Hornets MUST Copy Pacers’ Strategy | Miles Bridges’ ROLE Raises Eyebrows | 2018 Mock Draft Revisited

Hornets MUST Copy Pacers’ Strategy | Miles Bridges’ ROLE Raises Eyebrows | 2018 Mock Draft Revisited

Oh my god. How did the Pacers do it? Choke 2.0. The Hallelujah in MSG. I don’t even know what we’re calling it. We can call it insane is what we can call it. How did the Pacers do it? They went back to the 2020 draft. Well, to get all the players from that draft and end up winning game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. We’ll find the local angle. We’ll try to figure out how the Hornets can copy what the Pacers are doing. We’ll have a conversation about Miles Bridges and we’ll bring you another mock draft. All today locked on Hornets. Who did the Hornets draft in 2020? 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. [Music] 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 and available anywhere you get your podcast. And that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. Every Hornetsboxcore.com. Also locked on NBA. I’m Walker Mile. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. And he hadn’t shown up yet until now. Natada Edwards, family member, an OG, an LOG is what he is. The producer of the ION college basketball podcast. He often joins us to talk about some of the prospects that the Hornets could be selecting in the NBA draft. We have some other things to discuss today, but we’ll still get to some of the college basketball stuff. Nata, how are you doing after what was a wild game one last night in the Eastern Conference Finals? I’m still like I was stuck staring at the ceiling for a little bit just watching how crazy that ending was because quite literally is I thought that game was over. I was prepared to go to bed and then I look at Twitter and it’s like, hey, the Aaron Nmith is going off and I’m like, okay, let me turn this back on. And then they close and Tyrese Hallebertton and watching the Knicks do what they naturally do and they’ve been doing since I was a child. Choke the game away against that team since you were a child. Against that team, they’ve been doing it since you were a child. Doug, as host of Locked on NBA, you you often try to sift through some of the nonsense even though everything is important about that game, but what are your questions today for Matt and Hayes? Like what when you’re hosting locked on NBA for that game, which is I’m going to produce this for you. Go ahead and lead locked on NBA with Pacers Knicks game one. What are the questions and the topics that you’re talking about and answering? Yeah, we try to do a a highly like indepth show really dig into the weeds of of basketball and and figure things out. So my question to the group chat last night was how just how how do they what how who how that’s how h how is how. Uh I just it was it was nuts. It’s one of those games I’ll always remember. One of the craziest playoff games I’ve ever seen in my life. Uh what N Smith just at some point he’s going to miss a shot. There’s going to be one of these threes that he’s he’s going to miss. He’s going to go five of six like and it’s going to be an incredible finish for N Smith, but at some point he’s going to miss one and they couldn’t afford to do it. And so this was going to be a real comeback, but really a fake comeback. Except he hit every single shot. And then Hallebertton hit his ridiculous shot with the choking sign. And then Oh my god. Oh my god. I I wonder how many riders are out there saying Jim Ers dropped it off the bounce from the heavens. I wonder how many riders are going with that today. RIP Jim Ers. But are you doing the six-man thing? Marlin is still alive. Yes. Yes. Dean Hardison is still alive. We’re not doing the six man today. Uh but but it it happened. The Pacers, they they win game one. Doug, you had one more point on that before we find the local angle on this. Well, I have the local angle. I have one local angle on this. And well, first of all, I think that the Hallebertton shot, if it had gone in and it had it been for the win, I think we would have called it the ICBM shot because that’s the trajectory it took. It was like an intercontinental ballistic missile back down to Earth. And but the local angle is this for me. Aaron Nesmith is what everyone promised me Malik Monk was going to be. That’s what everyone Yeah. Yeah. That’s what that’s what everyone said. This is Malik Monk. This is what he’s going to do. Wow. Happened. I can’t believe you went there. Like like as a ruin like founder like like they’re not even the same player. They’re not okay. All right. I won’t I won’t take the bait. I’m going to watch that lure just go right by my face and I’m going to keep doing largemouth bass things. The local angle is this because I think often times when the Pacers win and they’re successful, they’re the easy team to go market yourself after, right? or they’re they’re the ones that you say that’s the small market team that has been to its 10th Eastern Conference Finals appearance now since 199394. The gap right was like a 9-year stretch in the 2010s to 2020s where they might make the playoffs but they don’t win a playoff series. But it was that that was either their down year. That’s that’s what I’m saying, right? That that’s their down years. Th those are the ones where okay, we get to the playoffs and then we lose a sevengame series to a LeBron le Cavs team like th those it was in that mix, right? Oladipo, Sabonis, they never won a playoff series, but they still gave you excellent basketball. Now here they are in the conference finals two straight times. I I think my main takeaway is we we can go through the team building. They made a bunch of trades. We can talk about that. We should talk about that. I think my main takeaway is watching all of these teams get to the final four of the NBA playoffs and then go back to what they did last year because you got to get to the playoffs to get the payoff. So, you get what the Thunder did going through the pain and then here they are getting to their first conference finals as a young basketball team. The Pacers got to the conference finals last year. It didn’t feel like they really had a shot. The Celtics were the juggernaut. Now it feels like the Pacers have a very real shot to get to the finals. Same thing for the Knicks after they go out and they make moves. Here they are. They get the payoff and then same thing with Minnesota. It feels like they still even though it’s probably not as likely, Minnesota still has a shot to get to the NBA finals. That’s my main takeaway. Nata, what what kind of local angle are you seeing now with what the Pacers are doing uh after that phenomenal finish? The second re the ree draft guys, the second draft guys, that’s the guy those are the guys that I’m paying attention. You talk about Aaron Nesmith, he was basically his career was floundering in Boston. His career was kind of floundering in Indiana for the first two years of his career and he turns out to be a playoff contributor, helped win them final Eastern Conference Finals game. Then you start talking about a guy like Obie Toppin also cast off for salary purposes. They repurpose him as well. I think that’s the lesson that Charlotte’s t should be taking from this is quite literally get these second draft guys in they’ve done one with Musa Diabate they took him rehabbed him made him possibly a rotation guy to go forward with I do think that’s the strategy go find these guys that were that flame out in year one and or flame out in their rookie contract they’re a little bit older they have a lot to prove get those guys bring them in rehab them get the inject them with some Hornets DNA and go forward with it. What do you think, Doug? Well, I don’t think you can inject anyone with DNA. I think that’s illegal. I think that’s against the Geneva Conventions or something. You can’t do that. But what you can do is I what? So, again, rules, laws, they they still exist. I Well, listen, I’ve read X-Men. It doesn’t turn out well when you inject anyone with Yeah. So, um, but I do think that you can identify players, and I think they’ve already done a good job of that, identifying players who represent what you want to represent as a franchise because those are going to be the guys that are going to take to Charles Lee’s style of coaching. Like, that’s what you have to do. You have to match the guy to the coach. And so, I think they’ve done a good job of of starting to identify those players. And I agree with Nat. You’ve got to go and find those players who people have given up on. That has to be part of it. But I think another part of it has to be finding players that that may be undervalued but not so not so incredibly undervalued that no one’s paying attention. You have to be a little bit more competitive whether it comes to trades or the sort of secondary free agent market. Not going after the big fish but the middle fish. And then and then you have to have the ability and I don’t know that we’ve necessarily seen this yet is to identify the player and then rebuild the player or build up the player. You know what I’m saying? to actually put that player through your development system. And to Walker’s point, I think it’s a lot easier to do that when you’re playing extra basketball at the end of the year when you are making the postseason. This idea that the Hornets, and this is not an idea that is new to Jeff Peterson and company, this is an idea that has been shouted at us for years now, is that that you want to build a sustainable playoff winner. And the way that you do that is somehow to not make the playoffs in in 10 years. Like that’s no no you make even if you know that you’re going to go get blanked in a first round series, you give your players postseason experience so that they thirst for it, they understand it, they’re prepared for it. That’s how you eventually win in the playoffs. Come on. It’s funny because I I hate that finding the local angle often means that the Hornets just catch strays, but this is we’re talking about other teams having the success that the Hornets are aspiring to reach and they just haven’t done it in forever. So, this is why finding the local angle often means just them catching strays. I here I love the points both of you brought up like so you’re right. You got to find the line of finding the guys that clearly have something to them but are dropped by really good basketball teams that just don’t have the money and just don’t have enough roster space. Right. Go ahead, Natada. What were you talking about? Or the minutes for that matter. Right. Right. They don’t have the minutes. Yep. All that. So, okay. If the NBA is this wild African safari and then you have your Lions and then you have your apex predators. Oh, this is going somewhere for sure. I want the Hornets to be the hyenas. You know how the hyenas are often fat? Like they got big bellies. They eat well, but they of they’re kind of nasty, too. They can scavenge, but they can also make the kill. I want the Hornets to be the hyenas, right? You’re not going to be the lions as the big market teams. You’re not going to be the elephants that everybody respects. Everybody respects the elephants, okay? Just go watch Jungle Book. Just go be the hyenas. You just get down and dirty. Scavenge off of other people’s kills and also make a few kills yourself and then just have a monster herd. welcome everybody to the party, be fat and happy and thrive. Go be the hyenas. Go get your knee. Okay, Nesmith was somebody else’s kill and then the Pacers went in and got him. Same thing with Obie Topphen. Obie Toppin was the Knicks guy. They didn’t want to bring him in anymore and then so it’s like, “All right, Obie Toppin just goes to the Pacers and then has a couple of crucial buckets for them. Be the hyena.” Natada, what you think? I now want to watch the Lion King. That’s all I got. Well, that’s just that’s just it, right? Scar uh was somebody that rose to power like a lot of these teams uh but then failed and the hyenas took advantage and they and they feasted. No, actually I love this analogy and it does have something to do with the fact that I have a baby that is really into the Lion King right now and can somehow sing every single word to be prepared. It’s her favorite song which I don’t it’s a little I’m a little scared of her. I’ll be honest with you. More scared than I already was. I’m scared of this baby. She loves Be prepared by Scar. That’s her favorite Lion King song. Um, no. That is J. I I envision her teeth and ambitions are fault. I am not prepared. This is all your fault. This is all your fault. Just like I envision like you know baby drunk face like delirious face. It can be prepared like scar. Who is this this kid? No, that is a little like hm is my child possessed at this moment in time. I can see how that might scare you a little bit. I love that. I I need you to film that um as soon as that happens again. All right. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. Be prepared. Oh my god. I I want to see that video next time. I want to see it. We’ll have a Miles Bridges conversation about the Hornets attaching themselves to Miles with Miles possibly being their leader. Not even possibly, really just outright being their leader going into next season and beyond. How long is that going to happen? Plus, we’ll give you another Mox draft. That’s all today. [Music] LH. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs. They’re in full swing, baby. And every night delivers highlightw 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 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. You could choose what players are showing up in the biggest moments, and then you could track what their trends are to help you get to that next level with FanDuel, and then you could go get your $200 bonus bets, uh, which FanDuel is giving out if you can join today. If you’re new to FanDuel, again, it’s the perfect, uh, perfect time to sign up. Head tofan.com. Place your first $5 bet and if it wins, you’ll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. More Lockdown Hornets [Music] ahead. Oh my god. Lion King, Jungle Book, uh, all the Disney animal movies. Great stuff. I’m I might go on a marathon this weekend. Let’s move on. Let’s talk about some of the other updates in the Rod Boone article. What we’ve been seeing from the Hornets on social media, what Charles Lee has been talking about and the common thread here is that Miles Bridges is brought up a lot. So, you look at what they’re doing with Miles, right? Here’s something from Rod Boon and the Charlotte Observer. At the forefront of the charge this off seasonason is Miles, the Hornets’s longest tenure player, suggested the day after the char after Charlotte wrapped up its 1963 season in April. He not only planned on staying in the Carolinas much more than he typically does to work out and get in better shape, but they keep propping him up as a leader. Charles Lee said, “I love that Miles wants to spearhead that.” Um, I I think a big part of any type of culture or organization is your best players kind of driving things forward and him being the leader and wanting to make sure he puts all the guys together in order to work, in order to grow and learn from one another. He would go on to say things similar to that. Sam Pearly, hornets.com, he writes about Miles saying, quote, “This season has forced Miles when he was talking about uh this past year.” In that Sam Pearly article, Miles said, “This season has forced me to grow as a leader with all the adversity we’ve been going through. I feel like it’s just preparing us for something bigger. I always have a positive mindset.” You saw at exit day, all the players look at Miles as this leader. You see Charles Lee pointing there. The Tuesday after the Hornets lose the lottery, they release a video basically praising everything that Miles has done for this team over the last I don’t know year. I I don’t know how much far how far back you want to go in terms of what you want to praise from him, but they released a video the day after the lottery and gave all this love to Miles Bridges. Miles Bridges also goes to Instagram over the last couple of days and talks about some of the things that he’s going through right now after he pled no contest to felony domestic violence all the way back in god 2023 at this point. He was arrested in 2022. I believe he pled no contest in in 2023 that I I might have the 2023 part mixed up, but it’s been a long time now. Miles goes to Instagram and says, “In y’all eyes, I’m always going to be the bad guy, but I’m genuinely asking what should I do? I don’t want to be falsely accused of anything again. I just want to be a father to my children and the mother of my kids won’t let me. Okay, so now we’re going here, right? Because Miles is bringing this up on Instagram and so now everybody is seeing it. Hornets community, they see it. They’re posting it. You have people saying, “Oh my god, you know, how could we keep going at Miles like this?” I I I do think there are a lot more people saying, “Hey, this is the situation that is your responsibility that this is your fault. this is just what your life is right now. And yet this is what the organization is doing. They are uplifting Miles as this leader time and time again. Like anywhere you turn, Charles Lee is talking about it. The social media team is putting out content about it. So this is something interesting to me as we start to roll into the off season. Natada, I throw all of that at you. What are your thoughts on it? I know it’s a lot. There there’s a lot of this to where I think the Hornets are propping this guy up to where there’s going to be a giant recon like a giant thank you post later this summer. I do think that this is like hey look at how good this guy is. Look again look at his contract. It’s nice and cheap. They’re propping this up to for some sort of trade. I feel like because it’s at that line of they they protest too much about they’re doing it a lot, man. No, you’re you’re not wrong. It’s sort of the reverse, right? Yeah. Doth protests too much. It’s the reverse. Dth praise too much. Like it it’s way too much. And I just for my like I will be honest I the IG stuff made me uncomfortable because I’m like dude that’s something you find an adult for. Like that’s something that you have to go that’s not something that goes on internet. And I understand that this is the generation that does all of that, but there are certain things, especially when you consider what he’s done. And I I just you can’t put that out on the internet for me. And it just makes the entire situation makes me uncomfortable. And if he’s going to be a leader, there needs to be a further maturation for me. Yeah, I would say you maybe there’s a little bit of a generational thing, but I think there are pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl plenty of people within that generation that don’t that keep things keep personal things private and deal with things privately. Um yeah, it is interesting. I I would say like I hope that Nata is right about that that there is a little bit of like hey let’s profile let’s put this guy front and center for an opportunity to a trade because like the alternative is they’re not really doing a lot on lamela ball like we’re not seeing the same kind of attention being placed on the guy that you’re paying the most like you’re paying max money to and and should be responsible for a majority of your success. this kind of attention is not being showed to LaMelo Ball. It’s extremely odd. Um people outside of the Hornet sphere are noticing this and they’re being like, “Why is this happening? I don’t understand what’s going on with this franchise.” Um yeah, I mean, all of it’s super odd. I don’t really know really what to do with it. And I think it’ll all look even more odd if the Hornets actually do end up trading him in the offseason. I think we’ll all be back here going, “What was this all for? What did we go? What what was this all for? To be fair, core four has been kind of confusing considering they tried to trade one of the core four in February, right? And Miles Miles has been in like credible trade rumors for years now, right? So yeah, I think bringing up I think the fact that they keep doing it, it’s it’s purposeful in almost a form of what kind of message are they trying to send us? Because you’re right, Doug. It’s a great point to bring up with LaMelo specifically, too, because LaMelo, he is your highest paid basketball player. Uh he he is someone that yeah, it was the old regime, but they didn’t waste any time giving him all of the money, nor did we think they should waste any time. Here’s LaMelo that yeah, he’s gone through some injuries, but also LaMelo, he is still your best player on this basketball team as it currently stands. Like that’s just that’s just a fact as it stands right now. Even if he has trade rumors surrounding him, they’re not uplifting LaMelo in that way. We can go back to the All-Star campaign or lack thereof. There wasn’t one, which I know Nata, you were critical of, Doug, same to you. Like, it’s why why do we keep going back to Miles? Is it because you’re you’re truly backing him and you’re saying bleep anybody that doubts it? Okay, there’s one possibility. Is it the possibility that Natada brings up where they’re trying to prop him up and boost trade value? Okay, and just say and prepare everybody for the well-wishes and the sendoff. Okay, there there’s one possibility. Um I I don’t I don’t know why. Is it Is it just because it he’s working with social media and it’s easy to market him to some degree? I I that’s I But isn’t like the thing I I think the problem is if this is the Hornets propping him up and this is not just a oh if this is going to be a oh he’s going to be here for a while then the Hornets need to do something that they they they did a lot of back in the Jordan regime and that’s go back into the community invest back into the community because I’m not sure you can prop a guy up like that in a leadership position and then not give to like a crisis assistance or again a roof above or something like that. You have to go back and like donate because again everybody’s got the internet, everyone’s got history searches. You can’t prop that guy up and without finding out what happened in Los Angeles three years ago. So unfortunately like you have to the if this is the Hornets propping him up, they have to also do the work on the back end for the community. Well, there was but yeah, I mean there was no proving of innocence. There was no admission of guilt and the the team even really danced around a lot of this stuff in their statements. Uh that it was really what they didn’t say say that mattered more than what they actually said at the time. And now you have here Miles on Instagram saying I don’t want to be falsely accused of anything again. It’s all it’s all just I it’s all blind. Which could be the second time that he got in some trouble by the way. the fact that we even have to talk about it because that the fact that this was this was posted and it even brings that kind of thing into the conversation is the is part of the problem. And the other thing too that annoys me about this whole conversation and I brought this up in the exit day interviews when Miles said I’m going to spend more time in the Carolinas than I did maybe like in previous seasons. So that and you have it mentioned here by Boone saying that he’s going to spend more time than he typically does to work out and get in better shape heading into his seventh year. It took it took six years to figure that out and all of the losing and all of the talk. I mean there was this isn’t the first time that Miles has talked about being a leader or that the team has talked about him being a leader, but it took six years. Like it’s admirable that he’s played all these minutes. Um but obviously, you know, he’s also missed a lot of minutes, too. It’s just it’s just a bad situation, right? So, last couple things. I guess it’s you know, with the with the second accusation that was hurled his way by also Michelle Johnson, right? It that that one was a lot more problematic. I think, you know, people that reported on that early were quick to jump the gun and really wanted to get on that story before uh before they started to ask questions and then they got some of the answers to that questions that they asked a little too late and decided, oh boy, may maybe we should have, you know, done a little bit better reporting on something. No retraction either. Yeah, that one that one was that that that stuff I just I want to avoid altogether even though it still is an issue. Um, the other thing is too with this Miles stuff, it it I just I just need to know why they would do it after the lottery and then put the tweet out. I have it in front of me where they put up the video, we’re lucky to have Miles. I I’m Charles Lee says, “I’m lucky to be able to coach him when your best players are stepping up to the plate.” It’s a lot of the same stuff that was mentioned in that Rod Boon article. It it’s even if you are the biggest Miles defender as an organization, aren’t you just asking for people to leave the comments you don’t want under that video? And so isn’t it just from a PR or social media standpoint just easier to not put that up. So, so unless you want to get something out so badly that you just move past all of that. And that’s what I don’t understand. What do you want to get out so badly? I mean, I have a couple of speculative ideas, but I I can’t get to something that makes enough sense for you to put that video up the day after the draft where people are already in a bad mood getting the fourth overall pick. You’re you’re shooting up a flare and saying, “Please leave comments we don’t want under this video.” And that’s what I just can’t wrap my brain around. Well, but it but it goes to the whole idea of the past 10 years or so, which is that this this organization has lived in a space of unreality, of unseriousness, and they know that like look, all the comments in the world can go into social media in general. Not a lot of people are paying attention to the Charlotte Hornets. Not a lot of people in Charlotte are paying attention to the Charlotte Hornets because they’ve lost for so long. So that the that the calculation on the PR hits is almost like reversed or negative at this point. Like it doesn’t matter that the because the only thing that matters is retooling this roster to some future roster that can actually go and and make the playoffs and and win playoff games. And until then any PR hit that they have to take is just the price of doing business. While true I it feels like it’s an unnecessary step to take. Like a lot of this just feels like no I don’t disagree with you. I don’t disagree with you. Like a lot of this just feels unnecessary. A lot of this feels like again like you said Doug just someone hits send who cares. They’re they’re going to be mad at us no matter what we do. But at the same point like this is unnecessary. There are other guys. Go talk about Grant Williams rehab because apparently he’s supposed to be a leader in that locker room too. We could have that too. I I just if you’re gonna put Miles Bridges out there, then have him like show him doing the work to be a better person. That’s all I’m asking. Like that. I don’t think it’s that hard. Take a take a cell phone next time he goes to one of the high schools or something like that. Get extensive footage. show that you actually care about marketing, who’s actually on this team right now rather than do what you’re doing with this and just blely hitting send and then oh, they’re gonna get mad, but who cares? Yeah. Um, all right, let’s move on in the awkward way that we do. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. We have another mock draft. I don’t know if we have a CBS mock draft to appease Natada, who is a company man on the ION college basketball. We have a very I’ll say we have a very special mock draft coming up. Oh, okay. That that’s the tease. I won’t add anything else to it coming up next. L. [Music] All right, we got another mock draft. Doug just promised us a special one. I hope that he didn’t overpromise and then underdel, but we’re about to see. We’re about to find out. Doug, it’s time. What you got for the people? I’ve combed through mockdraft after mockdraft trying to deliver something special to you. But unfortunately, everyone, every single mockdraft that exists right now has the Charlotte Hornets taking VJ Edgecomb. And I just cannot bear to bring you another mock draft that does that. So I decided maybe for the next couple of days, for the next couple of shows, we should go back and look at the Ringers mockdrafts on previous Hornets draft selections and see how on target they are. And so I thought for this show it only makes sense we’ve we’ve you know done a little looking back not to the 2020 draft but to the 2018 draft. SGA just got MVP. So let’s take a look and see uh who the Hornets were mocked to take in the Ringers 2018 draft guide. So I’m scrolling scrolling. There was a lot of Miles that year. I do remember Miles being linked to the Hornets quite a bit especially early on if I remember correctly. All right. So Shay Gilis Alexander goes eight to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevin Knox goes nine to the Knicks. Philly uh takes Mikuel Bridges with the 10th pick and the 11th pick in the Ringer mock draft. Colin Ston point guard out of Alabama. And in the Ringer draft guide, they really wanted the Hornets to take a point guard to take over for Kimell Walker who at the time was highly speculated to be traded. Uh so of course the Hornets did do that sort of and brought Well, and he was going into a contract year. That was the thing. He was going into the last year. You wanted to go ahead and draft your point guard, whether it be SGA, whether it be Colin Ston, be ready for the post Kimba era, and they decided not to do that. No, they did. Well, they decided to do it and then they traded it. They traded Shay Gil Alexander for the 15th uh mock draft selection. Miles Bridges uh Michigan State sophomore writing here. I believe this is Kevin Okcon man writing a thick framed forward who projects as a do-it-all role player but can reach another level if he develops his ball handling. Shades of Derek Coleman, Tobias Harris, and Deshawn Thomas. Pluses explosive and ambidextrous finishing around the basket. A good spot-up shooter with compact mechanics. Does everything smart role players do. Cut screens, complete simple passes. his minuses. Length could be problematic. Rarely draws fouls. Subpar subpar passer. Can beat mismatches on the post but lacks any advance moves against defenders. Defensive effort comes and goes. Um I think he kind of nailed that for a lot of it to be honest from Kevin Ocon man and and honestly I’m even more so going to the first five years of Miles career and then seeing where he is now. I think he’s improved a lot of that. I wouldn’t say that his defense came and went this past year. here. I think it was here. I think it was steady. It’s something we praised him a lot for. We used to get on him for just falling asleep on back door cuts in critical moments, too. Like the Anthony Edwards one comes to mind a few years back. But Miles just defensively all over the place this past season. Really put forth a real effort. And I I do think honestly with a lot of the stuff that he was talking about, the ambidextrious ambidextrous finishing, that was so true. He’s so good with his right hand finishing at the cup. So, hey, Kev, we’ll we’ll call you Kevin O’ Conor here. Kevin Oan, man, we’ll reserve that for some bad evaluations. I I again I that’s one of the few that he’s nailed. And honestly, like I think about the time where again, it could have been Ston and I’m glad it wasn’t. It’s Mitch’s first draft and it’s one of the few drafts he got like a passing rate on. I would say it’s a B. It’s not the A it was because you could have Well, no. Like I I think if we’re going to go into the SGA thing, cuz I know I know y’all and we’re addicted to pain. Uh just remember just remember this this small portion of this. He was never coming here. Once he got the promise from the Clippers, it was over. He shut down any workouts. And I I think I would have been even more upset had they drafted him with no workout because But this is what they do. I don’t think Miles worked out for the Hornets, did he? Yeah. I He did He did the year before, though. He did his freshman year. Okay. So, he didn’t that sophomore year. He didn’t that sophomore year. He did that freshman year. The only thing is IO handles on Twitter retweeted he he was looking for pain. He was seeking pain out. And what he did was he went and found the Jonathan Gavone tweet from 2018 where Gavon said, “The Cavs are going with Colin Ston. SGA was linked to Cleveland, but SGA preferred the Charlotte Hornets and would rather have been drafted by the Hornets. Bad info. And it’s and it’s phony Gavon. It’s phony Gavon, but uh it it I don’t like reading it. It’s not that’s not enjoyable to me. But you’re right. We can question that tweet. I I mean in fair in fairness to everyone I think when you look at Shay Gildis Alexander in this mock draft and you see the shades of if I’m just trying to put myself back in 2018 reading shades of Shawn Livingston, Patrick Macau, and Michael Carter Williams and I’m I’m shy 2018 that Kevin Oman Kevin Ocon man showed up in 2018. But this this goes to show you and I think when we continue to do this, it will go to show you that we can we even the best evaluations, the star players always develop something out of nowhere, a little bit out of nowhere that that makes them into the player that they become. Because even look, SGA’s evaluation here, his pluses, slippery ball handler who gets where he wants to on the floor and draws a ton of fouls, nails it. that’s a huge part of SGA’s game, but he improved his shooting so significantly over uh what people thought he was coming out of Kentucky that that made a huge difference. And for Miles, he did improve his ball handling s such that the Hornets were prepared to pay him close to if not max money because he was looking like the player that that this mockdraft was projecting him to be ceiling wise. And then of course everything happened with the the domestic violence charge. He had to take a year he took a year off and then uh came back and wasn’t the same athlete. The ball handling I think regressed a little bit. I think he knows his limitations as a ball handler, right? Like he knows what to more than it it improved. He just knows what not to do which matters a ton. And the shooting regressed and the shooting regressed. There was just there was a I mean there there was a regression and so and and there’s a fair question to say like had all of that not happened would that have regret regression happened? So, you know, that that’s the thing. That’s the difficult thing about these evaluations as we’re looking at VJ Edgecomb, you know, can he be a star, can he not? It’s a lot of that stuff’s kind of up in the air. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s it’s just wild right now. And you don’t know what’s going to happen. And speaking of don’t know what’s going to happen, one thing I’m going to caution Hornets fans and everybody right now, the international schedule is closing up. We’re gonna see a lot of these guys like Noah Song, um, Yoan Behringer start showing up in lotteryies and I would not be surprised if because we know like Lee Peterson, Lee and all them have looked overseas before. I would not be surprised if they’re linked somehow to one of these foreign prospects going forward. Up at four or you’re saying like as a trade back possibility as a trade back? I don’t think I trade more trade up than trade back. I do think that 33 and 34 are not going to be selections that they make. I would be surprised. And I saw, man, I I don’t want to get this wrong, but I’m pretty sure I I saw, you know, Hansen Young, the 71, 72 Chinese player that is getting a lot of uh getting a lot of uh praise. Um I saw that the Hornets, I think, were one of like the four teams linked to scouting him. They international scouting big with this team. I think uh is a good example. Yeah, I think Yang worked out in LA during the pro days that I don’t I don’t think a lot of like the big prospects go there, right Natada? It’s it is sort of like sort of middle of the road prospect. It depends. Like Clutch had um Rashier Fleming out there. They had Hansen Yang out there. Like it really does depend. Like I know that we had Khan Canipple who ducked the agility testing over in Chicago just to do Well, said he was recovering from an ankle injury. You don’t buy that? No, not at all. Nope. completely ducked it. So I I just like there it the con the con man the con is on con. Exactly. He might be again he might be related to Kevin Ocon man. Who knows? But still but that that being said I do think a lot of these agent workouts are go like they’re they have their prospects unless you’re like a top three pick. I don’t think they like you see a lot of these guys work out unless you’re like know where you’re going basically. Well, anyway, there was video of Jeff Peterson talking to Daryl my who uh is the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers has the third pick. The Hornets have the fourth pick. Hornets might want to control their own destiny and jump up to three and pick the player that they want to pick. So, we’ll see. Okay, we’re chatting. It should be interesting. Along the way, we’ll have Nat every week with us leading up to the NBA draft. You can find him on Twitter at Natscribe. You can find the podcast that he produces. Anywhere you get your pods, ion college basketball podcast with Gary Parish and Matt Norlander. Uh, an excellent college basketball podcast. Doug Branson, locked on NBA. Every hornetsboxcore.com and I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

The Pacers pulled off a stunner in MSG—so how can the Hornets follow their blueprint for success? Plus, the crew debates Miles Bridges’ rise as team leader and whether it’s authentic or a trade setup.

The Pacers stunned the Knicks in Game 1 at MSG, and Locked On Hornets is here to break it all down—and look at what Charlotte can learn. Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, and other “second-draft” success stories stole the spotlight. So, is this the path the Hornets need to take? Doug, Walker, and guest Nata Edwards of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast dig into the blueprint for small-market survival.

They also flash back to the 2018 NBA Draft and revisit the trade that sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander packing in favor of Miles Bridges. What if the Hornets had kept SGA or taken Collin Sexton instead? This mock draft retrospective is both painful and insightful.

Then comes the biggest question: What’s really going on with Miles Bridges? The Hornets continue to publicly elevate him as a franchise leader, even as controversy lingers and fans are left questioning the optics. Is it genuine support? A PR misfire? Or an effort to boost trade value?

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