NBA Fantasy Basketball | Charlotte Hornets Preview 2025-26 | Can Lamelo Stay Healthy?

NBA Fantasy Basketball | Charlotte Hornets Preview 2025-26 | Can Lamelo Stay Healthy?

We’re up to the Charlotte Hornets and I guess the big question is can they stay healthy? Can LaMelo Ball stay on the court? Can Brennan Miller stay on the court? Can they get more than 26 wins this season? Let’s have a chat about it. [Music] Good day everyone. Welcome back to the Ball Logic Fantasy Basketball Podcast. I’m your host, Brano, and I’m with our should we call you the Charlotte Hornets correspondent, Josh. Yeah, I guess um for people that probably are more familiar with me are wondering how did I end up on here, it’s probably a cameo that they didn’t expect to to happen, but no, good to be here. Good to talk about the most uh mentally numbing team in the NBA. It feels like it, doesn’t it? I know you’re you know obviously a Hornet supporter and uh it’s been a rough few years I guess when you when you get LaMelo Bull in the draft a couple of years ago you’re thinking you know things are coming up Milhouse and uh yeah the B struggled to stay on the court which I guess is the theme of today isn’t it really talking about the Hornets I guess it all hinges on LaMelo Ball’s health at the end of the season. Yeah I mean I feel like we’ve had our balls bounced pretty pretty badly in some draft lotteryies we were number two in the in the in the Victor Wmanyama sweep stakes. Obviously, there was a chance we could have got the one pick last year and and captured the flag. Um, but yeah, overall like we’re we’re not bad enough to be the worst team, but we’re not good enough to be like a playin team. Um, and yeah, we’ve just been sort of shafted a little bit with uh draft lotteryies over time. But hey, it’s a it’s a lottery for a reason. Um, but we’re we’re here. We’re with another head coach yet again. Uh, we’ve gone through about five of those in six years. So, hey, maybe it’s maybe maybe this is the year that we can uh have a 30 win season, which would be great. Yeah, look, new coach, new team, uh you know, new coach, new me. Let’s let’s see if Charlotte can live in live up to that. Uh obviously, guys, for for those of you that have missed the team previews up till now, team uh reviews up till now. We’ll we’ll have a chat about last year and how they went and and how we see them going this year. We’ll also give you our predicted f starting five uh for this coming season. We’ll wrap up the signings in the offse season as well and uh we’ll be talking all of our top gun picks, the guys you’re going to want to get in your first three rounds, those mid-range value guys and your sleepers at the back end of the draft to keep an eye on. Uh let’s have a chat about last year, mate. First of all, 19 and 63, finished with 14 uh in the East. Got yourself some lottery balls again, the fourth pick. You got Conup uh who I think is a sneaky good pick. I think he presents a little bit of value at the back end of drafts, but for Charlotte, I think he fits into the uh the rotation really nicely. He gives you that option on the perimeter uh for LaMelo, and I think, you know, he he’s a really nice pick at four. How do you feel about him? Yeah, I was I was uh hoping that we got um Con like Oh, look, I I would have loved if VJ Edgecom slid, but I don’t think he did. And with Ace Bailey sort of throwing his toys out the pram, I think all eyes are on Khan. I mean, it was always going to be Flag and and Harper and then it was a case of whether they took a flyer on on um Ace Bailey, like if you take him at three and then obviously VJ slides, but as Ace Bailey sort of did what he did during the draft leadup process, it sort of made it pretty simple. I’m happy with a guy that that sits into our our starting five. I think he gets good game time. I think he plays the two. Um so, I’m really really happy with it. I’m happy with uh the the pick. There’s a couple other like good guys we picked up. I mean, we we picked up Teduan Salone quite late in the draft as well. Seion James, like some decent picks like Kulkr Brener as well. Like it it’s fine. Like there’s not much to get excited about when you have the fourth pick, but um I think we did the best we did. Yeah. And and look, you know, a lot of these guys aren’t really going to present any sort of value when you’re talking nine category head-to-head fantasy basketball, but at the same time, you never know because look, if injuries do strike again and we see a couple of your main guys go down, a lot of these extra guys that we’ll probably talk about tonight are going to be, you know, front and center. Uh, and definitely screaming up boards, uh, and awesome waiver pickups. Uh, I think when the time comes, hopefully it doesn’t come to that for you for yourself as a as a supporter. But, uh, as a fantasy basketball person, there’s immense value if one of these guys goes down. So, let’s let’s have a a chat about that. Uh, I guess we can probably start with our top gun picks uh to kick things off. It’s for me it’s LaMelo Ball obviously, you know, like I guess the the one thing is injury risk. There’s a massive ceiling on LaMelo at the moment. And I think, you know, when we look at the ADPs currently, uh, one ADP is at 51, he’s being taken at 51.4 ADP on ESPN. Uh, and then he’s being taken at 25.9 on fan tracks. And I think that’s probably way more accurate than ESPN is. Uh, I would be looking to take him in the teens. I think I’d probably be looking to take him as a bit of a flyer at the end of the second round in 12 team formats. Where do you where do you take LaMelo this year? Yeah, I mean looking at the combined it’s 37 38.7. I think that’s heavily skewed by the the 50s which is just absolutely crazy. Look, I play fantasy sport as best case scenario. I don’t really plan for injuries because what happens if it goes right? And I think if LaMelo played 65 games, he’s a top 16 17 option. Like he’s probably like mid-second, backse um kind of option. Like the question is how much is he really injured? Like I think the ankle concerns at the start of last year were real. Um but at the back end like you know we when you win total less than 20 like why run your injury riddle star into the ground. So look the the concern like not the concern but the question is like how much last year of the game times missed was really injury and how much was the team just being like look we’re just going to shut you down. So, look, if we can be somewhat competitive, you know, if we’ve got, you know, if we come to like the final 20 games of the season and we’re we’ve got 30 wins, like I can see well where we play out the season with him. Uh, and they’re they’re the key times. That’s where your championships are won. Like, you’re not playing garbage time players and and G-League players. So, it’s really about how how Charlotte goes. I think depends on on LaMelo’s stocks. But, best case scenario, I think he’s he could easily be like a 16 17 18 kind of operator in the ADP land. and and we talk about you know taking him at 15 16 17 he had the number one usage in the NBA last year that 35.7 and that is you know ahead of Luca Donic it’s ahead of Shay it’s ahead of Giannis it’s ahead of Palabero Zion like all of these guys that just demand the ball in their hands and you know when you look at a guy that has the ball in his hands that often and is able to generate the counting stats that he can like I mean his rebounds were down last year as well he had 25 points per game 4.9 rebounds which is definitely unders probably at least two three under what we’d expect from him. He’s usually a kind of borderline triple double guy for the most part and then 7.4 assists last game. He had 1.1 steals as well. Field goal percentage is probably where it hurts you. I think if you’re taking LaMelo Ball in the second round, you’ve got to make sure that you either have a real solid guy like potentially a big maybe you’re pairing him with an AD uh in the first round, someone like that that’s really not going to hurt you in the field goal percentage or you’re punting field goal potentially the whole the whole season. Um his his free throw is fine, but I think you’d be punting field goal percentage. Uh at a 405 is is putrid for for any player on the court, let alone a player that has that much usage and takes that many shots per game on volume. 21.3 shots per game. Uh is the same as shaker Alexander last year. So I guess when you’re putting up those kind of numbers, you’ve got he’s got to fit a certain team build. And I think it’s either punt field goal percentage or you’ve got to have a real solidifying field goal percentage guy in round one. Yeah. Know I fully agree. Uh it’s a good point you make up about the rebounds as well. Like we have one of the worst bigs rotations in the league. So I think that that does help. Like LaMelo is a is a very big guard. So I think the rebound numbers will increase. But yeah, it’s a really good point on efficiency. He’s not the most efficient with the ball um in terms of a shooting aspect. So if you are getting a very inefficient first round pick, he it he pairs very well because you just you just give it up. But you know you’re going to be winning points. You know you’re going to be winning assists. You know you’re going to be winning probably rebounds if you’re getting them at a decent level from from LaMelo as well. So yeah, I don’t think you can go in between. I think your first round pick really depends on what you do with with LaMelo. Um you can’t really play halfway house with with field goal efficiency in my opinion. So you’ve got got to make a hard decision in round one. what if what you do. Honestly, I I can see a world where you could go Trey Young into LaMelo Ball this year and just go, you know what, free field goal percentage out the wind out the window. See you later. Don’t worry about that this year. And you can go, I know I’ve got points and assists locked up in my first two round picks. So, there’s a world where you can go around that. But yeah, look, LaMelo, I’ I’d argue that if you’re not taking him in the first two rounds, you’re not taking him at all. Um, some of you might not want to take that injury risk on as well, which is completely valid. Um, but if you’re an upside guy and you’re you’re punting on ceiling and you’re wanting a guy that could win you a league, LaMelo Ball is the man to win you a league if you can stay healthy. Uh, let’s have a chat about those mid-range picks. [Music] There is a fair few of these guys uh in this team. Those mid-range targets, we’re talking around that 50 to 120 in the draft. Uh, Brandon Miller probably the first one comes to mind. Is he going to take a a leap in year three? I guess is the main question. You know, there’s scoring, there’s efficiency upside, he’s pretty efficient with the ball. Uh we were talking beforehand. You think he’s his assists probably take a hit because the usage comes down if LaMelo stays healthy, which is a pretty good point. Yeah. Not even that. Like it’s the acquisition of Colin Sex and it’s Spencer Denwitty, it’s Trey Man. Like we we’ve got so many guards and we’ll talk about like the the best five for Charlotte, but there there is probably a couple names that have to be cut. I think we’re sitting over the Ross limit at the moment. So, uh, there are some guys that have to be be cut. But, yeah, look, I think like coach Charles Lee, he comes from a a budenhoer. He comes from a masula coaching tree of we’re just going to shoot a lot of threes. Like, he’s going to get a lot. He didn’t get probably another I think he averaged like 11 threes last year a game shooting at like 35%. Like, we we want that to come up. We want it to come up to like a 38% which I think he definitely can do in his third year. I do worry about the twos if they do come down if because he’s so good on the catch and shoot. Um, I I also worry about the the assists. I think it comes down. I mean, this year being drafted combined between Fan Drax and ESPN at 72. Last year was 62. I don’t see a huge amount of value in him. I think if you’re getting him in the mid-70s, that’s that’s great. I wouldn’t be going any higher on him. Um, just because of the I think he’s going to become more catch and shoot, less dominant with the ball in his hand. Even if a Melo goes down, like I said, we’ve got a thousand guards to replace that with. Uh, and I think the assist numbers do come down. So, he’s probably there or thereabouts, but I’m not going out of my way to reach for him. Yeah, he finished the 75th best player last year. Um, you know, I think there is definitely an efficiency uptick this year, I think, with the ball in his hands a lot less. Uh, I think he does, it probably helps him in that category, but at the same time, you’re looking at those counting stats potentially coming back a little bit. So, yeah, much of a muchness. I’d probably take him in the 60s. I’m pretty happy to take him maybe early to mid-60s. Um but again, he only played 27 games last year. So that’s the risk that you take. Another guy that potentially, you know, has a couple of injuries under his belt. You want to make sure that he’s healthy for the season. So um and um and by by this stage of the draft, you’ve got a pretty good idea of where your cats are sort of sitting. Um so if you do need threes, I think he’s he’s a a great guy because I think he’ll he’ll probably have an uptick with with his three-point percentage and and either hover or or stay the same with his three-point sort of volume overall. So if you’re looking for threes, I think he’s he’s a great pick up there. But yeah, I think all the other counting stats are probably going to take a small dip. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Miles Bridges is another guy I think I’m I’m keeping my eye on. I think there was a couple of seasons ago when he was, you know, career best kind of stats across the board. And last year, we saw the flip side of that. We saw career lows across the board. I think he only had one worst season since his rookie season. So for me, I’m I’m looking at Miles Bridges and thinking there’s an opportunity to for a definite uptick for him. I mean, he’s being taken at 49 in ESPN and 75 in fan tracks at the moment. So, I’d probably say somewhere in the middle there is is a happy place to get him. Around that 60 mark, I’d be pretty happy to take Miles Bridges. I think he might fall a little bit to be honest because people will be a little bit scared off on the career low and that regression that he had last year, but again, we know how tied to LaMelo his statistics are. And I think the one year that LaMelo played the most games in the year, uh, Miles Bridges, no coincidence at all, ended up having a career year across the board. So, uh, yeah, I I like, uh, Miles Bridges as a pick. It’s it’s more one one of those ones where do you want to take the risk on a guy that, you know, might not have his left-hand man on the court enough this year. Yeah, that’s that’s the concern. Um, but if you’re playing a 12 team, if you’re getting him at the back end of the fifth, early sixth, which would be like, yeah, you’re to low 60s, I think that’s that’s a fine pick up. Yeah, you’re banking on LaMelo. Again, like I play fantasy, hoping for the best. So, you would I assume that Melo plays 60 games plus, which would therefore have an uptick for Bridges. So, uh, yeah, don’t mind taking him at the back end of the fifth, early sixth. Yeah, for sure. Uh, Musa Diabate is another one. you know that the question mark is up in the air I guess who gets the five minutes and whether it’s probably split down the middle with Mason Plumbley and Diamartate. So uh how do you see this playing out because this one’s I guess the biggest question mark around this rotation for me is who gets the center minutes. Uh I’m probably leaning Dartate at the moment but Mason Plumbley has a very specific role that he plays. He’s actually a really good facilitator. So you know do they need that on the court though with LaMelo? Probably not. So for me it’s it’s probably Darte. Where do you take him? I think Plumbley’s got the best highlight reel center bag playmaking compilation I’ve ever seen. He just he he does some things. Um I mean some of these like ADPs are wild. Like Musi is going at 281 on fan tracks. If you’re playing on fan tracks map snap that up 100%. 140 on ESPN. I think it’s a bit high. I’m probably sitting somewhere around that like 160 range. I think he is our starting center. I think he plays 25 28 minutes a game. He he just doesn’t do anything well. Like he does a like he does a lot of things but like nothing fantastic. He’s 69 610 center. Doesn’t rebound very well. Doesn’t block very well. Isn’t the greatest touch around the rim. But if you’re getting a starting center playing 27 minutes a game at 80p 160, I think that’s that’s a fine pickup. Um, and yeah, I think I think like Charles Lee speaks very highly of Mr. Dartate. Like that’s the thing that I’m sort of looking at. I just I’d love I’d love for us to not start plumbly to be honest. You need the backing from the coach, don’t you? Support of the board. Um, for for me, it’s yeah, his his per game or his per minute stats are pretty ordinary. So, I think he’s a last round flyer. I think if you’re playing deep, he’s a great guy in a 200 deep uh competition, but that’s pretty much where it ends. Another guy maybe before we move on to these real late round sleepers is Colin Sexon. Um what are your what are your thoughts on him this year because obviously he’s come across he he’s going to demand some usage, isn’t he? Like 27 usage last year in Utah. Uh only one behind Jordan Clarkson. And for me, like there’s his assist up 4.2 assists. I’m not usually he’s not usually an assist guy. 480 from the field and 6 865 from the line. He does a little bit of everything, but it’s it’s kind of like what how much how many minutes is he going to get behind LaMelo? Um you’ve also got like you mentioned Spencer Denwy there as well that’s probably going to find his way into this rotation at some time. Do they use him at the two? Do they use him as a backup point guard? How how do they use him in this situation? Yeah, I it’s just it’s weird because like we’ve got Spencer Dwley, we’ve got Trey Man, we’ve got Pat Connor as well that can sort of play minutes at the two. Um Josh Green’s floating around to play minutes sort of that three or even like a big two if we need to. I think Colin Saxon is a is a name. He he’s a guy that was that was good for fantasy six years ago. Um I’m not really looking at the acquisition as like any kind of merit. Like I’m not looking at being like oh Charlotte went out of their way to get him. Like we we got a first round pick for taking him. It was it was Nerkage and and Sexon and a first. Like I think any team would do that uh if you’re trading away a guy like Nerkage and getting a pick for it. So, I’m not really looking at that as like a, oh, he’s within the the best 10-man rotation. Um, combined ADP, he’s going at sort of 125 and if we look at like individuals, it’s it’s probably skewed again. But I just I don’t have a read on on the usage. I I just I worry about anyone not named Brandon Miller or LaMelo Ball with this sort of minutes rotation. And that includes Konapple as well. Like, I don’t think he’s locked in for 30 minutes a game. And yeah, I just think for the ADP, I’m probably letting this one go. If he burns me, he burns me. So be it. But for me, it’s I think there’s just better options at a similar ADP. Like 118 on ESPN, 131 on fan tracks. If I can get him at like 140, sure, but I just I think people would probably draft on name value, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. and and I guess that’s a trap you fall into in your fantasy drafts is getting guys with a name that you know might not have the best role um that might have been relevant 3 four years ago but definitely are in a different situation now. So I I definitely wouldn’t be banking on him seeing any sort of positive uptick this year. Uh let’s have a very quick chat about these last round sleepers. [Music] Uh not quite the best these guys. The best of the rest we’ll call them. Uh Grant Williams, Connell, and Trey Man are the three that are probably worth consideration at least at least at the back end of your draft, especially in deeper leagues, 200 deep potentially. Grant Williams probably won’t be starting the season. It seems like he’s not really ready to go for that uh with that knee injury that he had at the back end of last year. So, um I would say he’ll be a streamer when he comes in. Probably more like a stocks and threes kind of streamer guy. Um Connell definitely a threes streamer. I think he might be a he’ll come good I think after the all-star break. Just got to give him some time cuz rookies are notoriously inefficient in year one. So, uh that that’s probably where I’m at with them. Trey man stat he’s he’s a bit of a stat stuffer, isn’t he? But it’s more if LaMelo goes down, I’m picking Trey Man up straight away. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Uh big big off the off the kind of guy. I just want to talk about Ryan Corkrunner. Uh his ADP is 145. Cannot go anywhere near that. Uh I think it’s just a weight. your heads. It’s quite high. Uh it’s 141 on ESPN and 149 on fan tracks. Holy [ __ ] Yeah, right. No, you can’t be doing that. No, stay stay far away from that. Uh some other ones. Yeah, like Con is 144.5 and Co is 15 45. Like that’s insane. Yeah, I think a lot of these guys as well once you get to the 140s, it’s kind of just becomes undrafted uh in certain leagues as well. So, they just automatically put in 140 or 150 or 160 or whatever it is. So it could it could just be one it could be 250. You just don’t know. Yeah. Uh if if you’re looking if you’re playing like very deep and I’m talking like 300 deep dynasty. Um Son James and and T James Jane Salomon like I think they’re ice to just chuck on the taxi. Um maybe amount to something but um yeah like you have a question in the run sheet here about like how many assets are we taking? It’s really like three in terms of like LaMelo. Yeah. Like I’m not overly keen on Miller’s ADP. you are a little bit more keen than me, but like Melo Bridges if you expect Melo to play decent minutes and then like maybe Con with a 144 ADP like if you can grab him around there I think that’s fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That that probably leads us into mate uh talking starting five where we think these guys line up. Um obviously it’s LaMelo Ball at point guard I think either Brandon Miller at shooting guard or or New at shooting guard and then the other one at small forward. I’m not quite sure how they play that yet, but I would say one’s at the two, one’s at the three. uh Miles Bridges at the four and then it’s a toss up of Mason Plumbley uh and Dartate at the five. I’m probably leaning Dartate to be honest and and them using Mason Plumbley off the bench in the second unit to be that facilitator when LaMelo is not on the court. I think he provides much more uh value when LaMelo’s off the court as opposed to on it. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just it’s it’s having a point center effectively. I mean, you’ve also got Plumbley there that’s got a wealth of experience in the NBA to mentor guys like Diamatee who’s 23 and Corkran who’s also, I believe, 23 as well. So, it’s good to have a veteran presence around there, a guy with his head screwed on that can that can help these young guys. So, um yeah, I think that’s that’s I’m I’m happy with that starting five. Uh and I I do think Cork Brener will probably playing bigger minutes post Allstar break as you said as the season wears on, especially if we do have a have a season as to what the bookies think and we are sort of not great. um lead some of these young guys at the back end of the season. Yeah, I think the question marks are more around the second unit than the first really, isn’t it? It’s like where does Spencer Denwidy fit in? Um Spencer Denwy’s, Colin Ston, and Trey Man. There’s three guards that fit into two spots. Uh I don’t know whether they’re going to be going 12, 13 deep in their rotation either. I think they’re probably going to be a 10 to 11 deep team and maybe Spencer makes that make that best 11. But it’s there’s a lot of minutes to go around. That means that probably hurts Trey Man. It probably hurts Colin Ston. Uh I would assume that Miller and Ball are going to be playing 34 to 36 minutes a night. So there’s just limited opportunity for any of these these guys in the second unit personally. Yeah, like we’ve got a big backlog at sort of the three. We’ve got Brennan Miller, Josh Green, uh Dayon Jeff, Le McNeely, Son James. I expect Daquin Jeff to probably be cut as I do. Nick Smith were two over the the the threshold which would leave like LaMelo, Colin Sexton, Denwitty, KJ Simpson. I think KJ Simpson is just going to sit at the back end of the bench. Josh Aki as well like I think anything that was going to come from his career would have come already. So uh yeah I think Spence Denwin can push himself into that sort of 12 but it’s can he push himself into the 10 um which is the the key thing. So look I expect the the the second unit to look something like Sexton Trey man Josh Green Grant Williams and and Plumbley I guess. Yeah, that’s probably where my head’s at as well. And then, you know, it’s probably, you know, Denwitty man, Sexton, Sharon, the one and two through there, through different minutes and rotations, combinations. So, uh, last one, mate. What do you reckon? How do you reckon they go this year? What’s the over under on the wins? Uh, Bookies got at 26 and a half. Like, I think we smash the overs if you tell me that Melo plays 60 games. Yeah, you don’t. I don’t think this win total is close. I think it’s 17 or like 34. I don’t think it’s anywhere near 26, but the problem is it’s like you can’t you’ve got to put a number on it. If they’re healthy, let’s just say they’re healthy. I reckon you’re pushing 35 to 38 wins and I think that’s a pretty good spot to be. The problem is LaMelo’s, you know, even in the games LaMelo’s played, he hasn’t been a, you know, very well-known winner. Um, you know, he hasn’t carried his team to wins in he’s great at accumulating stats, great for fantasy basketball, but not great for winning. So, it’ll be interesting to see whether that changes this year if he’s on the court or not. Mate, thanks for joining me. That was fun. That was good. All good. All good. I have to get you back. Punt finish. Punt efficiency, punt rebounds, uh target three-pointers for the Charlotte team. Love it. Love it. Thanks for joining me, mate. Guys, hit the subscribe and like button if you like the content. We’ve got plenty more preseason content coming your way over the next 10 weeks. Keep an eye out for the next one. We’ll see you then.

Join Braino and Whisperer as the boys talk through the Charlotte Hornets ahead of the 2025-26 season. Can Lamelo and Miller stay on the court? Can Miles Bridges bounce back to 2023-24 form?

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