Hornets Exec REVEALS LaMelo & Brandon Plan | Front Office Ranking DEBATE | KJ is Walker’s New Fave

Hornets Exec REVEALS LaMelo & Brandon Plan | Front Office Ranking DEBATE | KJ is Walker’s New Fave

We talk a lot about the front office today. We go through the front office rankings according to CBS. Keith Smith spoke to an anonymous front office executive with the Charlotte Hornets and then we’ll hand out some summer league awards. We’ll hand them out. We’ll talk about some of the awards that were handed out. KJ Simpson, Coniple. Congratulations to them. We’ll dive a little more into it today. Locked on Hornets. We might hand some out. Who knows? Yeah, maybe. 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] It’s Locked on Hornets, part of the Locked On Network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free. We’re available anywhere you get your podcast. And that includes YouTube as well. There’s Doug Branson. You can find him on his Substack, every hornetsboxcore.com. You can also listen to him hosting another podcast, other people’s pods, locked on NBA, except it’s his. It’s his other other pod. I’m not going to try to describe that anymore. Doug Branson, everyone, it’s boxcore.com. Also, Locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. And real quickly, did want to tell you that this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Good old FanDuel, man. and they’ve supported us for a long time. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Let’s talk front office rankings. Let’s get right to it. CBS, they dropped their front office rankings. And the Hornets, they did move up a spot from their previous February uh February ranking, but they moved up from 21 to 20. So, at least they’re in the top 20 now, Doug. They are still a spot behind Washington. They’re still or they’re still behind Washington at 18. They’re still behind Detroit at 19, which makes sense given what they’ve been able to accomplish. But here’s the ride up on Charlotte. The Hornets are on a similar trajectory to Washington. They’ve slowplayed their rebuild, but are largely managing it well thus far. Talked about some of the trades they’ve made. They said it wasn’t the fault of the Hornets as to why the Mark Williams trade was rescended because of that failed physical, which the Lakers found something quote unquote in that physical. And then the write up says, “So why is Charlotte behind Washington? The Wizards have done slightly better on a few fronts. Charlotte’s books clean up after the 26-27 season. Washington’s does so a year earlier. And then Charlotte seemingly has the worst draft pick among the two teams with Tan Salon looking lost for most of his rookie season, though there’s obviously still time for him to figure it out. The Hornets also started with a greater talent base than Washington as LaMelo and Brandon are both plausible long-term star candidates. Do you think these are fair reasons to put Charlotte at 20, one spot behind Detroit at 19? But I guess even with what they’re discussing, more so two spots behind Washington. You know, generally I guess it’s fair. Uh I wouldn’t put us behind Washington. I think Detroit is ranked a little low at 19. Um I I think that Charlotte is grouped. They’re like floating above the level of like teams that are winning but have bad front offices. And then they’re in this group of teams that aren’t winning but seem to be doing the right things to set up future winning. Uh and I and I get why they’re associated with Washington because Washington last season they brought in some veterans at the trade deadline this off seasonason. The Charlotte Hornets seem to be doing that same thing. I don’t think they get enough credit in these rankings. And well I I would need a clarification from CBS Sports. Do they consider the front office also the Schlotkin? Because if you wrap if you put the Schlotkin in the group with Jeff Peterson, then I think they don’t get enough credit for a lot of the successful unwinding that the Schlotkin has done of the Jordan Mitch Cupchack era, including all of those. I mean, they they got one over on Pat Riley and they got one over on Sam Prey. And to do that uh to to get one over on those two guys, I think is unprecedented and amazing. And uh so if if if they’re considering the Schlotkin here, I think they deserve a little bit more credit than the 20th position. Well, and and that’s always hard to figure out because it was technically Mitch Cupche behind some of those trades, except it wasn’t. Except I remember I I wish I need to go back to that press conference where the Schlotkin was up at the podium and it was Rick Schnull speaking a little bit more so and Rick Schnull took credit for some of those trades that they made in a somewhat obvious way. What was hilarious though is that they were the owners at the time. Of course, Mitch Cupchek was still the GM or president of basketball ops. And yet here’s Rick Schnull saying, “Yeah, we made that trade.” You know, well, you know, we immediately want the credit. Yeah. Well, in fairness, the Schlotkin taught Mitch Cupch how to use a cell phone so that he could call in the deals. And and hey, you know, it this is the fine line where I don’t want my owners to be all that involved, but they made good trades. if they’re responsible for PJ Washington and Terry Roier, especially with Locked on Heat. Sorry, boys. Locked on heat saying, “Is the Terry Roier trade your worst mistake?” Yeah, it was uh it definitely was your worst mistake. That that’s the answer to the podcast. It’s a 5-second long podcast. Yes, we move on. Thank you. Yeah. And then you move Gordon Hayward to Oklahoma City and they thought they were getting something with Gordon Hayward. They thought, “Yes, this is going to be a piece.” And it and and you get I thought Bosamichas was going to be the prize there. Trey man ends up being the prize and you get a few picks from Prey. I mean that’s incre it’s incredible. I mean you’re right for those reasons alone if we if we praise Heat Culture and that front office and we praise Sam Prey rightfully so. Sam Prey is, I think, leaps and bounds the best general manager, best shot caller in the NBA. And you got one over on both of them. And it was the Schlotkin that did it. Raise them up, baby. Let’s go top 10. If you get one over because you flipped the you flipped Gordon Hayward for Vasameich to then what you flipped for I forget something from the Suns because that’s been our like last five trades. What you were able to get in return and then Trey man on an excellent deal by the way. First he shows himself to be really valuable as a player. Then you get him on a really valuable deal. Yeah, man. Anyways, raise him up. Let’s get him top 10. So, let’s talk about this Tan Salon thing. So, they there Washington’s getting credit for doing better in that draft. I don’t know like is Alex Sar with the expectations for Alex Sar. He was supposed to be the number one overall selection. Doesn’t want to go to what was it Atlanta? So, Atlanta takes Reese and then Sar goes two to the Wizards. I don’t think he’s really lived up to those expectations. They also got Bub Carrington in that draft. So, they had two cracks at the egg. Charlotte only had one and they were in this awkward position where Reed Shepard and um and Stefon Castle were going to be the two obvious fits for Charlotte. They both came off the board before it got to Charlotte at six. Yes, they could have gone safe bet and gone Donovan Klingan or Dalton Connect, although I don’t know if you saw Connect this summer in Vegas. Not good. Hornets the Hornets may have dodged a bullet too by the way in that Mark Williams debacle. Well, I mean it I don’t know if it was a report. I don’t know if it was just some kind of opinion piece. But yes, I saw that there was something on Dalton Connect possibly not being worth a first round pick anymore after one summer league session and the second half of last year. If you were to trade for him, it wouldn’t cost you a first round pick or it shouldn’t cost you a first round pick. So So I don’t look I think they took a swing on Tan Salon. It’s going to take some time. So maybe you’re looking at Tan Salon as almost like a little ticking time bomb that could if he hits in the next season or two could we’re doing these rankings again next season or the season after and suddenly they’re up five spots. Tan Salon might be worth five to 10 spots on these rankings. if he if he pops off because right now the the national perspective on Tan Salon is he hasn’t play he doesn’t have a significant role on this team and doesn’t project to have one right now and so that pick is seen largely as a failure but the context there is that that was a terrible draft and if you’re going to take a swing like Tan Salon might as well do it in a terrible draft. I I think that’s the thing, right? It’s okay. Wizards, they can get credit, I guess, for taking SAR number two overall, who was going to go somewhere in the top three. How much do they get credit for being one of the worst teams and then getting lucky in the lottery to get that second overall pick and then just taking the consensus second overall selection? If Reese was Reese was going to go number one, then of course you just take Sar at two or three wherever you are. So, I don’t know how much credit they deserve. If they were at six, what would they have done? Now, I mean, look, there’s legitimate criticism to towards Charlotte. If you didn’t believe Salon was the guy and you’d rather have taken an Edy, if you’d rather have taken a Klingan who was very good at protecting the rim last year, like there’s criticism towards Charlotte for taking the swing on Salon because there are a lot of worlds where this just simply doesn’t work out. In fact, you would argue maybe it’s a probability that it doesn’t work out. But to hold that so much toward as a criticism towards Charlotte in this moment, you know, that’s where I would that’s where I would, you know, hold off a little bit. I I’m fine with it. I think what happens for me when I see them 20 and then I see the Wizards 18 and then I see the Brooklyn Nets. I can I complain about the Brooklyn Nets for a second? Right. It it real quickly I would just say it’s those teams getting the benefit of the doubt, which to me I I don’t understand why. I think that would be all right. Well, I’m not going to get all angry crazy over it, but those bad teams are getting benefit of the doubt and we’re not for some of this. That’s what I question. Well, because the Charlotte Hornets haven’t won anything. Like, you don’t get any benefit of the doubt when you haven’t benefited by winning literally anything. And so, that’s the thing. When the Hornets prove it out this upcoming season, then I think they will get a significant bump, maybe like 15, you know, next time they do these rankings. If the Hornets sniff the play in or or maybe even make the playoffs, then all of a sudden the perspective changes because I think the perspective is like this is a team that seems to be doing the right things, but will it work is the big question mark. But Brooklyn Nets, man, they’re all over the place. They had like 17 first round picks. Not we’re going to do the the summer league first team and second team awards that were given out. Spoiler alert, none of those first round draft picks by the Brooklyn Nets were included in either of those summer league teams. How do you make that many first round picks and none of them end up on a Vegas uh all team? That is insane to me. Brooklyn Nets, this line here in CBS Sports says Brooklyn is getting too much flack for this off seasonason. Too much flack. They’re not getting enough flack. This is absurd. Charlotte should be above Brooklyn. They should be above Washington. Detroit should be above all of them. Then Atlanta, and then the top 15. Get out of here. All right, there. There’s the passion, baby. I love it. Let’s move on. Coming up next on the Locked on Hornets podcast everywhere. Okay, we talked about the front office rankings. Let’s hear from one of the members of the Hornets front office except anonymously. So, thank you Keith Smith for providing us this content. Coming up next, Locked on Hornets. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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[Music] Front office rankings to anonymous front office takes. Keith Smith of Real GM. He’s a Renaissance man. He’s doing a whole bunch of stuff. One of the best guys in the NBA coverage game. Shout out to Keith Smith. You got to sign him on. And when this was this was for his work with Spottrack, so he’s doing even more stuff for other people. So this was all via spottrack.com. I I mean honestly and and every every single one of these publications, they’re doing the right thing by hiring Keith Smith for all this stuff. He’s just a great guy. But he uh he actually spoke to what was it I think was it 15 anonymous front office execs. Maybe that maybe that’s too much. But anyway, spoke to a lot of guys throughout the NBA, including one executive with the Hornets. Asked him a bunch of questions. And boy, I don’t know where to start here. I think maybe we should start with the front court depth, Doug, and then we can take a look at some of the other comments. But Keith Smith asked this executive about the front court depth, and here’s what the exact had to say. I get why you’re asking, but we think we’ve got guys who can play. Mason Plumbley will help with this with his experience and passing ability. We’ll have Grant Williams back and he’s a great connector. We love Musa Diaate. He plays with such great energy and he’s awesome on the glass. And Ryan Caulbrrener has been awesome out here at summer league. We think he’ll shoot it eventually, too, a Hornets coach said. So, that last comment coming from a coach rather than an executive, does this mean that they’re not really feeling a sense of urgency to go after another big man or do you just take it as of course he’s going to say good things about the players that are on his team right now? No, I think their their sense of urgency or their and there’s another quote in here about the work that they have to do this off seasonason. It’s about figuring out which one of these guards they’re going to dispatch because they’ve got too many players right now. And so they’ve got to make some hard decisions with either some guys that they’ve just brought in or guys that have been with this organization for a couple of years now. So I just don’t Yeah, I don’t I don’t think they see the center position because I don’t think they view this team as absolutely having to make the playoffs this season or bust. I really feel like that’s going to be next season. They’re they’re just preparing the ground, you know, they’re tilling the soil for a somebody comes out next off seasonason and says it’s playoffs or bust, baby. It’s playoffs or heads got to roll. So that’s how I think they’re viewing this season. It’s less it’s sort of in between is we’re going to get more serious, but we’re not going to put those like, you know, solid expectations on things. So that’s how I think they view it. By the way, update on Grant Williams. I heard his interview on the Off thereord podcast. Super open. uh said he found his love for basketball again now that he’s with Charlotte, but he kind of gave an update on his his recovery process. He went into a little bit of like the mental struggles around that of having to come back, how he’s bonded with some of the other uh players that have torn their Achilles at least. You know, he understands, you know, so much of what they’re going through right now. Uh and he seemed to indicate that he was getting back to his onc court activity. And this was at the end of June, so we’re a month out from the actual release. who knows when it was recorded, but he said three or four months, you know, he was looking three or four months ahead in terms of the rest of his recovery, which, you know, if you kind of do the math, that would put it around, you know, maybe end of preseason going into the season. So, I I’m I’m expecting an an almost or fully ready to go Grant Williams by the beginning of the season. Yeah, I mean, if that’s the case, then that is a big boost. I would not have expected that. Again, this was not just some kind of torn it. A torn ACL is enough to take your season away. Yeah, he suffered a lot in that knee. And I I keep saying that I don’t I forget the details of all what he tore, but it was it was a really bad knee injury. And so, shout out to Grant Williams, man, for sticking with it. But I would expect nothing less. This is someone that talked with us on Won Walker about how much he prioritizes rehab, strength and conditioning, hitting the weight room. you can tell, you know, he’s one of the guys that’s among the bigger players out there, so I’m not surprised about that. You brought up the comment on the full roster. Let’s just go ahead and read it. It’s a short one. Um, when asked about the full roster, uh, the front office executive said, “We still have some work to do for sure, but that’s what the rest of the summer will be about. There are some difficult decisions coming, but that’s not a bad thing, right? Better that than not having enough guys.” Again, a front office executive said, “Yeah, I’m not sure. I take the center comments with that brought into the equation and think they’re good. I don’t think they’re they’re thinking, yeah, Mason, Musa, Caulk, Briner, even Grant Williams who were trying to make a small ball five. Yeah, I’m all good on that. I think it’s one of those we’re always looking to make the team better. We’re going to assess every single player out there, every single deal out there, and then we’ll act accordingly. I don’t know how hard they’re looking. I don’t know if they have their Sherlock Holmes hat and their magnifying glass out. That I don’t know. But I do think that they’re, you know, having all these big guys out there on their radar just paying attention. I think they’re hoping that Ryan Cochrren uses the rest of the summer to get better and that Mason Plumbley comes in and looks ready to go and that Musa Diabate I think they know exactly what they have in Musa Dabbate and they’re perfectly fine with that. In fact, and I think Yeah. Sorry. I I finally finally finally I I hope everyone complains on YouTube. Walker just interrupted me. Everyone, did you hear that? But this is going to be a good one, though. I’m telling you, this this is worth it, baby. I’m telling you. No, no. With the Moose stuff, they’ve been they’ve been talking a lot about Moose Hood. I I I think my take on that would be with trying to figure out who’s going to start. I just think Moose is going to start right away. I think he’s going to play a decent amount of minutes and I’m excited about it. Like I again I get that he’s not all that tall. Totally understand it. I think Moose is a winning player and I’m I’m excited to see how it looks, but they’ve been talking up Musa a lot here, Doug. I I think that’s real from them. Uh yeah, he started eight games for the Charlotte Hornets last season. He played significant minutes at the beginning of last season. I was kind of going back through some tape. I just was going down a rabbit hole of of uh the beginning of the season last season and just going around to different games and the amount of the amount of opportunity that Diabate had early in games uh was I guess you know look you go through a long season and you forget some things and I just forgot like how soon it was so funny because they plucked him from a from the Clippers organization it was like all of a sudden he was playing alongside running pick and roll with LaMelo Ball at the very beginning of the season. U so yeah look they trust this guy. There’s no doubt about it. I I’ve said many times on the show, I don’t think he’s like the starting center for a playoff team. I think he could be the backup four for a playoff team. And I think ultimately if the Hornets are tilling the soil and getting ready to plant some seeds for for the next season, two seasons from now, you know, I think Diabate can be a big part of that. Okay. So, um, all that to say, I really commend you for fighting through the Flem right now because I’ve got my finger on the button. I’ve been ready to go. I think it’s just more so raspy voice today for some reason. I don’t know what’s going on, but yes, uh it’s raspy voice today. But yeah, I think I think Musa they they believe in I I I’m with you though. They they they would need to go after somebody else I think that you can trust that’s 611 or taller and Musa is not that. But fighting through that mobility as an offensive player, trying to get away from that guy, trying to stay in front of him on these rim runs and just being hard as hell to play against at every single second of the game, certainly through an 82 game season, that’s going to be difficult to play through. I think they value that over there with the coaching staff. Okay, coming up next on the Locked on Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. We have more comments to get through from this Keith Smith notebook. Plus, we’ll not hand out the Vegas awards, but we’ll uh commend these players for rightfully earning. Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me what I won’t do. I’ll hand out some awards. All right, we’re going to make some up. I’m I’m excited. I don’t know what’s to come. Um that’s in the third segment. Locked on Hornets. [Music] All right, final comments here from the Keith Smith notebook. Talked about the draft and I I love this quote. Um, so when talking about the draft, the front office exec said, “We had the best draft in the league.” Of course, 29 other teams will probably say the same thing, but we’re fired up. We wanted guys who could compliment I I did think this is particularly interesting though here, Doug. We wanted guys who could compliment LaMelo and Brandon Miller and to help open up the floor for them. Coniple and Liam McNeely can do that, but we didn’t want one skilled guys. We all saw Indiana and the Thunder, right? You have to be able to be versatile. We’re getting there. And we hit in the second round with Seion James and Ryan Culbriner. would go on to say uh not verbatim that those guys had first round grades um on them from their draft analysis and they considered both Ryan and Seion James at 29 but they didn’t think Liam McNeely would get back to them at 33 and 34 so they took Liam McNeely they held their breath and sure enough James and Caulk Brener were there and I believe that by the way the the reports were out about Seon and that was not a very well-kept secret with their interest in Seion they eventually take him and uh that was those were some calls shots um before they even selected him. But wanting to get players that compliment LaMelo and Brandon, Doug, um perhaps it seems obvious, but I think it’s noteworthy to mention those two players and have that be an emphasis and then attack the draft with that mindset, with that being at the forefront of your brain. I think that’s absolutely something with what he had to say. Yeah, it’s confirmation of what we all thought which was that they were fully invested in in seeing out the LaMelo Ball Brandon Miller pairing and every decision that they made had to be viewed through that lens including drafting Khan Canipple not only over Ace Bailey but also over Trey Johnson who I take as the player uh that is being commented here as the one skill guy because I don’t think that was Ace Bailey. Ace Bailey projects out to have, I think, multiple skills. Um, but I don’t think that one of those skills that Ace Bailey was going to project out as was passing. In fact, we made a lot of Ace Baileyy’s extremely low assist percentage. Um, and h how that has an effect on how you view one as a potential superstar in the league that not many of them have that low of an assist percentage in their college careers. Khan Canipple can pass the ball and he’s going to be able to pass to LaMelo Ball and he’s going to be able to pass to Brandon Miller and that’s going to be very important uh for their development, for his development and for the Charlotte Hornets making some noise this season and beyond. Uh yeah, they wanted players that could connect with them and the final comment was about LaMelo and Brandon being their quote anchors, pillars, foundation, whatever you want to call it. This is still verbatim by the way, whatever you want to call it. But you’re right in that we have to get them on the floor. They played like 20 games together last year. That’s not going to cut it. We have to figure that out. Um, and we’re confident we will. And so, those were some of the comments there from Keith Smith. Go read it. There’s a lot of other comments from uh, Hornets execs, but also all sorts of execs in the NBA. So, Keith Smith, go find him on Twitter. Go watch his YouTube show. It’s great stuff. And here are the Hornets acting like it’s those two guys that they’re the foundation. And And I will say with the LaMelo stuff, we asked this question. It it it was I think it was okay to ask this question, especially with these national reports where they weren’t necessarily reports, but we had people asking, hey, you know, they’re calling Charlotte about LaMelo Ball. Charlotte isn’t necessarily calling anybody else about trading LaMelo, but it would make sense that a 19- win team with the an all-star level player might want to move off of him for more assets and just completely reset the whole thing. There were never any reports they were going to do it. In fact, there were reports that they weren’t all that excited about it, but those rumors also weren’t squashed. And I think here we finally get some kind of maybe not confirmation, maybe that’s too strong, but we get some kind of inkling that no, they do feel it’s LaMelo and it’s Brandon going into this year. Maybe we can reassess a year from now. But we’re leaning on these two guys and we attack the draft as if we’re leaning on these two guys. So, look, I don’t have any uh sourcing here. This is just me uh speculating a little bit. I don’t I don’t think they at any point got a bunch of calls on LaMelo Ball and then thought to themselves, you know what, no, for sure, 100% we’re in on on the LaMelo Ball experience. Uh we’re willing to take whatever risk is necessary to see this out. We don’t care about the injuries. I think they got a bunch of calls they didn’t like. None of the offers wowed them enough to say this. We can go to the fan base and say, “Look what we got for LaMelo Ball. this. It made it worth it. We had to do it. Brandon Miller, we got Brandon Miller. We’re going to build around that. I don’t think they saw enough in Brandon Miller yet because of the injuries in the second season because of some of the limitations that he has as a playmaker. I don’t think they saw enough to say, “All right, we’re willing to make that dice roll around Brandon Miller.” And so ultimately, this is just them doing risk assessment and saying the the return wasn’t enough. were willing to take the risk on LaMelo Ball because honestly like if it pays off I think again going back to those front office rankings people will be writing about the Hornets took a risk with LaMelo Ball’s ankles and it paid off and they should be commended for that and also you hope that when if it does pay off and LaMelo makes all-star teams and all NBA teams and then gets to that next contract that hopefully LaMelo Ball would look at the situation and go Charlotte stood by me when I couldn’t be on the floor and now that I am on the floor, I’ll repay them by, you know, signing another contract. Hopefully that happens. Uh, but it is, we have to just call it what it is, which I think it’s a tremendous risk because if those ankles go again this season, you know, then that be you’re you’re stuck with a uh Paul George level but on on a different age tier of a negative contract. Yeah. Um, okay. Let’s uh go through some of these awards. the NBA 2K26 all summer league first team and second team. Those spots were announced. There were no Hornets on the first team. There were two Hornets on the second team. So, congratulations to Khan Canipple, the summer league title game MVP. Keniple was awarded a spot on the All Summer League second team and so was KJ Simpson, who I thought had a shot to get to first team, but he’ll just have to settle for a second team spot. Your thoughts on two Hornets being recognized here, D? I love that they get on the second team. You know why? Because that represents the fact that they had a team. It wasn’t just one guy uh taking over every night. It was different guys on different nights. You saw Khan struggle in the first game. You saw KJ struggle in the fourth game. And then other guys would step up um in that gap. So I I think it’s a perfect summation of everything that went down here. You know, of course, Kyle Filipowski gets the most valuable player. uh and he was uh one of the one of the players that I thought ruined Khan Canipple’s uh debut night by uh just absolutely yakking one of his layup attempts. Uh but yeah, I’m fine with this. I’m fine with the first team. I’m fine with the second team. Um you know, these are summer league awards. And I’ll give an award for best head wound. Uh that went to Khan Canipple. I’ll give an award for worst broadcast presentation for the 20th year in a row goes to ESPN for double boxing two games, two summer league games when you could just change the channel to another ESPN like ESPN 2 or whatever, you could just go and watch that game if you wanted to and instead instead of just letting me watch one game, now you’ve now you’ve made me watch two like.5 games. Yeah. Just unbelievable. I just What did they do? I’ll give out an award for the worst depth chart. ESPN gets that one. Oh my god. Worst death chart. Out of their death chart is the award. Out of the out of the death chart. Uh yeah, congrats. By the way, I did speak to KJ Simpson on Wesson Walker yesterday. I have a new favorite player in the league. What a great guy. KJ in the entire league. Yeah. Yeah, man. Just what a great guy KJ is. That was an awesome interview. Go to our website wfnz.com. Maybe we can play some sound bites uh tomorrow. But he he was he was uh he cared a lot about this off seasonason. He cared a lot about this summer league title because we all asked what does it mean for us? What do we think a summer league title means for the organization? So I asked him what does it mean to him as a player who clearly was a big part if not just the outright leader of that squad. and he discussed how much it meant to him because he didn’t remember he didn’t play in summer league last year which I had forgotten about but he was injured so this was his first summer league session and made the most of it and I asked him about all these guards being signed what’s going through your mind when they just won’t stop adding guards you know that’s the position you play he said hey it it’s all game man like I’m ready to go and uh some really like really cool reflection moments from him on last year playing against the Knicks that was the first time his dad got to see him play live um like really cool stuff. So, go check it out. But yeah, KJ, he’s the man and I’m glad he got an award here. This doesn’t shock me that he’s your f favorite player in the league because I don’t know if you heard this during one of his summer league interviews, but he said the player that he I don’t I don’t know exactly what the question was, but the answer from KJ was the player that he mo that he most wants to be or something in that realm was TJ McConnell, which is, you know, on your favorite team, the Indiana Pacers legend. He mentioned him. He mentioned him in my interview with him. He he said he and Charles Lee talk about it all the time for being that size. See how much TJ can affect the game. You can be like that even if you are as short as you are. And look, I’m not I am not discounting the possibility that KJ Simpson comes into training camp, balls out, balls better than Connet or balls better than Spencer Denwitty and the Hornets say, “All right, see you later. We’re going to invest in KJ.” Or who cares? Yeah. Or that the organization goes to KJ and says, “Look, two-way this year, but hang with us. Hang with us. Don’t PJ Hall us. Hang with us and and you will be rewarded. There is a pot of gold on the other other side. Here’s the plan. You know, hopefully they’re doing that. He fights his heiny off, man. Like he cares so much and it’s easy to pull for that guy. Doug Branson, every hornetsbox.com. Also, locked on NBA. Go check him out. Make locked on NBA your second listen after, of course, making locked on Hornets your first listen. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me on WFNZ, Weston Walker, every single weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. I guess make that your third listen. I need you listening to our content at all hours of the day. Every single second, I need you to have me or Doug in your ear like Lance Stevenson. All hours of the day. Weston Walker 927 FM going to be out at ACC Kickoff if you care about college football for the next two days. So, a lot of good guests out there. Thanks for joining us. Have a great rest of your day. Hiny. [Music]

We react to the Hornets’ #20 spot in CBS’s front office rankings and debate if they should be higher after some savvy offseason trades. Then, we break down an anonymous Hornets executive’s comments on building around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller as the team’s “anchors” and “pillars”

On today’s episode, we dive into CBS’s latest NBA front office rankings, which place the Hornets at #20, just a single spot up from their previous ranking of 21. We question why they are still behind teams like Washington and Brooklyn , and argue that the new ownership group deserves more credit for getting one over on front office gurus like Pat Riley and Sam Presti with the Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward trades.

Then, we break down some fantastic reporting from Keith Smith who spoke with an anonymous Hornets front office executive.

Full article: https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/2912/eastern-conference-summer-league-notes

The exec confirms that LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller are the “anchors, pillars, foundation” of the franchise and that the recent draft strategy was all about finding versatile players to complement them. We also discuss the executive’s confidence in the team’s current frontcourt depth, including Mason Plumlee, a recovering Grant Williams, and the high-energy Moussa Diabate. We believe the team has a lot of faith in Diabate and think he could be in line for a starting role.

Finally, we wrap up by congratulating the Hornets’ Summer League award winners. We celebrate Kon Knueppel and KJ Simpson for being named to the All-Summer League Second Team, a perfect representation of the squad’s balanced team effort in Las Vegas.
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