Are Tim MacMahon’s comments on LaMelo Ball FAIR or FOUL?! | Ryan Kalkbrenner’s BREAKOUT Game!

Are Tim MacMahon’s comments on LaMelo Ball FAIR or FOUL?! | Ryan Kalkbrenner’s BREAKOUT Game!

Coming up today on the Lockdown Hornets podcast, we have a Hornets victory to talk about in the preeason. Yet, of course, there are some comments about LaMelo we also need to discuss. Tim McMahon, the comments on LaMelo, are they fair or foul? We’ll talk about 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 podcast, and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. There he is. I see him. Every hornetsboxcore.com. You can also check out the show he helps produce, 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. Before I tell you who the show is sponsored by, you held up your finger at me. Did I say something wrong or did I need to include something, Doug? I know. I was just going to uh tell all the Panthers fans out there that we did some Panthers talk on YSD today. Some rare Panther anything Carolina related on a national show. Uh, we were all we were talking about Rico the Freo. Your worlds are colliding. I I don’t know if I did give you that credit today. I told you that I would give you credit. I don’t know if I ended up giving you credit. It’s Miracle After Midnight all over again. Oh, you me I apologize for nothing. It’s mine. It’s all mine. That’s what happens, by the way. The Panthers get a lot more love when you beat the Cowboys or you play the Cowboys, the opposition. You are going to be talked about. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. We talk a lot about the Panthers there and the Hornets also. And now I’ll tell you who this show is sponsored by. It’s 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. Well, I’ I’d like to talk about a win. The Hornets did get a preseason win, 120 to 116 over the Dallas Mavericks this weekend. Okay, I like that. Is that a block material? It’s preseason. They did get a win. Maybe it it probably would have been had Band McMahon on Twitter. That’s right. Band McMahon. Perhaps you know him better as Tim McMahon of ESPN.com. Howdy partners it on the Zack Low podcast quite a bit. He actually was on I believe the Hoop Collective podcast if I’m not mistaken. Is that right? That’s well yeah that’s his podcast that he does with Tim Bondims and Brian Winhorse and had some comments about LaMelo. I’ll allow you to read those here Doug, but they’re comments that uh let’s just say they weren’t all that um favorable in LaMelo’s corner. What did Tim McMahon had to say about our star? Yeah, so the context here is that I think they were talking about a lot of tanking teams. So that I think they were going through their tears and the Hornets were in the the the tank category and so they of course got to talking about LaMelo Ball. So I have two comments here and I thought what we would do is just answer a very simple question. Were these comments fair or are they foul? And so the first comment from Tim is this quote, “Nobody that intelligent should get back cut on a regular basis defensively. He doesn’t care. He does not care to compete.” Unquote. Walker, fair or foul? Um, yeah, it seems pretty foul here. I guess if you’re talking about the preseason, seems pretty foul, which we know Tim McMahon’s opinion on this. You you do a daily show for a a certain team. Um, it’s a lot of podcast episodes that we post here, Doug, and we’re always looking for content and a lot of times we’ll find some content from Tim Bontemps, from Tim McMahon, from Brian Winhor. We are we are going to aggregate some of this stuff as we move along. And a lot of the stuff that we aggregate are comments like these from specifically Tim McMahon where he’s hearing people in the NBA talk about LaMelo the way that they do and he has his own opinions. I know how he feels about LaMelo. This tracks with how Tim McMahon feels about LaMelo Ball the basketball player and I get it. I don’t know if I’m willing to say that LaMelo gets back cut so many times to the point where he just simply doesn’t care and we take that away from I guess was he specifically talking about the preeason game or was he talking about just in general LaMelo gets back cut all the time because I didn’t see the specific case there. Um I I have I have bigger issues with LaMelo in other defensive areas to be honest with you than I do with him getting back cut quote unquote all the time. Uh, but I I thought it was pretty foul to be honest with you. If that’s his opinion, that’s fine. I guess he is calling LaMelo smart. If we wanted to twist the comments to a certain degree, he didn’t say nobody that smart should be back cut. Okay. Thinks he’s intelligent. But no, man. I I thought he was going a little too uh hard in on LaMelo on this one. Oh, LaMelo does have great basketball IQ. It’s just a lot of that is utilized on the or I would say early in his career, a lot of that was utilized on the offensive end of the floor. This is a foul take. It’s foul in the sense of like when you leave meat out on the counter too long. It’s, you know, or or maybe you wait too long to cook meat and it spoils. It’s old. That’s it’s foul in that sense because I think the take is a little old. And Tim Bontimps would come to LaMelo’s defense here a little bit and say when he said he does not compete, it’s like well he hasn’t been on the floor to compete. And I think if you like look at him last season, we said this a lot, particularly when it came to him fouling out of games or racking up fouls early in a game, I said this looks like LaMelo caring a lot about wanting to be a better defender for Charles Lee and just not having the technique, the foundational technique that allows him to do that. And so he ends up trying to recover and he ends up, you know, smacking an arm or fouling. And then you combat you combine that with the frustration fouls and all of a sudden he’s got five or six. Um, and so I think you carry that over into this preseason. Yes, I have seen him get back cut. Yes, I have seen defensive mistakes from him. But at the same time, you know what I’ve also seen, and I saw it in the game against Dallas, which we’ll get to in a bit. I saw a guy that’s refusing to be screened more than I’ve ever seen him refuse to be screened in his entire career. You know, I mean, I I think we particularly his rookie season and his sophomore season, we saw a guy who had great instincts in terms of stealing the basketball, in terms of jumping a passing lane. But the other side of that coin is that it came with a lot of gambles that ended up hurting the other four guys that were trying also to defend his teammates, and he’s doing a lot less of that. And so, I just think that this is less about him not caring to compete. And I think it’s just more about like he spent the first couple of seasons without a lot of defensive discipline and probably not investing enough time into defensive techniques and now he has to do that. And and the and the last thing I’ll say on this is like I will go to Tim Bonim’s comment. He hasn’t been on the floor. Like you I you need that. I I don’t I think to get better defensively, you have to be able to play defense. You have to do it in a real setting. I think it’s to me it’s a little bit different than offense where you can get shots up, you know, you can do different, you can work on dribble moves. I just think defense requires you to be healthy enough to actually play within a team setting and LaMelo hasn’t had that. I could have done a better job of saying why it was foul and I think you hit it on the head. It’s the not caring part that gets so old to me because I don’t think they truly know what LaMelo was about in that regard. Now we go to Tim McMahon who also says this on the heels of the getting back cut comment. He says, “LMO is a mega a mega talent who I just don’t think can be the face of a winning franchise.” And by the way, that’s not considered a controversial opinion when you talk to people within the league. And and quote, like, okay, when you talk to people within the league, maybe you’re talking, fair or foul, you have to declare it fair or foul. It’s foul. It’s foul. Hey, it it’s foul. Carlton Fisk, he can wave at it fair all he wants to. It doesn’t matter. It’s a foul ball from Tim McMahon. My issue is part of the issue is just I hear all this stuff from people like McMahon and yet there’s just never anything attached to it. Right? I don’t know how substantive it is when people say the stuff about LaMelo. I don’t know the sources that Tim McMahon is talking to. Are they within the Hornets organization? Are they sources that actually are in the know about who LaMelo is as a guy? If that’s the case within the league. Sure. Sure. then then maybe I would take this uh a little more seriously. But if people within the league are saying this about LaMelo, they could be speculating just as much as the next guy. It doesn’t mean whoever you talk to within the league knows Jeff Peterson so well that those two guys are talking about LaMelo constantly and this person has an opinion on LaMelo based on somebody that actually knows LaMelo. I I hear this stuff all the time and yet I watch LaMelo compete defensively. Sometimes he gets lost. But I think you’re right. The fouling is because he gets frustrated. That that’s still bad. Fouling is fouling. Fouling leads to poor decision-m. Fouling is a bad play. Don’t foul. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t care. I don’t think LaMelo is lazy when he foul. I There can be lazy fouls for sure. Those aren’t lazy fouls. They’re frustrated fouls. Why are you frustrated? Because you care. because you want to do well at this thing. And that’s how I view LaMelo in that case. So, I I know how Tim McMahon feels. I know the sources that he’s hitting up apparently also feel the same way. That’s fine. I just don’t know enough about those sources. I don’t know enough about what Tim McMahon is enough about why he’s basing his opinion the way he is to say, “Oh, well, it must be an issue.” I don’t know that. I don’t know if these people know LaMelo like that. I I I haven’t heard anything. I don’t I don’t have a lot of sources. I don’t hear people talk about him in the Queen City like this. Maybe they’re hiding it. That That’s the stuff that I get frustrated talking about myself though. Here, Doug. Yeah, the definitiveness of this take is foul to say like he cannot he can never be the face of a a winning franchise. He just hasn’t done it yet. And that’s why I lean mostly fair on this evaluation because he does say, “Hey, he’s super tal he’s mega talented.” I agree with that. Um but you know he hasn’t there’s been no evidence of him really leading a winning franchise that wins playin games that wins playoff series and playoff games. So and if you’re somebody looking at it from the outside you’re going to evaluate it on that. And and the other I think a little bit fair part if if someone did feel that way within the league. They they have the Hornets have not won. LaMelo has not played a lot. He’s been a little inefficient at times and made some mistakes when he has played. He hasn’t played in a lot of big games. Um he hasn’t won any big games. And the other thing I would say is like the face of a winning franchise means a lot of things and sometimes it means like you being out out in front, you know, answering questions and being marketed by the team. That’s something that’s been a little bit of a struggle here in Charlotte. And I thought media day he was a lot better in this media day. Like that’s part of leadership. part of leadership is answering tough questions and being able to say, “Hey, we’re going to get out of this and here’s how.” And so, you know, hopefully we see some of that this year, but this his story is not completely written yet. Um, and so that’s, you know, that’s the exciting thing for Hornets fans and it’s why it’s why this is a little bit foul, but also a little bit fair. Lit. I have more thoughts on this. Let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lockown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. More fair or foul. Plus, we’ll dive into some of the observations we had from this Hornets victory over the Mavericks 120 116 in their third preseason game. That’s still to come. 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, designed to give you real-time guidance and endless ways to move. Whether you’re running, lifting, or crossraining with your favorite instructors, this is training reimagined. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs with tools that help you plan, stay motivated, and reach peak performance. You can love how Pelaton IQ system offers real-time strength coaching. That’s something you might love. You might love that it actually tracks your reps. Maybe something you like is that it suggests the right weights for you and corrects your form, making every rep safer and smarter. There are lots to lots of things to love with Pelaton and Pelaton IQ. So let yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Pelaton Crossraining Tread Plus today at oneplaton.com. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. A couple of other things on the LaMelo fair or foul discussion as it pertains to Tim McMahon’s comments with LaMelo. It reminds me a lot of the constant takes that just float in the ether, but there’s nothing that I can point to of substance to make those rumors true. And it’s that LaMelo doesn’t want to play in Charlotte, that he’s going to be a star that wants to play in a bigger city. It’s one of those things to me where it it feels like a lot of people say it. And yet, I still don’t know how true it is. How many times do we see that every single year? Well, LaMelo wants to go to LA. He’s from LA. Okay. spends a lot of time in Charlotte. He’s never said it. In fact, he’s said the exact opposite of how much he loves it here in Charlotte. But I think the default take most people have when they think just on a surface level uh standpoint of Charlotte and LaMelo, they say, “Ah, he wants to go to a bigger market. He’s a big market kind of guy.” All right. How do you know that? I He’s from LA. He’s from LA. Okay. Okay. Sure. Um, the other thing is it feels like you’re doing the irresponsible meteorologist thing if you’re Tim McMahon and you’re calling a watch a warning. There might be a whole bunch of things here that lend itself to LaMelo seemingly being a lazy, selfish player. Except that I don’t know if we’ve seen the actual storm. I don’t think we’ve seen the lazy storm take place. The Hornets are a bad basketball team. LaMelo maybe is a little juvenile in nature because he acts quote unquote immature. We look at LaMelo and we think the stereotype I guess is that he might be a player that is a ball hog cuz he gives the one-legged stepbacks and he isn’t passing nearly as much and the defense is terrible for this Hornets team and he’s the lead for so he’s just lazy, right? He’s just he’s he’s a lazy defender. Are we sure there’s a storm here? Like is there a warning? Have you seen it? or do you feel like there are just conditions right for a storm? Because if it doesn’t mean that there is one. So that’s how I view Tim McMahon’s take. Uh you your your take there reminded me of two things. One that producer Katie always gets confused over watch and warning. And so I tried to help by saying watch is watch yourself. There might be a tornado. This is important in Nashville because we get them all the time. Now warning is warning. warning tornado. We’ve seen it. It’s outside your window. Um, so hopefully that helps someone out there. That’s the difference between watch and warning. Well, real quickly, Brad Panovich has a pinned tweet comparing watch to warning. A watch is if you have eggs and all the ingredients to make a cupcake, but a cupcake is not made. A warning is the actual cupcake. That’s that’s the warning. So, cupcake watch means you have the ingredients to make one. Cupcake warning is mayday mayday. There’s a cupcake in the kitchen and I’m gonna have to eat it. Okay. I don’t I don’t think there’s a cupcake anywhere near this LaMelo Ball situation. I’ll I’ll also say that it reminded me that during that Dallas Mavericks uh preseason games. Good segue into our preseason observations. Uh I had to observe the Dallas Mavericks uh team call the game because I I don’t think EC or Dell were on the on the call. I don’t think it was broadcasted on. Were they? Was it broadcasted on? I had to go back and watch it. So, I don’t know. I don’t think so. So, I listen to Dallas I listen to the Dallas team and LaMelo is early in the game and LaMelo just hit like a may maybe I’m just getting used to it now, but he hit a crossover into a little runner. Uh it wasn’t anything like crazy by LaMelo’s standards. And the guy was like, “This guy’s a circus player.” And I’m like, “Really?” Like, it wasn’t even it wasn’t even that big of a deal. Uh but you know that people say things and words stick. You know this to me illustrates the the the larger point here which is that in the absence of something something has to fill the vacuum particularly when it comes to players that people love to talk about. So, like if LaMelo had played, you know, 60-ish games over the past couple of seasons and the Hornets didn’t win anything that you would have people with some evidence saying like, “Hey, maybe he needs to move on. He’s not doing that.” You know, but but in the absence of that, people are just saying whatever they feel. Yeah. And and the last thing too, you know, Zack Low, I think he was going he was making the rounds. remember the clip that went somewhat I guess Hornets viral when he said LaMelo has to figure out if he wants to be a basketball player or a carnival act. He’s got to figure that out. And then he actually would go on to give us some real substance as to what he meant. I I think Zach’s been pretty fair to LaMelo and the Hornets in a lot of the last couple of years what he’s had to say about the team. So if you want to say, okay, LaMelo is taking a lot of shots. I don’t the shot selection is certainly questionable in a lot of different areas. I that that’s all fine. I I don’t want to be this guy that has LaMelo blinders on. Don’t say anything about my favorite player. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t want to speak to it like from a super fan point of view, but I I do think there are reasons that LaMelo has not been amplified because of the lack of talent around him and the infrastructure has been pretty terrible. What I want to see is a team that has supplemented him well enough to truly get the best out of LaMelo. And I don’t think we’ve had that since LaMelo’s second season in the league. And this year we do. I’m hoping that everybody stays healthy well enough to where we can actually start to answer some of those questions ourselves, Doug, rather than see the cupcake ingredients and, you know, have all these people call it a cupcake when all we do is have eggs on the counter. That’s it. Well, and I I’ll say the same thing that I’ve said for years on LaMelo, uh, because he hasn’t played a lot. I’m glad that people are saying these things because now I hope these things find their way to LaMelo somehow and I hope it fuels him and I hope he stays on the floor and I hope he proves everyone wrong. Um so that’s you know that’s that’s just the end of the story for me and he had a great game here against Dallas if Tim McMahon bothered to watch. I think he covers the Mavericks. He scored 20 six assists, three rebounds, eight of 13 from the field. Uh 50% from three on eight attempts. It was a fantastic game and I think honestly a real growth preseason for him defensively and a and a good offense. He’s starting to ramp up really the offense. So he’s he’s having a great preseason. Uh if we want to finish up LaMelo stuff here and then go into more preseason observations. Can I just say LaMelo has been totally comfortable this entire preseason. I love that he’s getting off to a hot start. I think pretty clearly he’s been the best basketball player on this team. He’s played like it. He’s in a rhythm. like it it feels like he’s totally comfortable. He’s got his fingerprints all over the basketball game. He’s taking shots when he wants to. He’s hitting a high degree of difficulty shot selection. Uh or a lot of the high of degree of difficulty shots that he’s taking. Uh I I think yeah, he had a couple of turnovers, but even still just a plus 27 and plus minus if you subscribe to that sort of thing in this game against Dallas. I I am highly encouraged about what LaMelo has shown us this preseason. Not that I think he’s incapable of that. Not that I needed to have some belief in LaMelo, but that we’re hitting it like right away. You’re telling me we have a grownup media session and we have a grown-up preseason. Are are we just going to get a straightup grownup star level basketball player with talent around him this year? It feels like conditions are right for that kind of storm to happen. That’s what it feels like. Uh, by the way, he took a charge in this game and then in the game against Oklahoma City, he switched on uh to Shay Gilis Alexander and instead of getting baited into the classic SGA uh foul grift, he got an offensive foul charge to SGA. So, he played great defense and let SGA uh let SGA commit the foul instead of actually committing the foul. So, just two more two more little pieces there of LaMelo giving a little bit more on the defensive end. What is Tim McMahon talking about? All right, more observations coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Beast everywhere. It’s a wild ride trying to figure out who’s going to start at center. You’re telling me Ryan Cochrrener is now back or shooting guard. Or shooting guard maybe. Big questions. Oh my god. I don’t know what’s happening. Colin Ston gets a start. Caulkrren gets the start and you know what? goes seven of seven from the field and grabs 10 rebounds the with the starters. Plays 25 minutes with the starters. All right. Well, more center conversation stuff coming up on uh the Locked on Hornets podcast. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season, it’s here, folks. 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 makes watching football even more exciting when you have 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 fanul.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. This episode is also brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth. Whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally, feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code lockdown NBA. Add monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s a 50% off order, or excuse me, that’s 50% off your first uh year at monarchmoney.com with code lockdown NBA. More lockdown hornets ahead. Preseason observations. LaMelo, he played well. He’s played well the entire preseason. Do we have to go to the center rotation and talk about Coaulbrrener playing in this one? Cuz it felt like that’s what most people were discussing after this game and now there’s a real possibility that he starts. Is there a real possibility? You tell me, Doug. What do you think? I think he’s gonna start in certain situations. Um I I think that was a good situation for him against uh Lively and then you know AD wants to play four so Miles Bridges took that assignment like him against AD that wouldn’t be great but we’ve seen look Caulk Briner is going to be great when he can hang closer to the basket when he’s got to jump out. That’s when he’s going to get burnt. he has uh he has gotten burnt on those drops a lot and and so the Hornets are probably just going to have to live with it in certain situations and just dare certain guys to take three-point shots. So, I I think he’s going to get the start in certain situations. I mean, Mason Plumbley not really playing well so far in the preseason. Again, maybe part of that is the ramp up uh not getting the ramp up because he had to miss some time heading into training camp. So, I don’t know, but he’s not he’s not been playing very well. And then, um, Musa Diabate, you know, again, I just think that they they see him at what what did Charles Lee say early on as like a change of pace, like somebody that I think they can if they need to switch more, if they need to have somebody that needs to get out and guard a three-point shooting big, uh, they they might go there. To me, what’s more interesting than than the center position, though, is the shooting guard position where they’ve started Conciple, they’ve started Trey Mann, who was hurt in this game. Uh, looks like he’s going to be dayto-day by the way, according to Charles Lee at the latest practice. Hip soreness is the designation. So, he only got a couple of minutes in this game, but he seems to be okay, thank God. And then, uh, but in this game, Colin Ston getting the start. And I think Ston I would just go so far as to say he’s outplayed well I’ll say I think he’s outplayed Trey man and Kenaniple just straight up. And then the other thing that I would say is that I think K Colin Ston and LaMelo Ball together have looked like the best pairing of of those of Trey Kipple Colin Ston. So to me, I think this game, they’ve got a couple more to go here, but I think this game cemented for me that you start Colin Ston, you let Coniple and Trey man do damage off the bench. That it it didn’t cement it for me. I think there’s still a shot Khan Canipple starts. They’re still playing him a lot of minutes here, Doug. Even in this one where they wanted to have Caulkr Brener play 25 minutes with the starters, get a feel of different groupings and see what the chemistry is like. Khan is still playing a ton, which it makes sense. I don’t want to make too much of it. top four pick, gets a lot of preseason run his rookie year. That makes a lot of sense. But also, Khan, I think because of what we saw in the first game, there’s so many different things that allow you to connect pretty seamlessly one through two through three with Brandon Miller playing the three in that coniple shooting guard position. And I think Collins can still do it. I wouldn’t be surprised by any means if Colin ends up starting because of what he can give you. But it does feel like the uh it it feels like the chemistry between those three, the ball moving, I feel better about it. I think Khan is going to be a better volume shooter than what Colin Ston’s going to be. Do you just Here’s my question. Do you want to rely on Colin Sting getting to the foul line in with that second unit as just a baseline offense? Hey, our second unit isn’t getting the job done. Colin, get to the foul line so we can just tread water and and with the starters, we just allow like LaMelo and Brandon and Khan to kind of cook and then you can have different groupings there. I It’s still tough. I’m with you. It’s still really hard for me to try to figure out who’s going to start at two, but it was not cemented for me with Colin. And I don’t know that Colin Ston would necessarily close games, but I when I’m talking about starters, I I’m not even really talking about who’s going to play the most minutes within a given game. like rotations are are are such that you know you can play around with those minutes all you want to in the middle of the game and and a certain guy who didn’t start gets more minutes. So if that’s if Khan is on a heater or if Trey man is on a heater, he just gets left in there a little bit longer than Colin on a given night. The reason why I think this game cemented it for me, it was as much about Colin Saxon’s preseason as this game, and I’m not just taking this game and and sort of like putting a too much of a spotlight on it, but I thought this was very much a rookie coniple, like making passes that he probably shouldn’t have made, not seeing things because because he was playing some starters for the first time and and a lot of talent maybe for the first time that and I guess OKC gave gave him a little bit of that too in the second game, but like he he had a few turnovers in this one where I was like and I think he had five five total is his most of the preseason. Yeah. And so I think like when you’re talking about how do you want to start a game, you know, I think you’re just I think Charles Lee is going to ultimately be more comfortable early in the season as Khan Canipple gets up to speed and I think he will get up to speed very quickly. Like I could see Colin Saxon starting the first 20 games and maybe maybe he gets hurt or maybe they just, you know, Khan Kipple’s playing so well off the bench that they just decide to make the move, you know, midway quarter through the season, midway through the season. Like I very much see that. I just think Charles Lee is going to look at it and say, “Who could I depend on the most?” And that’s going to be Colin Ston. Yeah. And you know what? Maybe it’s as simple as we don’t want to throw too much at Khan right away. it’s easier to bring him off of the bench to play against other second units and wean him into the NBA caliber game and Colin is already used to it. So, let’s just throw him as the starter. Maybe it’s as simple as that. And then Charles Lee can reap the benefits of being praised by using the rookie the right way and not throwing too much at him. I think that’s a favorite thing of NBA analysts. Well, they did a great job with him. They made sure that he was ready and then once he was ready, they put him in the starting lineup. You put him in the on the bench to start off. So maybe it’s just as simple as answering that question. Uh final thoughts here on the preseason game against Dallas. Oh, I thought it was just a good effort by everyone. Again, continuing the theme that we’ve said like they’re going to struggle at times defensively. Miles Bridges, shout out to him, man. He was he was on fire from three. Really set the tone for them offensively in the first half along with U. LaMelo Ball. Uh, so I thought he had a great game. I thought Brandon Miller bounced back a little bit. Yeah. I mean, 15 points, five assists, two rebounds, six of 10 from the field. So, a good bounceback game. Uh, he felt in control in this game. Um, and then again, I think Colin Ston running around with his uh head cut off, man. 21. He was a plus 21 in this game. All the starters were cog 24. Yeah, they just cr just absolutely crushed. Um, Ton man, I mean, we could talk about him more maybe tomorrow, but he just looks underwater. I just think like and and uh my guy Evan Hill, who’s helping me out on Every Hornets box score, wrote this in the uh in the Every Hornets Boxcore write up that it just looks more and more like Tan’s got to go back to Greensboro and just like start with some basics, get some fundamentals figured out and get in a little bit more of a groove because he looks like he’s drowning right now. Uh, Tan hit a three. That’s going to go a long way in helping you out, but there’s a lot of other things that are going on. A lot of other stuff. Although, I will say, and this is small sample size theater at its best. I was looking at the uh points per possession on defense for uh the Hornets because I wanted to see where LaMelo Ball was. Uh, Tan Salon actually number one in points per possession allowed on the defensive end of the floor according to Synergy stats at 6. LaMelo Ball second on the team at 667. Trey man, Coniple behind him. Again, preseason small sample size, all the caveats in the world. But it is interesting that in a training camp where Charles Lee puts the onus on guards needing to step up and stay in front of your man and do what you got to do to to, you know, help the backline out that’s obviously, you know, hurting, not as talented as many others in the league. like you’ve got Ball, man, and Canipple all there uh doing some good work uh defensively along with uh Colin Ston. So, you know, that’s that’s good. Again, that all that stuff’s going to even out and you know, those numbers are are not telling the whole truth. Uh but I think that’s encouraging to see that all those guys are obviously giving effort. Um what so we should talk just a tiny bit more about the way Caulk Brener looked in this game because here we are talking about him and whether he starts. He was seven of seven from the field. He had 14 points. He had 10 total rebounds. He had four offensive rebounds, one block, one turnover and a couple of fouls. I mean, you know, every single bucket that he scores is right next to the rim. He gives you that rim threat. And Spurs Muse tweeted this out as Luke Cornet propaganda, but Ryan Caulkrren is also getting a boost with this point. Spurs Muse tweeted out most preseason points on zero three-point attempts so far. It’s Caulkr Brener with 33 this preseason and it’s Cornet with 32. And then Spurs Muse tweets out, Luke is truly the hero. We need it. Uh maybe Caulk Brener could be as well as providing some size. I I just think again he’s the only dude with that size on the team and it feels like Charles Lee wants him to be ready possibly faster than what he is. But if the coach wants you to be ready before you are then you might just get playing time before you 100% deserve it. Um I’m not even saying he doesn’t deserve it. He looked good. He did well in drop coverage but before you’re ready. Uh before if you’re going to do that Yeah. if you’re going to do that. No, I’m just I’m I’m backing you up. Like it’s not it’s not that he doesn’t deserve it. It’s just before he’s he would be 100% ready. And again, if you’re going to do that, why not do it on a team that doesn’t necessarily have playoff expectations? And we can judge that accordingly. I will say this about Cochr Brener, he’s the smoothest off the roll and and the best finisher of any of these uh bigs that we’ve seen so far. Most consist like I love when he’s running the pick and roll with Colin Saxon. I love when he’s running it um with LaMelo Ball. So, you know, again, if the Hornets are going to have to outscore teams, I would like the center that I’m most confident can put it in the bucket when he’s 2 feet away. Um and that’s and that’s Cochran. Now, obviously, I would love if he could put it in, you know, from whatever 20 something feet away three-point line, but uh we’re probably going to have to wait on that. I I like him starting starting with the easy stuff, you know, and then we’ll figure out the rest. Well, that’s it’s funny. Here I am talking about how he’s the only guy on the roster that possesses the skill set in which he has. But you know what else that means? He’s the only stretch five or potential at a stretch five that the Hornets have cuz you’re not getting it from Musa. I’m sorry. He can shoot. He he he even told you this offseason like, “Yeah, I’ve been working on it. I don’t think that’s going to be really a part of my game this year.” He flat out told you that. And we know Mason’s not I mean Mason what you want three-pointed or excuse me, you want left-handed three-point shots now. Well, let’s stop at the free throw line with the left-handed jumpers. We We’re not going to extend that range to three-point line. Caulkriner, it’s in there. It’s in his bag. I don’t know how often you see it, but it’s in his bag. So, he does have a few things about him that nobody else really has. All right, that’ll do it. Lockdown Hornets, thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your pods. That includes YouTube, Doug Branson, every hornetsboxcore.com. Also, check out Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 PM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

On today’s show, we’re recapping the Hornets’ first preseason victory, a 120-116 win over the Dallas Mavericks. The story of the night was a brand new starting lineup that featured breakout performances from some unexpected players. Rookie center Ryan Kalkbrenner had a perfect night, scoring 14 points on 7-of-7 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds, making a massive statement in the ongoing battle for the starting center spot. LaMelo Ball also continued his fantastic preseason, looking comfortable and efficient while pouring in 26 points with a +27 plus-minus. We also look at bounce-back games from Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges.

Then, we turn our attention to some controversial comments from ESPN’s Tim MacMahon about LaMelo Ball. We play a game of “Fair or Foul” with his critiques, including his assertion that LaMelo “doesn’t care to compete” on defense and that he “can’t be the face of a winning franchise.” We have a spirited discussion, arguing that these national media takes are outdated and fail to acknowledge LaMelo’s improved effort and the lack of talent he’s had around him for most of his career.

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