DRAFT TRADE: Hornets Signal Draft Day Deals | Time to “Get Serious” | Maluach STILL Getting Mocked

DRAFT TRADE: Hornets Signal Draft Day Deals | Time to “Get Serious” | Maluach STILL Getting Mocked

what are the lessons the players should be taking away from the NBA finals as opposed to the organization and the lessons they should be taking we go fishing a little bit and we give you a couple mock drafts all today locked on Hornets [Music] you are Locked on Hornets your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast part of the Locked On network your team every day in a minute cuz we live [Music] it’s Locked on Hornets part of the Locked On podcast 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 and that does include YouTube there’s Doug Branson every hornetsboxcore.com is his Substack his other other podcast is Locked on NBA hosting with Matt Moore and Hayes and I’m Walker Mail you can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time Doug game time right now you can download the Game Time app you can create an account and you can use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase do it do it right now you know what we’re going to do we’re going fishing it’s been a while but now we got two fishing trips what you got Doug you got You got something there something bite oh we got a big one folks from Jake Fiser now working for the Stein Line Substack mark Stein substack here’s what Jake writes as of now Utah appears to hold the middle block in the Jingga Tower at number five the Jazz unlike the Sixers and the Hornets have not actively encouraged trade interest from teams further down the draft board sources say the middle block in the Jingga Tower it reminds me shout out to ESPN 7:30 when we went to ACC Kickoff and we played life-size Jenga that they have at all the breweries and the bars and stuff and we beat the game me Molly Cotton Bobby Rosinski shout out to those guys we beat the game there was no other block that we could remove before the tower would inevitably fall so we beat the game that’s right it can happen we did it unlike the Sixers and the Hornets the Jazz have not actively encouraged trade interest from teams further down the draft board so it seems like the Hornets are making calls seems like they’re preparing for every single scenario especially with VJ Edgecomb likely to go to Philadelphia he’s at least the favorite as we confirmed when we went to FanDuel and saw the odds either yesterday or two days ago he’s the favorite to go to Philly vj Edgecom is also the favorite to go to the Hornets so we’ll see which one happens but Hornets getting prepared for every scenario and I’m glad that they’re making calls because it it’s I don’t I don’t want to say it’s likely they move down but it feels more likely than ever in the last I don’t know what five however many years you want to go back whatever regime was in charge it feels more likely this season than maybe than maybe in other drafts uh that they’ve had and I think it feels that way for a variety of reasons one they missed out on the top two picks which are surefire i mean I think it’s going to be don’t listen to anything about VJ Edge come at two that’s insane it’s going to be Cooper Flag it’s going to be Dylan Harper at two okay so they missed out on that then there are multiple I think wing players in and around where the Hornets want to draft so if there were only one that they were targeting then they would probably just keep the pick and try to get that player or even move up to try to get that player if at all possible but you’ve got VJ Edgecom you’ve got Trey Johnson you’ve got Khan Canipple we’ve thrown Yakonis’ name in there as well there are players that the Hornets could target for I think both for fit and for ceiling for development that that make sense for them just from a culture standpoint and also from just some holes that they have in this roster generally that that makes sense at this pick so that would incentivize them to move down if they fell in love with a particular player that they they thought were safe at six or seven you’ve also got Washington who I think is interested in moving up like it’s one thing to say well my team wants to move down you it takes two to tango baby you’ve got to have a team willing to move up i think Washington is that team the thing that complicates this is that the Sixers also want to move down and I think the Hornets probably want to move down if VJ Edgecom is off the board but that’s the big question Walker we don’t know that answer for sure is this about hey we’d like to move down because we’re targeting a player like Khan Canipple or or Yakonis who we think we can get at the six through eight range or are the Hornets interested in moving down uh because they think they have no chance at VJ Edgecom and so if VJ Edgecom is there will they just keep the pick at four uh I don’t I don’t know that we’re going to get solid answers to that until right up right up into the draft because I think the Hornets are going to be fielding calls on the clock like this is not going to be something that we we know for sure doesn’t it feel like anything is realistic with this team they I could I could see them trading up to number two to go get Dylan Harper i could see that if San Antonio decided you know I just don’t see the vision with De’aran Fox Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper and if somebody wants to give us a decent amount and come take Dylan Harper and then we just collect assets and then go get a different guy in this draft I could see that happening i could see the Hornets trading up to number three to ensure that they get VJ Edgecomb i could certainly see them staying put that’s always going to be the default answer and I could see them trading back a couple of spots i just the the most unlikely scenario Doug I mean if if we’re just going with the realistic outcomes trading up to two because obviously you’re not going to trade up to one so trading up to two and trading all the way back to eight with Brooklyn at I would not be surprised if the Hornets did any of those things in between trading up and two and trading back to something like eight with Brooklyn the reason it’s difficult to figure out what the Hornets are going to do is one it’s a newer regime there with Jeff Peterson and and newer in the sense that both new to Charlotte and also new in that position right we don’t have a general manager that has a strong pass where he was the lead decision maker where you can look back we did that with Mitch Cupjack right we could look back at his time in LA and say these are the kind of players he targets these are the kind of moves that he does and make some make some educated guesses you can’t do that with Jeff Peterson the one draft that we do have I think there was strong indications that they were trying to move up for Stfane Castle that they were or at least that they were interested in Stfan Castle particularly if he fell and he didn’t and then they maneuvered to this player that was off a lot of our boards in Tan Salon but then you go back and look and they invited him to a workout and and seemed to be very confident that he was the kind of player they wanted to bring in and so that’s the third thing I think that both Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee they have an idea of the kind of makeup of a player that they want not necessarily the archetype in terms of how they play or how they’re built physically but I think they have a certain archetype of what a player is up here and in their mind and in their heart and that’s difficult like we can watch all the tape in the world that’s difficult for people like us I think to make an evaluation of because we don’t get these guys in a room and really talk to them for hours or whatever and figure out what kind of player they are we certainly don’t go and you know have access to their coaches and their high school coaches and different things the kind of intel that these teams are doing on all of these players I think that’s what they fall in love with and so that’s what makes it more difficult to say and they’re principled i I would say like Jeff Peterson is strong in his idea of what kind of players they want to bring into this organization and I think they’ll go get that guy if if they fall in love with that particular kind of player rather than saying “Well you know we we want 69 guys with long wingspans and we’ll take whoever fits that mold that comes down the pipe.” I don’t think they’re like that i think they target a guy and they go try to get that guy well we Well right we know they have a type we know what that type is we don’t know the lengths they’re willing to go to go get their type that’s what they need and every single move that they make and we’ve talked about it at Nauseium but every single move they make they go get that certain type of player think about it with Musa Josh Kogi even Nerkish when you’re willing to take on the $19 million contract Nerkach is a physical dude then they go and they get Tan Salon not afraid of contact vj Edgecom has been heavily linked to them when they were interested in Stfan Castle last year stfan Castle probably the more physical of the players that I can think of at the top of that draft and that’s who they were hoping was going to fall to them they’re all defensive minded except for maybe Nerkage in this regard but also just not afraid of contact so we have it on very good authority because they’ve been telling us you you don’t even have to pay attention all that much right they’ve been telling you what their type is to your point we just don’t know the length the lengths they’re willing to go to go get that guy trading up how many assets do they deem worth it to go get VJ Edgecomb but man the more you look at it the more he screams Hornet’s DNA given what they’ve structured Hornet’s DNA to be and they haven’t sacrificed anything yet all that Jeff Peterson has been interested in is acquiring assets we have not seen that pivot in the slightest of saying “Hey we’re going to give up something significant to go get something significant.” So we’ll see if that happens in this draft i I don’t know what you can take from Hornets from their own social media but they seem to be telegraphing a little bit that the second round picks at least are on the market they released this video on X uh that is a compilation of interviews that they did at the combine with uh Shams and Jake Fischer and all these different cats and it’s all around the fact that they have two second round picks and that trading those makes a lot of sense so you’ve got the Hornets own social media i don’t know what that was i that you don’t see but you don’t see really any teams doing that but it’s particularly shocking because I think the Hornets do control things so tightly i just wonder if Jeff Peterson like went up to our guy Sam Pley and was like “Hey put the word out the picks 33 and 34 they’re on the market.” Yeah i mean so I I I guess I don’t know who’s in charge of their social media account i know Matt Richinsky does a lot of media over there and has been for a while matt’s the man by the way huge shout out to Richinsky he’s the guy but um I wonder if they’re just trying to drum up interest in uh less interesting part of the draft hey I know we have a top five pick but guys let’s get interested in what we have in the top 30 right 32 33 34 picks that we have here with the the Hornets having two of those second round picks so stay interested because and I wonder also if they’re teasing a Hornets Real Access because they dropped one last year and so it would make sense that they’re teasing a Hornets Real Access episode especially after the draft it would seem a little early for a teaser but not too out of the question because we’re about to have the draft in uh a week’s worth of time almost exactly so all those things would make sense coming up next on the Locked Hornets podcast beast everywhere sometimes I like to play a game myself on this podcast when Doug does not tell me what the bullet points mean i like to play a game called What do those bullet points mean the basketball right there get serious man i don’t I don’t know what that means who needs to get serious why do they need to get serious doug tells us coming up next [Music] this episode is brought to you by Game Time game time there’s nothing like the NBA playoffs the intensity the buzzer beaters the guys getting serious 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 man it’s been awesome i’m hoping that we get to a game seven it’s the kind of atmosphere you want game time makes it fast and easy to get to that atmosphere that is so enjoyable and it makes it easy to get seats even for the biggest playoff games 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 plus I love that I can see my exact 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sometimes I don’t even know what we’re going to talk about but Doug tells me now and then we get to play by the right on the edge of our seat seat of our pants however you want to phrase it what does get serious man mean Doug Branson it means that I’ve been watching the NBA Finals very closely as host of Locked on NBA i have to they pay me to now and we’ve done a lot of talk on this show about what the takeaway should be from a team building perspective what Jeff Peterson’s takeaways should be but we have not done a lot of conversation about what the players on this team should take away from the NBA Finals because the Charlotte Hornets are obviously a long way from an NBA Finals but they have a lot of young players with a lot of room to develop their games and I think they should be watching the NBA Finals closely to see what kind of play and what kind of players succeed in the NBA Finals and my big takeaway from watching the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder is that both of these teams play with an extra level of seriousness and certainly the NBA finals just the atmosphere of it just the idea that hey we are we are four wins away from carrying the trophy that’s going to amp the seriousness up but I think when you looked at both of these teams even during the regular season you could see that they played with a level of seriousness uh that that was a little bit different meaning when when they scored a every three-pointer they scored didn’t come with a celebration when they got knocked down particularly the Pacers because they always wanted to play up and down the floor when they got knocked down on a play they immediately got back up and got into transition defense or transition offense whatever the case may be and so my thing for the Hornets is they’ve got to look at that and say “Hey if you want to succeed in the playoffs at all forget getting to the NBA finals step one just get to the playoffs.” It needs to come with an extra level of seriousness like every play and I and and credit to LaMelo Ball for I think starting that process where I think before there was you know and I would say like in LA in not this previous season but the season before that there was a lot of complaining to the refs there was a lot of taking yourselves out of taking yourself out of a play trying to sell a foul i saw a little bit less of that as as LaMelo tried to buy into Charles Lee’s you know defensive emphasis because if you’re going to play defense in this league right now you have to play it essentially at all times you have to play defense on offense meaning you have to take great shots and the shot doesn’t go in you got to immediately engage on defense and not try to like foul bait the entire time so level of seriousness it’s got to be in the locker room on the floor the Hornets have to amp it up look man we can you know dwindle down basketball to a bunch of numbers on cleaning the glass i love that site i use it all the time you know I’ve got subscriptions to threes dunks and threes like all sorts of you know different number kind of subscriptions for for stats that tell me what I’m watching on the basketball court i got I got a lot of them um it also just comes down to toughness sometimes when you’re watching what these guys are doing out there in the postseason it’s real simple those guys are monsters you got linebackers playing basketball you got running backs who are playing basketball you got a bunch of tough dudes you brought up get serious with the two stars sga is a plus defender he’s also the weakest defender on his team he’s probably the best weakest defender in the NBA for any other team and they’re in the NBA finals and they’re on the brink of winning a championship it’s been mentioned so many times Tyrese Hallebertton improving a ton defensively this postseason run i don’t think you can call him a plus i don’t even I don’t even know how much of an average defender Tyrese Hallebertton is they’re still trying to attack him quite a bit but Tyrese and the coaching staff for the Pacers have discussed so many times Tyrese being exposed so badly by Boston last year that this offseason he’s like “Yeah maybe I maybe I I shouldn’t just be a a dummy and get destroyed a football pad dummy that just everybody runs over in practice maybe I shouldn’t be that guy maybe I shouldn’t be a turn style and try to hold my own.” I think he has done that zack Loe’s talked about that quite a bit and so that is getting serious over the off seasonason it’s getting to the postseason realizing what your shortcomings are getting serious about changing it and then actually changing it hello you graduate to the NBA finals so both of your stars are doing that and then last thing I’ll say about getting serious cuz I completely agree with your take it it’s it’s more evident in this matchup than I think we’ve seen with even other playoff matchups and we’ve seen it still across the board but I remember talking with Grant Williams during Exit Day interviews and here’s Grant coming off of a pretty devastating knee injury not only is it the torn ACL but there’s all sorts of stuff that went wrong in that knee and there he is in the gym working out still cut up man like Grant’s obviously a huge dude you talk about football players playing basketball that’s what Grant is and we asked him about weight training and how significant that is in the NBA and he discussed how some guys do it and some guys don’t he believes in it he thinks it’s a big deal and there are lots of players in the NBA and he wouldn’t say any names of course but he said that there are players in the NBA that don’t necessarily believe in it all that much or they just don’t do it as much and he’s somebody that tries to set an example every day by going into the weight room and also you know again during rehab right a devastating knee injury we got some skinny guys on the squad man you know how many guys on our team right now would hold up physically in a playoff series i they’re we got some scrawny dudes i don’t think they’re soft Doug it’s not about them being weak minded it’s not about them being soft it’s not about any of that i think even like even for LaMelo I think he welcomes contact at times but then when you get real physical with him and he and and the other guy is ready for your contact then you know he’s he’s just a skinny guy he’s not crazy strong brandon Miller not crazy strong so the get serious part two a lot of that has to happen in the weight room mark Williams is another one like we got so many twigs out there man and you know maybe we get to we need to see the volume turned up on the muscle with this organization i don’t think I don’t think it’s about calling anyone weak-minded i think it’s about saying “Hey we need to be stronger of mind.” And you’ve got and my point is you’ve got to have that from player one down to player 10 11 12 in the rotation because that’s what you’re seeing with Indiana they have a bunch of insane people on that team and and Oklahoma City same thing lou Dor they’re all in love they’re all crazy tj McConnell is an insane person i’m scared of TJ McConnell how many players on the Hornets are you scared of and it’s the invisible work it’s the stuff that you don’t see and and you don’t see it until your team just gets their bleep kicked that’s when you know like oh that work is not being done and and it has to be done and if you don’t feel like a player can do that then then you just move on from that player and that’s what I love about Tan Salon i don’t know if he’s going to work out i don’t I don’t know if this project is going to succeed but I believe in the guy i believe that Ton is an insane person that he can get to if he if the skills match up with the insanity i believe in that guy i hope they don’t give up on Tan Salon too soon before they see if those skills if that skill set can match up to that insanity and I do believe in the idea of going out and finding those players in the draft or free agency or trade using all available tools to find those types of guys uh because that’s what OKC did and that’s what Indiana did and it’s about it’s about insanity it’s about seriousness it’s about composure because whether it’s Indiana within a game being down 15 in the fourth quarter being able to come back or it’s Oklahoma City being down 2-1 in the series going to the locker room and not panicking and not being angry with each other and not falling apart but also being focused on winning not being like well it’s not a big deal you know we’re just down 2-1 no they they have that level of composure that says “We’re not going to fly off the handle but we are going to take this seriously.” I’m glad that Charles Lee’s at the helm i’m glad that Jeff Peterson is the general is the president of basketball operations whatever you want to call him because I think they’re focused on finding guys that that want to be the kinds of players that we’re seeing in the NBA finals i think they care about it they care about it and I like that they’ve walked the walk more so than they’ve talked the talk here with the moves that they’ve made and final thing when you have teams like this it feels like other guys fall in line for instance Ben Mathan is someone that comes to mind for me i think Ben Matan is trying defensively hard i I don’t And even even with Ben Mathan who is not the best decision maker with the basketball in his hands to to say the least about Ben what I do love is that he is the guard that is the least scared to drive into the paint with all of the trees that OKC has to offer and Tyrese Hallebertton is more so of a smart probing decision maker uh there’s not a lot of room to shoot a layup let me dribble let me turn my back to the goal and dribble right back out past the three-point line nhard uh there’s not a lot of room to operate i’ll either pull up for the midi or I’ll dribble it right back out to the three-point line ben which I’m not advocating for bad decision-m but I’ve liked having Matin in there for the Pacers because he’s the least scared he says “I don’t really care if you have Patrick Wah Tree Rollins a skyscraper in my way i’m going to try to dunk on him i’m going to try to get a layup and get a foul.” And like even in different ways even defensively Ben trying to beat his driver to the spot when I don’t know if that was the Matherine that we had seen last year or two years ago and he was injured last year but guys fall in line and this comes back to putting a culture in place where you can get the most out of these guys even if they don’t perfectly fit the identity that you want them to they conform to it because you have a culture that is so damn strong that you have no choice but to conform to it or you’re off the team and this is the team you want to be with this is the team going places it’s not you going places and experiencing better stuff elsewhere that’s what it takes man i I think it’s impossible to start a culture unless that culture starts and ends with the player that is being paid the most money and that’s Labella Ball and to his credit I think he’s an insane person offensively he has composure offensively we’ve seen him so many times agree go you know two for 14 through three quarters and then come out in the fourth quarter and hit five threes in a row how many times have we seen that and drag the Hornets back into a game that they had no business being in he is an insane person when it comes to his confidence and his composure offensively i think we started to see some of that run through the translation machine into the rest of his game and and I just all we can do is hope that he is taking this off seasonason super seriously uh in the gym in the workout room getting that ankle and that and that just that lower body in general as strong as possible and that he comes out wanting to make even more improvements to the defensive end of the floor so that that culture can start there and then you know Grant Williams important part of that but it’s got to just leak down to everyone else and Brandon Miller’s got some of that too the ability Yeah so I don’t know well yeah it’s it’s all about the off season get serious man we found out what Doug was meaning coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast everywhere day 55 of 61 we basically have a week left to go before we get to the draft 55 of 61 another mock draft in the final segment it’s been a lot of mocks hawk drafts even in there sometimes it’s not so much today but I heard your voice as As you said Hawk I heard your voice warble I cringe i cringe one more segment to go lol [Music] watch it happen now uh right when we’re reading the debut of Ollipop which I love so much this episode is brought to you by Lollipop it’s a new kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health with just 2 to 5 g of sugar and 9 g of prebiotic fiber in every can Lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut traditional sodas are loaded with sugar like 39 grams in a regular Coke or 44 g in an orange Fanta goodness gracious lollipop flips the script with just a fraction of the sugar no artificial sweeteners and gut- friendly ingredients like Olly Smart a blend shown to support digestive and overall health it’s soda that tastes like the real thing but actually does something good for your body here I don’t know why Olivia is the better company person than I am because she’s all over lollipop we got the lollipop shout out to Lollipop we got the cans we got all sorts of different flavors olivia tried a couple bam fell in love we go to the grocery store and we get a whole bunch of other different flavors true story not kidding my favorite is lemon lime it’s this refreshing twist on your other traditional lemon lime sodas except it’s 50 calories and it’s got a bunch of fiber for you it’s refreshing it’s almost like it’s it’s light it’s airy it’s very good i’m drinking one like every day now i love Lollipop thank you so much for helping us out here on the Lockdown Podcast Network get a free can of Lollipop just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one of those cans head to drinkallipop.com/lockdown NBA to claim your free can and find Ollipop near you that’s drinkallipop.com/lockdown NBA more Lockdown Hornets ahead [Music] oh boy I love me some lollipop man lollipop and pop yeah love it all right i love it too vintage cola is my favorite you didn’t ask i don’t know why but you didn’t ask but vintage cola is my favorite flavor it It’s It’s like It’s almost a little uh It It’s got like cinnamon in it and so it’s like a little a little tiny like dessert to it yeah yeah yeah it It You can taste it it tastes really good you know what my favorite part about you got some more lollipop takes yeah just the It’s the fiber because you know what fiber helps you do right no I actually don’t tell me what does fiber do it helps you poop thank you you’re not You’re not there yet w You’re not quite there this is the age difference that always shows up on this show as you get a little bit older it matters all right ollipop makes you Ali poop thank you very much to Ollipop all right Doug Branson mockdraft what you got for the people uh Mockdraft man oh boy i don’t even want to do this one it’s It’s paining me to do this one is it Is it the bad one the guy that you don’t want is that what’s happening okay somehow day 55 somehow day 55 we are still getting the bad one this is Jonathan Wasserman June 17th so this isn’t an old one this is a newbie from Jonathan Wasserman mockdraft cooper flag goes one dylan Harper goes two vj Edgecomb goes three to the Philadelphia 76ers oh no what do the Hornets do apparently they panic and they take Kaman Malawash the center out of Duke according to Jonathan Wasserman the combine confirmed what scouts expected malawash has wild measurements oversized hands that help him finish around the rim his pro day brought that size length and mobility to life leaving some scouts picturing a top five pick so is it just the age difference when we reference the combine between Malawatch and Caulk Briner i I I’m not trying to just dwindle down the second round of the draft to only Ryan Cochrrener but the combine also did him some favors apparently uh because a lot of those numbers are very similar to what Malawatch is the the big thing people talk about with the Duke Center is how monstrous he is like he’s a big dude except Caulkr runner’s you know bigger in some areas as well like I think wingspan I forget the standing reach whatever they’re very similar body types the athleticism like it feels like it’s there but also maybe not so much with some of the testing that you have compared to a caulk Brener at Kraton so I guess that’s my question right it the age difference it is significant you are talking about once Malawatch is Caulk Brener’s age he’ll already be on a second contract i believe I think there’s a 5year difference something like that so look it it’s a big deal i don’t even mean to diminish that so much so it’s just if you were interested in him then that’s the game plan I’m rolling with it’s like all right well I like him like I don’t hate him as a player i I do like the age but why don’t I just double up and get somebody that can help me out on the perimeter and then go after my center a little bit later in the first round or at the beginning of the second round and that that’s the play that I part of that reason that I don’t want to roll with Malawatch Doug is because I feel like you can go get that guy a little bit later um in the NBA draft i think so i mean there are definitely a lot of teams out there that will be looking for centers this off seasonason and the market is not flush right now we keep just oscillating between like centers are super important and now they’re not and now they are and so obviously finding one that could anchor this defense would be important to what Charles Lee is trying to do i’m just scared that Malawash just does not have the offensive versatility and we’re going to be right back into the Bismac Biombo Mark Williams territory that we’ve been in for many many years and I don’t want to go down that road again i’m sorry come on everything that I read is like great guy focused on getting better awesome so this is not about him as a person or a player i just cannot go down this road again with this particular team and so I hope if he’s getting top five love that it’s that it results in the Hornets being able to move down and actually get a player that I think that they could that they’ve shown they can develop if the Hornets had shown and I know I’m punishing them for Bismac Bombo and it’s unfair but if they shown in their history that they could develop a guy like this then I would be more about it but I’m just not well maybe we should focus a little more on him because of everything that you just said in fact I think there was an article was it Jay Kyle Man that released it i apologize for not giving the right person the right credit perhaps we fix that in the next episode but there was an article about how great of a guy Malawatch is how much he’s had to overcome the character okay the personality the work ethic are those not the things that the Hornets value most based off of Raphael Barlo i’m just telling you this is scary you’re scaring me more than Lavar Ball is scaring me with these like LA Clippers these Clippers yeah the Clippers takes he’s trying to get the Ball brothers to the Clippers that that is happening out there um you know yes that that’s happening but also if that’s what they value most and that is what’s being celebrated maybe most from Kaman Malawatch then surprise he’s the pick at number four uh I’m I’m sorry to see what would happen to you i don’t think you could take it if that was the selection from an entertainment perspective I would say if this happens it has the potential although we’re not doing a live show this year i’m sorry to I’m sorry to break that news here we will be doing some pre-draft coverage we’ll obviously be doing post-draft coverage but uh you will be uh doing responsibilities for WF&Z during the draft i will be doing responsibilities for locked on NBA but trust me I’m going to be up all night on draft night so I will uh have something for the people on uh the sort of like post first round analysis for the Charlotte Hornets and obviously I’ll probably join you cuz it’s going it’s going to be it’s going to be a late night for everybody like I I’ll I think we’ll probably do the media availability thing i’ll go to you know see what Jeff’s talking about and then so it might be like one of those 1 a.m ringer style releases that That’s what might happen with us because just crushing lollipops the whole time yeah we got to get to the vintage cola because not all of them have caffeine but the vintage cola that has 50 milligrams of caffeine which is just the right amount ollipop i’m I’m all in baby i I’m I’m olly popping over here ollie in that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets thanks for making us your first listen we’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast that does include YouTube go check Doug out on his Substack every hornetsboxcore.com um also hosting Locked on NBA lots of stuff going on over there with the draft with the offseason rumors matt Moore he’s been on his game too with his Substack he’s been awesome man hardwood peroxism so shout out to Matt um go check out Locked on NBA i’m Walker Male listen to me on WFNZ usually every weekday from 12 to 3 this week I’m on from 3 to 6 i’m filling in for the Kyle Bailey show cuz there’s a whole bunch of vacation schedules going on drive time walkie that’s right that’s what they call me so 3 to 6:00 p.m i’ll be on there Wednesday Thursday and Friday oh walkie-talkie is if it wasn’t so silly it would be a great nickname walkietalkie because I do talkie and my name is Walkie 3 to 6 WFNZ 927 FM have a great rest of your day we’ll be back with you tomorrow 104 good buddy [Music]

The Charlotte Hornets are keeping all options open in the 2025 NBA Draft, from trading up to making a shocking pick at #4. Plus, the guys send a strong message to the players: it’s time to get serious if this team wants to evolve.

In this episode of Locked On Hornets, Walker and Doug tackle the Hornets’ increasingly complex draft strategy just one week out from the big night. Could Charlotte move up to secure a star like Dylan Harper? Could they slide back to grab a wing/creator like Kon Knueppel or Kasparas Jakucionis? The guys break down reports from Jake Fischer and FanDuel odds that continue to tie VJ Edgecombe to Charlotte—but also suggest Philly could snag him first. If that happens, all bets are off.

We also get into Jonathan Wasserman’s latest mock, which drops a surprise: the Hornets taking big man Khaman Maluach at #4. Doug reacts with disbelief—could this regime really prioritize fit and character that much over skill and spacing?

Then, it’s time to “Get Serious.” Doug draws inspiration from the Pacers and Thunder to issue a cultural challenge to Charlotte’s young roster. What does a winning team feel like? Who on this roster brings that edge, that grit, that composure? From LaMelo Ball’s growth to Grant Williams’ weight room leadership, this segment sets the tone for what’s expected moving forward.

The Hornets have a type—but how far are they willing to go to land him? Tune in as we break it all down.

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Top 35 Hornets Nicknames of All-Time According to Doug Branson: https://hornets.substack.com/p/the-top-35-nicknames-in-hornets-franchise

Top 35 Hornets of All-Time According to Walker Mehl: https://hornets.substack.com/p/the-top-35-players-in-hornets-history

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