Hornets Season Preview w/ Josh Lloyd: Is Charlotte’s center rotation worst in the NBA??

Hornets Season Preview w/ Josh Lloyd: Is Charlotte’s center rotation worst in the NBA??

Let’s talk about the Charlotte Hornets. Let’s talk about their upcoming season. What is the buzz around this team? Michael Bolton, please. I’m so sorry. Thanks, Josh. It’s Michael Bolton here and it’s time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it. Indeed. You are Locked on Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast, brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd, and family, religion, and friendship are the three demons that you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. I’m also the lead fantasy analyst at basketball.com. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Thank you also for making Locked on Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day. We are free. We’re available on all platforms. We’re talking Charlotte Hornets. We’re talking about the Hornets today. And in the next day or two, we’re going to be talking about the Boston Celtics. So, we’re going to see which team is going to battle for the worst rotation of centers in the entirety of the NBA. That’ll be an absolutely fascinating discussion. So, let’s let’s just get in and start talking hornets now. So, for the Hornets, that’s what we’re doing. We’re talking to the man with the golden tonsils. It is the host of the Locked on Hornets podcast. Walker Male is here with me once again. Walker, welcome back to the show. I like that you mixed it up a little bit. Nobody ever says golden tonsils. Usually people say the golden pipes. Um, thank you for one, which that was I I just realized how pat on the back that was. I I didn’t mean to do that. I just it it’s a switch up of a compliment. I appreciate it. It’s refreshing. No, it’s Hey, you know what? I I don’t I don’t take that as you like saying, “Oh, look at me.” Everyone’s telling me how good my voice is. It’s all about tonsils. Golden tonsils. Yeah, there you go. Maybe you can you can get that. You can get a couple of different little uh little monikers. You can introduce yourself as even that as as referred to by Josh Lloyd as the golden tonsils. My name is Walker Male. We can do I can even record a voice over for you. Is there so many opportunities for us here to do that? I thank you. I’m going to get a neon sign made of Josh Lloyd reference golden tonsils. That’s I’m going to get a neon sign. I’m going to I’m going to flash the screen over so people can see your neon sign there. Which there you go. All right. Represent locked on Hornets, baby. I said I wasn’t going to talk about it on the show today, but I did ask you before. I said like, did you get that from Tony, the the guy in China making all those neon signs? And you’re like, I don’t know what it is. I’ve given you the some background work to to research about Tony and LC signs and you can have a look and then you’ll be your whole your whole studio is going to be full with neon signs after watching Tony and his ad. So check it out. Big neon sign fan. Honestly, I did I didn’t realize it until I saw other pods had maybe like one or two in the background. I I’ll mess around and I’ll get five or six of them. So now that I have all the information you sent me, I’m ready to go with whoever this Tik Tok sensation is. This is the the lockdown podcast that is all about neon. the most neon show that does exist and what we are going to talk about of course which is the most sparkling the most exciting the most highlighted part in probably the entire NBA it’s the Hornets center rotation because there may not be another team although actually there is there is another team that’s that’s worse and that is the Boston Celtics and I’m going to talk to John about this tomorrow the Hornets center room is not it’s not very good is it is it okay like it’s it’s not very good we’re talking about um Musadate who played a bit of power for last season he was on a two-way contract we’re talking about the heralded return of for the cockroach Mason Plumbley. And then of course there’s the second round pick Ryan Cockrenner as this team really leans into the big and ball maybe starting lineup. We’ll see how they how they decide to go. So I mean Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk centers. Okay. So there’s those three guys. I the the main guy that people want to want to be the guy in fantasy circles is going to be Ryan Cockran who I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody shoot as slowly as he does or move as slowly or actually look more like the reincarnation of Brook Lopez who of course is not dead when he moves around the court. What What do you I I’m scared that the answer is going to be they’ll start the season with Moses Plumbley. How do you think they’re going to approach this uh center position? Okay. So, I apologize that I I might not do the talk printer highlight montage that you have ready to go any justice. I I you know, I think they’re going to start Musa Diabate and I think they’re going to play him more minutes than any other center at least early on. I I know like guys like Zack Low who have they’ve been talking about the Hornets in a lot of their uh WTF category under the radar teams to discuss categories. It Zach has mentioned how the Hornets really like them. That’s what Jeff Peterson has talked about how much they like Caulk Brener. At the same time, he was the fourth of four draft picks and they had three 29 or later, you know. So, you can say how much you like him. I don’t know how much of an option they have if your center rotation is Mason Plumbley, Ryan Cochrren, and Mous City. But in summer league, I everybody kind of gravitated more towards him. All the eyeballs were on him because there is a really easy pathway to gaining a lot of minutes. There’s just not a lot of centers on this team that you can trust. And yet he didn’t dominate defensively. You mentioned it. Not only does his form look slow, but he is pretty damn slow as a basketball player right now. Yeah, for sure. Um even with maybe even some encouraging combine measurements with like lane agility stuff like there was surprisingly quick to compared to how he plays basketball. Surprisingly quick measurements. The the playing basketball part is the most important and he still looks slow. Still think he’s good in drop coverage. Still think he’s a good rim deter. But again, not being the biggest fantasy basketball player myself, not understanding the game in that regard as much. I don’t know if you’re going to get a lot of blocks, Josh. Like I I think if if there was a stat for rim deterrence, then maybe Cockr Brener would be your guy, but I think he scares people to shoot more than uh he blocks a whole lot of shots. And then it’s one of those things where he was easily manipulated in summer league in my opinion defensively like one fake and then they were able to get some angles. I think you saw that quite a bit. But I do like him in drop coverage. And I think some of the things that he went for like that’s coachable. Don’t leave your feet. Hope you you would like a 23-year-old to already understand that. But even still hopefully that’s coachable. I think Mousidate is going to get the most minutes. I think he should get the most minutes at center. I think he’s your guy Josh. I’m I’m I’m all in on Musa, my last episode that I just released. I I think he’s someone that will end this season with a higher reputation than he begins it. So, a couple of the knocks on Musa. Not very skilled with the basketball in his hands. That’s absolutely true. He actually shot a pretty decent percentage uh compared to other bigs in the league in that like short mid area. So, some push shots, maybe some short roll opportunity for him to shoot over some bigger players that he’ll be matched up against. I think that’s a decent area on the floor for him to try to win. Um, you know, he will dunk on you, especially if he gets full head of steam. But really, like it if the accusations on Musa are that he’s a little bit smaller. It is true without shoes at the combine a few years ago, he was 6’9 and a quarter with shoes. He’s 6’10. So, it’s it’s not like Grant Williams small ball level. It’s small, right? Like Musa does have some size. 2.7 body percent uh body fat percentage by the way which is like absolutely ridiculous. Just an all muscle the same range as me. I’d say same. I thought I was looking at you. I thought Musa Josh Lloyd very similar. Musa just a tank out there on the court. I I think the the offensive rebounds that he gains how much better the Hornets are when he’s on the floor compared to even Mark Williams. Uh, I think defensively for 82 games just going to be difficult to keep up with cuz the 110% motor is out there. I like I think when you get to the postseason, I I use win um with the optimistic approach. The Hornets probably not going to do that this year, but in playoff scenarios, I’ll say that’s when you start to worry about it. But like for 82 games, there’s something to be said for playing your bleep off every single second that you’re actually in the game. And I think he’s super mobile. I I’m I’m a fan of Musa. I think he’s going to end the season with a like significantly better reputation than where he begins it. And and I think there’s some analytics to point to that suggest that he’s a winning impact basketball player. Like in spurts, I don’t want him playing 35, but I think he’s going to be a 25m minute per game player. Partly because they have to play him like there’s not a lot of better options. But also, I I’m I’m going to enjoy the Musa minutes. I think I I I know it’s a hot take, but I’m all in on Moose. It is It’s a little hot take. So, I I think he’s fine. I don’t think he’s that good. I think he is okay. You talk about rim protection. He doesn’t do any of that. Like, he is he doesn’t block shots. He doesn’t contest shots. He he gets steals at a decent rate. I think that he is I know if you were a good team, and unfortunately, Walker, they’re not, but if you were a good team, he’d be a a third string center, and he’d be absolutely great in that role. And if you have to push into a backup, you’d be really happy with that, right? I just think there is there is a a limit to the things you can Now, I’m going to ask cuz I don’t want to dwell on this like this set of position too much, right? But this roster has so many players on it and they need to make three cuts on this roster currently or trades to get rid of guys and there’s only one player who is non-g guaranteed on this roster and that is the big fella Musa Debate. Now, I don’t I don’t think that he’s at any risk of getting waved, but he’s the only player who is non-G guaranteed. They need to cut three guys. I think that the guys that they’re going to cut, they’re gonna be looking Pat Conton and Da Da Da Dcoin Jeff. Sorry, Daquinon Jeffries is not guaranteed. So, he probably Yeah, he’s gone, right? But two more. So, Pat Conton, he’s got $9 million. But who’s the other guy? Is it Is it Nick Smith? Is it Spencer Dy who they just signed? Is it like what is it? Is it Is it just Nick Smith? I think it’s Nick Smith Jr. That that would be the option. So, if the easy answers are Jeff’s easy con easy there, too. Um, I I I maybe not easy because Charles Lee does have familiarity with Conetan during their Milwaukee days. So, I shouldn’t say that, but I I do think Nick Smith Jr. is your next guy who where they they threw a lot at him last year. I think they like him. I think Charles Lee invested a decent amount in him in terms of giving him an opportunity last year. They threw a ton at him in summer league, right? Just to see a different regime. Okay, how much do we truly like this guy? But he’s the guy. I they’re they’re not going to cut Busousa. Like I I think he’s going to be the starter and Charles Lee has spoke glowingly about him constantly. How partly they’re not going to say anything bad about their center rotation, but you mentioned how you don’t want to see Mason open up the season as the starter. Same. Same. And like even if Moose is a fine enough ball player, right? I think you’re you’re closer to consensus 100%. I’m the one that has the bold take here. A lot of this is projection. So far, what he’s shown is that, right? What what you’re talking about, I still think he’s the best center that you have on this team right now. I do. That’s that’s honestly true. Like I I think that’s probably true. Like, can he be the best? I don’t know. But at the moment, they’re all bad. So, I think he’s I think he’s better than Kriner right now. I think he’s better than Mason Plumbley at this point in his career. And there’s some fun stuff you can do. Like, he will run in transition. And I think this team is going to run a lot more with signing 13 different guards this off seasonason seemingly. So I think like defensively if you just don’t have somebody that you really truly feel you can anchor the paint with then I guess let’s just get someone that makes it hard to dribble against and like be mobile out there on the perimeter in some of those I that I think Musa is your best option to start. We’re going to come back and talk about the actual good players on this team in a sec. Today’s episode there are Today’s episode is brought to you by Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every missed call is money left on the table. What about the last time that you had an urgent need? Maybe you were like, “Man, I really need to find Mason Plumbley’s agent to resign him to the team.” And then you call and he doesn’t answer. What am I going to do? Do I wait for Mason Plumbley? Well, if you’re Hornets, of course you do. But otherwise, you just move on to the next. But with Open Phone, you never miss those calls. 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I said we’re going to talk about good players and I didn’t lie because we are going to have a discussion now on Brandon Miller who started well obviously the season ended really early with that significant wrist surgery injury. Um, but before that, under new coach Charles Lee, both he and LaMelo Ball just decided that they were going to take the most threes that almost anybody’s ever seen for like high. I don’t think you need to say almost, Josh. I I think it was quite literally more threes than anybody else was taking in the league. If I people like I don’t cuz again it’s the Hornets, so people attention on them dipped. Miller played only 27 games, but he was taking an unbelievable amount of I I believe from the top of my head, I think he finished like top four in three-pointers made per game during for the entirety of the season. Like per game like what did his his attempt rate was like 62% or 60% or something like that from three on the volume that he was taking. He was taking a lot of threes. Now, it was clearly by design because LaMelo was doing unless both of them decided, hey, screw the coach. We just taken everything from deep. They went absolutely crazy from there. Was that a Do you think that’s a thing that Charles Lee is leaning into? Is it is it something that they’re going to look to expand even further on? Because it’s not like Yeah. Miller’s shooting numbers or or his overall efficiency was um elite or anything like that. Like he shot 36% from two, which is fine, but it’s not like it’s not 40. But he attempted well he hit yeah 3.9 triples per game on I’m just looking for the attempts. Yeah. That’s ridiculous. Those are just nuts. Yeah. They’re ridiculous numbers. So you think we’re going to get more of that like 60% three-point attempt rate and just just going at it again. And like if he turns 35 a.5% into 38% then we’re talking a guy that’s hitting Steph Curry numbers from deep. The the only reason it would go down is because his overall field goal attempt level goes down just because of all the guards. So like, okay, you have LaMelo who was injured a lot last year. You have Brandon Miller who was injured a lot last year. Didn’t LaMelo and didn’t nearly all of Miller’s games LaMelo played. Correct. Uh yes, for the most part. Yeah, cuz Brandon only played 27 and so LaMelo was not injured at that point. I you unless there was some kind of nagging thing. I don’t I don’t think there was any overlap there. One or two like Melo missed like one or two back to backs early in the season, but basically he played all the way through. even played some back to back and then when you know the record started to look as it did we started to get a little bit more oh it’s really sore and then we started to see that stuff happening so I yeah so they would do it now you’re right about Colin Ston coming in there because he’s going to take shots although I’m going to suggest that maybe either of these teams don’t value or that his current and former team Colin Sexton don’t value him that highly considering that the Hornets got a draft pick in taking him on in exchange for Ysef Nerkage. not like the one who said man like he’s he’s so good they went I guess we’ll take him and they got a draft pick back in exchange as well so I’m not sure that is he going to be like prioritized in this sort of it’s a great question I because you’re right about that when we were talking me and Doug on lockdown hornets about what kind of questions does this Colin Ston acquisition answer I’m not sure it answers anything because you just go ahead and make that trade regardless of what position you’re in same exact contract there’s an extra pick thrown in Colin Sexton is just a better basketball player than Nerkage. Even with the the Hornets might have been tested as much as any other team with their lack of center rotation and having already dealt Mark Williams. Even still, they decided to make that trade because it’s you’re just handing us Colin Ston and we don’t have to take any extra money and another pick. Sure. Okay. Why are you doing this? What happened? So, yeah, I’m not sure it answers any questions other than you just kind of have to do it. So, real quickly with the shot total, I think Colin Ston is here. The other thing is they brought Trey Mann back. They really like Trey Man. Trey Mann played 13 games last year and when he played early on, he looked quite good. He was six man of the year candidate status in terms of scoring. So I just with all of the guards, how does all of that look? Who is who’s being staggered with one another? Where where are the overlaps? I think that’s going to be really interesting to find out how all that plays out, especially right away and then how much that goes into the season. But but I if if the field goal attempts overall go down, I still think there’s a decent shot that he hangs out in that 10 to 11 attempts per game range. One, Charles Lee wants him to shoot threes. We called this at the beginning of the year. He is a Bud disciple. This is what we know. Mike Boonhoer wants his guys to shoot a lot of threes. Guess what? Charles Lee moved on from coach Bud, having been there in Atlanta and Milwaukee, and then he goes to Boston where he coaches under Joe Missoula. Charles Lee wants to shoot a lot of threes as well. And I think there was a little bit of a project with Brandon having shot so many mid-rangers in his rookie season. You wanted to turn a lot of that into three-pointers. And Brandon very coachable seemingly, okay, I will take a lot less mid-range jumpers and I will take a lot more threes. So even if the overall field goal attempts are down, you think about adding Coniple, top five pick, who I think is going to get real run. So, the classic drive in the paint, kick out, Brandon being good as a catch and shoot guy. And I don’t love Brandon Miller as a ball handler compared to all the other guards that you have on this roster. Where do those shots come from? Probably at the three-point line. Like, that’s what makes sense to me. Yeah, man. I think we’re going to see double digit attempts from three again for Brandon. And hopefully, fingers crossed, he can play more than the 27 games he played last year. Yeah, you would think so. Like that sort of wrist injury is a little fluky. I don’t think there’s a problem with that. He did increase his three-point attempt rate dropped his twos down. His mid-ranges fell off in terms of the percentages there. But the other thing that did happen, and you referenced this, is his assist numbers did rise, but that’s probably going to be harder to maintain that playmaking with the addition of Ston with the return of Trey Man with the addition of Canipple um the big Areola as I like to call him and uh Spencer Dwitty who for some reason plays for this team. I I don’t really know why, but Spencer Denwitty is here. But you know, for years, Walker and we want all the guards. I want we want all the guards and we don’t care how we get them. For years we talked about this team, bro. There’s no point guards on this team. Like LaMelo goes down and we have to sign Ishmmith in December to like be the backup point guard. Nobody can play the position now. All right, cool. We got six of them and we’ll see. We’re going to have to cut one of them. We got that many of them. That’s how it’s going to go. So, it is a and now we got no center. So, yeah, finding the balance is maybe the challenge there. But it is something that they have addressed. We’re going to talk about LaMelo Ball as we come back. Today’s episode though, it is brought to you by Game Time. Yes, at the last minute you might decide you want to go down to a ball game with friends or family. It might be game day and you realize you want to be in the stands. Now, if like Walker, you’re in Charlotte. Unfortunately, there’s no major league baseball teams there, but maybe you’re going to go see the Charlotte Knights or one of the 35 other minor league teams that are in the North Carolina area, the easiest way to grab those last minute tickets without the stress is game time. You save money on the ticket. You can splurge on food, drinks, merch, or even invite a bigger group to come along with you. Game time makes buying tickets fast and simple. Prices on the app actually drop the closer that you get to first pitch and they got incredible lastminute deals, clear seat views and the lowest price guarantee that takes the worry out of buying. It is the official ticketing partner, Game Time of Locked on MLB as well, which makes it easier to browse the app for an upcoming exciting Major League Baseball game. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Create an account and redeem the code Loc NBA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last bit of tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Okay, now we’re going to talk LaMelo Ball. The obvious question and of course I am going to be obvious with it is LaMelo Ball and injuries because everybody is really really keen to always talk about LaMelo never being available and he’s always going to be hurt. But as I detailed earlier, well I didn’t really detail it, I sort of mentioned it in passing that LaMelo was healthy for the start of last season. He was coming back off the ankle surgery that he had. He was coming back and he played the majority of the time. And then Brandon Miller went down and the team basically said, “Yeah, we’re good. We’re just going to really ease off on this.” And he still did play games and so did Mark Williams. He’s no longer on the team. They played a bunch of games through February and March, more so in the past. And again, we saw there was I think maybe the more worrying thing with the Melo is the random wrist soreness that he had from like three years ago that kept cropping up. I was that’s that’s a little random. Why is that happening? But the ankle staff I I believe and again Charlotte the least transparent medical um reporting stuff even with the addition of my man Josh Longstaff onto the team like they still were yeah Trey man no they they didn’t what you know they never announced what was actually ever happening with Trey man they just said back injury we’ll tell you later and they never did um LaMelo like the injuries at the end of last season okay listen they weren’t real were they oh the injuries the injuries at the end of last season. I I’m not sure how real those were. And that’s always what’s really tough to figure out is they’re not winning any basketball games. They are incentivized to lose. And so there are all the reasons in the world to keep LaMelo out at the very end of the season. The injuries at the beginning were real, right? Like you had the ankle injuries that again where there weren’t any real serious ankle injuries to the point where it was keeping him out for 6 weeks at a time, but it would keep you out for a handful of games and then you’d come back. He missed like 11 games at the start of December, I think it was not 11, 11 days. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven games at the start of December and then he missed a couple around Christmas and then and then the foolishness started in but he did play up until the 25th of March. But there was that one injury and then he came back and he played in back to backs after that and his minutes went straight back up. So it wasn’t like a consistent thing that the problem arose obviously there was just these little four five game absences and that ramped up as the season went on. Yeah, that’s how it was. And I think well remember two years ago LaMelo said that he was going to wear ankle braces. he he wasn’t and then got injured. And who’s to say if that was something, you know, not wearing them actually led to the big- time ankle injury that kept him out for all that time. He did wear them this year and that was confirmed. And maybe it uh it it reduced the level of severity of the ankle injuries that he suffered earlier this year cuz he he would still have them. He’d tweak it, but he’d come back instead of missing again the six weeks, he’d be back in like five games time. So like that that was much better. It’s always hard. It’s always frustrating because this team is losing constantly. So, if LaMelo at the end of the season isn’t playing, then it’s probably some mix of, well, he might not be 100%, but if we were on a playoff push, he’d probably suit up. And maybe he is 100%. I don’t know. So, bottom line, nobody would describe LaMelo as a full-on healthy basketball player at this point. I’m hoping we can see him play the 65game threshold to receive accolades if he’s deserving of them. I I would hope that he at least takes care of the 65game threshold to reach some of those because I I still think there’s enough talent here to where he could be in the mix for some awards, whatever, right? Like offensively gifted 13 allNBA guy, right? Like is is that the breakout season if everything shakes right? Whatever. You get the idea. So it we we never get too much clarity at the end of the season because the Hornets have been a losing team for quite some time. I do think that Rick Schnull and Gabe Plotkin, the co-majority owners of this team, there’s been some reporting about how they’re not really having fun with losing anymore and they’re trying to ramp it up. And now that you have competent guards all across the board, you actually have some real depth rather than some fake depth. Yeah, it’s all on the perimeter, but it is real depth, I would say. So, like hopefully we can be in this play-in area where once you get to the playin game, you don’t get destroyed by 30 like the last two times they’ve been in the playin tournament and you actually parlay that into some playoff series. Even if they can’t, it at least you start to be competitive and go up towards a positive trajectory. We can start to figure out is LaMelo going to be a a hardcore pillar of this future. Brandon Miller, same thing. like Coniple, all these guys. It’s all about seeking clarity on all of these players. LaMelo’s I’m I’m a believer in LaMelo. It’s all about him staying on the court with a competitive basketball team. I I’m hopeful that we can check off the the injury concerns box, like no more of that. And I’m hoping we can check off the at least we’re competitive basketball team box. I think that’s that’s going to be a huge part of it. I I am very convinced like he played 22 games over the final 3 months of the season which is yeah normally it’s about 40 games in a 3-month period which again is that like time where they were really eased off. There was also a really different sort of scenario with LaMela if I don’t think people remember this like he had a stretch last season where he scored 35 points with nine assists and the next game he had 50 points with 10 assists and the next game he had 449 and seven then the next game he had 32 10 and seven and then he got hurt and then we saw the situation with Brandon Miller. Now, he was taking a million a million shots, but when Miller went out, for whatever reason, Melo’s usage came down. And I don’t really know why that was. He he rocked with a 35 usage over the 36 usage over the course of the season, right? But over the final three months of the season when Miller was out, he was at 32. So, we saw like look, he used there’s many games here. He was taking 30 shot attempts. I go, “Okay, that that’s obviously a lot.” And he was doing that when Miller was there. But then something changed. So, I guess the the question here is why was that adjustment made? Cuz you would think you would think that with Brandon Miller out that LaMelo would take at least the same amount of offensive responsibility in terms of shots, not not fewer shots and by a significant margin. So, what was the the change there? Or do we go back to this Melo’s taking 30 shots 29 shots a game along with Miller and they’re doing a lot of this stuff or we going to push back to that you more reasonable 31 32 usage? Well, so to answer your first question, why did that happen? Honestly, I’m a little surprised because it just felt like LaMelo was taking a ton of shots regardless like when he was in the game, he was taking a ton of shots. My best answer at that question as to why it came down once Brandon got injured is there was a point where they were really using Miles Bridges a lot and Miles Bridges is I I would I would think Miles usage probably went up, just a guess without having seen the numbers. I will look that Um, so they, so they ran their offense a lot through Miles and, you know, he’s playing a ton of minutes for this team. He’s a guy that they Charles Lee and everybody celebrates in terms of what he does on the basketball court. They celebrate his uh, leadership and his veteran leadership there and what he does um, offensively and defensively. So, I wonder if the Miles impact had anything to do with it. In terms of the LaMelo shot diet, I I do I think it’s going to come down uh, the field goal attempts per game, and I think that’s a good thing. Uh, I I want I think I would be willing to sacrifice volume for efficiency to a pretty significant portion with LaMelo because I can’t help but go back to that all-star season that LaMelo had when there was an above 500 basketball season 43 and 39 the Hornets got to the playin tournament. Gordon Hayward, Terry Roier, like again competent basketball players where you’re able to have an above 500 record. LaMelo gets to the All-Star game because he puts up pretty damn awesome numbers, especially for a 20-year-old at the time, maybe 19, something like that. So, I think what you want to do is now you have Colin Ston, you have Trey Man, you have these guys where you can explore with LaMelo off ball. He’s been good in catch and shoot opportunities. So, okay, let’s maybe have Coniple go with some secondary ball or play m playmaking type stuff like Trey Man and LaMelo. you can have fun with the variability and and the flexibility that you have with all these guards. So, I’m really interested to see how they’re going to use LaMelo um and with what guards specifically. I think the field goal attempts overall come down, but I think the efficiency goes up. I I still I’m a believer in LaMelo, man. Like I this past year, it’s just when those guys go out with significant injuries, the Hornets are really calling up G-Leaguers and and that’s not an exaggeration. Like they’re calling up Marcus Garrett. Oh, it’s crazy. And I that’s what I think people miss on the LaMelo national discourse. It’s okay, I know you hate the one-legged fadeaway threes. I do get it. It’s not great, but it’s either that or it’s pass to Wendell Moore. It’s either that or pass to Marcus Garrett or Damen Ball. Like, these are all guys that are getting real run that those are real players getting a decent amount of run, more so than you would expect. So now that instead you’re passing to Colin, Trey, Coniple, hell, even Spencer Denwitty, right? Like you might question it because of the roster imbalance, but Denwitty still an NBA player. He’s better than all the other players I just mentioned. So I I’m a believer. Surround him with talent and then we can fairly evaluate what he truly is. I am with you. I I am f I firmly believe that he is a very very good player. I firmly believe he is the best player on this team. And if he they go as far as he goes, like you can talk about whatever you want with Brandon Miller. I don’t think that Miller will ever get to the level that Ball did. And I want to leave it on this one last thing. You talked about that season where they had a winning record cuz people will always talk from a fantasy perspective, I can’t draft LaMelo. I need to see him play games. You know how many games he played in that season. Walk, you’ve got a rough idea. He played 75 games in that season, right? So the idea that LaMelo can’t stay healthy is not true because he did, right? and they were good and he was good and they were a solid team and they were building. Now he has had some injuries but that is not to say that he hasn’t been injured because he has the last few years and he’s missed games with again the context of the last 20% of each of those seasons being just complete write offs but the proof is there. It did happen. The team was good. He played 75 games is a thing that happened. It has happened. He can withstand the season. We’ll see whether he can again. I don’t know that but it has happened. So at least we’ve got that in our back pockets to know that hey with when the team was actually had competent players. Now T Roier and Gordon Haywood are clearly no longer competent NBA players. Hence Gordon doesn’t play anymore. But at that point they were and maybe they’ve got it now and we will see if that makes a difference. I’m not going to get too hopeful for it. But right I think it’s I I think it’s something that it’s very easy and I talk about this quite a lot on this show that we tend to have a one-year memory. We go well that were bad. LaMelo played 40 games. He would never play again. He just he’s never going to do it. But it has happened. Doesn’t mean that it will. Doesn’t mean that it won’t, but at least it has. And I think that’s something we can be a little interested in. Walker, that is the Charlotte Hornets. At least a brief overview of their upcoming season. Um, I can’t wait for all of your and ball references on lockdown on Hornets during the season. It’s going to be just a cavalcade of whimsy over there. But I I think this team again with the weakened state of the East and the additions that they made. Again, the center position is still bad, but a lot of other really interesting players and some strengthening of areas is going to make them a team that uh maybe does a little bit more than what we’ve seen in the past. So, thank you for coming on and chatting about the Hornets once again here on Lock on Fantasy Basketball. Thanks, Josh. I appreciate it. And yeah, tune in uh every weekday. Obviously, we’re putting those podcasts up, Locked on Hornets. Make sure you subscribe to the channel for all your favorite phallic nickname basketball players. That’s right. We have those in droves here over with the Hornets. Thanks again, Josh. Thank you. And that’s the Hornets. Sounds like I’ve got some competition for who can drop the most dick jokes into into a show. Walker doesn’t really know who he’s battling though, does he? I’m I’m pretty sure I’ll clear. But one thing you need to clear is hitting that thumb up button. If you haven’t hit the thumb, why don’t you do it? Why don’t you subscribe? Why don’t you double bang audio video? You know where we are. You know how to do it. We have got the Houston Rockets coming up. We’ve got the Boston Celtics coming up, the San Antonio Spurs coming up, the Minnesota Timberwolves coming up over the next few days in terms of team previews. So stick around for those guys. We are done here. Thank you so much for listening everyone. See you. [Music]

Walker hops on Josh Lloyd’s Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast to preview the Charlotte Hornets upcoming season. Does Charlotte have the worst center rotation in the league? After Walker espouses Moussa propaganda, the guys transition to Brandon Miller’s 3-pt volume and LaMelo Ball’s injury history.

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