Hornets OFFSEASON MASTERCLASS | Best Move & Worst Move | Summer League Envy and Excitement

Hornets OFFSEASON MASTERCLASS | Best Move & Worst Move | Summer League Envy and Excitement

As we prepare for summer league at the end of the week, we’ll take a look back at this Hornets off season and decide what the best move was and what the worst move was right here. Locked on Hornets. 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. It’s Locked on Hornets, part of the Locked On podcast network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and we’re available anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. And there’s Doug Branson of Every Hornetsboxcore.com and also Locked on NBA. He hosts that podcast with Matt Moore and Hayes. Let’s play the game. We go over to Doug and we figure out what’s that face. Doug, explain your face to the people. Uh, that face is that I was looking at my program monitor here and I noticed I was a little short. I was like a a good foot. In real in real life, you’ve got a probably a foot on me. But, uh, but on television, I like to even the odds a little bit and put our, you know, heads at the same height. And I was sitting on my foot. My chair was weird. Anyway, I’m the correct height. I’m not I’m the incorrect height, which is the correct height for television, which is matching you. It reminds me of all the family photos where me and my tall brothers all sneakily try to get on our tiptoes to see who the tallest is. And so all of our family photos throughout the years, somebody is taller than one brother in this photo. And you know, it goes on and on and on. By the way, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. We appreciate them as always. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. All right. Best word uh best move, worst move. Let’s get to both of these things here, Doug. And I think we should start with the best. Well, should should we go bad news first? Are you a bad news first type of guy? Uh well, I will say that in years past, picking the worst move would have been the more interesting topic. It would have been the more we would have had more choices in years past. Probably more to talk about. Yeah. And people would have been in that mode. I would say this season is different in a in a fabulous way in that there were a lot of great moves to pick from. I think this is actually the best move, more interesting and people are more geared to talk about it. So I I think we start with best. Okay, let’s do it. By the way, the it’s been like that over the last couple of off seasons I would say under Jeff Peterson where we’re anytime that we’re asked to evaluate his tenure so far. We we can’t go back to a bunch of moves they’ve made and say, “Oh, I really disagree with that. That one really hurts. We’ve not been able to do that. Even if the Hornets don’t get better, maybe you disagree with the philosophy and that’s real. That’s something that we can go with. But in specific moves, trading Terry Roier, trading PJ Washington, even me, the PJ Washington fan, it’s hard to disagree with, well, when you get a top two protected first for PJ, you make that one. And Terry Roier, especially now. So, anyways, it’s been easier, which is nice. It’s been easier. Um, yeah, the face for Terry. Yikes. Best moves. I have an order here. Do you want me to stick with the question and just give you one or can I go with a a three order? First, second, and third best moves of the offseason. I would like your best move and and then we’ll see if I agree with it. And if I do agree with it, I will say so. But then I will give you an argument for why one of the other moves because I think we’re going to agree, but I don’t that’s boring. So, I’ll give you an argument that one of them could be sneakily the best move. Well, okay. Now, I might be breaking the rules already. I might be cheating. I’m going to go with the draft as a whole. If I can include the draft as just one move, if that’s okay, that’s what I’m going to roll with. It feels like the best move. It’s cheating. It is cheating. Feels like the best draft that they’ve had in quite some time. They draft Khan Canipple where that was divisive. Not a lot of people, you know, I shouldn’t, it wasn’t a 100% approval rating. Liam McNeely first round had some question marks, but especially with what you did early in the second round, Seion James and Ryan Cochr Brener, I loved getting both of those guys early in the second. So, I just think in terms of short-term and long-term impact, I think you you have four guys right now that are under contract. Doug, I I’ve talked about this. Perhaps I can sneak this one in. It it’s it’s kind of a best move getting James on a real contract rather than having to push him to a two-way contract. I love that little sub move within the larger grand scheme of things with what they did in the uh NBA draft. So, I think it’s draft as a whole getting everybody under a legitimate contract. Early second round guys, they’re older. They feel like they can help right away. Ryan Cochrunner might I mean he might start that. That’s that’s on the table for a second round pick as old as he is with not a whole lot of center depth. He just might start. And Seion James could be your replacement for Josh Kogi and fits a different profile than what these other guys do. All these other scoring guards you got. Love what they did in the draft. I think they’ve set themselves up well. So I I obviously love what they did in the draft as well. But unfortunately you cheated and you were wrong. You weren’t wrong because you cheated. You cheated and you’re wrong. We have a bit of a mighty duck situation where they leave the ice and they go, “We cheated and we still couldn’t win.” That’s what we’ve got here because the correct answer is obviously the Colin Ston trade. And I was afraid you were going to say that before I could and then I was going to have to make a silly argument that the Pat Coneton trade was somehow better than the Colin. My bullet The bullet I took on was much better than the bullet you were about you were about to take on a bazooka. I All I did was get shot. It was it’s a mere flesh wound. Oh, buddy. Okay, I’m glad I did it. Explain yourself with Colin. Well, so the Colin Saxon trade you I mean just the on the court argument is good enough wi-i which is that you get immediate scoring punch off the bench and a particular kind of scoring punch and that yes he can shoot threes but I think his biggest talent is getting downhill. Something that LaMelo Ball tried to do and struggled with last season. Something we haven’t seen from Brandon Miller. takes a little bit of the pressure off of him to do that. He can more settle into what I think he’s going to be best at, which is in the regular season generating great three-point looks and in the postseason generating those muchneeded mid-range shots that we saw dominate the later rounds of the postseason. That’s what I want Brandon I don’t want Brandon Miller putting his body on the line trying to get to the rim. I I don’t want that at all. So, or at least not possession after possession. He has to develop some of that skill to to make defenses honest, but Colin Ston allows him to develop that without a sense of immediate urgency. And then you’re also whether he starts or and that’s a future conversation. Does he start? Does Josh Green start? But if he doesn’t start, he comes off the bench and helps a an anemic bench last season. Um that’s awesome. you trade him not only just just for use of Nerkage, but then you get picks in the deal as well. That was the most shocking thing about the trade is that they somehow came away with additional draft assets despite getting the obviously better player. I I’ve always seen Colin Ston as the the guy that takes the the gym run way too seriously at the Y. Like he’s they call him Young Bull for a reason. He’s super serious, but he’s been on bad teams and now he gets a chance to be on this team and bring some of that competitiveness to this team. I I just think and and to me that was the on the court stuff. Off the court, like that move to me signaled, hey, the Hornets are getting serious about winning. They’re putting depth at a position they desperately needed depth at. And if if LaMelo does go down for some portion of the season, look, if LaMelo’s out for half the season, more than that, the Hornets chances of doing anything in the postseason doomed. But he we can now stand for for LaMelo to be out for a stretch and survive that because you’ve got Colin Sexton. So that was obviously the move of the off season. It really was. It was the obvious one. If I wasn’t allowed to get away with the draft as a whole, then I was going to go to Colin Ston because you’re right. It is clearly the one that you don’t have any question marks about. Which is why Doug, you mentioned it’s so clearly about this team being so serious winning now that they’re going after a win now mantra where I I agree with you to some extent. I I still think that it’s hard to take that away outright because it’s such an easy move to make, right? because it’s if you’re going to give me Colin Ston and a second round pick for Nerkach, a guy we only brought on because we got rid of Mark Williams and they were going to attach a first round pick and then we were stuck with Mark. And if hindsight was a thing and we were able to retroactively go back and undo a move, we probably wouldn’t have Nerkage on our team if they still had Mark Williams. I I I don’t know that to be true, but I know that’s a a real possibility. So that’s all you’re taking and we get Colin Ston and a second round pick. I don’t I don’t know what it says other than it’s such an easy move to make. We have to do this. So you’re right in in terms of just a oneoff move, one transaction sliding across Adam Silver’s desk, it’s that one. It’s oh boy, call it. That’s it. All right, send it in. You’re 100% right. It really is the right answer. By the way, the the draft great because not only did you stack your team with costcontrolled contracts that both balance players with upside with players that have played multiple years of college and can contribute right away at their respective positions, but you also, I think, brought in four very serious players. And that is the word, I think, of the off season so far has been seriousness. Bringing a level of seriousness to this locker room and to improve and to continue to improve the culture. But here’s the thing, rookies don’t create culture. Rookies absorb tend to absorb whatever culture is there or is starting to develop. A guy like Colin Saxon who’s been around a while and have been on a couple teams, he can help come in and create a culture. Pat Coneton can help do that. Uh, you know, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller, they’ll continue to do that. So that it’s great that they found rookies that are going to be more tilted towards that. But I think those moves if they had just done the rookies and not done the Saxon deal, the Den Woody deal, the Coneton deal, then I would have still been like I don’t know. It’s it’s I don’t know if they’re really serious about this whole winning thing. But that turned everything around. Last thing on Ston. If they turn Nerkich into Colin Ston in a pick and then Sexton for whatever reason needs to be moved at the trade deadline because you can’t do it for a while if I’m not mistaken. I think you have six months until you can trade them. But then you can and then you flip him for another asset for a team desperate to get off of money themselves, a team desperate to have another scoring punch off of the bench. Maybe Colin comes in, averages 20 off of the pine and plays really well and they’re like, “Okay, we’re desperate to go compete in a wideopen league. Here’s a protected first for Colin or whatever, right?” Like I I’m, you know, he’s he’s on an expiring contract. You can extend him, whatever. You just have so much flexibility having him on your roster. It’s a beautiful thing. And and then at that and then at that point, you have Yousef Nerkage turns into two first round picks and a second round pick. Like that’s that’s insane. Yeah. No, it’s crazy. It’s it’s phenomenal asset management if that scenario plays out. Last one before we move on to the worst move. The the whole process with Trey man I thought was brilliantly played. You know, they they take care of a guy. So, you take care of the people part of this. Trey man having chemistry with the guys on the roster. Miles Bridges, those guys putting videos of Trey working out at Queens, showing some athleticism. You didn’t overpay to keep Trey. Just because you were going after guards, it doesn’t mean that you thought of Trey as disposable. you still went after him and it’s on a well well uh developed deal here. You’re talking about what is it? Seven million something like that. $8 million, I’m sorry. $8 million and the third year as a team option. So, you get to figure out what you want to do with Trey on that third year. The the process with Trey, man, it it wasn’t so unfair by any stretch to where Trey has any sour grapes needing to come back to Charlotte and you get him on what is a phenomenal contract. So if I if I were to rate it, it’d go whole draft Colin Ston and I just thought the Trey man process. I thought that was brilliantly played by this front office who continues to stack up smart decisions in my opinion. Let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast everywhere. Worst move. Now it’s time for the bad news. Yeah, we gave you the the good stuff. We gave you the candy first. Now it’s time for your medicine. That’s still to come. LO. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you’re all about baseball under the lights or golf on the green, high stakes soccer action possibly, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. If you’re already following the action, why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. You could use FanDuel to track your favorite matchups. The app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. Also, it’s easy to use. It’s a fast payout and they make regular season games feel like mustwatch events. Whether you’re placing a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel makes it feel like you’re a part of the action. If you’re new to FanDuel, new c uh customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. More lockdown Hornets ahead. I tried to be different and complicated with the best move the Hornets made this off season. This one is going to be the same answer. I’d be pretty surprised if it wasn’t. The worst move is Mason Plumbley in my opinion. Let’s just jump right on into it. Signing Mason Plumbley. It’s the worst move. Now, the people that are defending the move will tell you that it’s only $3 million. It’s only one year. You’re right. the ramifications of signing Mason Plumbley are not so dire that this is going to be a deal that affects you three, four years down the line. You’re right, that’s not going to happen. This deal is so cheap that it’s not going to affect the type of money that you spend. Maybe maybe a tiny tiny bit because of $3 million is $3 million. It it all adds up. But you didn’t pay double that which is what the going rate is for the better centers out there like a Dron Sharp like Clank Capella who’s making seven million a pop. So right it it’s not going to be so devastating that they can’t get out from under it. Part of this is that the Hornets have made a lot of really smart decisions. this one cutting down on roster space with Mason possibly starting with going back to the well which you know leaves yourself susceptible to jokes. Lord knows I made a couple on Twitter. Um, so right that that’s what happens when you go back to Mason Plumbley after, you know, three years of not having Mason and then the times we remember Mason playing decent basketball, it still it wasn’t a starter caliber worthy center in the league. So all of that to all of that to say Mason Plumbley is my option for the worst move that they’ve made so far. So I think that’s a good one. I think when I think about the Mason Plumbley deal, I just think about going backwards and and I don’t and I don’t think it I don’t think it significantly improves uh their defense um in a way. I mean, yet certainly a better passing big and you lose that with Nerkage, so you’re replacing that a little bit. Uh, but is it a Taj Gibson move where he’s going to just sort of be there if necessary or is is this something that they’re looking at as a potential starter at the beginning of the season until Cochrinter comes along? Uh, that’s a that’s a big question mark in my mind. Um, but actually I don’t think it’s my worst move of the off season. It’s close, but I don’t think it is. For me, it’s using the 29th pick on Leah McNeely instead of Max Reo because I thought they had an OP or No Appenda. I’ll throw that in there. If they didn’t want to go double center, they could have acquired No Appenda with that move, which would have I think been a a pick that would have signaled better defense, uh, particularly in the interior and maybe Penda’s a little bit more of a project. Um, so I wouldn’t I wouldn’t have advised them doing that instead of Caulk Brener, but I really like Max Reo. He fell all the way into the 40s. I think he’s going to be a really good player, another stretch big out of Stanford. Uh, both you and I really liked him. And I I thought the Hornets could have done could have made up for the mistake that they made when they took Mark Williams, instead of just taking Mark Williams and Jaylen Duran and letting those two rookies fight it out and figure out which one was the best one, they decided to trade one of those picks, which became Nick Smith Jr. They could have done it again. They could have taken two centers and let those two guys figure it out. Figure out who’s who belongs in the rotation and then move the other one. Um and you know the the the problem becomes the guaranteed money that the 29th pick has. So even so I’ll just sort of extend this into not taking Max RO because they could have taken him instead of Seion James as well. Liam McNeely to me seems like a worse version of the guy that you took with the fourth overall selection who you should be confident in. like you don’t need a backup to Khan Canipple, particularly when you went out and got all of these other wings and guards anyway. I think Liam McNeely uh that’s a signal that he’s probably at least a year away from making an impact on this rotation and you’re paying him guaranteed money because he’s a 29th pick. So all in all, I just kind of take all that and I put it in a basket. Maybe I cheated here too by, you know, adding three things all at once, but I just think how they handled getting that first round extra first round pick and taking Leah McNeely. Uh hopefully he proves me wrong, but uh that’s going to be my worst move so far. Okay. Um the other part of the the center stuff, it’s kind of revolving the center position for both of us. You wanted to take an offensively driven center. I I didn’t want to sign Mason Plumbley as our center because of roster spots are real issue for me. Like again, I I’m not we have to talk about everything relatively speaking. It doesn’t mean that this Hornets team isn’t going to take a step forward, but yeah, you got a lot of decisions to make. Nick Smith Jr. probably gone. Dcoin Jeff, you got to figure out what you’re doing with Josh Kogi. Oh, okay. And you still need to cut down the roster even after that. So, the fact that you’re using Mason Plumbley’s contract as one of the guys to eat up one of those spots as a Taj Gibson role. I value vet leadership. I value having Taj Gibson. So, maybe I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth. I just would rather have a little bit more of a sure rotation at center. Part of this is how much you believe in Musa Diabate and Ryan Cochr Brener right away because Ryan Cochrrener comes in almost as old as Musa if I’m not mistaken. I I think Yeah, cuz Musa is 23 years and 23 and a half years old. I think that’s about the same for Caulkrunner. So, I like Musa. I I think he’s a winning player. The onoff numbers suggest that he is. I know it’s because they weren’t great last year, too, but I just think he’s a winning player. So like if if I’m having to divvy up or take away Musa or Caulkrren minutes and then I have to give them to Mason, that’s the frustrating part. If Mason is going to come in and play a Taj Gibson role, well then I want him to play the Taj Gibson role all the way in and that Gibson ain’t out there. You know what I’m saying? Like that that’s if he’s going to play the Gibson role, then that means sitting on the bench and getting a lot of DNPCDs and being a pseudo coach. It’s not here’s 18 minutes of contest because that’s not what Taj was getting on on a nightly basis. That that just going back into the center rotation. All right. I did my own research and Ryan Caulk Brener is actually five days older. Oh wow. Than Musa Diabate. Just by five. Jan 17 for Caulk Briner. Jan 21 for Musa Diabate. Both of them born after 911. Um we’re getting old. Also Ryan Caulk Briner is Sorry, why did I bring that up? I don’t know is a dark place in that. But you know why? I’ll tell you why I did it. It’s it’s a landmark. Like I It’s the marker that I that I use to determine like, oh man, that person is very young. 23 years young. I’m very old. Um so I just recently celebrated a birthday. So Ryan Cochrinter is also married to a Kraton uh women’s basketball alum. So if Briner becomes a Charlotte Hornet superstar and and they maybe they already have children, I don’t know. But if they are blessed to have children, then maybe we could have a Curry situation uh where but this time rectify it and have Cochrinters spawn play for the Charlotte Hornets. That’d be good. Yeah, he So we we just got to make sure he’s as good as where the Hornets are picking that year. That we can’t he can’t be too great if the Hornets don’t have the first overall pick. Can’t be too bad. If the Hornets do have the first overall pick, we just got to make sure he’s as good. And he has to go to Duke. Does have to go to Duke in order to play for us, just like Seth Curry did. That will fulfill the prophecy. All right, coming up next on the Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh, almost. Sorry, Doug. Sorry. One one more thing, and I I do because I do want to move on to summer league after this, so I don’t want to leave anything on the table here. So, you mentioned win now in the first segment and I said serious about winning and I think to me the Colin Ston move and uh some of the rookie additions signal to me serious about winning but not necessarily win now. I there’s a distinction for me there. The Mason Plumbley move to bring this back to our Plumbley discussion here. That to me takes us out of the realm of win now. If you’re if you’re serious about win now, you go and make a move for Jared Allen. Maybe they still have time, but that’s what you do. Or you go and get a Nick Claxton who’s owed 20 million over the next couple of seasons. That’s win now. To me, they’re just getting serious about winning, preparing themselves for next off season when it could enter into that win now territory. So, that’s good distinction. Yeah, that’s fair. All right, coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. Okay, we went over summer league, the entire roster yesterday, but now we get to the specifics. Who is the player we’re most excited to watch in the summer league session? And is there a little bit of summer league envy having watched some of the other rookies perform in a couple of games so far? One more segment to go coming up next. Locked on Hornets. the most exciting the most excited you are to watch one player. There’s a a lot to choose from on this roster. I think the default answer last year is just immediately Ton Salon. Maybe you could get some Nick Smith Jr. excitement. I think that would have been a legitimate answer as well last season. But Doug, you you really could pick I don’t know, all of the starters almost really four guys here. Who’s the guy you’re going to land on? Uh, Tan Salon is the player that I’m most intrigued about, but I would say most excited. I think you have to go with the top four pick. I mean, it’s a top five level pick. That’s that’s the guy you have to be most excited to see what he has. And at a position where the Hornets were dancing around that a little bit, it seemed like they wanted to move back to get uh Khan Canipple and didn’t feel confident that they could get Khan Canipple beyond five. And so, they pass up on Ace Bailey. they say, “No, this we actually we want this kid. We believe in this kid and we’re going to take him at four.” And so that’s who I’m most excited. Can he live up to that? Um is he going to show special skills? Because look, the Hornets built around his position in the offseason, right? They went out and got veteran players. So, it’s not I think he’s going to have a place in this rotation, but it’s also not a given like he he’s going to have to earn it just like everyone else. And so it will be exciting to see him take those first steps in that journey uh in Las Vegas. Perhaps I tried to sell the difficulty of it all a little too hard because I’m going with Khan Canipple, too. And I felt pretty good about it. You’re probably right. We got to go with a top five pick. You could create an argument for three other guys, but I just want to see what Khan does on ball. What h what are they running through him? Remember Charles Lee last year with Nick Smith Jr.? They threw a lot at him offensively and defensively because they wanted him to be ready to go for the upcoming season. And they were just throwing it all at him to see what he could handle, what he couldn’t, when he needed to improve at, what he’s surprisingly already good at or better than what they originally thought. All of that, baby. I think all of that happens with a lot of the guys, but especially Khan Canipple. Are they going to put Khan on not the best opposing offensive perimeter player, but like the second or third, right? how how many minutes does he spend on, you know, some of these other ball handlers and ISO situations where they try to put him in some of those situations and because it’s summer league, you’re like, “All right, Khan, you know, go ahead, buddy. You’re on an island. We’ll see what you can do.” I just want to see how much Charles Lee or this coaching staff. Do we know who the head coach is going to be? Is it Chris Jet? Is that right, Chris Jet? And then, yeah, Kimell Walker’s going to be there. He pro I think he might get a he might get a look at some point. I, you know, typically the way they’ve run this the past couple of years, it’s been one guy, but then another guy gets a little bit of a look. So, if if Kipa coaches, by the way, that’s that’s actually something notable. That’s serious. I don’t think they’re just throwing out these summer league games for anybody. And you you got to be a real coach, not just like, oh, an ambassador and we got to give him a title because he’s the best Hornet of all time. Like, that’s kind of real. But anyways, yeah, I I think I’d be interested to see what the coaching staff is going to throw at Khan offensively and defensively. I’m with you. Uh, yes. I I would also say, you know, they they took two first round picks and gave them both guaranteed money. So, I want to see I want to see that those players can handle themselves and they have lots of experience at at the college level. Seion James, Caul, Briner. Um, but oh, going back to Khan Canipple, the one thing that I want to see, and look, I could be a total basketball hipster here and say, “Oh, I want to see how switchable he is on defense, and I want to see how physical he is when he gets in the paint.” D, I want to see this dude hit shots because the Charlotte Hornets have taken a couple of players over the past couple of years, and we were promised high-powered microwave offense, particularly from outside, and they came into summer league, and then they came into the regular season, and they did not live up to it. I’m thinking Malik Monk. I’m thinking Nick Smith Jr. I’m thinking I mean I could draw up a couple more players here if you give me a second but like I just want to see Khan Caniple do the thing that a lot of people saw him do at Duke and a lot of people knew he was going to do which is knock down outside shots and something the Charlotte Hornets they desperately need to improve their shooting. Khan, hit your shots please for the love of God. Hold on. Let me change the calendar. Zero days since we said something bad about Malik Monk. All right. Uh, by the way, he didn’t play summer league and which is brings me to a different point. We’re on a streak here of our first round picks actually playing in summer league, which is nice. Remember PJ Washington didn’t play because of his foot injury out of Kentucky. Malik Monk did not play. Uh, LaMelo Ball did not play. So, I I’m pretty Yeah, I’m pretty sure PJ and I know LaMelo didn’t because of all the COVID situation. I don’t even think there was summer league, especially after see a little bit of Brandon, right? We we did get to see Brandon and then and then they they yanked him out of the lineup after like one good game. It was a little bit of a struggle for him and then had a good game and we’re done. We’re we’re going to end on a high note. So, I’m glad that Khan and Ton are both available because that that’s not all of them. All of the draft picks are available uh this goound to play in Star League. Well, that will be interesting, too, because look, top five player, you’re expecting star level, hoping for superstar level, and typically bad teams take those players, and typically those teams are going to want to ice those players uh and and make sure that they don’t get hurt because they’re a big part of the future plans. But the Hornets have a lot of future plans. They’ve got LaMelo future plans. They’ve got Brandon future plans. And, you know, he only gets one year of college. It’ll be interesting to see if they play Khan a little bit more than we’ve been used to seeing. any summer league envy watching what watching what we did with VJ Edgecomb taking 27 shots. Oh, VJ’s ready, baby. He is ready to show what he can do. And then Ace Bailey, who does not have a good first summer league game, goes three of 13. I forget how many points he ends up with, but he only goes three of 13 from the field. Had a better second summer league game, finishes with 18 points, seven of 14 from the field. Sensah ended up with 37 on 14 shots, which he was the star. Um, any summer league envy watching some of those guys? To me, envy comes from a breakdown of trust somewhere. And I still have trust in this front office. I think they’ve made enough good decisions that I trust their judgment right now. And if they judge that bringing Ace Bailey into this locker room uh would cause a lot of issues in terms of their ability to build culture and the sort of hierarchy that they’ve already built within the team that then I trust that. And obviously like watching them get up shots particularly in that second game it does make you nervous. But we all knew, we said it over and over, the talent is is unquestioned. And but if you put him in the wrong situation, it doesn’t it doesn’t matter how much talent you have. If you if you’re in the wrong situation, you’re in the wrong situation. Look at Kaminga in Golden State. Tons of talent. Showed it off in the playoffs. Can get a shot up really from anywhere. But in the wrong situation, um it’s going to affect your playing time. It’s going to affect the locker room. It’s going to affect your ability to eventually move that player. Look at like Golden State say cannot move Jonathan Kaminga because their expectations because they know the talent. So their expectations are we need these assets and everybody else is going yeah but you’re not playing the guy so we’re not going to give you a bunch of first round picks for a guy you’re not playing. So all of that you know I just I obviously I get nervous but I’m not envious of what’s going on. VJ is a different story but they never I don’t live in that world. I don’t live in a world where oh you know look VJ went three. If VJ had gone five, different story. VJ went three. There was no chance of them doing that. So, no, I don’t live in that world. The NBA changes so fast. We had one game of Ace Bailey. He was not good. Then we had another game of Ace Bailey. Now people are saying, “See, like we’re going to go up and down the roller coaster with how these guys perform and everything is going to be a victory lap. No matter what the result is, uh, every side is going to have a victory lap.” Final thing, you wanted to show the people a video and they’re doing Caulk Brener dirty here, Doug. and show the people what’s going on. All right, I’ll explain this for the audio listeners, too. This is uh from the social media team at the Charlotte Hornets. Uh they put uh Vegas squad video, a little uh what do what do you call this? A little highlight reel of them getting ready in Las Vegas, the summer league team. Um so here it is. Everybody’s huddled up. You got James Banks taking a corner three. Nice. Hit a shot. Damen B dribble drill. That’s cool. PJ Hall stretch big. Knocks down the three off the wing. Dwan Harris Jr. uh Seion James both hit corner threes. That’s cool. Oh, there’s Cochrinter slowly slowly attempting a free throw. Yeah, that was that was a lame clip. That was a lame, you know. So, for again for the audio audience, it’s Caulkr. Everybody else is in in action. Perhaps they even show all these other guys hitting shots and then it’s just a ISO shot of Caulkr at the free throw line shooting the slowest form free throw that we’ve ever seen. And they don’t show whether it goes in or not, which is never a good sign in a highlight reel. Yeah, it’s Wait, wait. They did. You can’t Okay, I’m sorry. You can’t see it because I have this clipped. Um I have this cropped a little weird. I can confirm it does go in. You can see it in the face. Okay, good job, Ryan. I’m sorry. That’s my bad. But Cochrpter, yes, taking a free throw. And then, all right, let’s just play the video out. You got Khan Canipple, I guess. So Cod’s they did Cod a little dirty too because he just walks to get ready for a three and they just move by him. Leah McNeely takes an attempt. Uh Jamaia Neil hits a three. Aduro corner. Splash down. DJ Rodman Rodman’s kid splash down from three. Tan Salon. Oh good cheerleading off the bench. Effort on the run. Anyway, don’t know if Cockr Brener is still the worst. Just like come on. Yeah. Well, speaking of Caulkrin, so I have been I I didn’t know what white basketball player the Hornets that I would be compared to the most. Ryan Caulkriner has the early lead. I I got back from my indie trip and I opened up my Twitter account. Sure enough, I see that somebody tagged me in a closeup of Ryan Caulk Brener. So now at the station, we’re going with Ryan Walker. Um, and Bone went with Caulker Mail, which sounds a little FCC violation, but uh, Ryan Walker is what we’re rolling with right now. So, it it I’ve I’ve been compared to Khan, but Liam McNeely, I think maybe once Walk Brener, he’s got the early lead. So, we move on. Any Any final thoughts on today’s show here, Doug? I think you have way better hair than Ryan Cog. I’m looking at the picture now. Your hair game is is way better. And in fact, I mean, he’s seven foot tall. Uh, but but the hair is is pretty tight to the head. You you you get a little hair height, which I get a flow. I got a flow, which you know, I enjoy I enjoy a little hair. Every every day we start the show, I make sure that hair is riding high. And hey, I saw it. Absolutely. Uh I saw the the golden locks with locked on, by the way. Uh shouting you out for a birthday. Was it yesterday? I Yeah, I didn’t even know. Happy birthday, man. I feel like a bad co-host now. Yeah, that’s that’s tough stuff. Anyways, uh I do love you as a podcast host and I’m sorry for not saying happy birthday to you, but now I’m saying it. Everybody wish Doug a happy birthday in the comments and let’s drive that. I know everyone knows my birthday. He wants you to give out my social security number next. Gez, I promise I won’t say it’s three. All right, I’m playing. Uh that’ll that that’ll be it. That’ll do it. We’ll stop right there. Locked on Hornets. Doug Branson. Every hornetsboxcore.com. Also locked on NBA. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 PM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow.

The Hornets had one of their strongest offseasons in years, but which move tops the list—and which one flops? We break down the Collin Sexton trade, the full draft haul, and which players we’re most excited to see in Summer League.

As Summer League tips off, we’re looking back at the Charlotte Hornets’ pivotal offseason. From shrewd veteran trades to a draft that may define the franchise’s future, we rank the best and worst moves—starting with a clear winner: the Collin Sexton trade. Doug argues that Sexton gives Charlotte a legitimate scoring punch, bench stability, and signals a new level of seriousness in team-building.

But is the entire draft class, from Kon Knueppel to Ryan Kalkbrenner, actually the true crown jewel? Walker thinks so—and praises the front office for locking down four competitive prospects on real contracts. Plus, Tre Mann returns on a team-friendly deal, and we explain why that move may quietly prove brilliant.

Then, we dig into the worst move. Is Mason Plumlee’s $3M contract harmless veteran insurance—or a regressive roster clog? And did the Hornets waste their late first-rounder on Liam McNeely instead of shoring up their big rotation with Maxime Raynaud or Noah Penda?

Finally, we preview Summer League standouts—why all eyes are on Kon Knueppel, and whether any Hornets fans are feeling Ace Bailey envy.Don’t miss this jam-packed episode of Locked On Hornets.

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