BREAKING: Dell Curry LEAVING Hornets for Amazon?! | Are They Done at Center? | Bad NBA Cup Draw

BREAKING: Dell Curry LEAVING Hornets for Amazon?! | Are They Done at Center? | Bad NBA Cup Draw

We figure out what to do with the center rotation. Are the Hornets likely to make a trade by mid-occtober? Or is this really it? Musa, Ryan, Mason, those are your guys. Plus, we debut a new segment, letters from the front line. Oo, what is it? We debuted a new one in silly season. Find out what it is today. 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. [Music] Oh, it’s Locked on Horn. It’s part of the Locked On podcast network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast. That does include YouTube. Real quickly want to tell you that this episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Doug Branson, every hornetsboxcore.com is his Substack. He has another podcast. It’s locked on NBA. You should make that your second listen. You can listen to Doug and Matt Moore and Hayes, the whole crew. I’m Walker Male. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. So Doug, gooey center, the first bullet point caught me for surprise. I told you that we I wanted to talk about the center position in the first category and then I thought, okay, wait, there there’s a there’s a a typo. What do you mean by gooey center? Well, I mean that I think there are some people that feel like the center position is not fully formed, that they can’t possibly go into the regular season with a rotation of Mason Plumbley, Musa Diaate, and Ryan Caulk Briner in in some kind of order. So, that’s what I mean by gooey, not fully formed. Okay. Yeah. Kind of like bread. I guess you did get into baking for a little while. It’s not fully formed. Has it risen to the top yet? Or am I thinking of I’m thinking of yeast. Yeasty. That would be yeasty center. I don’t think we’re at yeasty center. I think we’re at gooey center. Okay, let’s move on. It’s not It needs to be It’s not It doesn’t have its hard candy shell yet. Now you guys got it figured out at home. Now you guys figured out I don’t know why this is so complicated. That’s my fault. I’m sorry. I just didn’t realize what he meant. Getting a lot of questions about it on Won Walker. I was with Evan Hail, Super Hornet podcast. Shout out to Evan. Big supporter of the show. We talked a little bit about the likelihood of trading for a center by mid-occtober. I think it’s October 15th, if I’m not mistaken, is when you have to have your roster joint down all the way to 15, not including the two-way guys because you have three two-way contracts that you can give out. So, you know, it it’s hard. What do you think the likelihood is that they go after another either big name or a guy that that would have another would have a shot just as much as anybody to start at center for this team? Do do you think it’s more likely that these are the three guys or it’s more likely that they make a trade? I think it’s more likely that these are the three guys. I I don’t think that this has been an approach that signals to me that they are ready to go all in and develop a roster that is absolutely 100% ready to make a postseason. Uh I I think they are still in they’re getting more serious about winning, but they’re still in this mode of like we need to evaluate what we have and see how competitive particularly this back court can develop into. And I think they were wise to to make sure that that back court was flush with depth so that they don’t get caught on the back foot like they have with injuries over the past couple of seasons. Uh but yeah, I mean and and also when so much of your offense is driven by your back court, it’s not not totally necessary that you have some dominant force there, uh particularly offensively uh with with your center position. And I think look, Musa gives you some scrappiness. Coaul Briner gives you some size and some shot blocking ability. They’re obviously confident enough in him that they gave him some guaranteed money. And and then Mason Plumbley is your veteran presence. I think I think honestly like your views on the center position this season are going to depend on a lot of how you felt about Mark Williams. Like if you were super high on Mark Williams and you thought the Hornets gave up on him twice by trading him, then you’re going to be very low on what they have at center. If you’re more in the uh category of like, well, I had hopes for Mark, but the center position was still pretty poor by NBA standards with Mark and to. So honestly, they’re not even that much worse at the center position relative to where they were last year. Still bad relative to the NBA, but not bad relative to the to what they were last season. Yeah, I I think I’m probably, you know, I’ I’d say I’m more in the latter. I mean, I had hopes for Mark, but also he he deteriorated pretty quickly last year when he’s given up 40 bangers to all the other centers that were playing against him, especially for that one stretch. We were happy enough with what Mark was doing down the stretch and then I think he had one bad game, but for the most part it was pretty pretty decent finish for him. It did get me thinking a little bit more the last couple of days about the Mark Williams trade because we broke down Hornets superlatives in the offseason on Wes and Walker. You know, best and worst, something basically I just stole right from locked on Hornets. I stole it, baby. But then I broke it down into other categories like most overrated, underrated, widest range of outcomes. We went through some other categories when I went with most overrated. I got to thinking about the Mark Williams trade more. Mhm. And I get choked up thinking about it as you can hear, but when I was thinking more about the Mark Williams trade, I do think that’s a little overrated in in terms of what they got back. So, if you’re if you’re discussing what Mark was traded for the first time, like that was that was awesome, right? You get a Daltton Connect, you get an unprotected first down the line. And clearly that was a lot of value for this one. For this trade, you got essentially Liam McNeely because you used the 29th pick, a late first, almost as late a first as you can get before it turns into a second. So a real real late first, you draft Liam McNeely, and you get a 2029, okay, four years from now, first round pick and it’s the least favorable with three other teams in it. So, if you were wanting to lean all the way into offense and you had all of these guards that have all of this ability to, you know, be triple threats, shoot, pass, dribble, and you wanted to lean in more offensively with the center that was good catching lobs, and that had a little bit of that mid-range jumper that he was maybe starting to showcase. I don’t know, but also an elite offensive rebounder in the NBA. I it was the defense that had us so frustrated with Mark, but offensively, especially as a playmaker, I mean, you talk about in the high post now Mark is kicking out to some of these shooters. Was was that the key to unlocking us to truly getting to 135? And if we’re if we’re just going to go all offense where we’ve talked about giving up a ton of points, would you rather have Mark on this team or would you rather have Liam McNeely and a 2029 first that’s least favorable with three other teams mentioned in it? And and the argument I think for a trading mark would be it wasn’t going to work, especially after the first trade and both parties just needed to part ways badly. Okay. Like I I don’t know how bad it got. We know a little bit on the surface of what Mark talked about, what Jeff Peterson talked about. Maybe it got even worse than what they showed. In fact, I I believe that to be true. I believe it was worse. But if you’re just discussing if if we’re trying to win and and we’re trying to be different and we’re trying to go allin on one aspect, Mark Williams would be a better better center offensively than what they have on the roster so far. So I I question it. I question it a tiny bit. Yeah. So subtracting Mark is probably going to mean more minutes for Musa Diabate. It’s probably going to mean more minutes for Ryan Cochrinter. And honestly like that that’s if we could go back and redo the segment on most interesting. I might throw it at Cochrinter now because like he’s got a legitimate opportunity and I don’t know what people are complaining about with this center position. You always want young players to get more minutes. Well, Ryan Cochrunner has a perfect opportunity here. He was a three-time Big East defensive player of the year. Four. It’s four. Excuse me. I was cheating. It’s it’s like he and Patrick Ewing, they’re the only ones to have ever done it. It’s crazy, right? I mean, so, you know, he can drop and and they’ll they’ll do some things to help him get adjusted to the NBA, but it’s not like, you know, I worry I worry less about centers adjusting defensively, particularly drop centers, than I do like wing defenders that are going to be dealing with just more way more complex decision- making that they just did not have to deal with at all um at the college level. So, I think he’s going to adjust quickly. Um, and and I think he’s got the size and physicality to hang in there. And so, like I I don’t know what we’re complaining about. I think it’s it’s an upgrade in terms of physicality, in terms of hustle, in terms of heart. You get an upgrade. You get addition by subtraction with Mark Williams. You get addition by addition with Ryan Cochrinter and addition by more minutes with Musadia Bate. So, are they significantly better at the center position? No. But I don’t I just don’t think that that’s going to be the focus this year. If they get more regular season wins, if they outdo their season total in Vegas, it’s be it’s because, you know, LaMelo and Brandon are going to shoot the leather off the ball and you’re going to have great bench contributions from Trey Mann and Colin Ston. It’s not going to be because they have some like dominant defensive presence down low. Now, when they want to make the leap to the playoffs, when they want to make the leap to being competitive in the playoffs, everything about this past postseason says you got to have a presence. You got to have wing defenders everywhere and you have to have a presence in the paint. Like all of that, yes, but that’s like that’s a that’s a tomorrow homer problem, not a today homer problem. Well, and and I do wonder too when you make that Mark Williams trade, remember it’s it’s very early in draft night. So when you make that trade perhaps you don’t know that you’re going to select Kulk Brener like you don’t know if he’s going to be gone at 27 28 and then especially when you take Liam McNeely at 29 you have a couple more picks to go before you take Kulkr Brener early in the second was there they didn’t take they didn’t take Reno he’s not going to help you defensively anyway so maybe they just would have gone all in offensively as well but he he’s you know quite poor defensively so like that I guess that’s my thinking is man what what makes this make sense as a basketball team is call printer getting a lot of minutes and Musa Diamate getting a lot of minutes because I I love Moose’s defense I I think he’s actually I think he’s a winning player I think that’s real um and and clearly limited because he’s not taller is large as large as anybody and so if you’re talking about an elite drop coverage defender that protects the rim like maybe maybe that’s the way but offensively I I do I do think we’re leaving points on the table offensively, which is fine. Like I’m not saying, “Oh my god, they traded Mark. Everything’s terrible.” But if we’re just leaning all the way into that, I keep using that phrase, but if that’s what they’re doing, if they’re embracing an offensive identity, Mark would have helped them a lot. Like that would have been boom, tons of offensive rebounds, uh, kicking out from the high post, um, you know, the lob threat that LaMelo had and and LaMelo and Mark would work pretty well together in that regard. So that I that would be fun. Got some breaking news here in Hornets land. I don’t really know what the implications of this are for the Hornets, but let me read this and then maybe we can talk about it on the other side. This is an exclusive from Front Office Sports. Amazon Prime Video is poised to announce the hiring of Dell Curry as an analyst for its growing NBA coverage team. The hiring of the Elder Curry puts Amazon in pole position to recruit one of the NBA’s biggest stars, his son Steph, when he retires. Talk about that on the other side. Yeah, we can, man. All right. There’s some breaking news coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. More Dell Curry updates. Plus, the Charlotte Hornets know what their group is for the NBA Cup this upcoming season. How good is their draw? We’ll get all to it coming up next. L. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? But with Monarch Money, it can be easier. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat, it’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center, and you can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Do you ever wish you had all your accounts and spending in one place? Have you ever looked at your spending and been surprised by how fast it adds up? Yes, big time yes to that last one that’s been happening especially on Amazon Prime Deal Day. Yikes, man. I need Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockon NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchoney.com. Code locked on NBA for half off your first year. More lockdown hornets ahead. [Music] Thanks to David Walker, by the way, for providing the breaking news. He he tagged us in the group chat with the front office sports tweet of Amazon Prime video poised to announce the hiring of Dell Curry as an analyst for its growing NBA coverage team. The hiring of the Elder Curry puts Amazon in pole position to recruit one of the NBA’s biggest stars, his son Steph, when he retires. Just to repeat the news that Doug broke in the first segment. So yeah, Dell becoming a big star. Don’t forget us Dell. Don’t don’t forget your homeland and the Charlotte. Don’t that don’t that’s yes 100%. Maybe don’t leave us. Eric Collins and Dell Curry the best broadcasting duo in the NBA. Eric Collins does a lot of the heavy lifting on that when we talk about why we love them. So, but Dell Curry massively underrated. Their chemistry phenomenal. Dell Curry the laugh at the Eric Collins jokes. Vice versa. The Yeah, he did. Oh, he blocked that one hard, didn’t he? Yeah, he did. Oh, I love the Yeah, he did stuff from Dale Curry and Eric Collins just going back and forth perfectly in sync. So, it would be disappointing to see Dale Curry leave in a large capacity. If he can do both, great. You know, good good on you, Dell, for bigger opportunities, but hopefully he can still take care of his local duties as well. I hope so, too, because obviously Dell is Mr. Hornet, you know, not not the greatest Hornet of all time. That’s Kimell Walker, you know, just on on the court, but he is the ambassador. He is Mr. Hornet. Uh Dell Curry means everything to this to this uh fan base. And I think you’re right that like Eric Collins is the standout star. He’s the one that’s always getting pushed on the social media clips. But D but it’s all chemistry, man. It’s music that they’re making. They’re they’re good and it works. And you know, so if they leave, I think it’s a double challenge because if if Dell leaves, it’s a double challenge because Dell is going to go have to work in a booth with somebody other than Eric Collins. How does that work? And then Eric Collins, you know, they’re going to have to find someone uh that fits and they and they’ve been working together so long. Yeah. They just know each other’s whole rhythm and vibe. Um and so it’ be really interesting to see someone else alongside Eric Collins. But this was bound to happen. We’ve seen it a lot with the sideline reporters. I mean Stephanie Reddy has a national role and then uh Shahham, she’s everywhere now doing baseball and and she’s been on NBA TV as well. And so the Hornets, the Hornets and FanDuel and that like collaboration, they’ve done a good job of really scouting out talent. Um and and and you know, then sending it on to the national stage. It was bound to happen. I was more scared it was going to happen honestly with Eric Collins than I was Dell Curry. So you know, and maybe and and I don’t know if your fear should subside. He’s always done a lot of stuff just because you know it maybe it happens first with Dell. I I hope it only happens with Dell, but perhaps it happens first with Dell and you have a whole new broadcast team. Those guys I you know, I’ve talked about it a million times. I know that Eric Collins goes viral for the crazy calls and he should because they’re phenomenal. I just it’s I probably have this take like three times a year, but just pay attention to Eric during the normal flow of the game. When the true playby-play artist really showcase their talent, Eric doesn’t mess up. He just never freaking flubs the moment ever. And it’s crazy because he’s so damn fluid and yet all we see are the viral calls that go out on Instagram, which he’s on now, by the way. Shout out to Eric Collins new Instagram page. But we all all we see are the viral calls and the people impersonating those viral calls and those are great as well. But he’s really good in the normal flow of a game. And you’re right, but like Eric Collins, Del Curry chemistry. Oh, chef’s kiss. It’s beautiful. He makes it look easy. He makes it look smooth. And as the case with anyone that makes it look easy, it’s be it comes with a ton of hard work. Uh when I was covering the team very closely while I lived in Charlotte, you know, I would see his notebook and that thing was extensive. It was insane. The amount of research that he does every game, every season is crazy. Um and but you know, back to the Dell thing, I think he can do both. I don’t know if you know this uh Walker, but the Hornets aren’t on national television very much. So, I don’t know what the what the conflicts are going to be there and maybe there’s, you know, they work something out on both sides of like, hey, you know, we can find subs on the nights where there are conflicts. U hopefully he can continue uh to to double dip there. And part of this, you know, part of this breaking news here is that Amazon has a plan here that they want to bring Steph on eventually for a little Steph Dell sort of combo action, which is funny to me because I remember when we first started this show and we were going to talk to Dell, there was just sort of this undercurrent of like don’t start out by asking Dell about stuff. Like Dell would like to talk about Dell. And this was many many this was a long time ago. And so Steph was Steph was definitely like the guy. But it would be different if he were doing that now when Steph’s sort of like you know about to retire. But I mean I still by the way like that that rule still kind of exists in my head. Not not from anybody saying anything to me. Yeah. May maybe I’ve talked with just like behind behind the scenes. Not that it’s a super secret but it it’s just it’s more so cliche and it’s more so he doesn’t care. He’s not mad at you for it. It’s just do you want an interesting interview or not? Like how many ways can you ask about your son’s pretty damn good? It’s just one of those. Well, that’s it. He had you know again this was during the time when we had Max Steph you know he was winning MVPs and you know and so um all that to say that it that you know maybe it’s maybe it’s now that he’s on the decline it’s like giving up the ghost. It’s like fine all right I’ll come over and if you want my son that’s great. I think they’d be good together. I think they have enough personality. They they’d be they’d be good. Like we’re not we’re not trying that. Well, they goof off during the Hornets broadcast, you know, like like pregame, you know, Steph will come over and do stuff and try to bust into the broadcast. They they already do that kind of thing. Uh you mentioned ambassador, I guess, before we get to the cup draw. I do feel like Dell Curry and Mugsy Bogues are 1A and 1B in terms of the best Hornets ambassadors of all time. So, if if you know what does an ambassador mean? It’s representing the purple and teal as much as possible. Dell just being in the consciousness of the Hornets fan constantly, but also Mugsy Bogues still lives in Charlotte. It when you see Mugsy walk through the press room or even the stadium, everybody says, “What’s up, Mugs?” And I’m telling you, Mugs every single time will embrace whoever waves at him. He’ll take a picture with anybody. I I saw I I told you this I think off camera, but um for some reason I have this magnet to Hornets point guards at the airport. I’ve seen Kimell Walker, I’ve seen Brian Roberts, and when I flew when I when I flew two weeks ago, I saw Mugsy at the airport. And so he was, you know, right next to me at the same end of the terminal and somebody asked him to take a picture and he did and he braced him and it was real cool. Like Mugsy is as cool as it gets. And so those are the two monster ambassadors of this organization. And so th those guys are just they’re the best, man. Um so we’ll see. We’ll see if they can keep them. H don’t leave us, Dell. Don’t leave us, Eric. But uh yeah, may maybe there’s a little bit of a shakeup. We got we’ve done well with our local broadcast team. Conspiracy theory. I think he’s leaving now because he sees the Hornets are getting better and he knows that that gold that he and Eric produce at the end of seasons when they’re totally out of it and playing G-League guys like that they can’t that era is over that they’re going to actually start being good and have to talk about basketball all the way through. He’s like, “Ah, I’ll just go go national.” I like that. I give me the worst games possible. Please give me the biggest blowouts because I want to answer trivia some more. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Bees everywhere. Okay, breaking news derailed us just a wee bit, but we will get to the Hornets Cup draw and our new segment coming up next. LOH. [Music] Okay, cup draw time. We have the teams that the Hornets will play in the East Group C. East Group C is where the Hornets are going to play for the Emirates NBA Cup. And here’s the draw, Doug. The NBA unveiled the Hornets alongside the Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the New York Knicks. That’s the group for the Hornets once they enter the NBA Cup. It’s the third annual inseason competition. It will tip off Friday, October 31st in NBA team markets and conclude on Friday, November 28th. Charlotte will host Chicago and New York at home. They’ll visit Miami and Milwaukee on the road in group play. The quarterfinals will take place December 9th through the 10th. And T-Mo in uh excuse me, and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will host both the semi-finals on Saturday, December 13th, and the championship on Tuesday, December 16th. Do you like the draw? What say you? Ah, it’s tough. I mean, the Heat, a little rivalry there. The Bulls, they had a come up last season. the Bucks. They nearly did they they didn’t they they didn’t win it last season, did they? That was Did they beat Oklahoma City? No. Perhaps we’re unveiling the significance of the NBA Cup because I remember who won it the first time, but they’re always competing. I think it might be the Bucks. Yeah. Yeah. I think they might have won it. Um so, uh and then the Knicks, you know, uh powerhouse. I think more teams are taking this seriously. To me, that’s a tough draw. Well, the thing is, this is what I was talking about, too. It’s like you’re the Hornets. Everything is going to be a tough draw. What? What? Give me Give me a Give me a realistic com Give me a realistic combination. Well, no Nets. I mean, no Wizards. I mean, they did just get a bad team. There’s not a single bad team in that whole draw. But But you are the bad team. Well, but you could have been paired with another bad team. No, you’re not. How many groups are there? I guess in the East, I guess it would be three, right? So, it’d be it’d be three groups. And so, yeah, maybe you could get a little lucky and have one of the other bad teams, the bottom four, but you are the bad team when you’re when Adam Silver is dividing the pie. All right, everybody needs a bad team. Where are the Hornets going? Oh, we can’t give this group two bad teams. Chicago is probably the other one that you’re looking at. It’s just that Chicago, while bad, still a little better than the Hornets. So, like it’s Yeah, the draw is tough, but it I My point is it was going to be tough no matter what. Okay, so the Lakers won it in the first year and then the Bucks did beat the Thunder um in last season’s NBA Cup tournament. So yeah. Ouch. Lakers beat the Pacers first year. Yeah, fun stuff there. All right, so there’s the NBA Cup draw. Any other thoughts on the NBA Cup before we debut the new We did have a sicko satchel question from Schuman of the 22nd Mullins Regiment. Does NBA Cup performance mean anything to the Hornets this season? I personally feel like we’ve lacked motivation in the past, but the new uh regime has energized us more. This is an opportunity for us to put some some people on notice. I like our group and feel we can compete. So Schuman likes the group. I think it’s a tough group. Uh does should it mean anything for the Hornets this season? Yeah, I mean well yes it should and I do think they are going to compete. I think they care about this sort of thing. But you you know things get a little harder based on some of the moves that each of these teams have made in the offseason. So Miami two weeks ago, you might like that matchup, but they gave up nothing to go get Norman Pal, who a lot of people felt should be an all-star and maybe should have taken that place of LeBron James where LeBron decides 24 hours before the All-Star game, no, I’m good. I’m not going to play. Most people thought that spot should have gone to Norman Pal, but anyway, so you get him for nothing. And then we see the the craziness that is Milwaukee. They’re going after Miles Turner and they’re waving and stretching Damen Lillard for five years in a record-breaking capacity. So now, which by the way, we didn’t mentioned that at the time. It it broke a record set by the Charlotte Hornets for the Nick Batum wave and stretch. So, thank you Bucks for taking the Hornets out of that infamy. Um, we talked about it on Won Walker and I was flabbergasted that the Damen Lillard wave and stretch provision, I think it’s more than double annually and by two more years more than the previous record of Nick Batum who was almost at $10 million a pop when they decided to wave and stretch his contract for three more years. A terrible, terrible, terrible decision by Mitch Cupcheek that I hated then and it was like just lighting $10 million on fire for the next three years. I could not stand it. And then the Bucks decide to do it. They they they blow that record out of the water. Like it it’s not even close now, but the gap between those two. Well, Phoenix might Phoenix might slightly one up it with the Beal thing. Crazy. Uh it it reminds me a little crossports reference here with Russell Wilson. uh the Denver Broncos just deciding we’ll wave Russell Wilson despite all this guaranteed money and that’s something that you don’t really expect. But yeah, crazy stuff. All right, new segment time. Doug, you and I were kind of kicking the can on this off mic after the show yesterday and you wasted no time getting this thing up and running and we already got a biter. I love it. What you got? Well, let me really quickly while I pull up the the first part of the segment and then I’m going to explain the segment, but let me just respond to Schumann. Uh, I think the performance should matter. I think it’s going to be a tough group, but if they manage to get through the group, I don’t know that they have a real chance of winning it, but if they get if they manage to get through a group for the first time to get through that group, I think would be significant. They’ve got to start winning something. And if they’re not going to be competitive in terms of being a playoff team this year, it would be nice to sneak up on some teams in the NBA Cup, get a few wins and knock this thing out. And and they should, you know, we’ll see what happens in summer league. They should be fully healthy, knock on wood, for the regular season. And so, you know, that would benefit them as well. They’re not going to be dealing with any Achilles injuries as as far as we know. We’ll we’ll keep hoping and and praying that that’s the case through preseason. But, you know, that’s I think that’s a big deal for the Hornets. So, yes, I want to see them win something in the NBA Cup. Okay, this new segment, Sicko Brigade. We started it with the Subtex line. Joinsubtex.com Hornets. The Sicko Brigade, the long-suffering Hornets fans who have the sickness. That is the hope that this franchise could make a conference finals. Nay, a finals someday. And we keep watching. We shouldn’t watch anymore after how much they punished us, but we can’t help it. We’re sick. So, the Sicko Brigade was started. And now I want to do letters from the front lines. I want all of your best stories about how your hornet sickness has leaked its way into your real life because a lot of us I know we keep our sports life separate from our work life from our personal w from our personal wives and our personal lives. Like we just keep it all it’s our little thing and we keep it over here in a corner from our partners from whatever. And but sometimes it leaks out. Sometimes we’re walking down the street and we see a person with very long arms and we shout out, we don’t even know we’re saying it out loud and we say wings of a condor. You know th those things, those Eric Collinsisms. Um, you know, sometime we see, you know, an old hornet, you know, still around Charlotte and and we have to say something. Okay, so that’s what I want. I want your letters from the front line. You can do it on Subtext. You can hit me up on my Substack um or in the comments of the YouTube. We’re going to take them from all over the place. Letters from the front line. And we have world’s colliding, baby. World’s colliding. And we already have a bite. I love it. Doug, who who wrote in a letter from the front line of how uh their worlds have collided? Uh this is Bam Bam of the Oh, let me get this right. It’s a long one, but I want to make sure. The Flying Paper Daddies. Ricky Pierce. I know. I know, but I wanted to get the full thing here. It’s Bam Bam of the 21st Ricky Pierce Division, aka the Flying Big Paper Daddies. Bam Bam writes this. Good morning. Last year while walking to the car after a home win against Milwaukee, I saw a tall man in a suit walking towards us. It was none other than Eric Collins. I was starruck. I did a head nod as he walked by and when he got out of earshot of us, I explained to my family how awesome it was to see that clo see him that close in person. Not going to lie, Eric looked like he had given his soul for us and was ready to be at home. Small moment in passing for him, big moment for me that I’ll remember for years. Buzz buzz. Okay, there’s your first one. Yeah, the the world’s colliding. Eric Collins, seeing him out um in the real world, it’s wild when you see Oh, wait. How did he smell? You got to take it a step further. How did he smell? I need to know. Bam. Bam. If you’re listening right now, I know you are. Uh hit me back up in the subtext line. I need more small I need the small details. How did he smell? Uh did he wink? Um now I do love the imagery here. He did a good job explaining that Eric looked like he had given his soul for us. And I think that means the slightly loosened tie. Uh the you know the the uh collar is a little wrinkled. He had just he had just gone and and I don’t it was probably after a loss although Milwaukee they I think they got a surprise win against them last season. Um but I don’t know if that was at home or not. They did. They did. They got a win early early on November. Yeah. So, maybe it was that game or maybe it was one of the one of the losses. And um you know, he’s out there just throwing facts all around and I’m sure he was sweaty, but I want to know what he smelled like. It’s okay. That That’s your goal. When when Eric Collins asks, “What in the hell are you doing so close to me?” You can say, “Look, man. Doug asked me to.” And then Eric will be okay with it. My let’s I’m trying to think of my best okay letter from the front line. I mean my go my go-to is when I was at an Apple store in Charlotte and I saw Al Jefferson in front of me. It was a couple we were waiting at the like waiting for you know you go into an Apple store and you can’t just go into an Apple store for some reason. You can’t just go you have to talk to someone and it’s like a you know a VIP bar experience. Is your name on the list? Is your name not on the list? So, we’re in this line waiting to talk to this person for the honor of entering a a store where we’re going to purchase something. And I see uh Al Jefferson requesting um an iPhone and uh he said he bellowed out very loudly u that he didn’t want no rose gold. U so he was very clear about what kind of phone he wanted, but I was like that’s Al Jefferson and he he doesn’t want rose gold. He we know we know a fact about Al Jefferson. Yeah. I don’t know if I have one that infiltrates my outside life that I can think about right now. Like, you would think there’d be all these little inside jokes that make its way to the real world from my hornets world. And yet, I can’t think of anything where I shout out wings of a condor or I don’t I don’t say anything like that. So, I I’m sure I can. I need to actually brainstorm about it. And we’re past time anyway. So, tomorrow I’ll come up with a couple stories and come up with a couple letters from the front line. Well, this is about awareness. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to make people aware because I think people do they some factoid that uh that Eric Collins throws out during these games and then they mention that to someone else like the sickness is invading your your real life and you just don’t even realize it because you haven’t thought about it. So that’s what we wanted. This summer we’re going to bring awareness of all the ways um that our sickness presents itself. Oh, I I have one. I have one. That’s the only way we heal. And it’s not it’s I don’t know if it’s real life, but it’s just it’s my go-to examples. And I talked about this with Evan yesterday as well, but I feel bad for some of these players that get time when they shouldn’t with the Hornets because they’re just not ready. But we have to go to our sixth person at that specific position because of all the injuries that we’ve suffered from. So, anytime I go to an example for even another team where yeah, the Pacers had to go deep on the bench. They had to play Nathan Mensah out there. Like that’s that’s how it infiltrates my life a little bit. So, I’ll say, “Oh, yeah, Marcus Garrett became a little bit of that.” Um, when yeah, the Clippers were down to their 18th guy. They were throwing out Marcus Garrett. They were throwing out Nathan Mensah on the floor. And so, it’s not fair to them. But I think that’s one Hornets related thing that now I go to for other examples when I discuss something other than the Charlotte Hornets. I just I have a reflex now when someone says, “Uh, so what about the Hornet?” I say, “Well, they were injured.” I don’t even let them ask a question. I don’t let them say anything that I don’t even know if they’re talking about the Charlotte Hornets. They could be asking me about murder Hornets in Washington State. I don’t know. I just say, “Well, they were injured.” It’s just a reflex now. Okay. Vent with us. Give us your letters from the front line and we can help you through it here on Locked on Hornets. Doug Branson, every hornetsboxcore.com, also locked on NBA. I’m Walker mail. Listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. We got one more show for the week. Be back with us tomorrow. [Music]

Dell Curry is reportedly heading to Amazon Prime’s national NBA team, and that could mean big changes for the Hornets’ beloved broadcast team. Plus, we dig into whether the Hornets are really set at center, the implications of the Mark Williams trade, and debut a brand new segment for the long-suffering Hornets sickos.

Big changes could be coming to Hornets broadcasts as Dell Curry is reportedly joining Amazon’s NBA coverage team. What does that mean for his future with the Hornets—and could it eventually lure Steph Curry into the national spotlight post-retirement? We break down how this might impact the most underrated broadcast duo in the league: Eric Collins and Dell Curry.

Meanwhile, Doug and Walker tackle the Hornets’ unsettled center position. Is Ryan Kalkbrenner really ready for a bigger role? What about Moussa Diabate and Mason Plumlee? The hosts revisit the fallout from the Mark Williams trade and debate whether the Hornets sacrificed too much offensive upside in exchange for long-term flexibility.

We also take a look at the Hornets’ NBA Cup group, which features heavy hitters like the Bucks, Knicks, and Heat. Did the Hornets get the toughest draw of any team—and does Cup performance actually matter this season?

Plus, a new segment debuts: Letters from the Front Line, where listeners share moments when Hornets fandom leaked into real life. If you’ve ever yelled “Wings of a Condor” on a public sidewalk, this one’s for you.

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