Charlotte IGNORING LaMelo Trade Buzz | Jarrett Allen a Target? | Mock Draft Changes for Hornets

Charlotte IGNORING LaMelo Trade Buzz | Jarrett Allen a Target? | Mock Draft Changes for Hornets

a lot of point guards being thrown out there on the trademark not hearing a lot about lamelo ball does that mean he’s likely to be a charlotte hornet next season is there a certain cleveland cavaliier you want the hornets to go after and because doug he missed out on a mock draft yesterday we got two of them we’re in the 50s folks we’re getting closer that’s all today loh do 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 make us fa making us your first listen i’m struggling today it’s going to be a fun episode doug i’m battling something a little bit this morning um and it’s just a weird one so a flimp episode is what is here for the people i might get jealous if you’re if you’re battling something other than me i might get jealous well and this is your bag man like you got the kid you got the germs coming home from daycare this is not usually something that i’m battling it’s something you’re battling so instead it’s a little freaky friday edition of locked on hornets that doug that’s doug branson every hornetsboxcore.com i promise i can talk today i’m walker mail listen to me on wfnz every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m how about this though doug this will cheer you up today’s episode is brought to you by game time game time game time oh it’s been a while like a warm comfy blanket download the game time app create an account use code locked on nba for $20 off your first purchase so i’ve been listening to a lot of nba podcast getting ready for the off seasonason getting ready for the draft have been taking all the nba content in baby and besides catching the usual hornet strays another thing i’m noticing is all of the talk surrounding the point guards okay so you hear on sham shirania tweets out darius garland underwent surgery for repair on his great toe okay not his big toe he underwent surgery to repair his great toe and will be sidelined approximately four or five months so now cleveland may be looking to shake some things up make more noise in the postseason rather than the regular season is darius garland out there to be had matt moore tweets this out hall of famer mark stein reported this weekend that boston is in fact listening to trade offers for drew holiday something that most people assumed but while the focus has been on reducing payroll sources have told hardwood peroxism that boston is setting the price at a first round pick along with whatever reduced salary comes back in the deal zach low also discussed this about a week or two ago trey young has been in the mix what are the hawks going to do they’ve had some front office changes do they want to go with trey young longterm he’s extension eligible maybe they bring him in long term he’ll opt out of the player option only 48 million he’ll make that for sure on the next contract like anthony simons from portland if the rockets are going to change some things up fred van valite is thought of to be floated out there because the rockets hey is fred van valet going to phoenix do you want to pair him with kevin durant there are a lot of point guards being talked about here doug i’m not hearing a lot on lamelo i don’t know if you’re hearing a lot but i’m not hearing a lot on lamelo no reports all these podcasters in the know they’re not throwing them in any fake trades like they’re just not even really talking about them a lot and you know like rumors about they don’t want to report anything but everybody’s got rumors right they’re hearing stuff and so they use the rumors as fodder for their podcast and so it allows us to kind of be in the no kind of not we’re in this weird space it’s not being thrown out there it’s not lamelo it’s all these other point guards kind of sound the easy answer the default answer for whether lamelo is going to be a hornet next year the default answer is always yes just because it’s easier to not trade somebody than it is to trade somebody that’s always been the answer but there’s always that possibility like real real possibility maybe the chances are they’re they’re slimmer than ever with all of this other point guard talk out there doug how do you feel well the default answer is yes for a lot of reasons because lamelo is a special talent on a team that is not exactly talent rich so assuming that they’re going to trade that kind of talent uh would be a little bit silly also we have not we don’t have any evidence of this front office making a major shift they’ve made minor shifts they’ve had they’ve they’ve had great success with bringing in uh draft assets and picking up players from other people’s g-league teams around the league but we have not seen them make the big shift yet so until they do you know it’s it’s hard to anticipate when exactly that’s going to happen also it’s difficult even though lamelo’s contract is not a monster contract it’s not like a $50 million contract it is rather large and trading rather large contracts under this new collective bargaining agreement particularly two teams that are contending and already over an apron or even into the second apron is difficult it it mostly requires three teams these days and so for all of those reasons i think if you were betting if he’s going to be a charlotte hornet next season you go ahead and bet that bet that he is uh i i think you know if a deal got done around the draft or before the season it would be a it would i think the the the sort of seeds are there but it would still be a shock yeah i mean yeah it it would be it’d be surprising but we’ve talked about it so long because of the state of the hornets not anything that we’ve heard directly every once in a while people will throw out there that the hornets could be shopping them but we never hear something substantial on it right it’s that the hornets aren’t listening to a ton of offers that they they might listen to a couple here and there but there’s never been really anything substantial on it and that’s good like that’s healthy you don’t yeah you don’t want to be in a situation where your best player your most highly paid player is having to constantly deal with questions about their future with with the team that’s just going to be that’s ultimately going to lead to uh distractions and him possibly playing worse or asking out and so he’s he’s not having to deal with anything like that and that’s good you know it if if it’s going to happen if they are going to make the shift i’d rather it be a little bit of a surprise rather than him being the constant source of rumors i do think if they want to make that shift even though there are a lot of point guard names out there right now i think there will be the opportunity to move lamelo ball if they wanted to because uh of lamelo ball’s unique gifts you know i think like drew holiday is going to find a place within a roster that wants you know championship level veteran level experience and defense but i think there will be a team that says “hey we’ve got some stars on our team but we need to take some attention off of them.” i mean you know a lot of people are floating a return to la for lamelo and it makes it makes a lot of sense you want to you you would be uh wise to add more playmaking to that roster i think that was one of their deficits in their playoff exit is that they had you know james harden self-creation kawhi leonard self-creation but then there there wasn’t a lot of room for them to operate at times because you didn’t have someone uh that that could that they they could play off of essentially so you know i think there will be opportunities to make the move um but i’m glad that i’m glad that charlotte’s keeping it tight yeah i’m glad they’re keeping it tight as well and it seems real too it seems like well we’re keeping it tight also because there’s not a lot to talk about regarding this and i i do think with the point guards out there on the market that are being discussed on the market right now you have a bunch of different options at different price points with different skill sets where a team can pick and choose what guy they want as long as somebody like darius garland is truly available so if you’re asking about price points trey young’s going to take a decent amount to go get him darius garland’s going to take a decent amount to get him but if you want more of a point of attack defender that’s not going to cost a lot because he’s a little older drew holiday he’s out there for you if you’re looking to bet big on the next great guard then anthony simons might be somebody for you where it would take a decent amount but in between drew holiday asking for a first round pick and return trey young three first rounders four is what atlanta’s going to ask for darius garland same thing you know you have anthony simons right there in the middle you have again the different skill sets from all of these guys you have different ages from all of these guys and all of that to say these teams have options too because one way that they would call and just blow the hornets away is if they didn’t have other options right there are unique gifts that lamelo possesses trey young is probably the closest type to lamelo except trey young is uh lamelo shorter lamelo shrunk size trey he’s he’s lamelo at six feet not even mini snickers yeah mini melo that’s what he is he’s the funiz lamelo vault so that’s that’s the closest thing and that’s a big difference that’s a big difference between those two um so it it would have to be somebody blowing the hornets away i don’t expect that to happen with all the other options out there and if i’m going to trade lamelo then i need to get at least at least 100 cents on the dollar if not more and to me those options they’re drying up that well is drying up which leads us to believe man we’re going in with lamelo next year and we got a lot of time to talk about how that table is set um but that it seems like after all of the speculation hey what are we going to do it it feels like we’re starting to hit the straightaway with lamelo we got at least one more year with him as point guard and we’ll see if the hornets actually win do they put the talent around him are we just going to do another evaluation year with lamelo at the helm that i’m not entirely sure about but it does look like we’re hitting the straightaway on just go ahead going ahead and saying lamelo’s a hornet he’s going to be a hornet for 2025 2026 yeah look there there are a lot of reasons that you hear some of these rumors pop up around guys i mean one of the reasons like drew holidayiday’s name is coming up because of the financial realities that boston is facing and everyone knows boston wants to get out of those the financial hellscape that they’re facing with the amount of money that they’re paying all those players so things become obvious there’s clarity there’s clarity in portland because they did some winning and they saw they got they had enough of their guards healthy to see what they want to prioritize and what they don’t want to prioritize so there’s clarity there uh there’s there was clarity in cleveland before darius garland had the surgery on the toe that’s thrown a wrench into everything but the playoffs the the regular season winning and then the playoffs losing the way they did that provides clarity charlotte hornets don’t have any of that because their their players haven’t been healthy and and this is connected they don’t have any postseason play there is no clarity there is no clarity such that you can go “yeah we know exactly what lamelo is and what he isn’t and how he vibes with everything that we want to do and how how he relates to our eventual playoff success.” there’s just no clarity there so any deal that jeff peterson would be making right now it’s almost like he’s flying blind and so that’s what makes all of this difficult it doesn’t mean you’re totally off the hook to make any kind of decision or shift because the hornets have been stuck in injury hell for many many years now and if you just continue to use that as an excuse you’re just going to continue to miss the postseason it doesn’t let you off the hook but you can understand why there aren’t those obvious whispers and conversations happening right now around lamelo ball all right i i like the point of lack of clarity on cleveland let’s continue that coming up next on the locked hornets podcast everywhere okay so if the hornets aren’t going to go after darius garland since they’re keeping lamelo is there another cleveland cavalier that the hornets might be interested in we’ll get to that and more coming up next locked on hornets [Music] this episode is brought to you by wayfair there’s nothing like stepping into your own outdoor space and feeling like you’ve escaped to a personal oasis if you’re wanting to 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donovan mitchell or evan mobley that’s just a non-starter for cleveland the other guys have a lot of talent and and the other guys make some sense even more so than darius to me jared allen has been someone we’ve talked about quite a bit on this podcast he’s not quite in the miles turner tier um he’s not in the russell westbrook tier not even in the chris paul tier but he’s somewhere like towards the top 50 percentile of the mountain if you will and i think he’s back i i think there’s a shot it would make some sense for charlotte if they’re just done with the injuries at center since they have tried to trade mark williams before do you just want to go ahead and and not worry about center anymore defensively jared allen is he more likely to be traded now that you’ve got cleveland trying to figure out how to shake things up going into next year where they’re looking to graduate to a different level in the postseason is jarrett allen the most expendable on that roster and should the hornets be in on them oh absolutely i think they’re going to have to do something because they’re they’re facing a situation where they’re going to be in the second apron i’m not sure that franchise in particular wants wants to be there at all and certainly doesn’t want to be there to the level that they would be if they kept allen whose contract hovers around $20 million and garland who i don’t think they’re going to trade because yeah is like you’re you’re going to take a pay cut on that value because he’s injured why not just keep him see if you can get him to be healthy into the playoffs next season which they would be with or without jared allen and then get him a healthy playoffs where he performs well and then you can maximize the value that you get back in return for garland right now people are seeing a garland who came into the league injured hasn’t been really super healthy for the playoffs and now is injured again with his toe injury so i think allen is expendable and for the hornets look you know i’ve been on this podcast advocating for the charlotte hornets to finally you know get with the program and get a big who can shoot threes well jared allen can’t do that but if you’re going to find a big that cannot shoot threes you might as well make it one of the premier defensive bigs in this league and i think that’s what allen would provide he would provide an instant defensive identity someone for charles lee to build a defense around he doesn’t have anyone on this team that he can build a defense around wing or otherwise it’s not josh green you know maybe eventually if they draft edgecomb you could start to build around edgecom’s defense but why not just have an anchor in jared allen uh that that could do that for you um i i think that would immediately i think it would result in an extra probably five or six wins on the record and you get somebody that can help you start to build that whatever whatever part of hornets’s dna is defense he would start to help you build that so what’s funny though is you go with clarity right cleveland i think would trade jared allen because when they lose in the postseason there are a lot of games that jared allen just flat out isn’t good and outright bad and i think i can’t help but go back to that knicks series a couple of years ago when mitchell robinson just destroyed him now mitchell robinson he does that to guys when he’s healthy mitchell robinson will make you look like a fool he did that with miles turner who is a good center a different type of center because he can shoot threes but mitchell robinson was just grabbing all of the offensive rebounds and really punked jared allen i think more so than turner because turner at least has some offensive offset out on the perimeter and you can do some stuff with him but allen can’t certainly not away from the basket nearly as much and then you have a game against let’s just go with the cleveland and the indiana series earlier this postseason in the second round i don’t love allen going two rebounds in 20 minutes four rebounds in 30 minutes five rebounds in 30 minutes in game one against indiana you know a lot of that is what indiana does cuz miles plays out there on the three-point line so it opens up the paint driving lanes all that you got to worry about the three-point shot at the same time when you look at someone like jared allen who is constantly questioned get once you get to the postseason and he’s losing matchups and that hurts cleveland i mean it hurts them quite a bit are you cool with going after that guy to help you out a lot in the regular season cuz he’s still a good player right we’re talking about big boy basketball once you get to the nba playoffs so you’re you’re talking about getting rid of assets to go after jared allen who helps you in the 82 game set but then once you get to the postseason he’s shown a decent amount of flaws is that something you want to go after now the hornets haven’t gotten to the postseason so do you just worry about that problem once you get there he’s older maybe he’s more experienced cool but he’s already like decently old now he’s not the fun young hey is anybody paying attention to the center with the brooklyn nets he’s not that anymore he was that forever now he’s not he’s 27 years old so yeah i i think you’d have to be careful going after him but if they did i i i don’t see a lot of scenarios where i would hate it doug like i’d be cool okay we got somebody that we can depend on this is going to be fun for 80 games and i think he’s a good locker room guy so i’d be in of course depending on the price but if you’re just going equal value equal value i’d be in on the jared allen sweep stakes but there are some flaws for sure oh yeah but again i i think you hit the nail on the head those are playoff problems the hornets aren’t even like if he can find someone to get them i want those problems yeah well that’s but that’s the whole idea right is like it’s not really about getting jared allen to a first or second round series and seeing what he can do for the charlotte hornets it’s about building a team that can get lamelo ball to the first round of the nba playoffs that can get brandon miller to the first round of the nba playoffs and then see how they perform and if if we come away from a first or second round series and say we not jared allen guy that really you know he he weighed us down that wasn’t that wasn’t exactly what we were expecting well at least we got there that’s the whole thing i mean this they don’t have that that’s why they were looking to move on from mark williams because they don’t have someone they didn’t have someone at center that was going to be reliable consistent enough on both ends of the floor and that’s what jared allen would provide would it be uh the the elite level play that maybe you would expect from someone who is making max money maybe not you know maybe maybe it doesn’t quite get there but at the same time it’s competent enough level of play that you could help your two best players get some postseason experience which i think would would actually make up for whatever deficiencies relative to the amount of money that jared allen was making that it would make up for it well and it’s it’s not even all that much it’s it’s 20 million this upcoming season 28 million the year after that 30 the year after that and then 32.4 32.5 and 2028 29 i that’s you know that that takes him a long way it’s a lot of money on the books but it it not annually just more so a lot of money on the books because he’s going to be on the books for a long time for you yeah look and i’m not going to defend any of the playoff numbers i i understand all of that here here’s what i would say is that how much of evan mobley’s ascent factored into jared allen because look i mean the two big thing is cute and it’s it’s been a cool wrinkle that we’ve seen this season and maybe into last season a little bit and and i think it works uh it can work particularly well in the regular season and i think in the playoffs you’ve seen those lineups a little bit more exposed and i mean oklahoma city uh who have one of the best two big tandemss in the league with iheart and shet have even gotten scared enough to say “okay maybe maybe we don’t do that significantly in the finals particularly against a team that does play smaller faster more chaotic.” and so you know i i think that’s that’s going to be cleveland’s in incentive to move off of allen because it’s a lot of money to pay a player who you’re thinking “oh god i don’t know if we can play him with evan mobley anymore.” and evan mobley has developed a little bit of a defensive game in his own right he was in consideration was he defensive player of the year he might have won it and evan mobley was defensive player of the year right and so you know that that makes allen more ex way more expendable which i i would hope would reduce the cost somewhat for charlotte where they where they where where they wouldn’t have to sacrifice as many assets as before well i mean yeah it’s just one that you you got to have one guy out of there because you’re just the fourth best player on that team fifth if you want to give a lot of love to tai jerome but ty jerome’s gone so if he’s just not donovan mitchell evan mobley or darius garland and that’s just that’s just the simplicity of it it’s a different level of conversation in terms of like tobias harris wasn’t making he wasn’t making $28 million i don’t know how much tobias harris is making but i don’t think he was making $28 million that long and it was only two years right yeah it was it was like 20 it was like 20 and change it was a lot but it was only two years it’s a so it’s a different level of conversation but i but i think at the heart of it it’s still like the detroit pistons bet that they could pull tobias harris into their system and he would thrive and into their situation and he would thrive i think you could make that same bet with jared allen and say if you brought him over to charlotte and made him a centerpiece with lamelo ball and brandon miller and and and gave him you know a little bit more leeway defensively to to play in in a little bit more drop situations i think allen would be fine and and you know for for all the lack of rebounding i i still think he’d be a better physical presence than mark williams oh no he absolutely would be this is postseason stuff cuz that’s the thing about i mean he’s an he’s an all-star you know like that that’s what i’m saying man just i don’t care look you can bomb in the playoffs at this point i just need players that can get lamelo ball i know that you don’t want them to bomb obviously but like really i think everything should be in the mindset and this should have been the case two years ago should have been the case last season everything should be in the mindset of how quickly can we get lamelo ball and brandon miller to the playoffs i think jared allen would he would be part of a fasttrack plan to get them to the playoffs he he’d be a good center to have and that’s okay that’s okay to just go out and get somebody at 27 who’s making appropriate money who was once it’s okay to get good players it’s okay that’s okay it’s okay coming up next on the lockdown hornets podcast everywhere are the hornets the most likely team to be active within the top five top 10 top 30 in the nba draft who knows that’s what we’ll ask next plus we have two mock drafts two of them baby cuz doug missed out yesterday but we got you covered today lockdown hornets [Music] it’s time doug this episode is brought to you by game time game time game time game time it’s been a while it’s okay it’s been a long time but i’m glad they’re back there’s nothing like the nba playoffs the intensity the buzzer beaters the fans losing their minds it’s the kind of atmosphere you must experience live and this year’s matchups are already delivering the nba finals i’m hoping all the ratings talk aside just go there you don’t you can be a part of the ratings problem by just not watching and instead watching live going to the game do that it’s the kind of atmosphere in indianapolis the next game today that you must experience and it makes it fast and easy to get seats when you go to game time even for the biggest playoff games like the nba finals prices on the app actually drop closer to tip off and with killer lastminute deals panoramic seat views and no surprise fees game time is a total gamecher if the nba finals aren’t your thing i would expect they are if you’re listening to this podcast but if you like the nfl too the nfl schedule release just dropped and you better believe i’m already looking at my fall calendar and picking which games to hit the rams game in charlotte is enticing to me go panthers beat the rams i’m hoping to say that in person take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time download the game time app create an account use code locked on nba for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem code lk dnba locked on nba for $20 off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed more lockdown hornets ahead [Music] this is the leftover segment where we take some of the takes the topics that we had in the refrigerator we take them out we put them in the microwave we heat them up boom you got yourself a leftover segment doug what do you want to hit what do you want to eat out of the fridge do you want to eat the hornets being one of the more likely teams to deal at the draft did you want to try to do that and go with a little hornets role play since we experimented with the starters there yesterday tell me where you want to go chef u bleacher report has us ranked as one of the top five teams and i buy that i think we were fifth on that list of the top five the nets were number one because the nets have a ton of picks and i and i’ve been signaling that i think a nets hornets trade makes a lot of sense for them to move up to four if the hornets don’t find the player that they want if if vj edgecom goes three if trey johnson goes three and they wanted trey johnson uh then you know they could take they could certainly take ace bailey uh but if they didn’t want to do that then they could move down um into the nets position at eight and still have if if they were you know yakonis fans if they wanted to go carter bryant and have the three and d opportunity there or take a take a big swing on cedric coward uh they could do that at eight um if they wanted to trade with the nets so i think they are likely to make some kind of move and i think the likelihood and this was noted in the bleacher report writeup is that they have the 33rd and the 34th pick i don’t expect them to make both of those second round picks because they’re already up against it a little bit in terms of the cap and 33 and 34 that’s guaranteed money i mean they’re they’re probably going to sign both of those players to guaranteed contracts i just don’t see the hornets doing that so whether it’s moving i don’t honestly i don’t as much as i would like for them to package both of those to move back up into the first round to get somebody that they like a center like call we’ve talked about k brener or max reno i honestly don’t see them doing that either i think the most likely outcome of any trade would be packaging that for future assets down the line well last time we had this discussion when the hornets had a bunch of picks i think they had four a few years back there was one thing that the hornets did that we didn’t so much like when especially they had the 13th and the 15th pick in the first round they decided just ah we don’t even we don’t want this first round pick here well you just take it we’ll just take the the worst one from denver coming up the next year and uh eventually they got nick smith jr from that trade but you know anyways uh don’t don’t do that to do something better than what mitch cupche did with that when we were doing the show after the draft in a dark room where i had to do it in a dark hotel room you had to do the show in a dark room where your light was flickering on and off anyways that was a dark time don’t do that just use the pick for something valuable whether it’s trade or actually using it on a player yeah what was frust what was frustrating about that situation is i felt like the hornets could invest that they they were in a period of time where they could have invested that money and and shifted towards their future here you do you do have somewhat of of something to build on in lamelo ball and brandon miller and so it it doesn’t make as much sense to pile up a bunch of young players who you’re paying uh paying guaranteed money to because that guaranteed money is just taking away money that you could invest in veterans that could get them to the playoffs much quicker and so that that’s where the equation you know and and i’ve started to hear things that the hornets are getting more comfortable with the idea of actually competing of doing the things that are necessary to actually compete right and if that were true and they they added three more rookies to this roster that wouldn’t jive with me i just i just don’t see them making all three of these picks um yeah that it looks like that’s what’s going to happen it looks like that’s what’s going to happen with the hornets so anyways yeah just bad bad business getting rid of the pick the way that they do the next thing real quickly before we go to the two mock drafts cam johnson do you try to get cute and thread the needle on not going big fish hunting but going after somebody that would absolutely help this team you’d probably have you’d have to give up more than just the fourth overall pick which is high but you’re only dropping three spots i think the nets would view it that way as well so do you get rid of four and whatever something valuable four and whatever for cam johnson and seven maybe so you come out with one less first round pick with the mavs and the heat pick that you have um are you trying to make cam johnson happen in a potential net scenario doug i mean he’s always been a fit in our mind i mean it adds shooting for sure um and and shooting from a bigger position i mean i i think yeah it makes a lot of sense i i don’t know it would just depend on it would just depend on how much you’re giving up if you have to give up tan salon or something like that i’m a little a little less less on board from that you know if it was a huge hall that brooklyn was looking for because so brooklyn’s at eight but it’s still four spots sorry yeah four seven’s new orleans seven yeah four it’s it’s something right i mean every every spot actually does mean something you’re right though it it’d be four spots wouldn’t change it a ton but it it might change it um just a tiny bit all right mock draft time baby what you got for the people all right so ringer updated their mock draft and uh it was a big update here from the team at ringer cooper flag and dylan harper still locked at one two but philly selects trey johnson now they do say that the sixers are one of the tougher teams to read in this draft they can move their pick but the list of potential suitors is slim considering their specific need so they go with the offensive player there they don’t want bailey bailey shifts down to four and that’s where the hornets select ace bailey and the ringer writes “bayeyy’s ability to mesh with lamelo ball and brandon miller is something i’ve gone back and forth on for the past several weeks on the one hand ace would rack up a ridiculous amount of easy points off of ball and miller’s passing if he buys him the idea of moving without the ball it sounds ridiculously fun.” on the other hand the other two spots would have to be filled with plus and likely elite tier defenders at the point of attack and the rim but that’s not an immediate concern the hornets are mostly directionless ouch and just need talent okay so this is a draft first ask questions later decision for a team that really needed to win this lottery landing bailey at number four would be a coup a coup yeah we’ve we’ve given our thoughts on ace bailey the only thing i’ll say real quickly it got some mid-range uh conversation yesterday got some mid-range comments right you mentioned sga doing this in the postseason having that ability in the postseason is a big deal and it is and i i don’t i don’t want to be the guy that just wants to completely erate eradicate the mid-range jumper like i don’t i don’t want to do that it’s just it’s it’s really hard to to be a top dog in that area where you just you get to your spots and then you hit that shot all the time like a kevin durant like a shay gilis alexander if you think ace is that then okay you take your swing that’s god that is such a slim slim slim margin for error if that’s the way that it works out in that area of the court where you’re constantly creating from that spot right like it’s it’s it’s not going to ever be completely erased from his game nor would i want that to happen for ace either i i would i would want him to utilize that part just like i want brandon to utilize that part and he still does but if that’s still the most comfortable and he’s still only shooting less than 44% from that area of the floor then that’s where it gets real dicey and that’s the most likely outcome you’d have to believe in an outlier here with ace which i guess is the case for a lot of draft prospects but it it’s tough it it’s harder for me to buy in to the ace fit with charlotte as we’ve mentioned a ton of times the offense i think the to me the biggest offensive concern is what does it do to the development of of brandon miller and is ace bailey going to be completely satisfied with his role on a team with lamelo ball and brandon miller even in his rookie season but i think the defensive concerns just from a team winning aspect are the bigger issue here i mean i think if you’re talking about miles and mark if they just continue on status quo that team’s going to give up 130 points a game like it’s just going to be awful defensively unless that bench is just stacked with four or five alex carusos like it’s you better go get jared allen if you’re going to bring ace bailey into this guard rotation it would be it’d be crazy you’re you’re right to be fair vj edgecom is the only one that changes that fact no nobody khan kipple doesn’t uh trey johnson doesn’t coniple is that’s fair the the def the the defensive stuff is hey he’s strong and he’s better than what you think from a shooter he’s still going to get attacked man that’s going to happen in year one at least if we’re talking about next season vj is the only one that changes that fact but you’re right it it it would be true still of ace bailey being here all right so i think i owe one more uh espn phone gavon and jeremy woo did a draft where they went need and they went value so gavon was doing need and woo was doing value so with the fourth pick in the need draft that that gavon goes harper here because harper doesn’t go to san antonio because they don’t need him and philly doesn’t need a combo guard either they’ve got maxi already so gavon goes harper for the hornets and then woos pick that gets the best value is khan canipple and the previous value picks for philly were vj edgecomb and then woo’s value pick was dylan harper at two for san antonio and then of course cooper flag at one so canipple the pick instead of trey johnson or ace bailey look we don’t have enough time um and this is a block stuff anyway i think we’re going to have to really look at life with vj going to philly and we’re going to have to figure out what that means for charlotte it just seems like all the signs are pointing to that and look we’re we’re june 11th things could change next week but right now if i had to bet my money i’d say vj is going to philly and the hornets are going to have their pick of all the other guys that we’ve discussed the the other thing that would be enticing is if if dylan harper drops to three then if if that happens then do the hornets just try to make something happen with philly and trade up to secure him but you know philly also has jared mccain and tyrese maxi like i dude is there a world they pass on dylan harper my god i i don’t i don’t think that happens but and maybe a nonzero chance that happens all right that’ll do it for lockdown hornets thanks for making us your first listen double mock drafts baby that 50 number it it feels weird that we’re here in the 50s but we’re here it’s not too far away uh when we find out what the hornets do on draft night doug branson every hornetsboxcore.com also keeping you up to date on everything happening nationally in the nba with locked on nba matt moore putting out a lot of good stuff lately and hayes also doing a great job on locked on nba i’m walker male listen to me wfnz every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m have a great rest of your day we’ll be back with you tomorrow [Music]

LaMelo Ball trade talk has gone quiet—so does that mean the Charlotte Hornets are finally committing to him long term? Plus, should Charlotte make a move for Jarrett Allen, and how do two fresh mock drafts shake up their top-10 pick?

Is LaMelo Ball’s future with the Charlotte Hornets finally set in stone? On today’s episode of Locked On Hornets, Walker and Doug dive into the sudden silence around LaMelo trade speculation and what that means for the Hornets’ offseason direction. With top point guards like Darius Garland, Jrue Holiday, and Trae Young circulating in trade rumors—and LaMelo not among them—are the Hornets finally hitting the straightaway with their franchise star?

Then, the guys pivot to Cleveland and ask: should the Hornets pursue Jarrett Allen if the Cavaliers look to shake things up? Doug makes the case for why Allen could immediately elevate the Hornets’ defense, while Walker weighs the playoff risks versus the regular-season rewards of acquiring the 27-year-old center.

Plus, we’ve got not one, but TWO fresh mock drafts to dissect. ESPN and The Ringer both updated their boards—what does it mean if VJ Edgecombe is off the board by pick 3?

If you missed yesterday’s mock, don’t worry—today’s double-mock segment will get you caught up.

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