Did Charlotte FORGET About Defense?! | Brandon Miller’s NEW Role | Clippers Scandal Damages Hornets

Did Charlotte FORGET About Defense?! | Brandon Miller’s NEW Role | Clippers Scandal Damages Hornets

Coming up today on the Locked On Hornets podcast, do the Hornets forget about defense during the off season? Who’s the MIG? And of course, we have to rummage through the Siko Satchel. That’s all today. Locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked On. Your team every day. in a minute cuz we live. [Music] It’s Locked on Hornets, part of the Locked On podcast 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 does include YouTube. Doug Branson, every hornetsboxcore.com. Also a producer of Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fitton. And I’m Walker Mail. listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m. So Doug, you’re back. It’s great to have you back, man. I appreciate you hopping on with me. Good to be back. I actually took responsibility and did what I was supposed to do. Gave a solo show. Dropped all of the interesting nuggets from the interviews we had on Wes and Walker. And one of the first I think it was the first soundbite I played yesterday. Wanted to get your thoughts on it. One of the first sound bites I played. You’re going to have to tell me because I did not listen. It’s okay. I actually I forgive you on this one. You’ve been a very busy man. Usually it’s just because you don’t want to listen to a podcast you’re not on, which I can kind of understand, but you’re very busy. I I completely All is forgiven. Here’s what happened. I’ve spent the past several years really horse blinders basketball and and really that was an expansion off of horse blinders Charlotte Hornets. I really like focusing on the Charlotte Hornets. Then I took the lock on NBA gig. I opened the blinders up a little bit and said, “All right, let all of the NBA in.” And I forgot about October. I forgot about the fact that every sports thing ever happens in the month of October. And now, uh, yeah, I’m I’m very busy. I’ve got to, in fact, as soon as we’re done here, I’ve got to check in on these baseball playoffs. Um, it The good news is it’s only uh Oh, it’s October 1st. It’s just the first day of October. Sorry, buddy. It’s a long month, October, if you will. So, first sound bite I played, I asked Charles Lee about the vision this off seasonason, what they hoped to accomplish. He and Jeff Peterson getting together and dissecting what this team needs, how they can attack the market for what it’s worth. And he discussed a lot of offensive skill sets. He discussed they wanted to get more uh players that could create for others. and then if they couldn’t create for others and move the ball within a half court and full core set that they wanted players that could create for themselves. Um, of course they wanted to play faster, which has been the buzz word. It it’s real. I think you have to play fast with this roster the way that it’s built, but he did mention tempo, but as I mentioned yesterday when he was discussing everything they wanted to attack, Doug, he he didn’t mention defense. And I don’t think we’re surprised when you build the roster the way that you do. We knew that you just lean all the way into let’s just go ahead and try for a top 10 offensive unit. I don’t know if you’re going to have enough lob passes. There are certainly some limitations that this roster even has offensively, but that’s their calling card. If you were to look at their top seven, eight, nine guys, who is the defensive-minded player there? Musaate, he’s in your top eight, top nine. He’s a defensive-minded player outside of Musa. Um, depending I I don’t know if Josh Green would make your top eight or top nine. We’ll get to him in just a moment, but Josh Green certainly a defensive-minded player. I Brandon can’t play defense. He’s not defensive minded. Um, I Who else is Who else is that guy? So, clearly it’s all offense, right? I guess my question to you is, did they forget about defense or did they see defense and say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks. I I’ll have more of the offense, please. Uh, double me, double me up on the offense.” What say you? I don’t think that Charles Lee forgot about defense. He was preaching it all off season, last off season and and really all through the the season until the injuries struck to a point where it didn’t make any sense to talk that way anymore. But this team also had problems offensively and and you just ran through the ways that they addressed those. So, I don’t think he’s forgotten about defense. I do think that there’s a level of acceptance here that they they found a way to transform this team that that could lean into the offensive end of the floor and maybe get these guys into a little bit of a rhythm. And that rhythm could then just allow them to hear a little bit better some of the defensive principles that he’s preaching. I mean, this team, if they’re going to be even average at defense, it’s all going to be about committing to that throughout an entire game. And I think I if these guys are knocking down three-point shots, if they’re hanging in offensively, you’ve just got a better chance of some of these guys. And and we’ll get into like who the most important guy is, like who is the next because Josh Green’s injured, like who is that guy that’s going to take that mantle. I think a little bit of this too is Charles Lee starting to understand, okay, I’ve got I’ve had a year with these guys. I don’t have to be front and center saying, hey, here’s all the things that we have to focus on defensively. That responsibility can go to the player that everyone says is the senior leader on the team, Miles Bridges, in not in terms of doing those things, but well, yes, in terms of doing those things, but also saying those things. It can go to Brandon Miller now who’s got a couple of years of experience, maybe not all the onc court experience that we want, but enough NBA experience to start using his own voice to make that happen. So, I don’t think that Charles Lee or this team has forgotten about defense. But, I think they’re leaning in to what is going to make them successful this year as they continue to transform this roster into a roster that is capable of playing both sides. I think calling it a level of acceptance is a great way to put it because Charles Lee isn’t going to take any lack of effort on that end of the court. I think there’s too much depth on this team to where you actually have enough bodies to enforce what you want to do defensively. You can’t just lay down. I think you understand your limitations and you’re willing to accept that. Okay, we these are good basketball players, but what makes them good is not what they do on the defensive end of the floor. It’s what they do offensively, but so much of defense is just giving a bleep and playing on a string. Can I get these guys to play on a string and can they give a bleep? If we can, then that’s maybe maybe not quite half the battle, but it goes a long way. And if you don’t, if you start to be lacadasical, especially in the back court, you know, we can go to Josh Green if we need to. I will cut down this offensive production and you will like it. So Josh Green could go there. Khan Canipple the h limitations all across the board with Khan. I think he’s going to get picked on. I think he’s a good team defender. I think it’s going to be rude awakening for him. It was funny to hear him talk at media day about in practice. I had to guard Trey Man and he hit me with a step back in the mid-range. I was like, “Good God, what do I do?” It’s it’s a whole new world, buddy. ACC basketball, it’s tough. Not as tough as it used to be. The NBA is much tougher. So I I think if you are lackadasical he can go to other bodies that will try. But the point is I’m not sure how many bodies you can go to that is going to turn up the volume defensively so much so that you get such such better production from that specific player. If they want to build the confidence of this team and pile up some more wins in anticipation of making some moves in the summer that could actually turn this team into something serious and not come away with 19 20 21 wins this season. The best way to do that is not to take a bunch of players that aren’t natural defenders and yell at them about defense and then be upset when they don’t play defense and now now all of a sudden everyone’s lost the plot. They’ve lost the message. You know, suffering uh human suffering comes from having an expectation and not that expectation not being met. And so I think part of this too is this team going look the expectation has to be effort on the defensive end and flying as fast as you can on the offensive end. And by the way, you can backdoor defensive principles into that by saying, “Look, transition easy points. You’re going to you’re going to pile up offensive stats if we’re a good transition team.” The only way we can do that is if we’re forcing turnovers, if we’re constantly pressuring, you know, you you can back I mean, we’ve seen Indiana and Sacramento do some of this stuff, too, where they they play defense through offense. So, I I don’t think they’ve forgotten about defense. I think this is Charles Lee being a smart coach and and he talked a lot not a lot but he did mention something at media day about you know some of the things that he learned and he didn’t get into a lot of specifics but I think he’s probably a quick study of what motivates LaMelo Ball what motivates Brandon Miller and and I think you’re seeing some adjustments already like he said what he needed to say about defense in the first year if they didn’t listen to that and I’m confident that he knows that they did he’s got that message across now it’s time to get some wins and the best way to do that for this team the way the roster is constructed constructed is offense, not defense. Yeah. Yeah. Score the ball. That’s how we’re going to win. And score more points than the other team. Put the ball in the darn hoop. It’s how it is. It’s simple. Hire us to be assistant coaches. Coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. Everywhere. We heard a lot of buzzwords at media day. Hornets DNA, execution, physicality, competitiveness. I didn’t hear about the MIG this time. Most important guy. Charles Lee was all about that last year. I didn’t hear a lot about that this season. I don’t think I heard it once during a sitdown. So, who is the MIG? We talk about it coming up next. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you do not want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love FanDuel because it gives you so many ways to play. I’ve built parlays, tried player props, even followed the live lines during games, and it makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. Whether you’re a casual fan or diving into the stats like a nerd like me, FanDuel makes the game experience uh experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? or visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. Okay, who’s the MIG? Well, most important guy, that guy is on defense. But also, what’s interesting is there is a couple there are a couple of defensive minded players on this roster and we just went through them and Josh Green came up in a graphic that isn’t going viral by any stretch of the imagination, but I did find it to be interesting with what Todd Whitehead tweeted out about Josh Green among other defensive-minded players in the league. So, NextGen Stats for the NFL, it’s a really awesome website. I think it’s NBC affiliated if I’m not mistaken. And it’s just an advanced metric site uh site for the National Football League. And they talked about some of the number one uh assignments that some defensive players have. And then Todd Whitehead took that same principle and applied it to the NBA. and he gave us a graphic of defensive players that had the most matchups versus opposing number one options. Okay, on this list, Josh Green comes in at 13th. Josh Green had the number one option third at the at the uh the 13th position most amount of time. God almighty, I can talk. Goodness gracious. Okay. 1 1, 1,469 touches in front of him last season. Thank you. I appreciate that. I don’t know what happened. I shortcircuited, but Josh Green is there top 13. Man, do you think that his value just immediately goes to the wayside with having Colin Ston here, with having Coniple and all the guards that they signed, or are people still vastly underrating what Josh Green’s impact would be for this team? I think a lot of people mention him as trade fodder. It hasn’t worked out even if it really wasn’t that big of a risk to go after him anyway. But I don’t know how many people you feel comfortable with drawing the number one assignment at the 13th highest rate in the NBA other than what Josh Green is able to do and wasn’t that bad. Like Josh Green still a good defender. So what are your thoughts on your boy Doug? I know he’s your favorite player. Now he was a good defender and we and you I don’t think you’re going to find an episode where I said Josh Green is not only a terrible offensive player, he’s also a bad defender. Why are we What is What is happening? No, you’re not going to find that. But what I kept saying was this team is in desperate need of some offense, any offense. And you know, when you got a guy on a mid-level exception, it would be nice if he just were more aggressive, if he just took a few more shots, not expecting him to be a superstar, not expect but zero, but laying the goose eggs when this team was so there was opportunities to be decent offensively and he just wouldn’t he wouldn’t even try. He wouldn’t take them and that was what was frustrating. But you look at this graphic and I just want to note some of the names that he’s here with in terms of just getting the assignment. Lou Dort, Jaylen Jay Den McDaniels, Tumani Kamara, uh Stefan Castle, Muel Bridges, Dylan Brooks, DaVon Mitchell. All of these names are Andrew Nemhard are guys that are just associated with all right, we’re going to throw this wing on you and good luck. Okay. So, that’s the trust that Charles Lee had in Josh Green. I don’t think that just goes away. Hopefully, they’ve built enough offense on this team now. Hopefully, guys get off to a good shooting start so by the time that Josh Green does come back, maybe it is in a bench role, but but he can be uh less of an eyesore offensively because there are so many other options around him. Um, and and so, you know, look, so much of the NBA when you’re talking about player evaluations, particularly when they aren’t in the star or superstar level, is all contextual. It’s all what are they contributing when they’re on the floor with the particular pieces that they’re on the floor with. Um, and so, you know, Josh Green comes in and is a chaotic defender and is somebody that they trust to put on a wing, uh, to put on the best scoring wing. And you’ve also got Colin Sexon knocking down a few threes. You’ve got LaMelo hot, you’ve got Brandon Hot, you’ve got Trey Manhot. Great. That’s going to be awesome for the Charlotte Hornets. And I will come on here and say Josh Green is a valuable piece for this team as it’s currently constructed. I’ll also say this, obviously don’t love that Josh Green is going to be out, that he’s injured, that that he’s going to miss time. At the same time, I do think it’s a blessing in disguise for somebody like Brandon Miller because I think it’s going to put more immediate responsibility for him to I don’t think he becomes the sole most important guy, the sole player that that uh that Charles Lee is depending on to say, “Hey, you’ve got to keep a guy in front of you.” I don’t think he’s going to be I think it’s going to be split down the middle. Well, honestly, maybe three ways. Him, Ston, and and Bridges and and you know, just saying you three are going to have to team up um to to help us out in this department. But but hopefully Brandon becomes that guy. And it seems like from what I’m hearing out of training camp from Charles Lee that Brandon is already stepping up and saying, “I want to be that guy. Give me the challenge.” And honestly, in this season, that’s all I want to see. I want to see Brandon Miller taking every challenge, even if he gets blown by. Okay? Even if he, you know, I certainly don’t want to see it every time, but if I just want him to I want him taking that challenge more often than he’s done in the previous two seasons. Yeah. I I think Okay, so you have Josh Green, you have Musa Diabate out there. Those are some plus defenders. Brandon Miller could be a plus defender. We saw Miles Bridges last year, I think, really take responsibility on that end of the floor with a lot of the hustle plays, too. So, perhaps it’s not as dire as we’ve painted it out to be. I think once you get to the second unit, it’s it’s going to be pretty dire, I think, in the second unit. But also, you’re going to experiment. I don’t know what Charles Lee is going to do. Like, I think this season should be a little bit about experimentation. one, I think the season kind of calls for it. And I hope he also dives right into it. He did experiment with a double big lineup last year at the very end of the season when you knew you weren’t going to make the playoffs, but he would play Mark Williams at the five and Mousidate at the four. How many Ryan Caulk Brener at the five, Musaate at the four lineups do we see? How possible is it? I think a lot of that probably relies on Caulk Brener shooting, but you could throw that out there. And how many guards do you just want to throw out there at one time? Because you could have all the three guard lineups you want to. I mean, straight up OKC style back when they had Dennis Shruder and SGA and Chris Paul. You just throw that out all you want to. You have I mean, I don’t I don’t know how many permutations you got. But experimentation, I think, should be within the very system they run this year. Um, but defensively there are guys that I think are going to give you effort and they do have some capabilities. Certainly they’re in the starting lineup that maybe you can just switch quite a bit, especially with Musa. There are ways to be, I think, competent enough to where it’s not an unmititigated disaster every time out there on the court. Yeah, to me this season is not going to be schematically what do they do defensively. Although I can definitely see experimentation. I could see Charles Lee going to, you know, throwing out the kitchen sink, going to a lot of junk in terms of defense. Uh, you know, that’s not unusual here in Charlotte. Um, but at the same time, they’ve got to control what they can control. There are going to be not there going to be minutes within nights and nights within weeks where they are playing starpowered offenses that feature guys that can just take over a game ISO. without Josh Green, they’re not going to really be able to do anything about that, frankly. I mean, maybe Miles Bridges just, you know, catches one and and gets a guy knocked off his knocked off his spot a little early and you have a good you have you happen to have a good night, but generally they’re going to get killed in those minutes. What do they do in the other minutes when that guy is off when LeBron James and Luca and you know all all of these ISO your your James Hardens? What do they do when those guys are off the floor? uh when you are into those bench units, can they get Miles Bridges or Brandon Miller into those bench lineups and can they have an impact defensively? But the biggest thing is just getting back into transition. I mean, controlling that’s the effort part, right? That’s can you do that for 48 minutes? Can you can you not can you start the game like that and can you end the game like that? That’s going to be a big deciding factor on whether the Charlotte Hornets can play defense or not. And so last thing on this, this is your almost daily Musa Diabate uh propaganda segment, but Musadabate looking at him and especially the rim protection because that’s ultimately what the biggest issue is. They’re they’re long. They’re not small all over the place on the court. LaMelo is a long tall basketball player. Hold on. I don’t know if you saw my tweet. I don’t know if you saw my tweet. Go to Twitter, Doug Branson LOH. I put a little gif. Uh uh transformation. I don’t know. You know what? I’m not gonna because the last time I did this, I put Brandon Miller up there and people tried to clown me like saying he hadn’t, you know, gotten any muscle. So I It was glossy version. He was sweaty. That was it. All right. All right. So this time when I did it, I did a GIF and I compared the 2024 LaMelo Ball Media Day picture with a very similar picture of him. uh from this past media day and I left it up to everyone. I said, “Lamello muscle watch, you be I didn’t say you be the judge, but that was the insinuation of the tweet. You be you tell me if he looks bigger.” And I’m telling the neck looks thicker, the body looks thicker. You know, uh somebody on the subtext line, I believe it was Bam Bam, said the the tattoos obscure it, which I think is a very because he’s got a lot more tattoos this year. I mean, it’s covering both arms. He’s got a ton now. But here’s the thing. I think that’s strategy. I think that’s savvy. I think that’s uh muscle flage. He he doesn’t want people to know, hey, LaMelo’s LaMelo’s got some new toys, but you can’t see them because the tattoos. Um, so yes, that’s all true. LaMelo Ball Muscle Watch season. Uh, also he’s always been very long. Same thing with Brandon. Miles Bridges is one of the shorter players out there on the court outside of uh, you know, your two spot. whoever Josh Green probably gonna play that in this scenario. But if if Musa plays the most minutes at center, just going with who played a lot at the end of the year, rim protection is the biggest issue, right? Like we do think we’re going to get beaten up down low with capable big body centers that are offensively gifted. The Hornets with Musa Debbate last year on the floor team shot 35.4% of their shot attempts at the bucket. that was in the 13th percentile. And when Musa was on the floor, that was usually five percentage points higher, which put the Hornets in the third percentile overall. For what that means simply, when Musa was on the floor, the opposing team saw food. They thought, “Oh my god, they’re going to throw Musa in the paint. Okay, this is going to be cake. All we’re going to do is drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, and get a bunch of high percentage shot opportunities.” Except when they did that, Doug, they actually weren’t all that accurate when Musa was on the floor. Yeah, they shot a lot at the rim, but they were pretty damn inaccurate. In fact, they only shot 64.1% at the rim, and that was good for the 76th percentile when Musa was on the floor. So, yeah, like the math still favors the team taking a whole bunch of four feet or closer shots. The math still favors that team, so you still are going to do it. But I just want to paint the picture of Musa is not some softy revolving door. Here’s a red carpet. Please and thank you. Dunk on me. Mark Williams was that a little bit last year and that was a real issue. Uh Musa was not that. Provided much more resistance even if they weren’t deterred by him because he is so short. Like I do wonder if Okay, with all of this length on the perimeter, is there is there a way for you to deter guys from driving on you? Can you just stay in front long enough? because I think Musa can rotate fast enough to get in front of the bucket to contend and contest, I should say, and then maybe he can force some missed shots. I I just I wonder in that regard, could the Hornets defense be any better? You know, just just spitballing here. Uh no, I I appreciate you I appreciate you painting that picture. Here’s the picture that I’d like to paint. There was LaMelo then. Here’s LaMelo now. Look at there’s there’s then and then there’s now. Look at that. I like it. Okay. Beefy. Coming up next on the Lockown Hornets podcast. You just said beefy. Okay. Beef everywhere. My makes that phrase particularly frightening. That’s my beefy boy. That’s could have done without that word. Even with a scary sentence without it. Sicko satchel time. We’ll rumage through the satchel and answer a couple of hornets questions coming up next. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Pelaton. 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Explore the Pelaton Crossraining Tread Plus today at oneplaton.com. That’s one pelaton.com. More lockdown hornets ahead. Seiko satchel time. What you got for us? Uh, this is from Bam Bam. Good morning. Pablo Tore just dropped another episode in his investigation into Kauaii’s alleged no-show endorsement deal on media day. When NBA league investigations conclude wrongdoing, are large or small markets uh teams more affected? In my opinion, teams like the Hornets in a small market and struggling to win 20 games are affected more than larger more successful teams. I would argue we are more inclined to be sickos fans that don’t quit unless something goes horribly or ethically wrong and made of less ca casual fans. Let’s be honest, who signs up for 19 wins unless you have a sickness? With that said, what, if any, would you imagine are the effects of NBA league scandals? Yeah. Um, I do agree that it would be the Hornets that would be affected by this most. One, just because of how much money your owner has and we’re seeing that these super rich guys are infiltrating the NBA at a much higher level. And so even if Portland is a smaller market and you have a rich guy buying Portland, I don’t know if relatively speaking you have the richest of owners here in Charlotte, given that we have 50/50 control between the two of them and it’s this weird 5-year plan where one guy has 51% the first 5 years and Rick Schnull and then it’s Gabe Platkin who actually has the 51% the 5 years after that which has always been a weird business model, but I do think he’s right in how the Hornets are affected. Are there any specifics you see being an issue from the Kawhi Leonard situation and maybe those resembling it? Oh, of course. I mean, it strikes the legitimacy of the league. I mean, when you buy Look, it it’s difficult because I think like obviously like lots of people love professional wrestling and while some may trick themselves into thinking it’s real, I would say, you know, most people are like, “This is not real.” But I watch reality shows and those aren’t really reality. Those aren’t real. So, uh, I’m less, you know, I’m less concerned about that. I’m just there for the entertainment. I think professional sports like NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, it is different because you’re betting. A lot of people are betting on it. Um, you’re playing fantasy. So, strangely, because you’re playing fantasy, you want it to be real. You want everyone to be trying their hardest and and to know that your team has a fair shake at, you know, going from the bottom to the top. It’s what keeps people buying season tickets. The hope is the sickness. Well, you can’t have hope if you don’t have some legitimacy in the whole arrangement. So, that’s that’s what makes this thing so dangerous. And if there was wrongdoing, and it looks really fishy. It smells sure really fishy. If there was wrongdoing, then the NBA has to do something about that. Uh just like they have to take harsh actions on this betting these betting scandals that we’ve seen uh from some of these players because it does strike at the legitimacy of of the whole operation. And also if you are Schnull and Plotkin uh you paid a lot of money to be invested in something that you thought theoretically you thought was a fair game, was somewhat of a fair game. I mean you you know that like big spenders who are willing to go within the CBA regulations they’re willing to go into the tax and the apron and pay the you know pay the repeater uh penalties and all that they are going to have an advantage over you if you don’t have the capital to sustain those kinds of losses. Um but at least there is a penalty. If there’s no penalty then you just absolutely have no shot. and fans particularly particularly the sickos the people who do pay close attention they do have some awareness that we don’t have a billionaire owner we have a lot of millionaire owners but we don’t have a billionaire owner and so you do have some awareness of that so I do think that even more fatigue even more hopelessness can set in uh for some of these smaller markets that don’t have access to that capital if this thing is allowed to continue yeah one thing that is is speaking of the hope I think what provides me hope is that the NBA and the owners surrounding Steve Balmer, they are incentivized to stop this, espec especially with a guy that has that kind of money deciding to dodge the cap as much as possible. And therefore, he gets to dodge the luxury tax the way that he does, even more so, like all of the tax that he would have to spend because they went so over with this Kawawaii Leonard salary. The NBA owners elsewhere are thinking, “Hey, wait a minute. He he’s dodging it. We weren’t able to do that. we need to put a stop to this as quickly and as soon as possible and make sure that it’s punitive enough to where Steve thinks about not doing it again. Now, the issue is that he has so much more money, it it actually becomes pretty hard to punish him and hurt him a lot where his money is cuz he’s got so much of it. on on the flip side, like you could just say, “Why don’t you just give him that kind of money and then pay the tax even if it is a gross amount of money that you would have to pay within the confines of the salary cap?” Still, he he decided to dodge it and he can’t afford it. Like, he’s he’s the owner where it would hurt the least because he’s so much richer than all the other owners in the NBA. Point being, I do think the owners are incentivized to stop this as much as possible. And I I think there will be some pressure on Adam Silver just because all eyeballs are on him. That that’s a pressure point. But also the other 29 owners eyeballs, they’re on Adam Silver. And everybody likes to talk about the number one job of the commissioner being uh to serve the owners as much as possible. That’s who he works for. So if that’s the case, I I would imagine the owners again are incentivized to make sure Steve Balmer and other owners like that aren’t able to get away with it. Well, and this puts the onus on any small market or medium-sized market organization. It just puts the onus more on the draft. You have to nail the draft because that’s that’s not something that all of Balmer’s money can interfere with. They can certainly in invest in draft experts and scouts and different things, but if you have expertise, if you have an advantage in that department that nobody else has, if you can see something that nobody else can see, that’s and those players are on inexpensive deals for many many years. That is the way you can do this. that you you know uh that’s that’s what Prey has been able to do in OKC where yes they do they also have a very wealthy owner but at the same time they’ve been doing it over and over in the draft and making savvy trades as well not going after the the huge trades free agencyy’s dead anyway it’s all trades uh so can you make the savvy trades can you buy low on somebody and cash in and can you hit the draft Jeff Peterson super important that he does that he’s got four he took four shots and I would say at least half of those have to hit. Um last thing uh where I I would have loved to have talked about this with Jeff Peterson or talked about it with Charles and asked Jeff about it given the time constraints given the limited amount of questions that we have. You have to pick and choose or else I would just talk to both of them for hours, right? I would love to hear their thoughts on it, but I also know they’re not going to give me any of their real opinions on it. That would be served for something different. They’re not going to say anything in a public forum. But I I I am a little more curious about what Jeff Peterson and the Hornets have to say about this more so than maybe other teams because they’ve already felt some wrongdoing by a large market franchise with the way that the Lakers finagled the failed physical with Mark Williams and sent him right on back to smalltown USA. So, I wonder if there’s a little extra twisting of the knife in the back of the small market teams, the Queen City team, the Hornets that got wronged by an LA market. I wonder if they are taking extra precautions to make sure that they let Adam Silver know this is not okay. We know that they did it very publicly. Even if it meant some awkward moments in the locker room with Mark, even if it meant all of the awkward feelings surrounding this organization, they still decided, we’re going to Scorched Earth is strong, but we’re going to let you know we’re not pleased with the way that this was handled by Rob Pelinka and company because they got cold feet. So, we’re going to put out a very public statement even if it means the guy we’re getting back still a trade ship that has some value. even if it means that it’s going to be very very weird in your everyday dealings with him, we’re still going to make sure everybody knows we’re not pleased with the way this happened. And I I I think that’s because they’re tired of getting the short end of the stick when you have these large markets still benefiting from whatever it is they benefit from at that time. There are a lot of quotes from players and coaches coming out of this media day and training camp that you could put into a bucket of, “We’re tired of being picked on. We don’t want to be picked on anymore. Here’s how we’re not going to be picked on anymore.” Same’s got to go with the front office. Same’s got to go with the the the ownership group. Uh they they have to stick up for for the city of Charlotte. They have to stick up for the franchise. and and these small and medium-sized markets, they need to stick together and say, you know, we’re we’re not going to take this from from these larger markets and these billionaire owners that think they can get away with everything. Uh because if they don’t, then again, I just think as their fan bases have to look at this and really question, why am I spending my money caring about this thing? Yeah. All right, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. Good question. Thanks for making us your first listen. were free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube. Doug Branson everyhornetsboxcore.com. Also check out Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fitton. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m. 927 FM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. My beefy boy. [Music]

Following an offseason focused on offense, we question if the Hornets forgot about defense and identify which player must step up as the team’s most important defender. Then, we open the Sicko Satchel to discuss how league scandals, like the one involving Kawhi Leonard, disproportionately harm small-market teams like Charlotte.

On today’s show, we start by examining the Hornets’ offseason strategy. After Coach Charles Lee’s media day comments focused heavily on adding offensive creators and playing with more tempo, we ask the question: did the team forget about defense? We conclude that it’s less about forgetting and more a “level of acceptance,” with the front office choosing to lean into the roster’s offensive strengths while still expecting maximum effort on the other end of the floor.

With Josh Green injured, we then try to identify the M.I.G. “Most Important Guy” on defense for this team. While stats show Green was one of the league’s most tasked defenders last season, his absence opens the door for players like Brandon Miller and Mousa Diabaté to take on bigger roles. We look at surprising numbers that suggest Diabaté is a more effective rim protector than many believe. Finally, we open the Sicko Satchel to explore how league scandals, like the ongoing investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers, impact the legitimacy of the league and put small-market teams like the Hornets at a significant disadvantage.

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