Kon Knueppel DEMANDS Playing Time | Who Helped/Hurt Their Minutes in Charlotte Hornets Rotation?

Kon Knueppel DEMANDS Playing Time | Who Helped/Hurt Their Minutes in Charlotte Hornets Rotation?

We continue our summer league analysis. Who improved their minutes in the big leagues? Who did not improve so much their minutes in the big leagues? Plus, we’ll talk about the top 100 players a project Locked On is taking on. How many Hornets should make it? How many Hornets made the big boy NBA top 100 list? We’ll talk about it all 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] This is the Lockdown Hornets podcast, a part of the Lockdown podcast network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. He’s a part of every hornetsboxcore.com. He also hosts another podcast on this very network, folks. Locked on NBA. He hosts with Matt Moore and Hayes. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA atmononey.com for 50% off your first year. So, we’re still going to be eating at the summer league plate contentwise for just a little while, baby. We’re going back. We’re going to talk about who improved their minutes. That will be the first segment. We’ll move on to who didn’t so much, who maybe lost minutes with the summer league session, and then we’ll go top 100. But there still are there there’s some some things to chew on here with the summer league uh meal that we’re eating on. What you got, Doug? Well, let’s just pause on that idea that it is July 22nd of the year and we are still talking about summer league. We would have moved on, but they won the championship and there’s so much to talk about. They took six rookie and sophomore players to summer and they excelled. That’s why we’re talking about it. That in itself is the point. Well, I mean, I want to dive a little more into this and the details tomorrow, you know, so perhaps this content is stolen, but whatever. I I’ll I’ll tease it a little bit more. I I did want to dive into just how much better Khan Canipple’s summer league session was compared to every other Hornets draft pick in the first round over the last 10 years. And like Khan Canipple had the best summer league session of any other Hornets first round pick since dot dot dot. I I’m not sure there’s a name that comes after that dot dot dot. I I I don’t think so. It feels pretty Simpson. I guess I might be KJ and and he’s a second round pick. So I’m And I’m first rounders, especially from an 18-year-old, a guy that wasn’t one of these older players that was selected in the first round and they always hit a little harder at first, but then you know the hit it waines. Um yeah. Oh, you did say rookie. You did say rookie. I’m sorry. I thought No, I just said first round rookie, right? I said first round rookie. So like who so of the picks you get excited about. You could go back to LaMelo except he didn’t play because of the co season which that would have been the answer. I think LaMelo just would have been a rock star at summer league but Malik Monk. No, didn’t play. Yeah, didn’t play. PJ Washington had the injury. I think he would have been good. Um so it perhaps because of injuries, perhaps because Khan was just flatout good. But anyways, we can dive maybe a little bit more into that tomorrow. who improved their minutes. I think let’s start with Khan, Doug. Would you make the case for Khan Kipple improving his minutes once he gets to the big league roster? I think you at least have to have the conversation about him starting. I don’t I still don’t think he will. I think he will begin the year on the bench. I think they’ll have a depending on Josh Green’s health. They’ll have a conversation about Josh Green versus Colin Ston versus whatever other lineup. I don’t I don’t know that Khan’s going to start right off the bat, but just with that performance, with the passing, with the scoring, with all and I thought some defense that surprised me just a little bit with how effective he was. Now, the question will be, and they’ll answer this, I think, in training camp and in preeason, how is that going to translate into him playing actual NBA competition? That’s probably going to go more than anything, more than anything he did in Vegas, that’s going to decide whether or not he starts or not. But certainly I think he improved his minutes such that he’s I think he’s locked in to a strong bench role at at at the floor at this point. It’s hard to figure out based on how the Hornets have played their rookies in years past and with those different situations how we should compare this situation with this specific player. So if you just go p back to like let’s go to 2018. Okay, let’s let’s start with Miles Bridges just because he’s on the team. It made sense in my head. So, Miles Bridges comes in, he gets 20 minutes a game. The rookie is in line with that type of run. Miles got 20 a game. Mark Williams got 20 a game when he was healthy. And Tan Salon, I think, a very different style of 20 minutes per contest because of all the injuries they suffered. But, Tan Salon actually played more minutes per contest his rookie year than Miles did. That’s something I I don’t think a lot of people would get right. So you have your 20 minutes per game rookies. Your let them loose right away rookies were PJ Washington who got 30, LaMelo Ball who almost got to 30. Brandon Miller who played over 30. So those are your they’re they’re starting. They’re a significant part of this team immediately. Those are different. That’s a different set. And then in the other bucket you have James Book Knight. You have Kai Jones came coming from the same NBA draft by the way. You have in that bucket guys that just didn’t play. I mean, Kai Jones never saw the floor. Just toss that bucket. Yeah, James, that bucket that bucket has a hole in it. That That bucket has mildew at the bottom. You just want to go ahead and toss that bucket. I I think Plankton host has a restaurant down in the chum bucket with that one. So, James Book Knight and Kai Jones. James Book Knight played a tiny tiny bit, but that’s less than 10 minutes. So, where does Khan fit? Is he in the Chum bucket? Is he in the 20 minutes per game bucket? or is he in the 30 minutes per game? Doug, I I think 20 that’s the easiest place to go and I think it’s the right place. I actually think he might create a new bucket for himself, though. I think he might be Could he get to 25 and just be in the middle of the we let everybody else loose because they’re clearly one of our better players. We we still want to play them, but there’s still some room to grow with that 20 minutes per game. And then Kai Jones, James Book Knight, that’s not where Khan is. I I think he might be in the middle of that group between 20 and 30 minutes per game the rookie year. I think you’re right. I think it’s going to come down to matchups. Do they think they can do they think he can handle the particular matchup that he has that night? And again, I’m going to say like on the defensive end, but also offensively, you know, it’s just going to depend on what they see his role as. Is it going to be more of a stationary we make plays for you? Are they going to challenge him a little bit in his rookie year to try to make plays for himself? because I thought that was one area where he did better at times in summer league and then other times I mean just going back to that championship game there was a little ISO play that he had against Devin Carter and he could not create space for himself and he got down to the end of the shot clock and just had to hoist something up and so I think there will be challenges particularly when he is against smaller quicker guards on both ends of the floor him creating space for himself not turning the ball over and then defensively being able to stay in front of those players but if he’s playing against a little bit somebody that’s a little bigger and a little slower then I think he could see a little bit more minutes that game. The other thing I would say is like in a Hornets universe where they didn’t trade for Colin Ston. I think Coniple starts like I I don’t even think it’s a conversation over even if Josh Green were healthy. I just think you start the guy. He’s a fourth overall pick. You’re not a very good team. You start Coniple. Colin Ston to me does complicate it a little bit and I think you’re going to see a little bit of a battle in training camp and preseason to try to figure this whole thing out. Well, well, that’s that’s the situation here as to what I was alluding to earlier and how hard it is to try to figure out because not only do you have Colin Ston, you bring back Trey Man, you do have Spencer Denwitty, how much that that’s official and maybe we use this to parlay into another player, Liam McNeely played two games, Doug played two games and he was really, really good. And you know what I was wrong about with Liam? I like the pick. Fine. But I was wrong about Liam probably being the best candidate for Greensboro this year. Now look to to make these sweeping statements off of two summer league games. Maybe that’s still the case. Maybe. But I don’t think so, man. Not not after the way that he played. He’s a healthier player this time around. So you could say the larger sample size, the more the better projection is the sample size that he played at Yukon. Except we’ve gone through those issues already. the ankle injury, pneumonia. Now he doesn’t have the ankle injury. He doesn’t have pneumonia. He has Achilles tendinopathy apparently, but I don’t know if that’s just something they’re saying to hold him out. I don’t know how serious that is, but it looked pretty damn good in those first two games. Do we I I think you have to increase the minutes load for Liam McNeely based on what we saw. Uh yeah, I would I I would argue that Liam, if you’re just talking about how much someone went from minutes zero to minutes X, I think Liam improved more than Khan Canipple because I think Khan was already locked. When you’re a fourth overall pick, you’re going to get minutes, particularly on a team that won 19 games. Of course, you’re going to get minutes, right? Liam, that was not a given. Uh being a 29th overall selection, even though he’s a first round pick. And so, yeah, I think Liam improved his minutes load. Now, again, same thing with Khan, though. He’s got to go into training camp and preseason and prove it out and be healthy. But I think Liam McNeely made made the case that that he’s improved his minutes uh more than anybody, more than KJ, who had KJ had an amazing summer, but he’s got some rotation station issues with players that are in front of him with experience and size. I think KJ probably improved his minutes two seasons from now. like he’s he’s planted that seed very firmly that hey I’m a player that you want to continue to invest in. But in terms of next season I would say Liam improved most and then Connemple. By the way, what I was wrong about with Liam McNeely everything. Um real quickly overunder on minutes per game. This is a fun segment with Josh Lloyd when he does the team previews going into every season. I think for Khan I would set it at 23 minutes per game. And for Liam, that one’s tough. What do you think? What do you think about What do you think about 13? 13. Maybe less. Well, I was thinking max 15. So, I think 13 is good. Like, I think I you know, I could see him as, you know, just that. And I don’t think it would be every game. I don’t know that Liam and but we’ve got training camp, we’ve got preseason. If he continues to do it, obviously, then you lock him in. You know, I see a couple of these guys as like, oh, they they could be you, particularly at the beginning of the season when they’re experimenting a little bit, you could see some of these guys play one night and maybe not play another night. And maybe we’re dead wrong just cuz Liam can play some three and there is not a log jam at three. There’s a log jam in the back court, but there is not one at three. And unless you just experiment with some three guard lineups, which they absolutely should with the amount of guards, and they they absolutely will. Uh Liam McNeely can give you some size out there on the perimeter. So maybe I’m wrong on that. That that one’s hard. He might steal some minutes from Ta just in terms of like Yeah, I mean that one’s hard to project, man. That’s really difficult. All right, coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Everywhere. Did we get through all the players that improved their minutes per game or did we leave a couple out there still? We’ll discuss that. Then we’ll get to the guys that lost some minutes in this summer league session. That’s still to come. Locked on Hornets. their minutes, Doug? KJ Simpson wasn’t a name that we really discussed all that much. You said he increased his minutes load two years from now. How much wiggle room is there to see KJ Simpson on an NBA floor? What injury, right? I mean, if a couple guys get injured, maybe even one player gets injured, KJ gets minutes. And so in that in in so far as he really sort of solidified the idea that KJ Simpson is a part of this team moving forward and should be given minutes if that opportunity arises. He improved his minutes. I mean there’s a universe where he just completely stinks. The Hornets exit after, you know, that consiliatory fifth game and they don’t do anything. KJ Simpson’s not a leader and they just move on from him completely and say, “All right, two-way, no way. Uh we’re we’re moving on.” So, he improved his minutes in that way. But in terms of minutes that he got last season to minutes this season, I just I think it’s at neutral. I think there are two other names that deserve looking over. One that maybe deserves a significant portion of this segment and one that doesn’t so much. So, Jaylen Sims, same thing from Liam McNeely, zero to some amount, whatever that looks like. perhaps because of injury. I equated it to this G-League call up in the middle of the season when you’re a little tiny bit desperate for bodies. He’s the first in line. Whereas last year, Jaylen Sims probably wasn’t the first in line. In fact, he just definitely wasn’t the first in line. Maybe he’s the guy that you call for if you’re desperate for bodies. So Jaylen Sims, yes, from zero to X, he probably fits that category. But Ton Salon is the other one. Ton looked improved in the games that he played. He played three games this summer league stent. The first two I think most people walked away from those two games feeling very good while also understanding there are still flaws here. Third game not so much. Didn’t play nearly as much and then it sat out the rest of the summer league session. Did Tan Salon improve his minutes per contest, Doug? Yes or no? No. I don’t and I don’t agree with Jaylen Sims either. I think that they they’ve added too many bodies, particularly in the draft. when you draft four players, you got to focus on those four players and where they all fit. And so Jaylen Sims, I think he may have increased his role with the Greensboro Swarm. I really think he might have increased his role with another team. Like if I’m another team and I saw what Jaylen Sims did with the Hornets, similar to PJ Hall, I just call up and see see what Sims’ availability is and bring him into their organization. So, we might see Sims on an NBA floor, but if we see him on a NBA floor with a Charlotte Hornets uniform on, then we’ve entered some kind of injury apocalypse for the third or fourth season in a row. Like, it’s not a good thing if we see Jaylen Sims again. So, I would say neutral to he’s improved his minutes for another team. On the Tan Salon front, I came into summer not understanding what exactly Tan Salon’s role was going to be with the Charlotte Hornets. I have even though I agree with you that I saw some improvement, I did not see enough improvement where I have any more clarity on that idea. And so so I’m in a neutral place with Tan Salon, maybe possibly even hurt his minutes only because they they have added so many other players and Tan Salon’s improvements were not fast enough. They were not enough where I look at it and say, “Oh, yeah, for sure. I know exactly where they can play him, how they can play him, and I know they’re confident in playing him. Well, the only thing I would say is who’s your backup? So, you have you have Miles Bridges. You have Grant Williams coming off of a devastating knee injury, which maybe isn’t discussed enough. This wasn’t just your typical torn ACL. Everything was torn in that knee. It’s a long rehab process. I’m not sure he’s going to be back before January. So, now if if that’s the case, I don’t know that. I haven’t heard anything about that, but I’m just not sure he’s coming back before 2026. So, if that’s the case, Miles Bridges is your starting four and then it’s Tan Salon and you’re kind of going to some unconventional stuff for tertiary. You know, if somebody gets injured there, then Tan Salon, I just don’t know who’s in front of him. It’s not the log jam that it is in the back court. Oh, no. I’m having this conversation assuming Grant Williams is coming back. So, I’m I’m assuming health here. So yeah, I don’t I I think if he’s injured obviously then Tan Salon’s going to get minutes, but uh yeah, I don’t in a world because in Grant Williams, I don’t see like Ton then being sort of a third string power forward who also gets minutes because I don’t think he like flexes well to three necessarily. So no, I don’t think so either. And then so you know, he’s sort of caught in this. Would I be shocked if Tan Salon was part of some deal before the trade deadline that involved other players to get more picks? No. Because he he exists in this like tweener world that the Hornets they’re they’re not necessarily with these moves that they made this past offseason. They’re not exactly like carving out a role for him. And and I just want to be clear like I did see improvement from Tan. The game looked like it slowed down. he was doing less of the insane stuff that we saw from him in his in his first summer league game and first summer league stent and even into the regular season. There were still those moments where he was taking, you know, step back the three-point shots. You were going, “Okay, that might not have necessarily been the greatest decision there.” But particularly in transition, I thought he was more slowed down, more controlled, looking to move the basketball around the floor before looking for himself. So there there were improvements, but I’m still not looking at a player that I’m like, Charles Lee is going to be super confident that when he’s on the floor, everything works. Like he’s just I feel that way about Leam McNeely after two games. I feel that way about Coniple. I don’t feel that way about Tan Salon. Yeah. Okay. I I will say um sometimes this happens. I I am surprised about this take from you and it’s not like I’m shocked, right? I I I’m just a tiny bit surprised. I know Tan has been your boy. I know that has been the whispers of Giannis, Giannis, Giannis. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s not your I got you. I got you that it doesn’t mean that he’s not your boy. You know, sometimes tone, non-verbal cues, that type of communication, it feels different with Salon. Does it feel different to you or am I misharing that? So, I’m taking off my boy hat and I’m putting on my analyst hat. And see, this is the this is the to me this is the neat thing about our show is that we can we can be fans sometimes of players of teams. We can also like be realistic about what we’re looking at. And that’s really what I’m looking at the I I take a trip to rotation station choo choo and I look at it and I say, man, I’m not sure uh what the Hornets are really going to do with this guy. And I watch him in summer league and I see a player that has made some improvements. Now, I think they can be very patient with Tan Salon. He’s super young. Um, he’s super malleable. They obviously invested in him enough this summer where you have Charles Lee going to his personal workouts, working on stuff with him. Jeff Peterson in attendance as well. I don’t think they’ve given up on Tan Salon, but I think they’ve added players in the offseason such that the message to me is we’re going to be patient with this guy and we’re going to figure out what he is as he figures out what he is. And that’s that’s just the situation. Yeah, I don’t disagree with any of that. Sometimes it’s just a little hard to see what hat you got on. You got a bunch over there. You can see the hat back there. There. Sometimes it’s just a little hard to see which one you have on. Let’s continue this conversation coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Be everywhere. Okay. Who hurt their minutes this upcoming season? We’ll still get to that top 100 list. Both the official, I guess, NBA top 100 players list. How many Hornets are on it? and the locked on top 100 players list. How many should be on it? That’s still to come. LOH. [Music] All right, let’s finish up with the other rookies here. Doug Seion James, Ryan Kulkrinter. Kulkr Brener. Let’s let’s go there first because Seion is a little more complicated. Didn’t play as much. Was out because of I guess the injury report, but you know, whatever. Kulkr Brener. We thought there was a real opportunity for him to come in like dominate seem strong, but maybe be could maybe could he be a 14 and eight kind of guy that just swatted a whole bunch of stuff out of the paint? Uh, good and bad. We documented that in every single game he played, which was six. He played in every single summer league game this session, I would say. Um, I’m trying to think if it’s neutral or if he heard it. Whatever. Whatever the answer is, it’s somewhere in that line of there needs to be a real improvement from now to training camp to preseason to regular season for him to get back to a place where people can feel comfortable enough. I stress enough with the center rotation. But yeah, I think I’m with you. If I had to choose, I would say he maybe hurt it just just a little little little tiny bit. Well, and maybe the way you feel about this is going to depend on your expectations. My expectation for him was five-year college player, multi-time defensive player of the year, like he should come to summer league and play better than the typical rookie expectation for a player. And and I don’t think he did that. And in fact, I think the guy that got signed to another team to the Memphis Grizzlies, PJ Hall, was one of the more talked about bigs and and maybe the best big that the Hornets had in limited minutes. I mean, Cochraner got more minutes, 20 averaged 25 per game. PJ Hall averaged 13.7 and I thought made more of a statement than Ryan Cochrer did. Uh, let’s see. Shot 56% from the field, shot 28.6% from three. That’s another thing, too. Like I think there’s a there’s a speed issue, there’s a movement issue, and then he did hit a couple of threes, but not enough where I’m like, “Oh, great. The Hornets have replaced what they lost in use of Nerkage. They still have a shooting big. Now we’re right back to where we’ve always been, which is the Hornets don’t have a single center on the roster where I feel uh anywhere near confident that they can knock down a three.” Maybe maybe that changes. There’s time. Again, I just want to back up and just let everyone know that there’s time in training camp to change all of this. I’m just talking about what I saw in Las Vegas and I did not see a player in Ryan Caulkiner that is going to demand starter minutes, you know, unlike the depth chart that they kept showing with him in the starting role, but he had that opportunity and I don’t think he necessarily seized it. Well, and no, and I’m with you on that. I would say the shooting if you have somebody come in at 71 260 and hit a couple of threes in summer league. I do think there’s absolutely something real. Sure. Um especially with the complete lack of shooting from Mark Williams. It’s funny you bring the 28% up. That’s exactly what Nerkit shot for the Hornets last year. So he shot 28% last year. He shot 32 for the Suns and then 26. like it it’s one of those, okay, he can hit him every once in a while, but the defense is still probably going to let him shoot those shots. That’s that’s how it is. At at least he can hit him where if you’re Mark, you just completely ignore him. We’re packing the paint. We’re not letting anybody get into the paint. Where with Nerkage, it’s we’re going to ignore you, but it’s on my radar. If you hit two, all right, now I got to come out and at least give the drivers a little bit more space here. And I think Caulkr Brener is more so in the latter compared to what all the other centers that we’ve had previously were. Let me be very clear. I’m not out on Caulk Brener at all. I’m still actually pretty I’m pretty high on on his on his floor and where he can develop into. And in fact, the Hornets don’t win a summer league championship without Ryan Cochrinter because not only did he have a bone crushing screen that set up the Khan Canipple three with 35 seconds left that helped drive the Hornets to win that championship game, he had a game-winning block, you know, like a game sealing block. Like that could have easily been points and then they lose that game and they never even get to the summer league playoffs. So, and also Ryan Cochrinter obviously knows where to be. like he proved the thing that everybody thought for a 5-year college player. You got to know what you’re doing. He knows what he’s doing. There are just things that have to be ironed out before I’m ready to say, “Oh, Cochrinter, he’s definitely locked in as a starting center for the Charlotte Hornets moving forward.” The other guy, Sean James, I would say, hurt his minutes because he didn’t hit threes. And that was something you talked about a lot. Seion had to come in knock down shots. He didn’t. He’s going to have to get healthy and show that he can do that in training camp and preseason. Yeah, only two games for Cion. Um I think defensively I’m not sure that I saw like a Kogi level, which is maybe what it takes in summer league to be just in complete awe of what Seion James did defensively. I don’t know if I saw that. I didn’t see any real issues with what he did defensively, but he didn’t hit shots there. In the first game, there were some nice cuts and some playmaking actually closer to the basket, which the slot the the sideline out of bounds plays that he kept hitting that like over and over. He kept getting open for those plays. Um okay, top 100 list, Doug. This is your world. What we got here for the top 100 players in the NBA, the locked on NBA top 100. What we got? Well, so we didn’t talk about this pre-show, but the the top 100 NBA, not the locked on top 100 NBA, is actually a list from Bleacher Report where they ranked the top 100 players of all time in the NBA. And I just wanted to very briefly Okay, I got you. It wasn’t for the season. Very different. It wasn’t for the season. And I don’t even want to really I don’t know that this uh warrants a discussion. I just wanted to hit you with a little pop quiz hot shot and see if you could name the four players that have dawned a Hornets uniform who ended up on Bleacher Report’s top 100 players of all time. Okay. So I have it right here. Okay. Well, I remember going to the top the the 75th anniversary team and I know the guy that was like a true Hornet, Alonzo Morning is the guy that I feel like is the closest to that 75th. So, I’m going to start with Zo being a top 100 player of all time. I should I should pull the list up so that I can actually tell you where these guys landed. Sure. No, that’s fine. Allonzo Morning, I think, was the closest to that 75th anniversary team. So, he’s top 100. Robert Parish put on a Hornets uniform, so he’s got to be on the list. Yeah. So, so Parish has to be on the list. Um, all I prepared more so for currently and I thought it would I thought I had it. Uh, this is good. 87th Alonzo Morning 87th out of 100 players all time. And then let me get uh the chief Robert Parish who played alongside Alonzo Morning by the way that they they they did double big before it was cool. Uh Robert Parish 68th all time. So okay, now we have to do some like Twilight stuff like we did with Parish. Tony Parker is on this list. Yes, he is. Congratulations. You’ve got three of four. Hold on. Let me tell you where Tony Parker is. Tony Parker’s 86. So right there, in fact, the launch morning 87. Tony Parker 86. La. All right. This this is going to be the tough one for me cuz I I LJ I don’t think made it. Glenn Rice, as much as I love him, I don’t think Glenn Rice Glenn Rice Let me give you Let me just tell you something. The person that you can’t think of actually ranks higher than Alonzo Morning, Tony Parker, and Robert Parish. So So it has to be some kind of God. What? What? Oh, uh Dwight Howard. Ah, you get it. You did it. Yes. Dwight Howard 52 almost made the top 50. Dwight. There you go. Um, yeah, that that’s the thing, right? I I’ I’ve always when they released the top 50, that was in ’92. So, the Hornets didn’t even exist all that much. And then they went when they released the the 75th anniversary team, that was just a couple of years ago. And there there’s no true Hornet that makes it because we could do the Robert Parish, Tony Parker thing, but there’s no true Hornet that makes it. And I feel like Zo has a place in Hornets history to where you envision him in a Hornets uni and he was as close as it could get. And that that’s the only guy on this list even that’s the only guy on the top 100 list. All those other players you mentioned, you don’t think about those guys as real Hornets. You do with Zo even if it’s not his first team. So here is the point that I would make off of this discussion. Really, the only thing I have to say about this is that we talk a lot about historic Hornets misery. It’s part of the sickness that we’ve been doing this for 30 plus years now, 35 plus years. And they’ve never been to a conference finals. They’ve never played on Christmas Day. They’ve obviously never won a championship. You can’t win a championship unless you actually make it to the conference finals or win a playoff series, which they haven’t done in 20 years. They haven’t been to a playoff series um in nearly 10 years. So, we talk about all that and that’s why we got so excited about the summer league championships. That’s why we cried real human tears when they when you know Coniple was lifting the MVP trophy, right? And so, you you could obviously go to bad management, bad ownership. The Hornets have you make this point all the time, the Hornets have had like three of the five worst owners in NBA history. Like, it’s it’s incredible to think about. That obviously has a lot to do with it, but an underrated part is that even bad owners and bad general managers trip and fall into all-time greats and and some sometimes it’s obvious they just get a high draft pick and they draft that player and sometimes again you just find Giannis Sakupo in the middle of a draft. The Hornets have never done that. Somehow in 35 years they have never managed to just trip and fall into one of these top 100 top I don’t know if you would I don’t know how far you’d have to go back to get the LJ maybe 150 200 but they just they just haven’t found that player that can propel the franchise um into something special and that’s why that’s why we’re sick. It’s it’s why yeah Glenn Taylor even just falls you know what backwards into Kevin Garnett and it’s just like you know we we’ll run into one Western Conference Finals and that hasn’t happened here. Sacramento is the other franchise like we’re sort of in in arm and arm and Sacramento finally made their Christmas Day game a few years ago. Uh but they’re team and they had a team that people like resonate with with that that tooth that they got to the conference finals. They were close. They had all sorts of shenanigans happen. uh in the seven game series I think against the Lakers in one of those early 2000s uh you know I think was it was it 2000 exactly anyways 02 yeah but and they had to build that team right I mean that took a lot of GM savvy that wasn’t falling in like to one particular player like it was Vladi it was Pistoyakovic it was Bby like it was players that they they built that team the Hornets could they were so close in 2001 when they were up against those Ray Allen Bucks. They were so close to being that team. I really do believe if they had Yeah, I don’t I don’t want to get into it. It’s too painful. That’s too painful. It’s too painful. I don’t even I don’t think they would have left. I don’t think they would have left. Uh, by the way, shout out to Salsbury’s own uh Bobby Jackson, six man of the year, also on those Kings teams. Just wanted to shout out a local hero. There’s also the locked on NBA top 100. We’ve been doing these summer projects. I know the NFL side of things, they gave you a Mount Rushmore. The AI created Mount Rushmore pictures of the faces etched in stone. I don’t think we’re doing that, but apparently we’re doing a locked down NBA top 100. What you got on this here, Doug? I submitted a number of I mean, you had to submit like your top. They had eight slots and I just because I’m a sicko, I just went ahead and ranked. I think Khan Canipple ended up being the fifth fifth best player on the Hornets. It’s crazy. That and that’s a this year thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, they’re doing it this year. Uh, and I think, yeah, I think LaMelo is going to make it. I think this is really easy, right? LaMelo’s going to make it somewhere towards the bottom, like probably 50 to 75. Not bottom, but like 50 to 75, maybe 80. And then I think Brandon’s off because he missed too many games last year. Probably would have been on had he played, you know, 60 plus. Uh, Miles is not going to make it. So, so I think LaMelo is going to be the sole person on the top 100. Uh, but it was a fun exercise. Well, so when you asked me this at first, the NBA top 100, and you said four Hornets made it, one, I was very surprised, but but the the four players that I would have guessed, I I thought that was pretty easy with LaMelo, Brandon, Miles are your top three, and then I thought Colin Ston might have squeezed in there somewhere somehow. So that would be like that. That’s when I thought I was like, goodness gracious, no way four guys made the list. But here we are. Yeah. So, I think that’s I think that’s the only good. So, now we’ve just put it out into the world and now someone I don’t know who. It’s not me. Someone will go and and choose the top. If it were me, I would just put five Hornets on there. I’d sneak I’d sneak Caniple into the back in through the back door and and summer league MVP. Do you have a I mean, how can you deny the man? That should be 100 right there. Summer League MVP should gr should automatically qualify you for the hundth position on the NBA top 100. Come on. There there there’s Doug Branson. He is a top 100 host on the locked on podcast network. He hosts two podcast Locked on Hornets and his other other pod locked on NBA which you should make your second listen. He hosts that alongside Matt Moore and Hayes talking about all the big stories happening in the association. I’m Walker Male listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. 927 FM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

Kon Knueppel and Liam McNeeley both made strong cases to earn minutes after standout Summer League performances, but where exactly do they fit in the Hornets’ crowded rotation? Plus, who slipped, who surprised, and how many Hornets should crack the Locked On NBA Top 100 list?

The Hornets Summer League championship has given fans plenty to talk about—and Doug and Walker are breaking it all down. Kon Knueppel may have delivered the best summer performance by a Hornets first-rounder in a decade, but will that be enough to start over Josh Green or Collin Sexton? Doug makes the case for a 20+ minute bench role with room to grow, while Walker wonders if Knueppel can create his own “rookie minutes bucket.” Meanwhile, Liam McNeeley’s two-game sample was so impressive it might’ve vaulted him out of a Greensboro role and into the big club’s nightly rotation.

But not everyone helped their case. Ryan Kalkbrenner didn’t dominate the paint as expected, and questions linger about his speed, floor spacing, and fit. Sion James didn’t knock down shots, and despite flashes, Doug says that Tidjane Salaun improved but didn’t do enough to carve out a clear role. Did Jaylen Sims do enough to stick around?

Plus, the hosts play a little trivia with the NBA’s Top 100 all-time list and reveal who should represent Charlotte on the Locked On NBA’s 2025 Top 100.

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Top 35 Hornets Nicknames of All-Time According to Doug Branson: https://hornets.substack.com/p/the-top-35-nicknames-in-hornets-franchise

Top 35 Hornets of All-Time According to Walker Mehl: https://hornets.substack.com/p/the-top-35-players-in-hornets-history

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