Hornets CUT Spencer Dinwiddie! | Why Recente Roster Moves Signal MORE WINNING This Season

Hornets CUT Spencer Dinwiddie! | Why Recente Roster Moves Signal MORE WINNING This Season

It’s been forever, but the Hornets finally cut down their regular season roster to 15. All done with the cuts, at least for now. We’ll talk about Spencer Denwitty being cut from the team, then answer some sicko satchel questions. All 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] 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 podcast and that includes YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. You can find him on his Substack, every hornetsboxcore.com. You can also watch the show he helps produce, Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Finton. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. I saw a YouTube comment yesterday. Can you He was complaining about how this podcast ask the audience to yell game time or ask the other co-host to yell game time. He was complaining about it. I just that is proof that people will complain about anything. That was honestly it was jarring to see a comment that was complaining about that very aspect. I just never thought I’d see that. It’s so beloved. Anyways, it just it was kind of a a surprising comment. Either way, game time. Game time. Game time. That’s for you, buddy. we’re going to shout it out. Um, unreal. It was nice to see other commenters uh jump in and say no, that’s we love that. Please keep doing that. Uh, that was nice. I don’t condone bullying any commenters and I don’t think it rose to the level of bullying, but I think he was firm he or she they were firmly put in their place. What? What is that? Is that you worried about the wrong stuff? That’s what we say around here. Okay. Okay, you’re worried about about the wrong bleep and that’s being worried about the wrong bleep. All right, Spencer Denwitty no longer on the team, Doug. So, they had to cut everybody. I mean, they signed so many players during the off seasonason. They signed a bunch of guards, all of that. And they needed to get the roster down to 15 before the regular season started. It starts October 22nd. That is their home opener, their season opener and their home opener against the Nets. And they finally did it. They cut Spencer Denwitty just three months after signing him to a one-year $3.6 million deal. That was again in early July. And this was always going to be a case cutting it down to 15. The last cut was always going to be Pat Coneton or Spencer Denwy. It was always going to be those two pinned against one another. I’m not surprised that it’s Spencer Denwitty. I thought it would be Pat Coneton. Now, you could have gone either way on this. I thought it was going to be Connetin because he was the only player in question that was not acquired specifically for his talents to be used out there on the court. Pat Conetonin really at least the big reason why he’s on this team is because there was a pick attached to him with Milwaukee wanting to shed salary. So that’s why the Hornets got in business with Milwaukee. They traded for Vasameich because he had a non-g guaranteed deal that would get into their cap space and then they could release him for more cap space. So, it made sense for Milwaukee to attach a pick to Pat Coneton. Anyways, that’s kind of the only reason he’s here. And they, the Hornets did go out and sign Spencer Denwitty to that almost $4 million uh year deal, just the one season. They they went out and got Spencer. They didn’t go out really and go get Pat Coneton. That was the reason why I thought Pat would be the guy. But reality is Pat Coneton is making $9 million. that helps you grease the wheels on any trades you might want to make and it means that you can go get some kind of asset that did always make sense and there was always the Charles Lee Milwaukee connection with Pat Coneton. So it it was always between those two guys clearly Doug and in the end they decide Pat Coneton is going to be on the roster and Spencer Denwitty isn’t. In the limited time that I saw Spencer Denwitty on the floor, I was very confused by his play. And I’m not often confused uh by play, particularly from veterans. I mean, sometime sometimes Tan confuses me. I’ll be honest. Uh but that makes sense, right? I mean, he’s very young, right? Uh and I think he started basketball late, so a lot of that makes sense. But it didn’t make sense to me some of the things that Spencer Denwi was doing in the early preseason. So, I I would say that might have something to do with with why he was the one that ends up getting cut. I would say more though that Trey Mann looked good playing some, you know, backup point facilitator role. Like, he looked good. Colin Ston’s looked amazing. Keniple, uh, apart from some turnover issues, has made some really great passes. So, I I just think they looked at the roster and said, “I’m not sure we really need uh we, you know, we’ve had problems with not having enough point guards in the past, but now I think we’re pretty flush and not necessarily in need of Spencer Denwy, and they had to make a cut.” And then you mentioned the trade piece. I think this is exciting news for Charlotte Hornets fans that want them to eventually make a deal, maybe even make a mid-season deal because that 9 million is a significant uh tool to make salary work and not even necessarily in a one for one Charlotte deals with another team. But in so many of the cases where player X who makes like $50 million wants to move somewhere, but the teams are hardcapped or they’re apron capped and they can’t. You know, there’s all these rules about how many players can go and how many players can come back. And so that’s why these deals can can often get a third team, but even a fourth or a fifth team to make all of the parties happy. So, you know, they got a pick, but I think Pat Conetan could ultimately result in even more picks for the Charlotte Hornets if they get involved in that kind of deal at the trade deadline. And and then that again facilitates what they could do in the next off seasonason. So, I thought this was going to be the case the whole time because I just didn’t think they were going to give up a $9 million expiring deal for nothing versus whatever Spencer Denwy was making that they signed him to. I just thought this was a no-brainer. Yeah. 3.6. So, uh, a couple things here. Maybe we get to the other point a little bit more so in the second segment because it’s one I think we can chew on a little bit, but who is this a vote of confidence in? Um, one, Trey man’s health. So, Trey Mann has the hip injury. I don’t know if you would cut him if there were real concerns about Trey Man’s hip. So, that seems to that’s nice. That’s the easy one to go to. Perhaps a little bit more of a deep cut. Who is this a vote of confidence in? What about KJ Simpson? May maybe to a lesser extent because you have LaMelo, you have Colin. We know about all the two guards here. Trey man as well. But also KJ got a little run in the preseason and still one more game by the way before they play the Nets October 22nd. So maybe with KJ being on that two-way contract, he just wouldn’t get any run if you really did want to roll with the veteran in Spencer Denwitty. And now it’s okay. We have a two-way contract. The value of a two-way is having him going back and forth from Greensboro to Charlotte. If we wanted him to be in Greensboro, then we would just put him on a G-League contract and save that 2-way for somebody else that we think could give us some minutes with the Big Boy squad. So perhaps to a lesser extent, maybe you’re stretching it a little bit, but it makes sense in my brain. Perhaps a little bit of belief here with KJ who is the guy that runs through a brick wall for you who has grown quite a bit. Gave you a lot of nice moments in summer league and Spencer Denwy no longer on the team plus the the whole trade piece part of it. But yeah, man, I think this is decent for Trey man. I think it’s decent for um KJ Simpson as well. All right, let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast everywhere. What else does this waving of Spencer Denwitty mean for the Hornets? As well as all of the exhibit 10 contracts they’re handing out and then cutting those players immediately. Why they’re doing it will explain it and why I think it’s important. We’ll explain that too coming up next. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t 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 using FanDuel because it gives me so many different ways to play. I’ve built parlays. I’ve tried player props, even follow the live lines during the games. That can be fun. It makes watching football even more exciting when you got a little something riding on the action. 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 Locked on Hornets ahead. I’m not sure the waving of Spencer Denwitty means this specifically, Doug, but I am encouraged by it. And here’s why. Because the Hornets go out early in free agency and they sign Spencer Denwitty to that one-year $3.6 million deal. So, it’s a pretty small contract. Is that the actual vet minimum of minimum? Goodness gracious. Minimum. I can speak Dave. If it That’s right. That’s what got in my head. If it’s not the vet minimum, then it’s really close to it. So, no. I don’t want to act like it’s this monster contract, but 3.5 million, decent amount. Okay. So, you signed him to three and a half million and you didn’t think he was going to get cut after they gave him that contract right away. You you just didn’t expect maybe some of the other moves to follow. Okay, you’re signing somebody in free agency. That usually means you want them to be on the roster. It’s how it usually works when you give out that kind of money. We didn’t have this conversation with Mason Plumbley when you signed him. It’s not like they’re going to cut him immediately. So, anyways, then we get to this point. we get to I would say over the last month or so we’ve been hypothesizing it’s going to be Spencer Denwitty or it’s going to be Pat Coneton and we went back and forth on some of the reasons why you would cut both. I do wonder if this means that the Hornets I wonder if this is evidence that the Hornets are more financially motivated to improve this roster and do so at all cost because you are lighting $3.6 million on fire at this point. you’re deciding we gave him that money. I don’t want to sign him and then watch it go away, but I wanted to sign Spencer Denwitty if you’re the Hornets brass. We wanted to sign Horn uh Spencer Denwitty because we wanted some guard depth. We wanted to make sure that we had that in the bag. And I guess we’ll see how the cards fall as the off season goes. All right. Well, now we don’t really need them. Okay, we’ll move on. But at least you spent the money. You were over the roster limit, right? We’ve seen this with Mitch Cupch constantly. They would leave a roster spot open. You You guys know you can go after more players, right? That’s a thing you can do, but they would leave it open for trade reasons, whatever. Really just didn’t want to pay another salary possibly. So, they were willing to pay that salary so much so that they’re willing to pay it even if he doesn’t play for the team because they wanted to have a fail safe in case other things might have happened as the offseason goes on. So, okay, here are issues with this team. They haven’t had a whole lot of talent the last couple of years, and they’ve had a whole bunch of injuries to the talent that they do have. Well, what a great thing to do is is lock up as much depth as possible, even if it means paying a lot more money to do so, and you get through training camp healthy. You get through the preeason healthy, and then the week of the home opener, the week of the season opener, as long as everybody’s good, well, okay. Thank you for basically being insurance, Spencer, but we don’t need you anymore. Off you go. Here’s $3.5 million, please. And thank you. I think that shows a financial commitment that I’m not so sure the former regime would have shown. And this one is, which is encouraging to me, Doug. Is it to you? Well, it shows both a financial commitment, but not an overcomitment to the financials, right? Because there could have been this idea of well, you know, we signed him to $3 million, so let’s just there I think the previous regime would have looked at that and said, “Hey, we got we already paid for it. This is this is an inside.” You’re right. This is an inside joke in my family is I I if I pay for something, I’m going to eat it. Including I paid one time I went to a restaurant outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, and they had like a wing challenge where there was this super hot wing. It had like capsain oil and ghost pepper and all these reaper Carolina Reaper, you know, it was all mixed in a uh your cauldron and then they made these wings, right? So, there was a challenge that if you ate like six or eight of them, uh you got some amount of money, you got your picture taken. I knew I couldn’t do that. I could not I can’t eat that. I mean, you saw me eat the chip the one time I almost died. I had to drink buttermilk on air just straight out of the jug. It was gross. But I wanted to do one cuz it’s just like I one I’ll try it. I want to see what it’s like. And so I get I get one bite into it and I just go into another world. I start having like a vision quest. I’m looking off into the horizon. There’s video of it. Uh maybe I’ll post it. Uh I have to find it on Facebook from long ago. This is many, many years ago, but I’ll find it. I’ll post it. But I started looking into the middle distance. And my my then uh girlfriend fiance, I’m not sure if we were engaged then. And now my wife was across the table filming and laughing at me and said after the first bite, she said, “You don’t have to eat the rest of it.” And I go, “I paid for it, didn’t I?” Like, so that’s, you know, you can be overcommitted to the financials. I should have just put the wing away. Like at that point, I probably would have saved myself a lot of trouble in the bathroom later had I just put the wing away. So all that to say, this is a different regime that is thinking differently than the previous regime that was penny pinching and being both not committed enough to the financials and overcommitted to the financials. So yes, it’s absolutely encouraging to see uh that they went out and got Denwitty. I think both for depth, but also because they really wanted to have a strong training camp. This was something I talked about on this show many many times when leaving that roster spot open. What you’re doing I in in effect is saying, “Hey, the competition level is not very high because there’s already an open roster spot. There’s already a chair open. We can’t even play musical chairs.” The whole idea of musical chairs is there’s one less chair. Somebody’s got to go. Okay? And that’s what the Hornets did in this training camp. And I think it raised the competition level. It also said to the rookies, “Hey, by the way, there’s this veteran right here. He wants your job. Okay? So, you better go out and get it or he’s going to take your job. Again, all that matters. All of that matters. I I agree with you, man. It’s just these these little small moves that you you call them singles, doubles, and they mean more runs even if you’re not hitting home runs. They mean more runs. And no, I’m not talking about your chicken wing and meant for you. I’m talking about just scoring. I was thinking it and I didn’t want to interrupt you because the comments get on me when I interrupt you. I’m so glad we’ve been doing this a long time. I’m so glad you got there. I I you know, it’s right there, man. You know, we we’ll go with some doodoo humor every now and then. But yes, yes, it it does matter. The fact that they did this, it’s okay. We’ve been injured constantly. We’re not going to let that be an excuse. And if it means we have to pay $3.5 million for it not to be an excuse, then we’ll do that. And hey, maybe it does happen. Spencer Denwy, now you’re on the basketball team and nobody else gets to sign you. The other thing is the timing. Even while it was early, this was still not a very deep free agent pool. So, it’s not like you signed him at the expense of going after this really coveted center. It’s not like Dron Sharp was still out there. It’s not like anybody else was still out there that would have been damn useful to the team. You made this move. The timing was nice. The payment was not $10 million. It’s not the Trey Man contract that you decided to light on fire. Um, and so, yeah, I think this stuff matters just like you do. And now we’re here. Knock on wood, baby. Cuz we still have a handful of days before we get to the opener. So I I understand there is some jinxing power that could be had here, but I’m knocking on wood. This is a lot of I’m I’m scared, man. But you know what it is. I just I don’t think the other regime would have done this. And it leaves me encouraged. Did you hear did you hear Dell on the broadcast tempting fate like talking about uh LaMelo Ball being injured in a preseason game against the Grizzlies and Eric was like why are you talking about don’t say it don’t talk about talk about that. Yeah, I know. When Eric Collins tells you not to talk about something like particularly a I wouldn’t call that a fun fact, but it is a it was a a neato fact uh to bring up. Um like when Eric Collins is telling you not to bring up a fact like that, you know you’ve you’ve done something wrong. Okay, let’s move on. Coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast, bees everywhere. Sicko satchel. I also have another point about the Hornets being more financially committed to the franchise. The Hornets owner, I should say, being more financially committed. Uh, shocker, owner cares about his own team. That’s still to come. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. The holidays are going to be here before you know it, which is exciting. But getting your home ready for guests in celebration, that can celebrations that can feel like a lot. Maybe your serve wear needs a refresh or the guest room could use new bedding. Wayfair has everything you need to get your home holiday ready. From Christmas trees and wreaths to bedding, cookware, and outdoor inflatables. Oh, wow. Outdoor inflatables. All right, we’re really partying. 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Between waiting in cues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout, it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. That’s where Game Time comes in. The app that gives the fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast. And it’s easy and it’s stressfree. Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s code lo NBA. Locked on NBA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. More locked on Hornets ahead. Last thing on the being more financially committed. I I don’t Yeah, this one probably a little bit more of uh loosey goosey take. I need to do more research on this, but it does feel like the Hornets with all of the G-League contracts they’re handing out, for instance, I I don’t know how many people have noticed this or are online enough to notice the pattern that happens with these back of uh roster guys, uh back end of the roster guys, but the Hornets are signing guys like Jonas Adu, who is the most recent signing, and then they’re cutting them pretty immediately, right? And so the reason you do that is because you get to give them a bonus and they are a part of the organization and then before you get to the regular season you have their G-League rights. So what you’re doing is you’re assembling your G-League roster. And I don’t remember the Hornets going about it this way though. So okay, you’re exercising that. That’s great. I don’t remember that. It doesn’t mean you didn’t do it, but cool. But you you are like giving these guys money and it’s not a lot at all. Like it’s not a lot of money to give them a bonus for you to then just uh grab their G-League rights, but it at least you’re not just taking the leftovers from everybody else’s teams that are deciding to cut guys and then you pounce on it like, “Oh my god, finally. Thank god they they threw out some sort of decent player.” You’re going out and getting these guys right now. And I don’t know. I I don’t know if that’s all that different from years past, but it feels different to me, Doug. I don’t remember this whole pattern of signing guys and then immediately cutting them. They’re going out and getting guys that they prioritize and they’re paying the money up front in order to get them in the system before they have free reign to go do whatever they want to. So, I just felt like they’re just again an example of some shrewd moves that the Hornets have made this off season. Yeah, I I don’t think that the previous regime never did anything like this. I won’t go so far as to say that. But I’m confident that Jeff Peterson and Schlotkin are being much more aggressive about doing that. And I mean, I look at Musa Diamate as a a big example of that. And going outside of the normal avenues to acquire players, like players that might be kind of attached to another roster, but their rights can be acquired. like going and getting those kinds of players. Like Musa had played a few games for the Clippers and was in their system, but the Hornets noticed something about him that the Clippers didn’t need at the time or didn’t notice and they said, “Yoink.” And so I like that. And I don’t know if Adu is a yoink or not, but we’re going to find out. And that’s the whole thing is that whether it’s totally rooted in fact or feeling, it feels like for sure that they are being more aggressive and that they’re playing the game in a way that maybe it hasn’t felt in the past. And that’s good to see. It is. All right, Siko Satchel time. Or did you want to talk a little bit more about this most recent preseason game, Doug? Where do you want to go? There were a few thing I I do we may have time for one sosatchual question by the end of this but I do want to there were a couple of things I think we left on the floor uh of and and some comments after the game that because we recorded literally right after the game ended so we didn’t have time to get to those comments. Um but one thing that I wrote down in my notebook that I wanted to uh talk about is the fact that I’m I’m pretty sure the Hornets might be good at slob plays now. sidelines, out of bounds plays, these set pieces that for years under different coaches, different rosters, it just seemed year after year the Hornets had a difficult time uh crunch time, middle of the game, beginning of the game, just getting the ball in bounds in a way that could set yourself up to make points. These set pieces and particularly in crunch time are important to winning basketball games. Um, in this game against Memphis, I noted in the third quarter, 530 to go, you had LaMelo with like great inbounds awareness. So, he’s inbounding on the baseline. So, this is a blob play. And Cogrinter’s kind of setting a booty screen, but he’s sort of like maybe going to get the inbounds, but he throws it to Cockrinter real quick and sort of fakes it and then throws it to Cockrinter and then gets to the corner really quick. Caulprinter throws it back to him, knocks down the three, followed 30 seconds later by LaMelo Ball to Miles Bridges for a sidelines out of bound dunk. And I’m like, wait, hold on. Like, what’s Charles Lee drawing up here? You know, so much of coaching, I think, lives in the ephemeral, motivational because so much of the game now is played out of sets, uh, and and more in like, all right, we have some actions that we’re going to try and then it all turns into jazz reacting to what the defense gives you on and on and on. It’s not like it used to be. It used to be like set, set, set, set, set. I’m going to call the play in, the point guard’s going to call, tell everyone else, and that’s how we’re going to run the offense. That’s not how it is anymore. But on these set plays, that’s a that’s a perfect example of like you got to draw those up as a coach and you got to make sure your team can execute them. And for at least this preseason game, they did. And I’ll be looking at it this season to see if they improve. And it makes sense that he would be good at that. Charles Lee being the person in question here, just because he has been good on atto’s like in terms of designing some sets for his guys on uh plays that were after the timeout. So yeah, I mean it would make sense that you would be good if you’re a schemer then this would make sense in that regard. So yeah, I want a schemer. I want a schemer so bad. Barago was good at that. I will say he he he was good. There were other things. The ephemeral ephemeral part probably was the thing that did him in. But yes, the the schemer stuff is good. A little lob on the slob. A little lob on my slob. I love it. Going to Miles Bridges. Those alleys blob into a slob. Blob in the slob. I’m ready for it, baby. Sicko satchel time. What you got? Oh, boy. I wasn’t ready. I was diving into the uh I was diving into the game notes that I had. Let me 36 Mafia lyrics. Is that what you were doing? I apologize. You know, sometimes um see if I can get back to my rundown here because I do have a couple of good psycho satchel questions. Uh one from Bam Bam of the 21st Ricky Pierce Division, aka the flying big paper. Daddy, salute to the psycho brigade. jointsex.comlockonhornets if you want a free trial it submit your question to the psychoso satchel here’s bam bam who would start past versus present last 10 years of former Hornets whether we traded them away or we didn’t ressign them versus our current roster so here’s the sort of example that he gives Nick Richards versus any combination of our three current centers like you taking Nick Richards or you taking the three current centers. Let me tell you what Bam Bam thinks and then you can share your thoughts. Bam. Bam Bam says in my opinion it’s Nick. Even with his stone hands, he’s probably not closing out the games. Uh because basically he’s another plum dog with better hair, but you’re still taking Nick. Um okay, man. Nick Richards, out of all the guys, all right, I’m cool with it. Uh I’d go somewhere different. I’d go somewhere different. Steve Clifford would probably go somewhere different, but Nick Richards, that’s the answer for Bam Bam and what Bam Bam says. I respect. Couple guys come to mind. Center position is where you start. I’m not going to lie, Doug. I’d like to have Cody Zeller on this team. I’ Cody Zeller is somebody that I would bring into the fold with this squad. I feel like little pick and roll with LaMelo. The athleticism, the running. As long as he stayed healthy, if you could guarantee me that he’d stay healthy, that would have to go a long way in choosing him. But bring me that beautiful bald spot with Cody Zeller helping us out at center. You have plenty of guys who are putting up and capable of putting up monster box score numbers. Like if they can keep this thing going like in Memphis, so they can Yes, they can afford to have a player uh that doesn’t do it in the box score ever. Ever. Uh that would be fine on this particular team. Uh can I go with another uh there there are two names that immediately came to mind. The other one outside of Cody Zeller, Marvin Williams at four. So you have your uh you have I know Miles Bridge is there at four, but if you had LaMelo, Brandon Miller, uh so LaMelo, Brandon, Miles, Marvin, Musa, now you can stretch out. You’re you still don’t have the enough height, but I think Marvin would help this team just being leader, defensive player, three-point shooter. All of that would be useful for this squad. I mean, you starting Kimba, you going Kimba, LaMelo, Brandon. Well, Kimba. Yeah, Kima felt like I don’t know. May, maybe I overlooked it. Maybe I played this game. That’s to me, it’s the most interesting one, right? Because you’ve got Kimble and you’re taking I I’m going to just assume here that Bam Bam is going to give us the absolute best version of Kima Walker to answer the question with. And I think you would be you would be forced like he was so good uh that you would you would say Kimba LaMelo uh I mean you’re going to you’re going to need to really figure out your back line defensively but I mean offensively you’re going to be really hard to stop. Is it funny that we don’t have a great center option to go with Cody Cody Zeller is the best option of the last 10 years. Who else do we go with? Can’t can’t think of anybody else. It’s tough because I mean yeah you you would people would go wait a minute Al but Al like it’s I can’t believe it’s been 10 years that this is this question is depressing me for a reason uh that I didn’t expect which is that it reminds me that 10 years ago was you know I mean we’re 15 16 we’re we’re into the 10 year mark since the last playoff and that was really the last gasp of Al Jefferson he did make an impact in that playoff series against Miami But he we all knew we knew it was the end. Yeah. And Yeah. I mean it was even he wasn’t even starting. Uh it was it was Cody that was starting. He was coming off of the bench. So that’s why take that how about that Dwight year. Yeah. I don’t know about all that. It disrupts. Although what a weird what a weird season. Although like LaMelo and Dwight. LaMelo and that Dwight. Like not Dwight now but LaMelo and that Dwight. I don’t know. I mean that the thing about that Dwight is there were there was enough going on behind the scenes where it didn’t seem like Kima liked Dwight and Kima likes everybody. Nick Batum I’ll tell you I Nick Batum did not enjoy that experience. No he did not. So if people didn’t like playing with Dwight then that would be the issue. Who would like Brandon? Brandon probably wouldn’t like it. Uh Miles probably be okay with it. LaMelo I don’t know man. I don’t know. He’s he’s he’s asking for so many postup ops. I mean, that’s not that’s not that’s they don’t want that. Yeah, he’d be great at rebounding, but no, they don’t want that. The the Kimba one. So, basically, you would be just choosing talent. Who’s the best player of the last 10 years? You’d go with Kimba and you would say, you would take all NBA level Kimba and you would say that’s hard to look, I don’t care if there’s positional overlap. If if we’re allowed Kima in this and there’s no rules suggesting otherwise, you probably have to take the dude that was a top 15 player uh for an entire season, his one year here, you know, we got to start. We got to start winning soon cuz I we’re just I think we’re going to if it doesn’t happen soon. I feel like uh Kima is we’re back to the future and Kima is like disappearing off of the photograph like because because there’s been nothing to celebrate in a weird way. I just feel like we’re I don’t think you and I are, but I think there is going to be some forgetting of like just how special I just encourage everyone if you got some free time to just go and remind yourself because there’s no other reason to watch the Hornets in that era because they didn’t win any playoff series, but just go and watch some Kimba highlights and remind yourself that that dude was un there were moments and games where he was unstoppable. Unstoppable. and he could do things on a basketball court that really made your jaw drop. And in fact, Eric Collins uh I just recently saw an interview that he did and he said that like when he you know as he was first starting as broadcaster like Kima was what lit him up uh in terms of like attaching himself to a product that he could get excited about that he could get fans excited about as a as a broadcaster. And I mean, I don’t know, he didn’t say it verbatim, but like Kimba’s might be part of the reason why Eric Collins is still here and and will continue even though he’s gotten scooped up by Amazon is going to continue to do Hornets games uh this season. Uh because Eric Collins fell in love with the Hornets and fell in love with the city partly because of Kima. If you want to go watch Kimba, just if you want the full Hornets experience, just go watch the Kimba 60point performance against Philly and they still lose in overtime. So, you get your typical pain, you get your L, but you get a great Kimbo performance. That’s probably the best example of peak Hornets basketball. All right, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your pods. That includes YouTube, every Hornetsboxcore.com. Go check it out. Yahoo! Sports Daily. Go check that out with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton. And I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

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