HORNETS DOMINATE Draft Strategy | LaMelo’s New Core? | Are Kon and Co. ROTATION READY

HORNETS DOMINATE Draft Strategy | LaMelo’s New Core? | Are Kon and Co. ROTATION READY

i feel very weird i’m in this weird space where I feel really happy about what the Hornets did and all of the decisions that the Hornets made over the court like multiple decisions did the Hornets just win the draft is that is that happening right now we try to dissect all of it today locked on Hornets what’s happening 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] what a glorious day i’m excited to do this podcast it’s Locked on Hornets part of the Locked On Network it’s your team every day thanks uh for making us your first listen we’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube there’s Doug Branson every hornetsboxcore.com i think he’s writing about happy stuff over there he’s talking about the NBA as well on a macro level locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes i’m Walker Male you can listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m sports Radio 927 FM this episode is brought to you by Game Time game Time game Time download the Game Time app create an account use code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase speaking of the macro let’s go macro and then let’s start to dissect scion James out of Duke transfer from T Lane over to Duke played with that incredible team this last year scion James was the 33rd overall pick by the Hornets our guy we’ve been clamoring for him this entire time the Hornets got him ryan Kulkr Brener oh Kulk Brener selected 34th overall there were some thoughts that maybe the Hornets would move out of that 33 or 34 spot trade one of the picks no we went fishing jake Fischer he caught a big one and told us that the plan is to keep Ryan Caulk Brener and now I think it’s safe to say we got both of them scion James 33rd pick ryan Kulk Brener out of Kraton the 34th pick this is after a first round where the Hornets selected Khan Canipple at number four and then with the Mark Williams trade got the 29th pick from Phoenix they drafted Liam McNeely out of Yukon 29 macro i think Doug what they did with this draft is they showed you that they are taking the necessary steps to become a serious basketball team they’re drafting players that help the guys around them and that’s exactly what we’ve been asking for for a very long time put LaMelo put Brandon put whoever your core is in place to figure out if they’re a playoff team to just take the necessary steps to figure out if this is indeed a playoff core because so far you haven’t been able to do it there have been some bad luck stuff going on like injuries training staff they try to switch the training staff okay the last training staff wasn’t good let’s go ahead and change it out cool have a new training staff still injuries this year all right so there’s some bad luck stuff but also you can’t absolve the Hornets of all of that responsibility they’ve largely been responsible especially with the old regime for putting the players around LaMelo and around some of the other stars i’m going to cough like this the whole time that did not allow them to have any kind of team success what I think you did with these four picks is you’re trying to win with space and shooting and physicality and toughness and rim protection and you’re just checking a lot of the boxes off with four draft picks that help you figure that sort of thing out and it’s why we’re asking questions like did the Hornets just win the draft with everything they did over the last few days well the Hornets came into this draft with a lot of needs they had a lot of boxes to check and I I don’t think it was very realistic to expect them to check all of those boxes and particularly like you’re drafting rookies and a lot of times you’re drafting you know 18 and 19 year old kids so to expect them to come in and immediately help that that might be unrealistic or at least expect them to alleviate concerns on the level that you would expect that from Miles Bridges and LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller but at the same time they looked at their roster and said we need more shooting last in effective field goal percentage bottom of the league inefficiency the guys that were taking the most shots didn’t play very efficiently and in part because they didn’t have players that they could pass to that were very efficient so they were taking bad shots and so they addressed that need with Khan Canipple with Liam McNeely and then they said “Oh yeah also we have some rim protection issues and we just need to shuffle and rethink our entire idea around our center position anyhow because we tried to trade Mark Williams and that didn’t work and now starting him doesn’t make any more sense.” And so they they figured that out and then drafted Ryan Caulkrinter somebody that is was an elite rim protector in college is uh an older player and so is going to be able to come in with some experience and be able to hang in there as a as a solid backup big and then and then I thought Cion James great pick because it it reacts to what they did in the first round which is you took two players in Khan Caniple and Leam McNeely that are going going to deliver threes but are probably going to have to really adjust to NBA level defense whereas Cion James sort of the opposite you’re you’re expecting him to come in and immediately be effective on defense and be a pest and maybe some of the offensive stuff comes along later so yeah I think they they went into this thing saying this is a strong draft we don’t want to take huge swings and misss we want to make sure that both in this upcoming season but also two and three seasons from now we come away with multiple players that can be rostered on this team and help us continue uh our trend towards the postseason i thought it was a great draft i I did too i I thought it was a great one and while we would have gone with Trey Johnson at four over Conanipple that was the whole scenario thing right what what’s the hierarchy of what Lockdown Hornets wants to do you and I were much aligned this entire process of what we wanted to do vj Edgecomb would have been the pick had he been available he wasn’t trey Johnson would have been our pick in the next scenario outside of maybe trading back right trying to find a nice tradeback partner collect some assets take the best shooting guard available at 6 seven or eight they felt they couldn’t move back far enough because they wanted to get their guy their guy eventually was Khan Canipple who we were also cool with we liked the pick we didn’t love it but we we liked it and the more you you know this is the classic talking yourself into it sort of thing i didn’t have to try very hard i I think the difference between a Khan and some of these other guys and maybe a Liam McNeely and Scion James Ryan Cochran or all of them I think that they unlock your other players in ways that some of the other prospects did not so for instance with the spacing the gravity that Canipple brings the passing the high level IQ the getting into the paint and then always making the right decision he’s going to benefit everybody around him and that’s a big big reason as to why you might select that guy over a Trey who could be explosive could be a lot of fun at ultimately what the goal is putting the ball in the Durn Cup so Trey Johnson’s very good at that ace Bailey could be very good at that but Khan unlocks a special type of power for everybody around him liam McNeely not the passer that Khan Canipple is but in the corner definitely has the spacing with the shooting outside of what he did at Yukon scion James man all he did was just hit a whole bunch of threes last year for Duke and played a ton of minutes for the best basketball team in the regular season last year florida ends up winning the championship but I think Duke and Houston oddly enough the team that they melted down against I think those were among the best rosters we’ve seen in the last decade and all they did was rely on Scion James to be a key key glue guy for them constantly every single meaningful basketball game and then Caulk Runner with just the rim protection um the other thing is I think they have found a nice balance of the younger players in the first round a couple of freshman and then older players scion James is going to be close to 23 by the time the season starts his birthday is December 4th so he’s going to be close to 23 by the time this upcoming season starts ryan Caulkrder already 23 in fact he’s going to be about 23 and a half by the time the season starts so now we can start to look at the competitive nature of what’s going to happen with Charlotte in 2025 2026 um the the the rebuilding I think you can rebuild while also remaining competitive and and while they only won 19 games last year outside of that stretch where you lost by 40 every single game for three games in a row it was rough right and unfortunately that stretch stole the show in terms of how we discussed last season but remember we were celebrating celebrating we were discussing a lot of the losses in a way where at least they’re competitive and they’re not getting run out of the building outside of that that historic stretch now I’m hoping that we can stack a few more wins out of those competitive losses because you have some older players and you have a whole bunch of high IQ players that makes a lot of sense with the guys that you already have on the roster it it I thought it was a nice balance all around not only are they older players the two second rounders and you and you throw Khan into this discussion as well not an older player but NBA ready bodies i mean yeah sure Caulk Briner can get stronger sure you know Khan Canipple you know he’s I thought the funniest thing he said postdraft was “I’m going to squeeze every bit of athleticism out of my body.” Right there’s some things you can do with Khan i think Liam McNeely stands out as the one player that I think is probably going to need a little bit more seasoning whether it’s in the G-League in the weight room you know he’s it’s probably going to be a a year or so before we see the full uh picture of what Liam McNeely could be or is or what they think he can be okay but everybody else I could see these players plug in and they’re all costcontrolled players so it starts to make you wonder like is there something else cooking in their idea they’re already paying they’re obviously paying LaMelo a lot uh they’re going to be paying Brandon Miller a lot in a few seasons but if they did want to shuffle some things around in free agency some signing trade bring on a big contract you know when you when you when you’re looking ahead two or three seasons and you see all of these players that have the ability to be rostered players on on controlled contracts like that lines up if you were expecting the organization to put big money into veterans that sort of lines up with how you would do that so I think that’s very interesting as well would have been a completely different thing had they only taken two players and both those players been like three or fouryear projects that’s a whole different that’s a whole different approach yeah so that’s all that’s all I’m saying keep your keep your eyes open keep your ears open yeah let’s do that let’s do that in the next segment coming up next on Locked on Hornets bees everywhere we keep our eyes open we keep our ears open we talk more about free agency jeff Peterson actually having some comments about Trey Man after the first round draft media availability pretty decisive on what they want to do with Trey we’ll talk about those comments coming up next loh [Music] this episode is brought to you by Skiims did you know that Ski now makes underwear for men bringing the same attention to quality and comfort they’re known for well now you do the men’s line offers something for everyone from boxer briefs to classic briefs all designed with the perfect 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Caulk Brener so I agree with that in terms of you know drafting the league ready guys I I do wonder now what the rotation is going to look like i know we have it in the third bullet point we can get to that but I mean man it if if we keep going with what we have been discussing in the pre-draft process so many NBA finals lessons NBA postseason lessons what what do those moves look like with uh a Jeff Peterson regime what do they do okay well Scion James that body looks a lot like the bodies that were wreaking havoc for OKC this entire time that whole profile right like that that’s what he that’s what he looks like he he’s a tank man and again I can’t help but go back to looking at Should we just Should we just pretend that Scion is like a LeBron James pro progeny should we just pretend yeah yes i’m I’m I’m here for it i I’m ready for Scion James to just play all of the minutes as soon as he suits up well and I know it it’s not like we talked about him a lot for a couple reasons one it’s not like you’re tuning in every single day to hear a lot about second round prospects we know what you come here for we try to give you the goods but two when we do talk about the second round picks when we give you the candy and then give you the medicine after you come in for the candy and we were just focusing on rim protection we were focusing on a couple of other guys but it doesn’t mean that Scion isn’t a good selection the guy just played 30 minutes in meaningful basketball games for the most talented roster in all of college basketball last year that’s a thing that happened the Duke team that had three top 10 picks in this year’s class including the best player since Zion since Anthony Davis all Scion James did was play 30 minutes of contest in the tournament like that stuff matters and it’s because he knew he knew how to shoot he shot 40% he shot 46% on catch and shoot opportunities last year he shot 40% over the last two years on 200 three-point attempts like that’s a large sample size man so the shooting the last couple of seasons it’s just been spot-on and he’s got the linebacker build i I thought the same thing they didn’t draft no softies this time around man that if if you Davos Sweeney the head coach of Clemson football says to bring your own guts byog they got guys that are going to bring their own guts in practice in game day every single day doug totally i I think they they have a lot of guys now with some thick frames and some thick brains now they the one criticism I love it i’m I’m We can Let’s just We can We can marinate in that for a second all right go on i love it i just want to give you credit thank you um but if there is one criticism of this draft it’s that they did not they did not really draft anyone that is like an elite athlete i mean even Scion James has some athletic concerns ryan Cochrrener not someone that’s like has concrete feet but is is not going to be a switchable big coniple we’ve talked about the athletic concerns liam McNeely I think it’s even worse so you know that’s something to look at now they already have some elite athletes i think you know Miles Bridges um LaMelo Ball certainly has some elite athleticism uh at times um you know Trey man I don’t know i It’s a gap i think they’ve got to address it at some point and maybe you know they’re not really I don’t know that they’re really an OKC build right now maybe they’re more like they’re more like a Pacers build if we’re just taking this finals well I’m I’m saying yeah the other guys I don’t know if they fit the OKC mantra but we were talking about finding guys where you know OKC has five of them just running around all over the place we got one in Scion James i think that that that’s his role that’s what he’s going to do physical at the point of attack be a dog he knows what his role is i’m supposed to hit threes and I’m supposed to be a menace defensively that’s what he does so we got one of the OKC guys the rim protection stuff honestly I don’t I don’t know if Ryan Culbrer fits the mold of anybody on the Pacers anybody on OKC i know people might point to iHeart but iHeart’s a little better laterally caulk Brener is just a monster man like he measures 71 without shoes and weighs in at 270 uh excuse me 260 pounds so all of that oh my god Malawatch is a monster discourse it it’s the same for Caulkrren in fact Rener is bigger in some areas I think uh even with the athleticism that he brings and doesn’t bring depending on who you ask he had the highest standing Max vert outside of everybody but one center at the combine and I I’d value the standing vert more so than the allout max vert from a center position because you’re not you don’t have time right you got to get out of the floor fast baby we need that right now and so the fact that Krer had a 29 in standing vert are you kidding me like for a guy that’s 71 if you’re going to score on him mono immano you’re going to have to go around him or you’re just going to have to go through him you are not going to be able to put that shot over him unless you start from the elbow and so the fact that I think he can anchor I think he can close off angles in drop coverage i think he’s the best drop coverage center in this draft yeah like I here I am ready to make a run to the NBA finals look man it’s okay to be excited and I keep telling myself that it’s okay to be excited about what seems to be very serious moves that the Hornets are making and it doesn’t mean that they’re going to make the postseason next year but I think they’re making the necessary steps to put themselves in a position to be on this positive trajectory and I think this draft says a lot of that you know I don’t put a lot of stock into the whole idea of like teams winning the draft because it is so difficult to project how these players are going to you know ultimately figure this whole thing out so I think it’s a ridiculous endeavor i think to me the real winning of the draft is did your organization do things that seem logical to what they have expressed is their plan is their idea and did they look at the roster and say particularly in the you know back half of the first round and into the second round did they look at their roster and say hey here are some opportunities for us to upgrade some positions with players that we value and I think they did all of that and it’s great it’s good to know that all of the because I think we spent a long time in the both in the CHO era and in the Cupche era you and I looking at the rotation looking at the roster looking at what they needed the next season and saying there are some obvious areas that they can upgrade and then going through the draft and saying “Well they didn’t upgrade those they didn’t even bother.” And then well maybe they’ll do it in free agency and then they didn’t do it in free agency either and then on and on down the line and the same problems kept cropping up so if nothing else I don’t know if Ryan Kulkrinter is going to be uh you know elevate his game to starting level or if he’ll even be a rotation player i don’t know if Khan Canipple is going to be a starting two in this league i don’t know any of the answers to those questions that’s the whole fun of we get to watch summer league and start to figure some of that out we get to watch the early parts of preseason and into the season and figure that stuff out okay but what I do know is at least in the I think both of these drafts evidence that this front office understands what the problems are and are working to address it and now the question is how quickly do they want to address the one flaw that this team has the biggest flaw which is that they haven’t been in the postseason in nearly 10 years and and that they cannot do in the draft over the long term they can but they can’t do it in the short term the only way you can do that is in free agency and trades and so that’s coming up June 30th well well and and philosophywise like I was listening to Rob Mahoney Zack Low go back and forth rob was discussing the idea of the younger champion starting to be a little more prevalent where these older guys these teams that decide to go after the veteran on a you know two-year uh I don’t know $30 million uh deal 15 a year where it’s like okay you know he’s going to come in he’s going to play a lot of minutes you know those guys break down in the postseason now in a way where if you have especially trying to win on the margins too with older players that you’re drafting um these guys that are younger are also a little more ready as freshman and so yeah you can’t do it in the draft you can’t make uh a second round playoff appearance your fourth overall pick trust me I would take it and I would run if you could take that in the draft I would do it but it’s also all building towards those uh towards that goal but yeah like the the youth it they’ve got a lot of it now you have to find a nice mix you can’t just ignore veterans but they got the youth part taken care of seemingly taking uh or keeping all of these picks that they made so to me there is a wrong way to do this i mean so we’re praising the Hornets let’s just look at the regular old Nets who made five first round picks and they took like three guards absolutely that have high upside ball handling and playmaking and no shooting like none like they all talented players drafted around where you would figure they would draft and then Danny Wolf who I really liked and but but none of it makes sense and when you look at the roster you’re like how does that team function well and if your if your team’s not functioning well how do you develop players and and honestly that was where the Hornets were for a long time but I feel like they’re looking at this roster and they’re saying how do we draft players that will both complement the players that we already have that we want to invest in as you said in the open coniple Liam McNeely scion James Ryan Cochrinter all players that will function to make LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller play better and will be fine doing that Ace Bailey wasn’t going to be fine doing that there were players in the bottom half of the draft that said hey uh that’s not what I want I don’t want to help other people I want to help me I want to do me and so you have to recog recognize that and if you’re a team without a star then great draft that player but the Hornets drafted players that can make their players better now and if and I’ll tell you what if LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller play better who’s that good news for it’s good news for Kenipple because that means Kenipple is going to have plenty of space to shoot it’s going to be good news for Ryan Cogrinter it might be because he’s going to have plenty of shots to block because there’s not a lot of front line defense still but there’s going to be opportunities for all of these guys to develop and get better together and get better sooner rather then later and so that’s that’s all I’m saying man it’s like they finally understand we finally have a front office that understands that it it takes both it takes drafting players that are going to help your current stars and you know uh drafting players that can actually contribute it’s it’s a beautiful thing okay I I do want to get to this second segment and we don’t have to spend a whole lot of time on it but you know the the guy that might be looking for his shot in a meaningful way because you still need bucket getters it’s Trey Man and Jeff Peterson was asked about Trey Man in media availability after the first round which then went into the second round because I don’t know he spoke about it at 12:45 a.m 12:30 a.m it was very late uh but here’s what Jeff Peterson EVP of basketball operations had to say bringing Trey back is a priority for us i’m having conversations with Trey and his representation and I don’t see any reason why he’s not back strong words and we didn’t know if Trey was going to be back it would make sense based off the way that all the Hornets are working out together with Trey the way that they’re still utilizing him in some social media stuff here’s Jeff Peterson telling you he’s a priority i’m having conversations every day um I don’t see any reason why he’s not back so you know by those comments unless there’s some kind of snag in the line down the line then it feels like he’s going to be a Charlotte Hornet next year which it it presumably would also be on a smaller deal and I’m here for it yeah I mean you’ve got to have an impact player off the bench and Trey man was due to be that uh before he was hurt so if he’s fully healthy and they think that they might be able to get a little bit of a discount that could allow them to make a free agency move this season or next season um or or another trade uh then then that’s all the better if he’s fully healthy and and I think you know hopefully they’ve they’ve done enough investment in the training staff and in the medical team that that I have some confidence that they can figure all of that out at least to the best of their ability and uh then then I would support that move because you have to have impact impact players uh particularly offensively off the bench uh Grant Williams is going to help that but it’s not in the same way that you know the the the last playoff team had Jeremy Lynn the playin teams had Kelly Ubé like you’ve got to have somebody coming off the bench that can pour it on when LaMelo Ball has to take a seat and Brandon Miller has to take a seat trey man can be that guy all right rotation station coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast everywhere so we we love the draft how do all these pieces fit together with the current members of the roster next year summer league oh my god i I I’ve never been more excited to talk about the summer league roster than what we have with this year’s summer league roster that’s still to come final segment lo [Music] 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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 Loca lockdown NBA for $20 off download the Game Time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed more Lockdown Hornets ahead [Music] are you bringing out the chart Doug do you do you have the view for us yes i I mean I look it’s We know each other well i’m excited i’m I’m giddy with excitement getting to see the chart i don’t know what kind of names for these lineups that you have uh they’re often fun they’re often you know okay not as fun i don’t have the lineup yet look it’s very early in the process i don’t have all of this mapped out yet i’m not I don’t have any minutes up i’ve got it up on the screen now okay i’ve just got my projected starters my projected reserves my projected uh oh players your third stringers i got some big question marks and then I have Bosamich and Istanbul he’s playing a lick man yeah he he Yeah welcome back he signed a contract i think he signed a contract with Fenerbachce which is an Istanbul Turkey so I think he’s I think he’s going to be hanging out overseas collecting his $8.1 million and by the way well real quickly uh I know we talked with Keith Smith on Won Walker yesterday who’s a cap guru he talked about uh hey don’t be surprised if the Hornets buy Vasameich out if they do that then that has some interesting cap ramifications um where you know they’ve got some they’ve got a some space to work with not a lot obviously but uh just be on the the lookout for a possible buy out there of Azamich okay so I have Josh Green shoulder surgery he’s in a little injured camp over here and then on the starters I’ve got LaMelo Ball i’ve slotted in Con Canipple at the two brandon Miller at the three miles Bridges at the four yousef Nerkage starting at center wow a center starting that can shoot the basketball it didn’t go it didn’t go uh it wasn’t stellar at the end of last season but he can shoot the basketball then your reserves Trey is it in the air from the three-point line like it is in the air i’ve seen him throw basketballs in the air from the three-point line that’s right same with Ryan Caulkrunner steadily increased his three-point volume through college i believe he landed at like somewhere in the 33 to 34% range so you know it’s not Steph Curry out there but it’s somebody that that poses a threat in a pick and pop or kickout situation trey man restricted free agent liam i have Liam McNeely in the reserves right now but I would probably put him closer you know in the swarm situation maybe move Nick Smith Jr back into that reserve slot what about Scion i I mean look I I know we’ve talked about him a lot he’s He’s older i I think he does something a lot of these other guys can’t including Nick Smith Jr like I that just talking it out would you put Sai on there or would you feel more comfortable with NSJ/ Leam McNeely i’m gonna go with the with the veteran funny to call Nick Smith Jr that a lot of this stuff’s going to be fought out in summer league and in preeason and training i think we’re going to have some training camp battles this season and the other thing that complicates this is Josh Kogi who’s making $7.75 million yeah but it’s non-G guaranteed and I think the Hornets may just have a couple of days to to figure that out so that could be interesting whether they guarantee Joshi’s deal or not and so if they do then I think he’s definitely part of the reserves i mean he was one of the most just in terms of like plus minus points per possession like all of that stuff he was a king when he was healthy um after the trade to the Hornets last season then Grant Williams and then Ryan Cochrrener as your reserve center which leaves like these questions around Musa Diabate also non-g guaranteed money at 2.3 million and then Tan Salon like how much is he developed is he ready to be if the Hornets are fully healthy is he ready to slot in and where would he would he like play three alongside Grant Williams at four would he play four alongside Grant Williams in a small ball five lineup Well uh but then where does that leave Kbrer there’s some serious questions there now in the front court like there’s always going to be confusion until we figure out what Tan Salon is right yeah i mean it’s And I I imagine people are watching this right now they’re looking at Tan Salon in the uhoh category they’re seeing us have Ryan Caulk Brener in the reserve spot Khan Canipple in the starter spot us have a conversation about the other second round pick at 33 overall having a conversation about him being in a reserve spot and here we are not even mentioning Salon being in the second five here he is in the third five i can’t imagine people love that having him be the sixth overall pick in last year’s draft we just don’t know about Tan yeah how are you surprised though i mean everything that we talk about yeah no I don’t think so well I think people will be because they see sixth overall selection rookie but but everything that we said in that draft was weak draft they took a swing we don’t know where this guy plays how he plays how he’s going to develop um you know if you play him alongside Grant Williams and Caulkin can he hang defensively because he’s going to be against some guys that can can attack him uh you know first step your buy tan salon these the some of these quicker threes what does that look like I I don’t know the answer to that question yet um and I think we’re that’s what as interesting as it’s going to be to watch Khan Caniple do his thing in summer league and K Brener and Liam McNeely I’m like most interested to see where Tan Salon is because if he think if he does figure it all out it it unlocks just so many dominoes um in terms of guys you can move guys you would want to acquire and and how it all breaks down so I’m super excited to see what what he’s developed so it’s a 19- win uh game 19- win team last year you have four rookies may maybe it’s not all that crazy to think that some of the rookies would take the place of of guys on the roster that only won 19 games and yet still it is tough to figure out the rotation so if Josh Green is back and it it it’s almost a copout right with him being on the injured category cuz I we do expect him to be back at the beginning of the season but he is injured right now if he’s healthy now we have to slide these guys back a little bit i think Josh Green is going to start at the beginning of the season you know he played a lot of minutes for this team last year so if we put Josh in the starter lineup I I believed in you walker didn’t so then we put Khan in the reserve spot that would push Nick Smith Jr back to the uhoh spot but what happens there is if they move on from a Kogi which I think they will as much as we we’ll always have our you know little tiny tiny tiny tiny AOI stretch I do think they eventually move on from a Kogi so now that brings you know so that brings Yeah I know i know yeah so I know I I don’t want you to go honestly but it it probably just makes too much sense now we’re having the discussion of the NSJ Scion James stuff again and you know you can put NSJ back if you want we can go Scion whatever scion probably fits the mold a little bit more of what a Kogi is way more so than NSJ also who’s the backup point guard i mean that’s you know I guess that’s I guess still Trey trey man yeah KJ what does this do for KJ who got minutes he’s hanging out he’s still a free agent i don’t know that we know like the full details of what his is he really he’s not under contract next year are you Are you sure about that double check that i don’t know well yeah he was he was a second round pick i’m pretty sure he’s under contract we’ll we’ll take a look i saw him listed as a free agent in the last uh like hoop hype rundown of this but we’ll we’ll double check his situation but yeah so that’s interesting for KJ Simpson does he does he just get a few minutes by virtue of the fact you also have Damen Ball who was on a two-way contract in the season making $600,000 uh so does he remain on a two-way contract yeah yeah he was on a two-way kj was on a two-way so you’re right he not not a multi-year deal so two-way contract i I just kind of had it in my head he was second round pick as without having done the due diligence but you’re right so I think but so that that goes to the thing with uh both Scion James and Caulkinter now they were they were high second round picks sometimes those guys get guaranteed money sometimes they don’t it depends on the financial situation of the team so that that could be interesting too do either of these guys go ahead and get deals uh I could see Caulk Brener just because of the hole that they have in the roster at backup center right now sion James might get put on a two-way deal well and and especially with Kulk Brener being so different than Nerkach and Musa you know Kulk Brener is your biggest rim protector nerkich is the better passer out of all three of these centers and Musa is the best let’s just go bleep some stuff up and play with 110% motor all the time which by the way I I still think Charles Lee should find minutes for Musa next year i I’m I I think you know we a little bit disagree on him even though I understand where you’re coming from certainly he does have his limitations cuz he’s not 7 feet but they’re just always in the plus when he plays he’s always among like anytime you’d go see the Golden State Warriors with all those stars like Steph Curry KD it was always Andre Iguadala that was the plus minus leader every single time he played Musa Diabate felt like that guy last year he was always the plus minus leader it’s like huh we we we played winning basketball when Musa was on the court perhaps that’s a decent thing to do clearly clearly there are some limitations but I think we should find minutes for him so well and if you’re talk if you’re talking if Musa can can hang uh defensively with if he can guard down a little bit then it does become interesting because man can shoot Caniple can shoot Grant Williams can shoot Ryan Clark has the ability to shoot now you’ve now you’ve got some some full reserve lineups where you can go four out one in and that allows you to play guys like Musa or play guys that have shooting limitations this is why you draft players that can shoot one to five so you can have these discussions instead of constantly playing from behind well and and right so if if we can just get enough from Nerkach and Caulkrren then Diabate could be out there on the floor and you know not be so much of an offensive liability and remember man they experimented with that when it was true tank season and there was nothing to play for in the standings remember Charles Lee went to those double big lineups and really started to toy with Musa and Nerk with uh Musa and Mark Williams out there and he started to play around with it a little bit and again it was Musa you know it’s funny because if you’re a center and then you’re playing with Musa and he’s the one grabbing all the rebounds and and trying his best to protect the rim he exposes you um and and it has to force these guys to play a lot harder which perhaps is another thing to bring up with all of these guys that they drafted Doug they’re going to make this team better every single day in practice by just not allowing anybody to take a play off and I I think that stuff matters you’re everything matters in practice with those four players and and I think that’s why they’re trying to continue to reset the culture you see what I just did here you see what I did see this explain to the people what you did for the uh only podcast audience uh yeah for the only podcast audience I just typed in Jared Allen and then just going to go ahead and command V him into the starting big uh oh things change things change now you start talking about backoor postseason appearance by the Charlotte Hornets free agency June 20th June 30th anything can happen folks signing trades they’re a thing you don’t have to just sign guys into space which the Hornets don’t have you’ve got flexibility let’s go jeff Peter um now that goes against everything we talked about with the shooting bigs because he can’t shoot a lick but he’s very good at what he does and protecting the rim and just source that’s right that’s why we got K Brener cuz he’s going to unlock all of it anything else Doug on this glorious day where where all the good vibes are here and uh and any finishing thoughts you want to give to the people no look if if Charles Lee wants to build Boston Celtics South the Hornets finally gave him some pieces so it’s and that’s another thing just seeing a front office deliver tools that a coach wants to use i just cannot for the folks that are just joining Hornets Land now i cannot tell you how different that is than so many years of watching the front office draft players that I could just see the little vein in Steve Clifford’s head pop when he learned who the Hornets had drafted it’s like if you don’t if you want to draft those kinds of players don’t have that coach okay they’re Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee they’re in the same room together that you know Jeff Peterson does not have to do exactly what Charles Lee wants him to do but you at least see like I don’t know that Liam McNeely is that guy but you at least see on the whole they are doing things that feel like are in sync with what Charles Lee wants to build here in Charlotte as a coach it’s just great alignment i love it functional competent Hornets by by the way Liam McNeely had a chance to talk with him yesterday on Wesson Walker he joined us and and that’s on our uh podcast feed if you want to go check it out matt Norlander had a report about Liam McNeely battling not only through the ankle sprain which we all knew about and affected his shooting but also was going through pneumonia last year except a little Brandon Miller so a little Brandon Miller situation little mono yeah so so Matt Norlander tweeted it out and said that it was kind of hush hush i asked Leam McNeely about it on the interview and said I asked him you know did you have pneumonia last year and have to play through that also how did that affect your game and he he started laughing uh you know I’m going to play through anything uh you know I’m going to I’m going to be a warrior out there i’m going to be a competitor which is hilarious because it was hushmouth i don’t think they wanted anybody to know about it in stores and he answered the question like that i was like “Oo sorry Liam i don’t mean to put you on the spot immediately with your first Charlotte Hornets interview.” But it goes to show you even he was playing through a whole bunch of stuff and in all these circumstances that allow I think that hindered his efficiency from being all that great on the box score so Liam is a dog man he talks trash too more than any of these guys talks all the trash man he’s he’s here for the smoke so he’s going to be a fun player my last thing is I’m ready uh Doug we had a I had a comment when when I said “I I feel like this Hornets draft kicks ass and I’m scared to say that.” I tweeted that out somebody responded to me and said “Don’t you feel like that every year?” And I responded and I said “I definitely do not no no we we definitely do not feel that way every single year in fact I’m reminded when I don’t feel like they kicked ass and then they actually did make the right decision so no I don’t feel like that they did i’m confused that I’m not confused that’s what I’m saying i I put that Doug i put that out there i said basically not verbatim but I had the same sentiment on Twitter when I put it out there it’s the same uh remember 2021 you and I did an episode when you weren’t hosting in that window you did come on with me and we talked a little bit about the 2021 draft class where everybody had them having won drafting James Book night and trading back up to go get Kai Jones you and I were like “Okay okay.” I don’t you know there were some other guys that we liked i you know athleticism they got more athletic let’s sell the vision on how this could work because nobody knows but this is the one where I feel like the ven diagram of how it could work and how I feel the ven diagram is almost just a perfect circle i I I feel I feel very good about what they did and I’m not even trying to sell you so hard on the vision i I just actively believe in it and you know that’s a weird space to be in that’ll do it that’ll do it for a Happy Locked on Hornets thanks for making us your first listen we’re free and available anywhere you get your pods including YouTube check us out there subscribe like do all the YouTube stuff that your favorite YouTubers tell you to do doug Branson every hornetsboxcore.com go check out Locked on NBA a lot of good stuff over there as well make locked on NBA your second listen doug is on it matt Moore Hayes as well i’m Walker Male listen to me wfnz every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m i’m going to try to get one of these second round prospects i’m going to bug Hornets PR and I hopefully they’re not too mad at me but we got to capitalize on all the good feels so 12 to 3 we’ll see if we can get one of these guys on today 927 FM have a great rest of your day have a great weekend we’ll be back with you on Monday [Music]

Did the Hornets just win the draft? Walker and Doug break down why Charlotte’s selections—including Kon Knueppel, Sion James, and Ryan Kalkbrenner—might finally signal a functional, competitive rebuild.

We dig into one of the smartest, most cohesive drafts we’ve seen from Charlotte in a long time. Kon Knueppel, Sion James, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Liam McNeely—it’s a group that actually makes sense together and fits what LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller need to take the next step.

We break down how Knueppel’s IQ, passing, and shooting gravity could unlock the offense, why Sion James already looks like an NBA-ready defender with a clean shooting track record, and how Kalkbrenner might be the best drop coverage big in the entire class. We also talk about the balance of younger and older rookies, and what that means for the Hornets’ rotation in 2025.

Plus, we react to Jeff Peterson’s comments about bringing Tre Mann back—what that means for the bench unit and how it plays into Charlotte’s potential free agency and trade plans. Are they quietly preparing for a big move?

We close it out by looking ahead to Summer League and asking the big question: are we finally watching a front office that knows what it’s doing? After years of head-scratching picks and mismatched rosters, this draft actually feels like it aligns with Charles Lee’s vision. That’s a weird, but very good feeling.

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