Hornets NBA Cup Schedule REVEALED | Can they Win The Cup? | Clifford LEAVES Hornets… Again!

Hornets NBA Cup Schedule REVEALED | Can they Win The Cup? | Clifford LEAVES Hornets… Again!

It’s schedule season. We have the preseason schedule. We have the NBA Emirates Cup schedule. And we’re in store. We’re about to have the NBA regular season schedule. We’ll go through all of that. Plus, even if the Hornets win a summer league title, they’re losing all of their coaches. And Steve Clifford now gone. I’m not too worried. You know, he’s going to be back, but he’s at least gone for next season. We’ll get to all of it today. Hello. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. In a minute cuz we live. It’s Locked On Hornets, part of the Lock On network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We are free. We are available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. Find him on his Substack every Hornetsboxcore.com. Listen to him host Locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes. And I think that’s it. But there’s still a lot of stuff on his plate. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. And I’m going to go ahead and promote it. There are all sorts of weird NBA rules, but I might just break them. I’m a rules breaker. I only play by my own rules. Okay, we do have a schedule release show on WFNZ today from 6 to 7:00 p.m. By the time we publish this episode, I imagine it would be okay to promote it, but I’ll be hosting an NBA schedule release show from 6:00 to 7:00. Going to have an interview with Charles Lee, Farb Dog, Sam Farber, the voice of the Charlotte Hornets. So, it’ll be a lot of fun. And it’s that kind of time of year, Doug. We have all of these schedules popping up left and right. Preseason, NBA Cup schedule released, I think for 300 p.m. today. How would you rate schedule season? If we have summer is for feelings, we have what is it? Is it pre-season is for reason? Is that what you have as well? Yes. Yeah. Preseason is for reason. Summer is for feelings. Schedule season now is get the damn thing over with. What are we waiting on? This is incredible. like this week long trickle drip drip drip. I’m done with it. Just tell me when they play the damn games. We’ll tell you at 6:00 tonight. WF prime time. I love little prime time Walker. Forget forget the family dinner tonight. Sorry family. We’re ordering out uh you know uh average Chinese food. Uh so we can listen to Walker do the schedule release show. A little prime time walkie-talkie. Thank you. I appreciate that. It’ll be a lot of fun breaking it all down. We do have some schedules though that have already been released. we should say. And the preseason schedule, that one was released, I think a couple of days ago. It’s out first. And so if you look at what the Hornets are going to be doing, I’ve got it in front of me. Uh I was just trying to pull it up. Go ahead and beat me to it, Doug. What you got? Uh so October 5th, they open the preeason at 5:00 p.m. Speaking of prime time, little dinner ball in Charleston, South Carolina against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s technically a home game. They’re still doing renovations on the Spectrum Center. So, both of their home preseason games are not really going to be at home. Uh it’s a home, not really home and away, uh with Oklahoma City or the follow-up game on October 9th. Time TBD. October 11th, they travel to Dallas, Texas to take on the Mavericks. And then October 15th, the second nonhome home game in Greensboro, North Carolina against the Memphis Grizzlies. And then October 17th, they wrap up the preseason against the New York Knicks, who they will also face in the inseason tournament. Okay. So, nothing like opening up your season officially than battling the NBA champs in back-to-back games. We’ll see with the Thunder. Solid. I I I don’t know how seriously the Thunder are going to be taking it, who’s all going to play, how many minutes they’ll play, but you do play the Thunder. And really pretty good basketball teams all the way down. There’s no cupcake on this schedule. Memphis, depending on how you think about them, I guess after losing Desmond Bane, but no cupcakes on the schedule in preseason. Real quickly, you mentioned it’s for the reason. I I Do you have something you think of when you think of Charlotte Hornets preseason in years past? I I I Well, I know it’s this this is why devastating injuries. If if you say no, then we just move on. But you’re right. There are a couple things I think of, but one being for the reason. This was when PJ Washington showed us, oh, okay, he’s actually going to play, right? This is going to be someone that is in the lineup constantly and he played well in the preseason leading to one of his best games ever, hitting seven threes in the rookie season opener there. Um, but I I do feel like you can start to take away some stuff where summer league, I don’t know how much that translates to regular season success. We can use the summer league title as a symbol as a symbol of the Hornets possibly turning a corner. I think that’s real, but that one’s a little harder to take anything seriously. Preseason, I think you’re right to have it for a reason, Doug. I think you can take away some things and apply that to how the Hornets are going to operate once they get to that 82 game thing. Well, yeah, because NBA preseason is different than NFL preseason in that I think a lot of NBA teams look at preseason as extended training camp and like you need to get guys run. you need to get guys in, you know, move them from summer shape and and training camp shape into game shape. And so I think you do see a lot more actual basketball in the preseason than maybe you do actual football um in the NFL preseason. Um so yeah, you can absolutely take some things away, particularly with a young team uh that has had a lot of faces change, particularly in the in the bench, and I mean, they’re going to have to figure some things out in preseason in terms of who starts at shooting guard. Will uh Josh Green be healthy? Will he be considered? Is Colin Ston going to be the uh the guy that gets to look at two or do they want him off the bench? Coniple, the rookie, the fourth overall selection? I mean, when you’re top five on a bad team that only won 19 games, I mean, typically those guys either get serious play off the bench in terms of minutes or they’re starting. So, there will be a lot of questions to answer there. And Brandon Miller, you know, seeing him for the first time in a long time, they’re going to be a lot of exciting things to see in preseason. Yeah, especially with all the newness with this squad 100%. The all uh the NBA also released the Emirates NBA Cup 2025 schedule. I do have that in front of me. The NBA announced it uh on August 13th. That was yesterday. They revealed it. The Hornets open group play at Miami on November 7th before playing at Milwaukee on November 14th. Charlotte’s first home tournament matchup will be on November 26th versus New York in the fully transformed Spectrum Center, which has undergone a couple of off seasons of arena renovations. Now, the Hornets conclude group play versus Chicago on November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving. So, Miami at Miami November 7th, at Milwaukee, November 14th, home against New York, November 26th, home against Chicago November 28th. The quarterfinals will then take place December 9th and 10th, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They will host both semi-finals games. Saturday, December 13th is the championship contest. Um or excuse me, Tuesday, December 16th is the championship contest. So, what do you think about the You said what? I said mark your calendars. Oh, yeah. Charlotte Hornets ready to do some damage in Vegas. If I’m if I’m Miami, if I’m Milwaukee, New York, uh Chicago, you got one job, and that’s to keep Charlotte away from Las Vegas because we dominate there. Don’t let us get to Vegas. Don’t roll the dice. Uh because the Hornets would sweep it if they get there. Uh but it is tough to go on the road for the first two games. I like in these tournaments now that we’ve done them a couple of years, I like getting the best team in your group as your first game because it comes so early in the season when teams are still figuring out their own rotations. Not everyone’s not really up to speed yet and I think you can sneak a game against New York away if it were the first game. So that’s difficult. You really you got I mean it’s sort of similar to summer league in that you have to go 4-0 to really guarantee yourself a spot three and one you better have good margins in the three wins. So really the Hornets need to to sweep this thing if they want to do it. So starting the two games on the road that tough they’ve matched up well with Milwaukee over the past couple of years despite Giannis and no more uh Dame Lillard. They bring in Miles Turner. You know what’s that team going to look like? It’s very interesting. Chicago’s always given them trouble in the past. Uh so yeah, there’s some sort of like yes, no, but I think the Hornets, they have to go into this thing I I think with some kind of like forget all that’s happened in the past. This is a a lot of guys that have played together for a few years now, but sort of a brand new team in terms of a transformed bench. Just go into it with an irrational confidence and see if you can do the thing. The schedule could be a lot worse. I know everybody sees the Hornets in their group and they say, “Hell yeah, I love this draw. Everybody else is saying that about the Hornets on the opposite side, but this draw could be a lot worse for Charlotte at Miami, at Milwaukee.” You’re right. It is early. You have to figure out a different way to play. No more Dame Lillard. You have all sorts of stuff going on in Milwaukee. But Miles Turner being the big addition and it’s early for them. I’m totally with you on that. New York is by far the toughest competition that you’ll face with some familiarity that all of their big pieces have with one another. But Miami, Milwaukee, Chicago, I think all of those are reasonably winnable games. Nobody’s going to have them as the favorite against the Knicks, even if it is at home. But the other three games, I think you’d probably have Milwaukee as the second hardest, Miami as the third, even though Miami might have something for you, too. And it it’s it’s the Hornets. I wouldn’t say that they’re going to have a better record than any of those teams outside of Chicago possibly, but I think three reasonably winnable games and New York is going to be the toughest one. Here’s what I want. I want them to want it. I want LaMelo Ball to say, “We’re taking this extremely seriously and we want to get to Las Vegas.” That’s the goal. You know, that’s that’s what I saw from them in in in Vegas as an organization. They just seemed to want it in a very vocal way and they took it serious in a way that I think a lot of people scoffed or laughed at them in a certain sense and that’s perfectly fine. Like I people are going to laugh at the Charlotte Hornets as an organization wanting anything until they actually accomplish it. So, you know, win or lose, they make it to Vegas, they don’t make it to Vegas. What I really am seeking is a team that wants to win everything. Doug singing cheap trick. I want you to want it, baby. We’ll sing that the entire time in Vegas because it was good to him the first time. Now, can we have a second opportunity to buy a t-shirt? That’s what I’m really looking at. Oh my god. Can you imagine the price of the championship NBA Cup t-shirt? I’m going to have to mortgage put a second mortgage on my house. Here’s my everything. Please and thank you. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. be everywhere. Can they win in Vegas without Chris Jen? We’ll have to figure that out. Can they win in Vegas without Steve Clifford? We We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it before. It was mixed results. What happens now that Steve Clifford is going to Phoenix in a different role? We’ll talk about it coming up next. LOH. So, we got the news. Chris Jent, he’s gone. He’s going to New York. Um, we love what you did here, man. It’s a sad day to see Chris Jent go. We We only loved you for like a two and a half week stretch. I think we were cool with you before. We loved you after the summer league title and then the Knicks, they they went ahead and said, “No more good things in Charlotte. We’re going to take you away.” Now, Steve Clifford is gone as well. So unfortunate here, Michael Scott actually had this of hoops hype. Um Steve Clifford is going to Phoenix to be a coaching adviser. So it’s not even one of these things where they’re in negotiations. Michael Scott said the Phoenix Suns are outright hiring Steve Clifford. He’s gone. Clifford stepped down as the head coach of the Hornets at the end of the 2023 2024 season and then he transitioned into a front office advisory role. So he did step down. He was still in the organization. We got to see him on the phone in Hornets Real Access in the draft room. So, he was still a part of the operations of everything. We know the story by now. Steve Clifford was fired, what was it now, like five years ago. James Burggo takes over, is the head coach for a few seasons. They fire James Berago late. Then they hire Kenny Atkinson. Kenny Atkinson gets cold feet. Oh, I don’t want to uproot my family. And okay, got it. Anyways, Kenny Atkinson, he says, “No, thank you. I’m actually staying in Golden State. We don’t know what to do.” So, we go back and we hire Steve Clifford. Now, he’s gone again. He’s in Phoenix. Doug, your thoughts? Phoenix, what are you doing? Like, that’s the obvious thing that people are saying. Like, why do you what what is this connection? Why do you keep taking the things uh that the Hornets have said they don’t want at some point? Um, what what’s going on there? I have no idea. Steve Clifford is like Michael Corleone in uh the third Godfather movie. You know, I thought I was out and then you you dragged me back in. I mean, that’s definitely Steve Clifford here who thought, “All right, coaching. I’m done. I want to go to a front office thing. Lock me in a dungeon. I’m going to look at, you know, film from overseas for the rest of my life and be a draft expert.” But you can’t there’s there’s a certain itch that is just always going to be there for these coaches. They think, “Oh, I’m just it’s much, you know, it’s a a much less stressful life. I’m going to be front office guy.” And then someone calls and says, “Actually, we have this coaching advisory opportunity.” Um, and you get and he gets to go and and hang out with Devin Booker, who I think he was high on uh during that draft process. We talked about that in the last show. Uh, but yeah, man, it’s it’s tough. It’s a because because Clifford’s a smart guy and the Hornets and Chris Jed is a smart guy and the Hornets are bleeding smart guys right now and hopefully they can replace them. Steve Clifford was also I don’t want to say a big member in the community for you know doing a whole bunch of stuff philanthropically or anything like that but when you saw Steve Clifford out and about everybody has a fun uh uh interaction with him like Steve will actually engage. He’ll talk to you a little bit. I’ve had countless stories of fans discussing like Ton Salon or some of these draft picks and they’ll say they actually got something from him. I think at Harris Teter he would go shopping and some people would see him there or they’d see him outside of the Spectrum Center. So Steve Clifford won just an awesome guy, a brutally honest guy, but and maybe brutally isn’t even the right word because it’s almost like I I have pain inflicted upon me when he speaks. it. The brutal honesty, while yes, it’s true, it was a refreshing honesty more than it was brutal. And that’s what I love from Steve Clifford. Now he’s gone. I will say Charles Lee Charles Lee will be pretty damn honest up there at the podium. So I I do appreciate that as well. Just Steve, it feels like he needs to be in the Queen City for whatever freaking reason. It feels like something just keeps pulling me back me back. I mean like I something, man. Something. It feels like Steve Clifford should be here in some kind of role. But you’re right, he got to scratch the coaching edge, man. And now he’s in Phoenix in an advisory role. Not the main role, but in an advisory role. Well, it’s something similar that he did the first time he left Charlotte. He went to Brooklyn to be an adviser and there uh he became good friends with Kevin Durant who was playing for the Phoenix Suns last season before getting traded uh to the Houston Rockets. Uh, and so yeah, I mean with Phoenix, you get to go to an organization that does have an owner with a lot of money and a willingness to spend it. Uh, maybe not spending it as wisely as a lot of people uh in Phoenix would want him to spend it. Um, but you get a chance to coach I think a player in Devin Booker that I mean, if you look at any NBA rank list is going to be a a better player than anyone the Hornets currently have rostered. I think they they have some players that could get over Kevin Booker. Kevin Booker, Devin Booker eventually. Uh but yeah, I mean it’s it’s a good opportunity for him. He gets to coach again. But I’ll just say this. I’m done saying goodbye to Steve Clifford. I’ve done it. We’ve done this show uh seven times now. I’m done saying goodbye, Steve. Good luck. But I’m not I’m I’m done doing retrospectives, you know. Bye. No, no. You You only get one eulogy, man. I mean, that’s it. We’ve given him seven. I’m done. Uh, we do need to say one thing. I apologize, Nick Richards. I’m sorry, buddy. You just can’t get away. God. Oh no, Nick. Oh, I didn’t even think about it. No, I didn’t think about it because Phoenix has taken like 17 Hornets. It’s tough to keep up, but yeah. Oh my god. Set a bleeping screen. Nick thought he was done. He thought he was away. You better set a screen. He’s He’s gonna be in somebody’s ear. Tell Nick to set the bleeping screen. And you know what else? Nick Richards thought he was going to be starting. No. Instead, what happens is he’s backing up Mark Williams, who he used to back up in Charlotte. And now he’s going to have to maybe even back up Kaman Malawatch. And Steve Clifford’s going to be yelling at Nick to set the bleeping screen. And Nick is probably like I I I don’t want to get too carried away, but there are certainly a lot of times where Nick is just better than those guys. And and he’s he’s got Cliff yelling at him from the sideline. Oh my god. Nick Nick, I mean, he’s he’s a great guy to talk to as well. One of the sneakier really good interviews on that team. You know, we’ve already done the the Nick Richards Charlotte Hornets eulogy, too. But that’s the most comedic thing that’s happened here with this transition. I mean, Mark, too, right? I mean, he was uh Clifford was coached when Mark was brought in. And Clifford was honest about Mark’s deficiencies in terms of his physicality, in terms of his want to sometimes. And so, yeah, watch out Mark. Watch out Nick cuz Steve is back. Okay. Who wore it best? I think we’re going to get to it coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. We’re getting to it. Don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet. I think we’re going to get to it. who wore it best. But I don’t know if we’re going to dissect any of the numbers and then tell you who wore it best. I think we I I don’t I don’t make the rules. Uh we we just we kind of float along the who wore it best lazy river. Uh we do have some number news going into this upcoming season and then we have a few shoutouts. We got some, you know, little nuggets or little trailblazers to be specific to talk about. That’s all still to come. Final segment. LO who wore it best news, not the who wore it best segment. Doug, what you got for the people? So, Nick Smith Jr. moving to the number three. He originally wore this number when he was playing in Arkansas. One can assume he wore it in high school as well. And then uh Colin Sex, that opens up the number eight for Colin Sexton, young bull will get his uh number, not really back. He’ll just get his he’ll get to maintain his number eight. So Colin Ston number eight, Nick Smith Jr. number three. Nick Smith Jr. gets number three, which was worn by Dacoin Jeff last year. Jeff, if you’re asking what number he’s going to get next season, don’t know if he’s going to get one. that might be the guy that’s on the outs. And by the way, Nick Smith Jr. I I would think he’s probably the guy on the outs. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but we’ve talked about it a lot during this off season. There are too many guys they need to dwindle it down before the start of the regular season. And the easier guys to think of to get rid of would be Jeff, which that to me there’s just no way that he survives this. So it’s Jeff, then it’s Nick Smith Jr., Pat Conetonin, but there’s familiarity between Charles Lee and Pat Coneton in their Milwaukee days. So, that’s not just an outright easy thing to say either, even though that’s probably where you would be leaning. And then it’s Nick Smith Jr. You’re not cutting any of the centers. You just signed Mason Plumbley. Musadiate is your best center on the roster right now. And you just drafted Caulk Briner. I I think that’s probably it. So, yeah, it interesting stuff. Um, with Nick Smith Jr., Daquin Jeff, those might be the guys. Nick Smith Jr. moving to three. Nick Smith Jr. needs to hit some threes. That’s the way. Look, I He has improved uh defensively. He was asked to improve defensively and he did so and that’s admirable. But the Hornets need some additional shooting and that’s why they drafted Nick Smith Jr. That’s why the organization did uh preJ Peterson. Uh that that’s why they drafted this guy. That’s why they moved into the first round or well traded. I don’t want to get into it. The whole pick, but they had a second round. They had a second first round pick and they used it on Nick Smith Jr. and he’s got to hit some more threes. I mean, that’s what I’ll I’ll be looking for. He’s got to shoot the basketball better than he has um in in the past couple of seasons uh to maintain his place within the roster. Also, Pat Coneton, you might want to hold on to him for a little scouting of the Milwaukee Bucks come for the NBA Cup. That’s right. NBA Cup. Um and one other thing I want to Oh, unless you want to trade somebody. Unless there’s somebody that you wanted to trade for draft picks. That’s the other way that they survive and that’s a possibility. If you like Nick Smith Jr. enough, maybe that’s the the way flipping Pat Coneton to go somewhere or Josh Green is the other name to monitor. Just keep an eye on Josh Green and we’ll see what happens there. Okay, the next uh topic on the docket for segment number three. No, it’s not actually telling you who or best. We continue to move on. Um, shout out to Ashley Shamdy. We’ve seen Hornets broadcasters do a whole bunch of stuff nationally because they’re just so damn good at their job around here. So, we see Eric Collins, who we’ll argue is the best playbyplay man on the NBA beat. And then you have Dell Curry, a great color analyst, great tandem that is Eric Collins and Dell Curry. They’re going to Amazon. Um, they’re still going to be calling Hornets games locally, but they will be going to Amazon as well. They were just doing their photo shoots for that a couple of days ago. I saw Eric Collins post some stuff on Instagram, so he was having fun with that. And Ashley Shamdy, former sideline reporter here in Charlotte. She’ll be the sideline reporter for game two of NBC’s opening weekend slate. So now she’s going to be working for NBC. That’s right. Slow clap. She’s been doing a whole bunch of stuff ever since she stepped onto the scene in replacing Stephanie Ready, who is also a legend that moved on to do some national stuff. Shamdy was here probably five years, something like that. And she had her hand in a bunch of different pots. CMT television. That’s right. She was actually doing some country music television stuff as well. She was working for the SEC network. She did some Brave stuff and now she’s doing national stuff with NBC. So very cool. Quick shout out to Ashley Shamdy. Any thoughts on Shamdy going to NBC? No. Congrats. Uh, I’m a little worried if I’m being honest about the Eric Collins, Dell Curry situation. I know, you know, I know everybody’s telling us to calm down about it, that they’re not going anywhere. But look, Eric is getting national. I think Dell’s Dell’s going to have the Charlotte connection. But, you know, Eric’s been here a while, but he doesn’t have that natural like I played for the team or I’m from Charlotte connection. And he’s getting national attention right now. And I’m just I’m concerned. And maybe I’m just wounded after Chris Genta and Steve Clifford have left us. I’m just wounded right now and and feeling vulnerable in both of those guys. I don’t let us lose Eric Collins either. Not this year. Like I I think you’re right to be a little worried about it in the future. I don’t think it happens this year. I think he’ll still be here for sure. Um and he said that he said he’s still calling games, but humidly don’t leave us. That’s right. And last thing, I do think this is interesting. Just real quickly, Sham Serania actually had this tweet yesterday and it had people in North Carolina a little confused. Shams tweeted out that NHL Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundan has agreed to buy the Portland Trailblazers from the estate of Paul G. Allen for a valuation of over $4 billion. Now you look at Tom Dundan’s net worth and I mean there are all sorts of different reports there but none of them said that he could afford this by himself. He was actually a part of an ownership group but Tom Dundan is the head of the snake on this. So couple things to mention here. one just interesting. A guy that owns a professional sports franchise in state lines now going all the way across country to get in the NBA game. Something interesting there. Uh one, do we see the other thing is do we see the Raleigh Trailblazers? No, I’m just kidding. We’re not going to see that. The Raleigh Trailblazers aren’t going to be a thing. I don’t know why Tom Dundan has this very specific type for red, black, silver, and logos that are a spiral, but that’s apparently what’s happening with both of the franchise that he owns. The real thing is, um, just looking at this from a Raleigh standpoint, they have been pushing to get an MLB team over there in Raleigh. They can say what they want about our mission is not dead just because we’re getting our hands in the NBA pod. We still want to be a part of an MLB franchise here in the state’s capital, but Dundan just I mean the guy has to be a part of an ownership group to own the Portland Trailblazers, right? Like it if if if this is something where you could make more money and then sell the team 5, 10 years from now and then maybe bring an MLB team to Raleigh. Maybe that’s the process, but that looks to be out the window. That leaves some people towards the eastern part of the state a little sad. Any thoughts here on just a guy that owns a professional sports team in North Carolina deciding to get into the NBA game buying the Portland Trailblazers? Where was this guy a couple of years ago when the Schlotkin was interested and Gabe Plain was, you know, making his move to get more stake in the team. It’s it’s I’ve just never I’m just interested in that. had never heard this guy’s name come up. And when we were doing coverage, and we did this coverage for like years, because even before the actual sale was reported on, there were rumors about Michael Jordan being interested in moving away from the team or selling some portion of it. And I never heard this guy’s name. Um, it would have been interesting to have a person, and I don’t know if Dundan is from, is he from North Carolina? He’s not. He’s not. Okay. but he at least owns a team in North Carolina and so there would have been at least a little bit more of a North Carolina connection when it happened at the time. Uh interesting I guess in that the Portland So we had the the Boston Celtics deal happened at six billion, Lakers at 10 billion and then Hornets at like what three and a half four billion then Portland and four billion. So, you’re just sort of seeing the hierarchy of what these teams are are worth. And some of that has to do with markets, some of that has to do with what the team um actually has. Uh and then the the situation with Portland was interesting because you had the guy die, Paul Allen, and then the family didn’t seem to want to sell, so that probably complicated things. But yeah, Tom Dundan, there you go. Yeah, we we’ve seen the the family business get sold a couple times this off season. Lakers and and Dunden Dun Dundal. Gotta work on that. Dun Deal Den. We got to work on that one a little bit more to include the full surname. But we’ve seen this a couple times. And really, I think what you’re starting to see, we don’t have enough time to get in on all this. And there’s a bunch of layers to discuss, but the NBA is becoming more and more and more of a business venture for all of these majority owners to come in and just say, “I’m looking to make some cash or I’m looking to grow this thing because we can get in from the bottom and then see this start to grow and then we can sell it.” like we’ve seen the rich of like the most rich of dudes start to buy these teams or the ownership groups that come together, but it it it feels like some of the basketball is getting squeezed out of the very tip top of all of these franchises. And it’s always somewhat been like this, but whatever kind of pulp you have in the cup, we’re starting to even squeeze that out a little bit, too. I guess what would be interesting from a fan perspective for the future of the Hornets is this idea that the valuations of these teams used to be such that a George Shin level I I uh own some car dealerships. I, you know, I’m I’m a businessman of of a few businesses could come in and and buy a team. That doesn’t exist any like you have to be such a level of billionaire to be the, you know, 80 90% owner where you’re calling every single shot. Now it because the valuations have risen so exponentially and so quickly all these deals are going to be Tom Dundan and like nine other people or or the Schlotkin where you have two people up at the top but then you’ve got all these people and so like I think the next time the Hornets sell sell it won’t be the Schlotkin selling to one person or the Schlotkin selling even to a group of people. I think you could see like Gabe Platkin sells his steak to like four other people and there’s just this sort of conglomerate of and what yeah what does that do when when the ownership group doesn’t view the thing as they’re like they view it as an investment and not as a personal play thing as like I am trying to win something because I personally in my heart want this thing to win. How does that change really the entire NBA? It’ll be very I’m sure some soccer because I this seems to happen all the time in soccer where there isn’t like one major, you know, thing. So, you know, I I don’t know. Maybe maybe we need to bring some experts in to see how it affects the game, but uh could be interesting to watch as we move forward. Okay, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free. We’re available anywhere you get your pods. That includes YouTube. Go check out Doug’s Substack. Every hornetsboxcore.com. Also listen to Locked on NBA and listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3 PM. And tonight, Celebrate NBA schedule. It’s going to be released later on, I believe 3:00 p.m. I’ll be breaking it down from 6 to 7:00 p.m. on 927 FM Sports Radio WFNZ. And we’ll have an interview with Charles Lee. Also get some of his thoughts. What is he looking at as soon as the schedule is released? Um Charles Lee, also the behind the scenes process of getting some of these free agents. I’m interested in that. So, should be a good combo with the Charlotte Hornets head coach. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow to break down the schedule.

We’re breaking down all the newly released schedules, from the preseason slate to the Emirates NBA Cup draw. Plus, we react to the news that Steve Clifford is leaving the Hornets organization for a coaching advisor role with the Phoenix Suns.

It’s that time of year, folks—schedule season is upon us! On today’s show, we dive headfirst into the newly released Charlotte Hornets preseason and Emirates NBA Cup schedules. We’ll tell you who the Hornets are facing in their tune-up games, including two “home” games away from home in Charleston and Greensboro as the Spectrum Center renovations wrap up. Then, we’ll analyze the group for the in-season tournament, which sees Charlotte starting with tough road games against Miami and Milwaukee before coming home to face New York and Chicago.

Just as we get some good news, we also have to say goodbye… again. We discuss the departure of former head coach and recent front office advisor Steve Clifford, who is heading to the Phoenix Suns. This continues a trend of Charlotte losing key personnel, and we can’t help but feel for Nick Richards, who just can’t seem to get away from Cliff’s sideline yelling. We also touch on some surprising local news, as Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has agreed to purchase the Portland Trail Blazers. Finally, we’ve got updates on new jersey numbers for Collin Sexton and Nick Smith Jr. , and we give a shoutout to former Hornets sideline reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi on her new national gig with NBC! It’s a packed show you won’t want to miss.

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