PRESZN GAME 1 RECAP: Kon Knueppel BALLS OUT with 18 POINTS | Did He Seal a Starting Spot?

PRESZN GAME 1 RECAP: Kon Knueppel BALLS OUT with 18 POINTS | Did He Seal a Starting Spot?

It’s the first game recap we’ve had in a while. We’ll talk about the Charlotte Hornets first preseason game. Yeah, it’s a loss to the Thunder, but Coniple, he balled out. We’ll get to all of it today. Locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. In a minute, cuz we live. [Music] 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 and available anywhere you get your pods and that includes YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. You can follow him on his Substack every Hornetsboxcore.com. Also check out the show he produces Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fitton. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. 927 FM where we’ll be talking about a Panthers win and we’ll be talking about a Panthers win that Eric Collins called. How about our shout out to our guy what a great I I love that not only was Eric Collins on the call, but you knew he was going to become even more of a national treasure than he already was. What was great, I don’t know if you noticed this, but just scrolling through your Twitter timeline, watching all of the NFL pundits, NFL personalities come together and say, “Who is this guy calling the game for Carolina? He’s incredible.” Like, I would say 99% of the people that commented on Eric Collins loved him. Mark Scharath, his color analyst, might be in the 1% that wasn’t picking up everything Eric Collins was putting down. Quite quite an interesting dynamic. I I I want to talk more Eric Collins, but we need to save most of the show for the preseason game one recap. But I I want I want to uh let you know my Eric Collins thoughts. Real quickly, did also want to tell you that this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. Okay. The Hornets lost the first preseason game 135 to14. starters didn’t play a ton. They did play a little bit about 15 minutes or so for a lot of the starters ex except for Khan. Khan Canipple ended up starting this game. One of the story lines to watch for. So it was LaMelo Ball. It was Brandon Miller. Khan Canipple getting the start over guys like Colin Ston and Trey Man. Miles Bridges started and Musadate got the start at center over Ryan Kulkbrinter and also over Mason Plumbley. But Mason Plumbley, he has not been in camp. He’s not been with the team for a while because of a personal matter. So, if anybody thinks that this answers the who is going to start the first regular season game question, I would say not so fast on that. We still don’t know. You know, you can do your victory lap. You can do your vic do your do your Yeah, there’s the QB Neil right there. So, anyways, interesting starting lineup, but Khan gets the start. He leads the team in points scored. 18 points in this game uh for Khan Canipple Doug. um six of 13 shooting, four of 10 from three-point range. I think that’s where we start. It’s where it’s the fourth overall selection coming out and looking pretty damn good both floor game and leading all of the Hornets in scoring. Your thoughts on Khan in the game overall? Yeah, you can’t start a preseason. We will not You can, but we will not start a preseason game talking about win, loss, final score. That is just not what the preeason is about. It’s about digging down into some of these individual performances and trying to make some kind of sense of it and still having the caveat of hey it’s well there’s double caveats, right? For I think for rookies the caveat is they are getting accustomed to NBA action. And then for veterans, if they have an offshooting night or something like that, particularly early in the preseason, you have to look at preseason as a way for these guys to get into game shape to to work themselves and get themselves ready for regular season game. Uh number one, now obviously like Charles Lee probably wanted a little bit of a a more competitive effort against OKC, particularly from the starters, but I wouldn’t put that on Khan Canipple, who did look he he got off to a little bit of a slow start. is very similar I think to summer league and but then he quickly found a groove and was able to use you know I I I think I saw somebody on X call him little fundamental like he was using that footwork the timing and it’s it’s really funny I wrote this in the in the box score article that’s going to go live here in a minute it’s funny to contra you remember the up andunder that he had he had a little he had a little ball fake and then he goes to an up andunder for for a layup I believe on the left side contrast that play with what we saw. I don’t know if you saw this or not, Walker. VJ Edgecomb in Dubai playing for the 76ers. Had an absolute monster jam. Just got a good takeoff and just threw it down. I think he jumped like 12 feet in the air and landed and and crushed the ball. You put those two things side by side, very different plays, but guess what? They both count for two points. And I liked what I saw at Conan. Obviously, I I thought good effort on defense. He’s got some adjustments to make. There was some real communication issues. Uh there was one play with Liam McNeely where they just got completely caught up with each other. There was another one with Cochrer where they both ran after the same guy. So there’s all this like rookie stuff where rookies are playing with rookies. But I just thought 18 points. I I’ll throw it back to you, Walker. I don’t know if you felt this way, but I was surprised by just how aggressive he was offensively. I thought he would be playing more to facilitate LaMelo and Brandon, but he was looking for a shot. Yeah, I think a lot of that came because of the design, especially with the guys around him in that starting lineup not playing too many minutes. Right. Again, if you look at the minutes output, it was Musa 13, Brandon 16, Miles 16, Melo 15. Then the guys that led the team in run, it was Khan Canipple a first round pick, Tan Salon a first round pick, and Ryan Cochrrener a second round pick. but somebody you’re gonna have to depend a lot on because they wanted to get those younger guys a lot of minutes. I thought when he was aggressive, I thought it was in the right spots. I don’t think that he was forcing anything, which is not his game at all. He’s not going to go out there and try to throw up a whole bunch of shots that you wouldn’t ask him to take. Any shot he puts up, it’s it’s a good one for the most part. Um, yeah, my thoughts from Khan are, so I I want to go back to the starting lineup and kind of start there with my thoughts on Khan’s game overall. When I asked Charles Lee about his philosophy on the starting five, he didn’t give me a detailed answer. He basically gave me the best five. But but what he talked about was the guys that pair up with one another nicely and then we’ll see how what kind of chemistry everybody develops with one another off of the bench too. And I think it’s a simple answer when asking who should start of who compliments Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball the best right now. And it’s why it makes a lot of sense if you put Khan in the starting lineup right away. Doug, I think it would be less about he was drafted fourth overall. You got to play that guy. I I think it’s less about that and more about he is a connector classic term. He is a complimentary basketball player to LaMelo and Brandon. And if you put him out there on the corner, which happened quite a few times, it’s a very different element you provide with Khan Canipple able to attack closeouts. Zero turnovers in this game by the way for Khan, not small. and somebody that can shoot and bring that gravity towards him. It opened up plays for Miles Bridges who actually uh he and LaMelo had a screen action. Miles got the mismatch on Topic and there’s Khan just hanging out in the corner, hanging out in the corner. So Miles has all this space to operate with. And if you kick it out to him, he’s going to attack rather than shoot like Josh Green or pass like Josh Green. Hey, anything else? I’m good, dog. Like this is all I’m going to do. Khan can do a whole bunch of other stuff and just be sticky. Those corners, they got to keep their eye out on the guy in the corner. So, the cornerbacks, if you will. So, yeah, man. It just it flows. It works. All of it. It just it just works. And I think that’s why Khan Canipple started and you could see it already pay dividends in preseason game number one. No. Yeah. If you’re coming to this podcast episode for some topline stuff and you’re looking forward on Khan Kipple, I think it’s really simple. like he looked good. He looked comfortable. He looked fine. He looked really good in in spots. And and he could start for the Charlotte Hornets. And I mean, that’s all you really want from a top five overall pick, right? You want somebody that looks comfortable in his first set of game action. Even if you throw in the context of they were playing Oklahoma City in North Charleston and Oklahoma City didn’t bring any of their top starters because they’re playing six preseason games. So it was against uh the essentially the B team and then later the C team. U but I want to go back to what he did in the first half when he played less minutes than LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges and Colin Ston and yet Khan Canipple in that first half taking seven shot attempts which equaled LaMelo Ball which equaled Trey Man. The only one who took more only player who took more shot attempts in the first half was Brandon Miller. And so I do think he was even aggressive in the moments when he was with the starting unit and and he did hit a few shots and you’re right, he didn’t turn it over. He was one of only three players in the first half that didn’t turn it over and turnovers were the big one of my big stories in the first half and why uh they they weren’t able to beat a B team Oklahoma City squad is because everybody else was turning the basketball over and being a little careless with it. But Khan Canipple and and he he wasn’t doing that because he was only catching and shooting, right? He was active on the dribble and able to maintain it. And that’s I mean it was it was great to see. I I think last thing I I always go back to PJ Washington’s preseason as a rookie and I think it was the time when we all kind of shifted just a little bit on, oh, he’s going to help us right away. That’s what’s happening. Cool. Okay, I’m all in. when it was somewhat of a boring pick. There were certainly more wow picks that you could have made when you selected PJ. I think the same thing applies here with Khan. I think you have such a grown-up game with Khan, who constantly makes the right decision and can shoot. And I think he just brings a lot of elements to the table that some of these other guys don’t have, but also he’s just so damn malleable. I just don’t know what offensive system you want to put him in I that he couldn’t adapt to. And right away it that’s why it would make sense to have Trey man and Colin Saxton come off of the bench. If you were so hellbent on improving your defense, maybe you would go with Josh Green. But also like it was a fun team. Like I I I don’t know about you, I had fun watching this offense and a bunch of guys like put the ball on the deck and hit threes. LaMelo was fun in this one with the one footed step backs which he shot so comfortably like we can get more into it but I think Khan is is a big reason into uh why that’s unlocked like just the kind of headiness that he plays with. So you’re confident that Khan Canipple could start for the Charlotte Hornets. I’m not sure Charles Lee is though. I’ve got a quote for you postgame on the other side and let’s dive into it. Yeah, let’s dive into it because I I did take away a decent amount from him starting. Coming up next on the Locked on Hornets podcast everywhere. We’ll get to Charles Lee’s comments after the game and dive into some of our other observations in preseason game number one against OKC. That’s coming up next. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Pelaton. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. It’s their most advanced equipment yet. 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I was too busy in Panthers land which was nice that they got a victory. What were some of the comments coming in? We got this from Rod Boon on X, the Charlotte Observer beat writer. Uh he said he asked Charles Lee about starting Khan Canipple and Charles Lee said he told uh Khan, Colin Ston and Trey man to all be ready because it could depend on nightly matchups. So it sounds like that starting spot could be fluid for a while. Yeah. What I’ll ask you because you you know my thoughts on Khan starting and how it looked and how it might look because we did get Treyman LaMelo minutes. I mean we got Colin Ston and Trey man minutes. So, you’re going to experiment with those backcourt players. There’s plenty of permutations you can roll with. What did you make of that comment from Charles Lee? I think it’s smart to leave your options open at this point. I don’t think it’s a reflection Well, it’s a reflection of Coniple being a rookie and you have some veterans that you can, you know, put in and out and and get fluid with the matchups. I don’t think that’s a problem. uh particularly when you know I I just think you got to leave yourself open for experimentation when you’re coming off a 19- win season and just figuring out and you’ve and you’ve introduced a lot of different players. This is not you know they’ve got a lot to figure out in the preseason and I think even extending into the regular season. It’s beyond just the center position. Uh, and so I think Charles Lee, maybe more than anyone on this team, has their work cut out for them just trying to figure out how to put the pieces together on a nightly basis to get wins because this is not a team where I look at it and go, “Yeah, there’s an obvious starting five that you play a lot and you stick with.” No, I think it’s going it’s going to be a challenge for Lee. I don’t think that he would have started the guys that he did if they weren’t high up in their specific hierarchy, right? I think if we we don’t know if Khan’s going to start, but I think that might have to do a little bit more with Josh Green than it does with Colin section or Trey man, at least within the first 20 game sample. I don’t we can’t answer that with Musa. Even if Musa started over Caulkrin, I think you can take something away there, but you can’t take anything away because Mason Plumbley isn’t back with the roster. So Mason still has a absolute possibility of starting maybe even a probability but it it just does seem to me where but for instance I guess the reason I’m focusing on this so much is because I had been singing the tune of just because Khan is a fourth overall pick guys it does not mean he’s automatically going to get a starting spot. Brandon Miller did not start uh start automatically and that was a team that also wasn’t amazing. uh they had more talent probably well and the Hornets got more talent. So just because he was a top five pick doesn’t mean he’s gonna start. But I guess what I didn’t think of Doug is what if he just makes the most sense even as a rookie right away despite having other really good players on your team and Colin Saxon and Trey man who we’ve hypothesized could be top 10 and six man of the year voting this year on the same squad. So yeah, it just makes more sense because you want to emphasize LaMelo and Brandon’s skill set. And that’s actually not even my takeaway. It’s Charles Lee’s takeaway. It’s Jeff Peterson. It’s what they were preaching. We want to maximize the skill sets of our pillars. And if you do that, your pillars are again LaMelo and Brandon. And I think Khan probably does that the best out of the guys that you could put in the back court. Anyway, I just thought that was a big takeaway from uh preseason game number one. He’s a pillar filler. You don’t want a pillar killer. You want a pillar filler. I love it. I really do. I wish I didn’t love it as much, but I think you summed it up really nicely. Okay, starting center. Maybe we move to the five spot because I don’t know, man. It Did you want to Do you want to focus on LaMelo? Like just he was awesome. Like just fun basketball player. Like just onelegged step backs. He does look stronger. I I feel like I can tell the difference in how much bigger he looks. I don’t know. M you’re giving me some weird looks. So what are your thoughts? I think he looks bigger. I just we didn’t see him drive to the basket a lot. This was a a strange game for LaMelo because and well not a strange game. I would say it’s a perfect like preseason game number one. He got out there, he shot some threes. He’s getting his legs under him. I would say the same thing for Brandon Miller who struggled from the field, looked mad at himself at times. He didn’t have a great game, but I think both of those guys are getting their legs under them and getting ready to really explode as we close in on the regular season. So, you know, I I just want to thank LaMelo for putting those highlight plays together because it obscures the fact that they gave up 135 points uh to the the the Oklahoma City scattered showers. It wasn’t even the Thunder. Like, no SGA, no JD, no like it was nothing. And they could not hold that team that was headlined by Aaron Wiggins and Chris Young Bloodood. They couldn’t hold those guys to under 30 points. And I’ll say if you want to critique LaMelo a little bit that he was part of that. He was part of the starting lineup that had a pace of 112.6. So they were executing the we’re going to go as fast as possible that Charles Lee has been preaching since media day, but the defensive rating was 164.7. They could not stop anything. They were getting back cut to death. They were getting hit at the rim to death. It was bad. Oh, 164. Is that good, Doug? 164. No, they were they were minus eight. Uh, yeah, the offensive rating was 125. Like, they look You’re right, it looked fun on offense for both teams because the Hornets could not stop them at all. I hope that was a given when I said that in the first segment because it clearly wasn’t all that fun defensively, but I I also got a lot of what I expected. Maybe I expected a better defensive output with the guys that OKC was playing because you are right to call them the scattered showers. Jaylen Williams, the the other Jaylen Williams, he was somebody that was destroying us going five of eight from three because of the defensive mantra of keep everything in front. We don’t want to give a whole bunch of shots in the paint. Except Jaylen Williams is shooting a bunch of threes. And also, yeah, well, they kind of got some shots off in the paint also shooting 53 and a half 53.2% from the field. and uh shooting 41% from three on 49 attempts uh by the way from OKC and 51 from the Hornets. Um they were letting these things fly. They were letting the shots fly all over the place. This was this was defense optional even from OKC in a lot of the moments here too. Yeah, I would say Briner took that mantra and stretched it to its extremes. He was like, I’m going to keep you in front by being 12 feet away from you at all times. And these are guys and look and car OKC is littered with players that can just randomly shoot threes and some that don’t randomly shoot threes, they just shoot threes. And Jaylen Williams and Carlson uh the the it’s on the scouting report. Um you know you and Cochrer just could either was not willing because he felt like he was going to get beat off the dribble or just couldn’t recover. Um not we maybe we talk about that a little bit in the next segment just for maybe a rookie rundown in general. Um, but I I didn’t think it was I’ll just say like if you went into this game trying to evaluate Ryan Cochrunner’s percentage chance of starting game one, I would say this was not a great game in that in favor of that. Yeah. And that’s what we’ve seen. We we saw that in summer league. We saw that in the first preseason game and he was getting a lot of hype and what he was doing in uh training camp down in Charleston. And I think that’s all fair. I think also they’re talking a lot about Caulkr Brener because uh beat reporters like Rod Boon I think they’re asking about Cochr Brener because he is an interesting player. We hear about him elsewhere and I think that’s why he probably had a decent amount of buzz on your social media feed. So any other thoughts before we move on or you just want to keep it moving go to the last segment and uh give some of the final takeaways. What else you got? Yeah, I think we use the final segment. We just hit some play we just run down and hit some players we haven’t hit. Miles Brid. I you know I thought Trey man had one of the more interesting Here’s my tease. Trey man had one of the more interesting stat lines of of anyone in this. Okay, we’ll go to the stat line in just a moment. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Everywhere. We’ll get to the stat line and we’ll give you our final observations in the first preseason game still to come. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season, it’s 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 how FanDuel gives me so many ways to play. You can build parlays, try player props with the parlays, even follow the live lines during the games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. And whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. So, the box score for Trey Man reads that he scored, scrolling, scrolling, seven points in total. He was three of seven from the field. Took three three-pointers, made one of them. Five rebounds, five assists, only one turnover. It was a team effort with the turnovers. A lot of guys with one, couple guys with two. What other stats did you see from Trey Man that has you believing it was the most interesting? Oh, five assists. I mean, he was the leader uh on the team in assists on a night when really no one could hit shots. So, maybe that was why that happened. But I thought the assist that he did have like he I mean, he threw an absolute rope to Ryan Cochrrener who got fouled on the play, didn’t finish it. But, um I mean, he was he looked good passing the basketball. To me, this was a night when LaMelo Ball was like, I’m gonna go go out there and I’m gonna knock some shots down and and call it a night. And you know, maybe we’ll see more of the full complete point guard game from LaMelo Ball as we get deeper into the preseason. But on this night, I thought Trey Man looked like the best point guard out on the floor. Uh Colin Ston was doing, I think, what you would expect from Colin Ston on the offensive end of the floor, which is putting his head down, you know, getting to the rim, getting to the free throw line. He had seven free throw attempts, you know, looking for his own offense, but I thought Trey Mann was trying to set up others in a way uh that some of these other point guards were not. Yeah. So, some of the things that I think will play out or things that I expect to see going into the regular season and maybe some things I don’t expect to see. Um, you mentioned Colin Ston. How about seven free throws for my guy? He was one of the guys that drew the most fouls in the league last year. That’s exactly why you bring him over is to put the ball on the deck, get in the paint, get to the foul line, and oh yeah, how about making all seven of his free throw attempts, too. Please and thank you, Colin Ston. Welcome to the club. I think also just in terms of the backcourt players playing point guard, it’s interesting to see the pick and roll game, how it looks with Musa and how it looks with Ryan Cochrrener. Because with Musa, everything’s on fast forward, which is fun. It’s hard to defend. With Caulkrunner, you’re going to have to put guys in jail a little bit and wait for Caulkrin to catch up and get closer to the basket. And you’re going to have to lob. That’s where your lobs are going to come from if you’re running that with Caulkrunner. I think with Musa, what I like doing here, Doug, and it came on that flush, is if you give Musa the basketball early on his role, he’s got enough dexterity to where he can put the ball on the floor and actually just go right at you and jump over you with his athleticism. I actually like giving him the ball earlier on those roles where he even has that shot for the push shot. Made one of his put uh push shots in this game off the feed. Uh I think short corner I think Khan found him off of a rebound if I’m not mistaken, but we saw him make that. So he has that option on the roll and he could just one dribble slam one dribble go hard to the basket and try to score. Where with Caulkr Brener it’s okay put your guy in jail wait for Caulk Brener to roll to the basket wait last minute throw a lob or just manipulate the defender as much as you can. I I think pick and roll they look it looks very different with each of those guys out there on the floor. Uh, yes. I thought that Cockr Brener, particularly with Colin Ston, you’re right. It is slower. Everything’s slower with Cockr Burner. It’s more like walker. It’s not like it’s not It is not speedy. burner. They don’t call him burner. They do they do not say that. That’s a fact. They do not call him that. It uh maybe they do ironically, but um I thought it was effective, you know. And again, we have to throw the context in here that he was playing. There was not a lot of side. There was no Chad Homegrren. There was no Hardenstein out there. Yeah, they were small, man. You’re right. OKC OKC was pretty damn small in this one with Jaylen Williams being that center and they had length, but not a whole lot of beefiness. Okay. So, but it was effective. Like if it were ineffective against that small lineup, then I well and I would turn I would turn your attention to example Ton Salon who I thought could not take advantage of the lack of size out there. Missed about a thousand shots at the rim. His play uh was frustrating. It was frightening um considering they took a six overall pick on him. I didn’t feel that way about Cockr Brener. Like there’s obviously some concerns there that we knew about coming in. Nothing surprised me about what I saw in Cochrer. Um but but he was effective off the role and so was Musa Diabate and and so yeah, I mean I think Musa uh really, you know, I still think Mason Plumbley is going to start for the most part, but I can definitely see them trusting Musa to start start a game against some lineups that are a little bit smaller because he looked trustworthy. Yeah. Right. And yeah, I think with all of these guys, I I I view it with Khan, too. Okay, so you don’t want to give up too much size. Colin Sex, if Colin Sexton and Khan Caniple have similar body types, then okay, we don’t want to give up too much size. So instead, we’ll have Trey Man come off of the bench. Cool. So now we go with the the size guys, but now we also want to bring that gravity to the table. And who’s the better shooter of those two? Colin Saxon put up nice percentages in Utah. I don’t think anybody thinks on the kind of volume you hope for in the corner, you’re going to have Colin Ston take a lot of those shots. Like that’s that’s more of a Khan role and then he can attack with guys closing out. And so that thus me thinking a lot more about Khan working with that starting five. Um and with Caulkrunner and Musa, it’s okay who checks off the most boxes. Caulkrunner brings the most size of any of the fives, but also he he’s he’s too slow. Um we did see a lot of that. You can get by with high level thinking as an anchor, but can you expect crazy highle thinking out of your anchor in a first year player? That’s probably asking a little too much. So, do you just want to go with the reaction from Musa who can cover guards at way better at the five spot um and rotate fast enough for you? Like, yeah, you’re you’re going to have to answer a lot of these questions. Um, okay, final rapid fire stuff. Yeah, you’re right about the shooting for Ton. Not great from him. Uh, four fouls, two turnovers, eight missed shots on the 10 that he took. Yeah, just just a bad one and unfortunate because I thought he looked pretty good in summer league. There was still bad, but I thought there was still good in summer league and here I don’t think you point to a lot and say, “Yeah, I love what I got from the former first round pick.” It’s game one. You got to chalk it up and and hope it improves. Uh because, you know, he I think he did check in. Let’s see what what was his first half minutes. His first half minutes were uh eight minutes, so almost equal to Ryan Cochr Brener. I mean, they really spread the minutes out in the first half, but he was one of the names uh that was called. And I mean, honestly, they need him to play better because who knows how long Grant Williams is going to be out. Like, if Grant Williams were healthy right now, you would say, “All right, Tan, go back to Greensboro, see what you can do.” But like, they are probably going to need minutes from from Ton and to have those minutes be good minutes. Um Liam McNeely tough game too I thought uh you know what did he finish with seven points uh two rebounds two assist one of six from the field he did get he drew a couple of fouls was able to get inside and and cause some damage but defensively you I don’t know where the communications were if it was him necessarily but he was caught up in a lot of those situations where like two guys go after the ball one guy just floats over in the corner and somebody else has to recover. So, you know, they’ve got a lot of work to do with the rookies and and figuring out how to communicate all this stuff defensively and when to switch and when not to switch, but Liam was caught caught on a few of those. Uh, so, you know, just that confident and I didn’t see that confidence in that same kind of swagger in summer league. It seemed like, all right, I’ve hit the NBA and now I’ve got some adjusting to do. So still confident in Liam, but if we’re going sort of like did they look like a swarm or a hornet, you know, I think tonight he looked like he belonged on the Greensboro swarm. Yeah, he looked like larvae. Um, so yeah, I’m Tan that this is where your patience is going to be tested the most where we can we can say when you draft the project, hey guys, it’s going to take a while. Just be patient. I think for the most part we hold on to our patients in those raw prospects rookie seasons. And then you need to still practice it in their second year, but that’s when it starts to wayne just because it’s human nature. We can say we’re going to take care of the dog and feed it and give it food and water and then 6 months in. I’m kind of tired of that, Dad. I’d rather just go outside and play. Like I I’m kind of tired of the patience with these guys because they haven’t made a playoff appearance in a decade. Um, so like it even still you have other guys to fill that void right now. I still it’s going to be it’s going to be a minute from Ton. You just hope to see improvement. You hope to see improvement. I think you have to remind yourself of that. But games like this I I could see why people are going to be frustrated. Uh yeah, Brandon Miller didn’t shoot very well. Had a had a couple shots in the mid-range. I I did kind of like using his body and rising above. He did that first that first attempt. I mean, he really like got his shoulder into somebody. It looked good. To totally agree with that. Um, Seion James got some minutes. Probably the most underdis discussed rookie. Uh, one of his minutes. I liked his minutes. I did too. Um, anything else? Final final thoughts of anybody that we didn’t mention that you feel like needs to be mentioned. I just I just have no idea what Spencer Den what he was doing and any of his I just like he was not he was not concerned with transition defense at all. Uh, he was I mean he did have two assists. Uh but yeah, I mean the shot he he just like chucked up a deep three for no reason whatsoever. Like it just I don’t get it. I don’t had some had some interesting comments at media day. Um but I think if you were to cut one of these players, it’s going to be Pat Coneton is the leader in the clubhouse just because he’s the only player you acquired wi without specifically wanting to acquire them. You you signed Spencer Denwitty. You could have not, but you did. All that being said, I it’s still possible that he’s the cut. And I guess if you if you’re looking at both Pat Coneton and Spencer Denwitty, they were among the latter guys to come off of the bench. They were very late. You know, you’re not cutting any of the rookies that you dra just drafted. So, yeah, I they they came off the bench pretty late. Had some interesting comments about Pat from Charles Lee. It sounded a lot like it’s a vet that could get cut comments. We just expect him to come in and be a pro. Like, yeah, I I kind of know what you’re putting down. I’m picking it up. But if Spencer makes these decisions, then maybe he’s the guy. I don’t know. I just Pat looked more engaged. I mean, neither I don’t think really either played very well, but like Pat looked more engaged, but yeah. So, Hornets lose. We’re going to try We’re going to We’re going to put this one We’re going to stare at those LaMelo ball onelegged threes, and we’re not going to look uh at this final score. Those are so confident. I mean, it it’s hilarious how confident he is when he shoots those. I mean, just it it doesn’t matter. I want to be confident in anything in life and execute it like LaMelo with some of the more wild like I’m going to try this in an NBA game and pull it off. It’s unbelievable some of the stuff that he can do. Um they lost, but we’re not panicking over the loss because we have plenty of time. If if I was panicking over preseason losses, then I wouldn’t be able to function. I just wouldn’t be able to survive all of this. Doug Branson Every Hornetsboxcore.com Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fitton. Go check it out. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

The first preseason game is in the books, and while the Hornets fell to the Thunder’s B-team 135-114, the final score is the least important part of the story. The main headline was the outstanding debut of fourth overall pick Kon Knueppel, who earned a surprise start and led the team with 18 points. We explore why his smart, fundamental game makes him a perfect “pillar filler” and an ideal complement to LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, making a strong case for him to be the opening night starter.

While Knueppel impressed and LaMelo provided some signature one-legged threes, there were major areas of concern, most notably on the defensive end. The starting unit posted an abysmal defensive rating of 164.7, getting consistently beaten on back cuts and struggling to offer any resistance. We also give a full rundown of the other key players’ performances, including Tre Mann’s excellent playmaking, Collin Sexton’s knack for getting to the free-throw line, Brandon Miller’s shooting struggles, and the tough debuts for fellow rookies Ryan Kalkbrenner and Tidjane Salaun.

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