were a conspiracy theorist, this is I think the exact order I would present to you as to why the NBA draft lottery is rigged. I think I would put Dallas number one. I’m not even trying to speak with any kind of, you know, vague language. Well, you know, put Dallas in the top four somewhere. No, this is the exact order I would present to you if I were to argue that it was rigged. I would argue that Dallas would be number one with the Nico stuff. San Antonio would be number two and that Philly would be number three and then whatever. Hordets just catch a stray, right? It’s, you know, they catch a piece of shrapnel and they’re it’s a civilian death. It this we didn’t want to kill you, but you kind of just died. And this is what happened with the Hornets getting the fourth overall pick. The main objective was to get Dallas the first selection, San Antonio the second, and Philly the third. The other part about the raid combo, so I guess we are having it before we just move on. This is going to be a longer one, people. We’re grieving and then we move on, but we got to have our time to grieve. So, I said this yesterday, Doug, I know that there are lots of smarter people than me in the association making lots of big- time decisions. Okay, there a lot of smart people. I also know how the world works and there are people that I’m pretty confident are dumber than me in the association that make decisions. Just because these people get to these positions of power, I have learned in my over 30 years of age now that that doesn’t necessarily equate to IQ points and you being smarter than everybody else. I think a long play, a great long pay play for the NBA if they did have control over this sort of thing. If this was truly rigged, the long play would be to make these small market teams better because teams like the Knicks, who is as big of a market as you could possibly get up there in New York City, they haven’t won anything for so long until this year and yet they have a rabid fan base because nobody is going to leave among the bigger market franchises in NBA history. The Lakers, they weren’t great for a while. They had star power, but they weren’t great for a little while. But nobody’s leaving Lakers fandom. People will leave the Charlotte fandom. People will leave New Orleans fandom. People will leave the small market teams. So, I would think you would be incentivized to invest in some of the smaller market teams like a Charlotte who has shown you time and time and time and time again, they will show up if you give them a product worth rooting for. They were four games above 500 last year. That’s it. They didn’t even get to 45 victories. They had Gordon Hayward, Terry Roier, and a young LaMelo. They were four games above 500 and attendance was rock solid. They’ll show up. We of course had the attendance records for all those years and then the team was taken away from us. Wouldn’t it be smart? Wouldn’t it benefit the association to invest again in the city of Charlotte so you could have as many fans there as possible because you don’t have to worry about New York? People ain’t leaving. People ain’t going to leave. The Lakers, people are going to show up. That’s not true for your small markets. So, that’s my that’s my thing. If it was rigged, I hope that there are enough IQ points in the decision-m process within the association that they would think of that that they wouldn’t just say, “Oh, oh, big market, good talent. Let’s match them together.” I would hope that there’s a little bit more thought to this. But why why would they why would they think that? I I No, I get all but but they don’t have to. I I don’t and I I just I think like we are again they could do this in your they could Adam Silver could walk out and say like this is all rigged and I don’t I don’t think he would be punished for it. That’s the we we live in an age of naked corruption. Well the owners Yeah. I mean of course but yeah I mean we we wouldn’t like it. Well who cares? That’s what I’m saying. Like who cares? As long as as long as Vegas is happy as long as the NBA owners are happy who cares. All right let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. You’re not getting hopeful, dog, today. Oh, I hit the wrong button. So did Adam. You hit the wrong button. The Hornets logo was supposed to be there. You hit the wrong ping pong button. Everywhere. They’re everywhere. We have a mock draft for you. We’ll finish up some of the lottery convo. Maybe we start to move on to some fourth overall stuff. Who could be there? What what kind of questions are going to be the most important questions leading up to the selection process? That’s all still to come next segment. LOH. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing. I promise Hornets fans, the NBA playoffs, they’re still a thing. I highly encourage you to check them out. They’ve been awesome. Every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends, and same game parlays. Fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. So, what players are showing up in the biggest moments? How could tracking their trends help you build your next bet? You can pay attention to all of this stuff on FanDuel and then put money on the line. Maybe a $200 bonus bet is something that you want to go with as well. They offer it. If you’re new to FanDuel, it’s the perfect time to sign up. Head to fanduel.com, place your first $5 bet, and if it wins, then you’ll get your $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. I want to make the case. I don’t think it’s rigged. I know I I Doug, I know you have some part of your brain that believes it. It just might be. I don’t believe it is, but again, it is hilarious that these results came in. Like I I’m with you. Like Doug, honestly, 100% with you in terms of my reaction to watching Dallas get the first pick. I was angry at Charlotte getting the fourth. I wanted Cooper flag. Everything that comes with it, like it it changes I I don’t want to be dramatic. It changes a lot of what we do. there there’s a very personal investment for us having done this podcast for so long having Cooper flag it changes so much of what we do so people have to understand that when we react this way okay with all that being said it’s hilarious it’s exorcism head spinning eyes going chameleon one way the other way 180° spinning it’s all of that watching Dallas win the lottery for the first time. And then just a sneak peek, I’ll give you a hint. If you watch Won if you listen to Weson Walker, if if you do that at all, I’m going to go foul line today, which is our basically rant segment. And it’s not necessarily going to be against the NBA, Doug. It’s going to be against Dallas Mavericks fans who are commenting and saying, “Oh my god, we deserve this.” Nick Angststead of the Locked on Mavs podcast said that their fan base deserved it more than anyone. I saw that. I know. I know Nick. I’ll just say this. I’ll pull the curtain back. I know Nick. I know. And I know that he knew what he was doing when he said that. I don’t think he in his heart of hearts believes that. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. And I applaud him for it. I applaud him for it because I would have done the same thing. Oh, I know. I know. I know all of it. He See, it’s like I love cheese so much. I can’t help but go get it and then get my back snapped in half. I but I I know I know I’m about to get my back snapped, but I want the cheese. Damn it. I want it. And I know I know what Nick is doing. Part of me in our text in our trio group chat that we’ll have when Nick needs to send out something for us to do on the show or whatever. I I do remember when he said that they’ve been going through more pain the last five months since the trade than the Hornets fans have during that time, which I guess is true. But what I don’t want to hear is that I don’t want to hear Nick, no, the Horn the Mavs fans, they deserve this more than anybody. They don’t. Oh my god. Oh my god. They just They just had a generational player. They g They gave him away. They didn’t lose. They just got to the finals. They gave him away. They just got to the final. I can’t. You just got to the finals. I’m sorry. You just put up a statue of Dirk Nitzky. Sorry you had a good enough player to have a freaking statue. You won the championship in 20. That’s for the foul line. That’s for the foul line. Anyways, all that to say, uh I think that’s the craziest part. This was the only thing that could save Nico’s job. It’s the only thing. And it happened. It’s wild. Dallas getting the first overall pick. the first three here. It’s It’s unbelievable that the lottery results played out the way they did. Uh ESPN has the Charlotte Hornets in the fourth position. They’ve updated their mock draft. Phony Gabon and Woo. Uh they have the Hornets selecting VJ Edgecomb number four. Ace Bailey goes three to the Sixers. Hornets take VJ Edgecom at four. But here’s this is a two- round mock. Here’s what’s more interesting to me is and we’ll get into VJ Edgecom and all this stuff. We promise we’re on every day, folks. So, we can’t cover it all today, but we’re going to get to it later in the week. Um, so Ryan Calbrinter at 33 for the Hornets and then Max Reo at 34. So, after I get off, they give us both. Oh, wow. Double double centers. Double centers who offer something the Hornets haven’t had a lot of over the last few years. Um, that would be extremely exciting to me. I would love doing double centers there with Calc and Reo. And actually when I get off here, I’m gonna run down to the Win Trust Arena and learn try to learn some more about these prospects and try to talk to as many people as I can to figure some of this stuff out. But um yeah, edge come four, there’s still a lot of possibilities for the Hornets to move. I don’t I don’t think moving down makes any sense. I think when you’re talking about the Mavericks and the Spurs probably fighting it out for the right to trade for Giannis, if if the Mavs win that fight and he goes to Dallas, then San Antonio’s got to get rid of that two pick. They have to. And if they’re not going to do it for Giannis, could they do it for the four and some kind of package that the Hornets could put together? Because the San Antonio Spurs do not need another point guard. They’ve got two of them in uh Dear Fox and Stefan Castle. They don’t need Dylan Harper. So, if the Hornets wanted to add another guard next to LaMelo Ball, you know, I I think that’s that’s an option worth exploring, or even if they wanted to do a smaller deal to Philly, who probably doesn’t need another young player to move up to three and just control their own destiny so that they can take the player that they want to take at three, then I think that’s an option worthy of exploring, too. So, there’s a lot in front of us. This this draft, I’ll say this, man. I mean, obviously, I feel the pain, but this draft is at least still exciting. It’s still exciting because if they had if they had fallen to seven, really all you’d be hearing me talk about is how to trade back and that’s no fun. It’s never fun to trade back. Now we can talk about trading up. We can because look, if if Washington had gotten the two pick, they’re taking Dylan Harper and they’re running away. If anybody other than, you know, San Antonio and Dallas fall under the one two, you’re not having those conversations. So now it at least gets interesting. Yeah. Um All right, final thoughts here. one, I I know you wanted to have the conversation about whether they should get rid of the lottery system. I I don’t know if I It’s a boring take. I’m a radio host. I shouldn’t be doing this. This is not doing my job. I don’t know if I have a a strong enough take on it right now. I think what’s happening is teams are still tanking, right? I don’t think it’s just the two teams that are egregiously tanking. I think the Raptors also displayed quite an egregious way of tanking when they would have these winning opportunities and then they would set starters in the second half. I think that was a very much so a scenario of these teams tanking. The problem is the system is not deterring the teams from doing it. They are punishing them, but they’re not deterring the teams from doing it. And I think that’s what we’ve seen over the last couple of years. The NBA lottery, it’s been telling you it doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the first, second, third overall pick. So teams continue to look at the odds. They know what the odds are, and the math will still tell you it’s better to have a 14% chance. And so let’s go fight for that 14% chance and not just settle for a 6% chance, right? If we can only lose a couple more games and then we can get the 14% shot, well then let’s go get it. So the math is the math and yet the results have not deterred people from tanking. They’ve punished them. So this is the question you have to ask. Are you okay with punishing those teams or do you want to see change in the way that basketball is played? Because right now it hasn’t worked. actually think if this continues to happen, Doug, maybe you just need to have this lottery system in place for a couple more years and then finally after getting beat in the head a couple of times and saying, “Hey, stop touching the hot stove. Stop touching the hot stove or you’re going to get burned.” Maybe maybe they finally realize it, but the teams haven’t realized it yet. And this is why I think if you are a believer in the system, it might take a couple more years, but so far it hasn’t deterred the way that teams have been playing basketball down the stretch, but it has punished them. It has punished them for the way they’ve played basketball down the stretch. Um, that’s my take on that. Well, that’s human nature. I mean, you you need you need to be hit in the head a bunch of times before, you know, luckily we’re not all rats and we don’t have our back snap the first time we go for the cheese. We have opportunities to fail over and over again and sometimes you succeed up like Nico Harrison. But I I would say that I would disagree with you in that I I I remember what it was like when it was eight or nine teams all trying to hustle all the way down to the bottom and it was absurd. At least now there are you’re right that you know Toronto did some some weird stuff at the end there. It’s more than two. Brooklyn was doing it too. Brooklyn was not trying to win. Right. But it’s le it’s less than what it it’s less than what it was. The playin has a factor here. I like the idea of first 50 games your losses count and then the last 32 your wins count. I want teams to prioritize winning. I don’t you know I don’t want regulation like in soccer where teams just go away. I mean that’s that’s how it’s handled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I would like some regulation on this. I would like some more regulations on this draft lottery. regulators mount up. Warren G is begging for the regulators to mount up here. We need some I don’t want relegation. I just want these teams to win. I want them to prioritize winning. I want Charlotte to continue to prioritize winning and you you still have two star, you know, potential stars on your team in Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball. It’s time to prioritize winning. And even if you fail to make the playoffs, if you prioritize winning, good things are going to happen. and good things could still happen in the draft lottery as evidenced uh by the past couple of seasons. I I agree with that spirit especially now. Like I I understand if you wanted to go after Cooper, but I agree with that spirit. Let’s let’s let’s do something here. Final I I wanted to give just one or two questions to set us up for the conversations to be had. Doug, I think now as we move on, right, as we transition to what can the Hornets do at four, I think there’s going to be the trade questions. What do you do? We’ll have plenty of those. Ultimately, if they stand Pat, I think this is the question. Who do you like between Trey Johnson, Ace Bailey, and VJ Edgecomb? I don’t think Coniple is going to get there. I I I like Khan Canipple. I don’t think he’s going to be in the conversation as much. He came in at 6’5 at the combine. It’s a big deal. I think people thought he was going to stand around like 66 and change, which, you know, I get it. It’s only an inch, whatever, but he was like listed at 67 or something like that at matter. They do. Ace Bailey learned that as well. Yikes. Oh, buddy. I do think though at four it’s it’s going to be between Trey Johnson, VJ Edgecomb, and Ace Bailey is going to be in there somewhere. I think it comes down to those three. If you stand, Pat, do you have a question to set us up for the rest of the way? Well, and I think, you know, on measurements, I think that VJ Edgecomb came in a little bit taller than people were thinking. People were scared he was going to come in at like 6’2 or 6’3, and he came in at 6’5. So, uh, that 6’4 without shoes. 6’4 without shoes. Oh, 6’4 without shoes. Excuse me. Yeah. But but that’s still good. Your your point is still true. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not 6’2. Uh, so it’s it’s interesting and I think that makes the conversation a little bit more interesting on VJ Edgecom. I I think a lot of it’s going to come down to you’re going to have one player in Trey Johnson who is going to immediately help your offense, but how much does he need the ball? and VJ Edgecomb is going to immediately help your defense. How much can you trust him with the ball? I don’t and and the thing is I don’t know that we can really confidently answer any of those questions. I I think it’s really going to be what does this organization want to prioritize and I think too a lot of it’s going to have to do with how much do they trust LaMelo Ball moving forward because if you trust LaMelo Ball a lot then you probably go VJ Edgecom. If you don’t trust him as much, then you might want to look at a guy like Trey Johnson who could project who has some point guard abilities, could project out as a guy who could take a lot of possessions in the future. I did a lot of whining. I did a lot of complaining. This is the episode to do that the day after the lottery, but something that you and I have talked about. Hornets can’t let this be an excuse. It’s not an excuse. Well, we only got the fourth overall pick. This is why we suck. No, can’t be an excuse. Jeff Peterson told you to his credit, this is why we do what we do. This is where all the talent evaluation process comes into play so we don’t get the easy pick of Cooper and just call it a day. We got to do some work and hopefully they make the right decision. They don’t pick the darko. Sam Farber said somebody’s going to pick the darko which I love. I told him I’m stealing it. Here I am stealing it. Somebody’s going to pick the darko in the top five. The darko milichornets. It can’t be you. No, I mean, you have to nail these and and and someday they’re going to be good enough to pick in the, you know, either late lottery or right outside of the lottery. And they have to nail those picks, too. Like that’s the look at Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. Obviously, they got lucky with the or not lucky, I mean, they they were bad and they got Chad Hongren, right? And that that’s great, but also they made the trade for Shay. Uh JDub, Isaiah Joe was a low pick that they traded and got from somebody else. Like, I mean, you know, Yeah. Jub was 12. Yeah. Yeah. All of this stuff matters. It all matters. And so at least we walk away from this. Had this happened under the Mitch Cupjack regime and Michael Jordan. You would have seen a different You would have seen a hopeless a completely hopeless Doug. But I’m not hopeless today. I’m just I’m just disappointed. Could have been worse. No doubt. Could have been worse. All right, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast. I love that being the dismount. Could have been worse. I love it. Doug Branson, locked on NBA. Every hornetsboxcore.com. Man, I’m excited for Doug. He’s having a good time in Chicago. He’s saying what’s up to Zack Low. He’s giving you the slow play to build some of these relationships. He’s out doing big stuff. So, go check him out, man. Every hornetsboxcore.com. And you’re going to be covering what’s going down at the combine as well. Correct. I’m going to going to do my I really I’m going to put my focus on this. Well, two things. Trey Johnson and uh VG Edgecomb. I want to get some intel from as many people as possible on the differences of those two guys and and some of the may I mean I got to find out about some of these intangibles because I think that’s going to matter to the Charlotte Hornets and then I want to learn more about these centers who ESPN has the Hornets taking. Uh Cal Rener and Max Reo. So yeah, I’m going to do my best to learn as much as I can. I don’t think Max Reo is going to be there. I think he’s going to rise like hell. So that’s going to suck, but we’ll see. I’m excited, man. Doug, that’s some awesome stuff. Go check Doug out cuz he’s doing a lot of stuff. Every hornets boxcore.com locked on NBA. Check him out. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me. I I got a few more rants in me. Wesson Walker, sports radio 927 WFNZ from 12 to 3:00 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow.

The Charlotte Hornets land the 4th pick in a chaotic NBA Draft Lottery, and emotions are running high. We break down the fan pain, explore trade-up scenarios, and ask if the lottery is rigged—plus what the Hornets must do next.

The ping pong balls didn’t bounce Charlotte’s way—again. In this emotional post-lottery episode, Walker and Doug give voice to the pain Hornets fans are feeling after the team secured the 4th overall pick while the Mavericks, Spurs, and Sixers all jumped ahead. Was it rigged?

Doug shares his firsthand experience from the draft lottery room in Chicago, including wild behind-the-scenes moments with Adam Silver and Hornets brass. Meanwhile, Walker recaps the stunned reaction at the Hornets’ lottery party at Legion Brewing—where hope quickly turned into heartbreak.

Despite the gut punch, the guys look forward. What are the early names to watch at #4? Is it VJ Edgecombe, Ace Bailey, or Tre Johnson? Could the Hornets package a deal to move up? We also break down ESPN’s updated mock draft and the potential value of the Hornets’ second-round picks, including intriguing big men like Ryan Kalkbrenner and Max Reynaud.

Finally, we explore what the Hornets need to do to stop relying on lottery luck and start building like the Pacers—through smart moves, not ping pong prayers.

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