Charlotte Hornets Draft Pick Could Determine LaMelo Ball’s Future | The Drive with Josh Graham

Charlotte Hornets Draft Pick Could Determine LaMelo Ball’s Future | The Drive with Josh Graham

on matters of college basketball in the NBA there are few voices locally that we trust more than Terrence Oglesby who follows college basketball the ACC the Hornets as well are you holding a Macho Man Randy Savage toy right now for those watching on YouTube Twitch and X i don’t know how this this works out to where it ends up in the seat behind me but my brother got me this for Christmas because he lost my actual gift so he just gave me a macho my brother’s 33 years old i thought you were doing this because you knew somehow that macho man Randy Savage was a family friend of ours no is he really i we were talking about this this week because my dad is a humble person even though he talks way too much including bugging Randolph Childris on the golf course a few days ago um he uh Your dad talks too much he does this is where I get it from hereditary but but he doesn’t talk about things that he should so I didn’t discover until I was 15 years old looking through old family photo books there was one photo of Macho Man Randy Savage Lenny Papo his brother and my dad and my cousin in our foyer and I’m like “Dad is this Macho Man Randy Savage?” He’s like “Yeah that’s Randy.” And the reason we were talking about it is because my dad is also friends with the manager of the LA Angels Ron Washington who got his tickets last week to the Orioles game had us in the dugout and it was getting to the point where he was inviting my dad Washington was to LA and he said he’d pick him up at the airport take him to him from games and I’m like who is this person that I’ve lived with my entire life but yes Macho Man Randy Savage friends with my dad back in the day i tell you what the Carolinas are a breeding ground for greatness really it’s I mean like sneaky greatness like you don’t really realize what’s in front of you until like 15 years later and then you’re just like man this is this is real i can’t think of a better segue to the draft where you talk about potential and a lot of guys within the Carolinas maybe a guy like uh Cooper Flag who’s going to go number one if we can acknowledge it’s not realistic to expect Cooper Flag or Dylan Harper to be available at number four where the Charlotte Hornets are picking what do you view as the best case scenario you’re a guy who’s done 30 plus breakdowns on prospects for the draft you can follow uh Terrence Oglesby stuff on X and check that stuff out what do you view to be the best case scenario for Charlotte and that could be a specific player or a trade the more I’m reading the more I just the ambiguity of all these different you know possibilities after picks one and two have just been freaking unbelievable to try to keep up with because there’s some people like well Kanipple makes great sense and then Trey Johnson he could lead the leading scoring it makes great sense but they could also like try to move somebody and then trade back to get Malawatch that would make sense too if you decided to do something with Mark so best case scenario for me um I you know it’s twofold because you look at whether or not they’re going to hitch their wagons to the LaMelo train like if you’re going to hang with LaMelo great but you need people to play alongside i would kind of lean more towards Canipple or I would lean more towards VJ Edgecom which it’s looking more and more likely he’s going to end up in Philly but like if if that’s the case um and you’re going to stay with LaMelo those two guys make sense because they’re very valuable role pieces secondary ball handlers kind of guys uh if you’re looking towards the future which has kind of been the steadfast argument with the Hornets a little bit is like hey we’re at sustainability sustainability sustainability future future future uh the highest upside swings are going to be Ace Bailey and Trey Johnson but Trey Johnson in my mind I I’m not calling him Kobe Bryant but his mentality in a lot of things is very similar how he gets to spots his ability to shoot it he’s kind of wiry the same direction you compared him to Jamal Crawford didn’t you low end i I think at worst he could be Jamal Crawford and I love Jamal Crawford i love Jamal Crawford so and what was Jamal Crawford a guy who comes off the bench and sparks you right away because he’s thinking about getting buckets so like Trey Johnson’s geared that certain way and a lot of these things come down to the mentality of each player trey’s there to score and he understands he’s there to score i I think he could score 30 points quickly and just because he’s so intentional about spots he’s a procorer at the college level last year playing for a coach that kind of kind of got him some shots but really didn’t that much so he had to do it himself i think he’s really good and I think he’s going to be even better in the NBA game so how telling do you think this pick will be one way or another about the Charlotte Hornets what do you mean by that because because if you’re going to go long haul with LaMelo because he is so talented you’re going to pick guys that go beside him edgecom obviously if he’s there can like if you’re going to play it out and be like well maybe Neil Bell is not the guy maybe we can swing for the fences here and try to get a superstar i think Trey Johnson’s in that mix i the way you draft Ace Bailey you don’t draft Ace Bailey if you’re thinking that that’s going to coexist together with I I’ll be honest with you guys as much volatility is coming out of Ace Bailey’s camp I’d be shocked if Charlotte took a swing now that’s a pick Mitch Cubch would have absolutely made would have absolutely made i don’t think this front office is as apt to go after a guy with as many I’m not gonna say off the court red flags because everything I’ve heard about Ace Bailey has been great yeah cuz here’s the thing like this is the stuff you have to parse and for those who aren’t following it closely he apparently interviewed poorly at the combine but then again take that stuff with a grain of salt but how much of a grain of salt we saw what happened with Shador Sanders in the NFL uh he measured two and a half inches shorter than what he was listed at at Rutgers last year um he’s reportedly refused to work out with any NBA teams that have asked he has not worked out he’s the only US projected lottery pick that hasn’t US base that hasn’t worked out with any NBA teams has any of that changed the way you view the player the the player and the person right now very unpolished i think that’s really what you if you could get some you know like what takes off rust off a car you know what I mean like I I don’t know the right word for this help me out i mean taking rust off a car like a buffer like a buffer if you could buff some of those things out and recode them and do all that you’re going to have a really nice car but right now like there’s a lot of rust is the wrong word but there’s a lot to work with there and it’s going to take time to work with these certain things and you know very unpolished very unrefined um he is a an energetic kid but he is a kid he’s very young he’s 18 and there’s going to be some times you’re in game 50 and there’s a there’s an 18-year-old kid that’s just like has his head back in the classroom like my gosh how long does this last but you’re going to have to work through a lot of those things with him um and I I I don’t think their handling of this changes that mind at all that’s kind of been the case with him but he’s always kind of been an off the-beaten path guy he played with AOT which was an AAOU team that was with Sheree Cooper and Isaac Aoro and all these guys years ago they got their Nike sponsorship pulled he stays with them and he’s by far and away the best player on his team but it’s his team very I mean kind of looking for the same situation maybe in Brooklyn for example um and then he goes to Ruters which is kind of an off the beaten trail destination for five-star recruits not named Clif Amorier like it’s kind of a an interesting way that they’re doing these things and it’s always been set up for him to be the guy and they’re trying to put him in the same spot as they put him in high school as they put him at Ruters to where it’s his show he’s going to get shots but the the learning curve at the NBA level is so steep because physically he’s not quite there and there’s going to be times where Ace Bailey is on the floor where there’s going to be a lot of head scratching like are you serious did you take that shot yeah he did because he doesn’t know any better he thinks every shot’s a good shot because that’s always been what he’s been told that doesn’t sound familiar whatsoever uh Terrence Oglesby is with us here you know him field of 68 you know him fanduel Sports Network with the Hornets um you did 30 evaluations on your on uh and you’ve been putting them out on X uh Conanipple i I don’t know what your comp was but I keep hearing and I don’t know if you take issue with this if it seems too far of a reach you keep hearing Klay Thompson and Conanipple what do you think of that klay Thompson can run forever and he’s a little bit more narrow and he slides his feet incredibly well klay Thompson’s a Hall of Famer steep comparison uh I compared him to Sadi Bay i think he’s a better player than Sadique Bay but kind of has a higher upside between Canipple and Kavan Malawatch i think Malawatch is a long way away offensively oh um a lot of people were talking about his three-point shooting when I was That’s every That’s They were talking about Mo Bomba’s three-point shooting before the draft and there was a certain analyst who said he was like a cross between Joel Embiid and somebody else i can’t remember yeah ridiculous um no I think Malawatch is a is a long way away from an NBA 5 that you can facilitate and run things through but he’s still so young in his development that the upside is Malawatch this the the floor is without a doubt caniple i think he has one of the highest floors in the entire draft because he’s so stable he just knows how to play and he’s so physically strong the reason I can’t get past him in Charlotte I just look at it from a practical standpoint and the the upside with him is well what is he when Cooper’s not on the floor and in your building in Charlotte we saw it and I saw Jeff Peterson and Hornets Brass there watching it coniple was I I think he averaged 14 a game at Duke this past year and around four rebounds i think he was at like six rebounds a game and close to 20 points per game in the three wins without Cooper winning an ACC title i I can’t get past that you had a front row seat watching it and how how much value that tape without Cooper on the floor must must impact must imprint them i I think you know I did the Florida State game where Cooper went out with some I can’t remember what it was but he hit his head or something i can’t remember oh he got hit in the eye i thought Yeah he got hit in the Yeah he got hit in the eye and Canipple just took the game over he’s making reads he was coming off ball screens as a ball handler he came off a down screen and knocked down a shot like he just does so many things well um do I think he’s going to average 30 points a game no but you want to talk about a connective piece a guy who could be a swing player in a playoff game i I think it’s possible that he’s that guy terrence Oglesby is with us here so let let’s get fun let’s get nerdy uh let’s look past the top five heck looking towards the edge of the lottery later in the first round who is a first round prospect Terrence Oglesby absolutely loves and has conviction about oh man that that’s to me that’s a that’s a tough one because I’m always looking at fit a guy that I think could go well I’m gonna give you two nick Clifford from Colorado State i think he just does so many things well jaylen Williams came from Santa Clara nick Clifford’s come from Colorado State their numbers are weirdly similar their last year in college now Nick is a little bit older started at Colorado but he was a role guy at Colorado defensive player goes to Colorado State plays with Isaiah Stevens who was on the Heat on a two-way this year and kind of got better and better and better and shot the ball well this year he rebounds the ball incredibly well and becomes a decision maker so I would go Colorado State’s NE Clifford i think he’s terrific and then I’m going to be honest I’m going to stay in the ACC but the All Coast Conference version of it uh we’re I’m going over to Stanford maxim Renault love that um ah he’s really good and I think you know he’s long-term oriented if have you ever done an interview with him oh I I I can go a step further we’re in the locker room after a game i can’t tell the full story here wd knows a good one but out of respect to Max but like after we got done with like postgame we’re walking back to the locker room and he just has this mode where he’s like “Okay this is interview mode now I’m turning off interview mode.” And the level of charisma is just so off the charts it blew me away and instantly won me over how much his teammates like him how he engages with people and how smart the guy is i I’m all in on Maxi Mareno and he’s and he’s long-term oriented meaning he understands like maybe it’s not exactly what I want but at the same time it’s exactly what I need to do in order to stay at a certain place like he got big money offers to leave Stanford big money offers and he stayed there because he said “The education here I’ve built something here i feel like I can finish really well here.” And then he comes back and he what does he lead the league in scoring and yeah multiple ACC coaches told me that they wanted him and they went hard after him but the mom but the mom said no he’s going to Stanford yeah and good on him and he understood that and he perveyed that to me or conveyed that rather wrong word conveyed that to me when whenever I um interviewed him prior to the season i I think he’s just awesome and and in a league where there’s a lot of sevenfooters and there’s not very many good ones like I I I see him as a guy you can bring in off the bench it’ll change your offense up a little bit you can run some variability with your fives because he can shoot the ball i would say both of those guys are really good there’s a couple that I’m lost with like you know Carter Bryant’s a nice player like he didn’t do anything offensively at Arizona nothing and he was a lob threat and a defensive player which is great um and he carries himself a certain way like he’s going to be a pro and he’s I just to pick him really high i’m a little bit worried about um you know Liam McNeely like he’s touted as this great shooter what did he shoot 31% yeah and didn’t hit anything in the NCAA tournament those two games and and Jace Richardson like bloodlines are great and he had some good times at Michigan State and he shot the ball well but like putting too much value on dudes that are small and I’m small and I’m pissed that I’m small like I’m 6’2 like I it wasn’t going to work for me anyway it is so hard to be a smaller guy in the NBA and then you go back and watch his film it’s like just okay but people love him you want to go back to best case scenario for Charlotte they have picks 33 and 34 uh either packaging those picks and getting Reo at the end of the first round like I hope that’s a guy that falls out in the first round slides too oh oh if they get if they get Maxim Reno because again you did all these evaluations so there might be some guys that fall out of the first round that Charlotte targets going back to fit at 33 and 34 yeah I I think Renault would be make perfect sense if they kept Mark Williams which conventional wisdom says they’re trying to move again so like I I to be honest with you this uh administration in Charlotte has been so tight lipped we have no idea what they’re going to do but the speculation runs rampant because I think people are excited they’ve seen what they’ve done over the last couple of trade deadlines if I were Charles Lee I would want some variability at the five spot because you know you look at their lineups Mark Williams then the Musa Diabate then the Taj Gibson it was like it’s all kind of the same guy right like you can’t really do much different from guy to guy so that’s kind of where I’m at let’s close with this terrence Ogles will be with us here getting to We spent all this time talking about the NBA there’s a game seven on Sunday and sometimes you just got to admit what you don’t know we’ve been we’ve been doing pretty well in picking games during these finals and we’ve we’ve we’ve profited in our bet segment we’ve had some fun but um I I’d be lying if I said I had any clue any clue i don’t have a read i I don’t Here’s how I’ll frame it what does Terrence Oglesby feel comfortable saying will happen in Sunday’s game seven what do you feel confident this is going to happen like what result do you look at and say “Yep I I feel confident saying that that we’re going to see that Sunday night.” It’s going to be close that’s what I will say i I would I would lean and I thought the Pacers would win game six because that building is crazy but it’s at home for Oklahoma City i would probably venture more that direction just because they’re at home like but I think it’s going to be a great game you know the fun part about Indiana if you can get past Indiana hate and I think there’s a healthy amount of Indiana hate for whatever reason um if you can get past uh Indiana hate and realize like hey man that team does not rely on officials they play a certain pace they push the basketball they’re deep they have guys that play together i think they have seven guys averaging doubled figures in the finals which has never been done not just in the finals but in the playoffs ever so like they’re unselfish and they play the right way and like for some reason Hallebertton has been the guy that now they’re like “Oh well he’s not a superstar i don’t care if he’s not a superstar.” Like who why do we keep bringing up this topic of conversation why aren’t we talking about adjustments that should be made going into game seven like I don’t care if Hallebertton’s not a superstar tell me why he’s so damn good or tell me why the Pacers are so different between a star and a superstar like again I Who cares nobody cares and people do apparently i I’m with you i I I think a lot less people care than what than than the amount the sheer volume of how much you’re talking about it i bet you uh Dagno and uh and Rick Carile don’t care they I I tell you what I guarantee you both of those guys think he’s a superstar so do I I think Terrence Oglesby is a superstar uh Field of 68 joining us here and also uh Hornets FanDuel you know from all these different places fan of fun what fan of fun to he played uh Pine He played Pinehurst earlier uh this week number two got to get you on uh Sedgefield in Greensboro sometime we’ll have to make that happen let me know when I’ll come over there you go well yeah we’ll make it happen we’ll make it happen maybe we’ll see who uh Have you ever played with Randolph randolph Childrism i’d love to see who wins between those two i’m not good enough oh that would be fair i’m not good enough so I the rumor I hear is that you you you’re pretty good off the T- box and I don’t know if Randolph can out that’s good i’m I’m good off the T- box that’s about 100 yards and in I’m a I haven’t really been playing golf for all that long i was not ready i was not ready for Brian Hurst i’m going to get the text i know he’s uh I think he’s out of town but I think we’re going to get the text from Randolph he’s going to hear this somehow and be like I got Tio we’ll figure it out all right Tio thanks for doing this enjoy the finals game seven in the draft and uh we’ll catch up with you sometime uh down the line all right appreciate it thanks guys

Charlotte Hornets analyst for the Fan Duel Sports Network, Terrence Oglesby, joins the show to discuss each of the scenarios that the Charlotte Hornets could find themselves in on draft night with the no. 4 overall pick.

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