Did the Hornets Quietly Win the NBA Draft? 👀

Did the Hornets Quietly Win the NBA Draft? 👀

the Charlotte Hornets i loved their draft hall with Coniple at the fourth pick liam McNeely falling to 29 uh a Yukon wing didn’t shoot the ball well but he is at the high school level he was an elite shooter seion James out of Duke with the 33rd pick ryan Caulk Brener a big over seven feet tall out of Kraton with their 34th pick all four of these guys in total just make perfect sense when you’re building around Lamela Ball and Brennan Miller they all make sense in the Charles Lee system to me like this is one of the biggest winners of this entire draft class what does it mean do you think for the the full picture of the Hornets are they suddenly like competent at this point i’m keeping my third eye open on this one okay they really like every team wanted that number one overall pick to take Cooper Flag coniple what’s the what’s the connection to Cooper Flag can you run Duke i I I know exactly where you’re going with this Tom i know where you’re going
uh James who what was the connection does he have any connection to uh Duke okay liam McNeely uh is there any connection to Cooper Flag i don’t know is there
Well he wanted Cooper Flag yeah Montverie they also they also uh hoped he would be the teammate there part of the reason McNeely didn’t have the best year is because Yukon was thinking they were going to get Cooper Flag and that McNeely would be able to play his proper role
yeah well those are three guys who have a relationship with Cooper Flag and I got
also also Tom there are a lot of Duke people in Hornets’s ownership as well
that’s right that’s right so if you don’t get Cooper flag and things don’t work out in Dallas maybe you build an organization that is just like that that that uh that lady across the street who’s like you know what I want to go to that team and like I I don’t I don’t hate just like put the Cooper flag stuff aside i think like you can look at this forget the the fact that these are all closely connected to the Cooper flag you can see that this is just a a home run of a draft night for the Charlotte Hornets now Khan Canipple is a guy that at number four you can see the shooting you can see the dynamic play offensively when I I went to that ACC tournament game when when Cooper Flag got hurt and I got a chance to see that Duke offense run by Khan Canipple and also got to see him earlier in the season against Pit when Cooper Flag had that incredible just dominant second half and just destroyed Pit this is um this is a great pick and it’s not just because hey it’s a Duke guy Duke front office or Duke ownership group and this is you know time and time again we see the Charlotte Hornets do have the most picks in the first round since 1989 to Duke or UNC players and it’s no coincidence the team is in Charlotte it is a UNC you know organization historically and in Charlotte there are a lot more Chapel Hill grads and fans than there are Duke but I think when you’re talking about building for the future I think this has as much to do about building a really strong um uh uh professional organization that in the previous regime kind of like again in the same way with Messiah I think it lost its way with a lot of off-c court issues with uh book James Book Knight uh Miles Bridges i think this organization is trying to transition into a new era and I think this was a very smart two-day draft process with the Charlotte Hornets
i’ve been impressed by what Jeff Peterson’s done so far there and I I think for them this helps build a foundation that makes yourself appealing they still have a lot of draft capital in the years to come as well and so for Charlotte they could be one of those teams at some point when the moment’s right go make a big trade and maybe you set yourself up way down the line for Cooper if things don’t go well in Dallas as you said with a lot of his former former teammates and and guys that he’s been around a long

The Charlotte Hornets may have had one of the best drafts in the NBA — and possibly one of the most calculated. 👀

Kevin O’Connor and Tom Haberstroh break down Charlotte’s 2025 NBA Draft haul, including Kon Knueppel at No. 4, Liam McNeeley at 29, Sion James at 33, and Ryan Kalkbrenner at 34. These picks fit beautifully next to LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller — and might also hint at a deeper strategy involving Cooper Flagg.

Is Charlotte laying the groundwork to become the destination for Flagg if things go south in Dallas?

0:00 – Hornets Draft Four Key Pieces
1:15 – The Cooper Flagg Conspiracy?
2:10 – Culture Reset in Charlotte

🔗 2025 NBA Draft:

Thanks for watching! Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports channel here ► http://bit.ly/YSportsYT

Follow us everywhere!
Our Site ► http://www.yahoosports.com
Instagram ► http://www.instagram.com/yahoosports
TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@yahoosports
Snapchat ► https://www.snapchat.com/add/yahoosports
Twitter ► http://www.twitter.com/yahoosports
Facebook ► http://www.facebook.com/yahoosports