Why this Hornets season FEELS DIFFERENT | Miles’ efficiency & Sexton’s aggression CHANGES everything

Why this Hornets season FEELS DIFFERENT | Miles’ efficiency & Sexton’s aggression CHANGES everything

It is the week of the season opener, the home opener. We’ll give you the top storylines heading into the Hornets regular season and some tidbits about renovations, the height scandal. What’s going on with the Hornets players heights? What can we get this right already? 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 podcast. That includes YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. You can find him on his Substack. Every hornetsboxcore.com. A new season launching as the Hornets new season is launching. Also, Fine Doug producing Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Sports Radio 927 WFNZ. And 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. That’s nice. You can use that across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. So, lots of stuff to get to. It’s opening week, man. Here we are. Wednesday. The Hornets will play their first regular season game. And I think your sentiment, yes, let’s go. It’s a very serious, yes, let’s go. Maybe more so than in years past, because it is nice to get to the regular season, but I don’t know if we’ve felt this good going into other regular seasons, not in recent memory, right? It looks like they’re going to be fun. They’ve won on the margins. They’ve hit all these doubles and singles as we’ve characterized it, as we’ve characterized the Jeff Peterson off season. So perhaps this is a good reminder for people getting into this year um what the main story lines are. So let’s start it off here. Doug, what are the main story lines going into this year? I think the most important story line of all the story lines is just that the Hornets seem to be taking this season more seriously than they have seasons past. And I mean that like on a player level. It seems like everyone has a different focus for this season. It’s less about like, well, we’ll see what happens. You know, we’re we’re just getting back from injury, da da da da. No, everyone’s kind of locked in on really getting focused on the defensive end, but also playing faster. And then just from an organizational level in terms of adding depth around LaMelo Ball, in terms of adding savvy older rookies who can, you know, contribute immediately, it just seems like while this team may not have playoff expectations attached to it automatically as we enter game one, they are a more serious team than they have been, I don’t know, uh, for like four or five years. Yeah, it seems like that the second year for LaMelo maybe. So maybe not quite that because it it felt like they were going after Gordon Hayward to help with LaMelo immediately. Terry Roier was good. They were above 500. That counts for something that was in a strong Eastern Conference at that time where four games above 500 only got you a playin spot and we know what happens when they get to the playin tournament. So I’m with you. There is a level of seriousness that this team seems to be bringing compared to the last couple of years. I’ll focus on LaMelo and Brandon. It’s all about the leap. I I I wrote down five offseason storylines that I think are the most important. The first one I wrote down kind of just thinking about it from the top of the dome, but I think this is it. I like this list. Melo efficiency leap, Brandon overall leap. So, if those two guys are going to be your dynamic duo, that if that’s the duo you’re really going to lean in on and say, “This is who we are. Everything else, it matters.” But the talent around those guys, it has to be good enough to supplement their natural ability. But now, LaMelo has guys to pass to and you don’t have to shoulder the load all yourself. Same thing with Brandon Miller. It’s when you do have to shoulder the load because you are still the best two players on this basketball team. Can you do it when defenses throw their most physical defender at you and try to take you out of the ball game? How many answers do you have for the opposition? And it doesn’t even just mean creating your own shot in the half court. It’s making the right decision off of that with the passing ability of LaMelo, not needing to feel like he has to be the guy and Brandon Miller just becoming a better overall basketball player by making the right pass, putting the ball on the deck and not turning it over. I think it’s the overall improvement of those guys and really the efficiency leap. Can we get somewhere close or even beyond what LaMelo gave us his second year in the league where man, those were awesome numbers and that’s the last time you had adequate talent around you? Brandon Miller just looking like an all-star that he was drafted to be the second overall pick. It all starts there. What can LaMelo bring for you? What can Brandon Miller bring for you? It it starts there, Doug. Yeah. Can Can the Hornets put enough winning around LaMelo Ball to get him an All-Star bid? I mean, I think that’s going to be an important season story line. In terms of LaMelo and Brandon both in the off season, I thought a big story line was both of them putting a little bit more weight on. And you mentioned Yeah. the the the physical nature of how how people were defending them. You know, I think that was a huge offseason storyline and then just putting more around them uh and shooting talent. I mean, I think they’ve they’ve done a much better job in this preseason than they did all season long last year uh shooting the the three-pointer, particularly I mean, Miles Bridges, but we’ll get to that when we talk about this last preseason game against the Knicks. I mean, Miles is completely locked in in a much different way than he was last season when when all the talk was like he’s got his hops back, you know, he can he can dunk again. And it’s like, well, maybe he doesn’t need to dunk. I mean, if he’s going to hit like six or seven threes a game, then, you know, you don’t need to dunk. Uh so I you know I think like for LaMelo what’s going to be super important particularly early in the season is that trust level that he has with the rest of this team that he doesn’t feel like he’s got to put the team on his back and play superhero all the time which I think he felt rightfully so at the beginning of last season as you saw Brandon start the year well he started with an injury but then when he came back before he left for the season with the wrist injury when he came back, he was in a little bit of a slump that he had started to work himself out of when the Scapaluna thing hit. So, LaMelo took a lot on him. Miles didn’t get off to a particularly great start either. So, everyone again, I just think took this off season as much as they could seriously uh you know, depending on their injury status, but everyone just seems more prepared and locked in in a way uh that I just don’t recall uh since you mentioned it. I mean, the 43 the 43 win season. It all speaks to the seriousness which is a good a good umbrella to speak under with all of this stuff. You mentioned the depth. I had that if I had the five story lines. First one is mellow efficiency leap. Brandon overall leap. Fourth is is the depth for real and that was fourth but we’ve already touched on that a little bit. Doug, I’ll give you one more before we go to break. It the way we feel about this offseason. It all started with one move in particular and it started when they traded for Colin Ston and Jeff Peterson this year he drafts Khan Canipple and then he trades Mark Williams and the first move he makes outside of draft day decisions is trading Ysef Nerkich to Utah for Colin Ston and you also get the pick attached to it which is just it’s wild that that still happened. But now what you’re seeing with Colin Ston is everyone talking about him being a culture changer. There are stories being written about him by Rod Boon. He is the topic. He is the point of emphasis in some of these national basketball podcasts when you look at the Hornets cuz it’s a big move that they made. And he brings something that LaMelo hasn’t doesn’t necessarily have for you. At least he hasn’t shown yet. He brings a different element of basketball that you have not had in quite some time. And speaking of seriousness, here we go. That seems to be the word of the the podcast. But all of that stuff it. So that’s the other one is the Colin Ston edition here. What’s his impact? Cuz I mean I think you could argue he’s already provided a monster impact just based off of practice stories. Yeah. I think even more than seriousness, you could take it a step further and say aggressiveness, competitiveness. um that is and they love to say competitive joy which I now you know he’s attached that so much to Colin Ston that I’m now just I’m now thinking that competitive joy just means being a bleep hole and that’s what the I have been screaming that is what the Hornets have needed for many many years is just to get a couple more bleoles on this team who annoy their own teammates a little bit but more importantly they annoy the opposition with how competitive they are and that’s what we saw not only from Colin Ston but we’ll go to another offseason story which was the Hornets won a championship, a summer league championship. They won hardware and so much of that was because Khan Canipple was seriously competitive. I mean, think about, you know, he had the headband, the bandage, he was head wound hairy there for the final game, but he played he played most of he played whatever he could in the summer league apart from some injuries. And like, man, I mean, he’s just bringing a different level. Collins bring a different level. I think Miles Bridges has br brought a different level of competitiveness and and veteran leadership. And yeah, I mean, I just think they’ve injected this team. And also, I will say like I think the move to trade Mark Williams was obvious because they had already tried to trade him. Um, there was that. Yeah. Right. So, like you had to do something because he was not really a fan of the team after that. But I thought even the instinct to trade him the first time to Los Angeles was right in that you needed to you needed to move out the players that were not about the Charles Lee competitive joy and bring in the players. And so I thought we saw step two of that process with Colin Ston and and also I mean even some of the veterans that they brought in that we haven’t seen much you know like Pat Coneton but I’m sure they’re contributing in their own ways too. But just all of these players that are just upping the aggression level. Um that’s going to pay dividends for the Hornets this season. Okay, we have a couple more storylines to get to coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. Everywhere. We’ll round out the five that I have and then we’ll get to some final preseason game thoughts against the Knicks. A lot to chew on with that Knicks game. That’s all 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. 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That’s one story I have. The next one, Colin Ston impact. We’ve already talked about the depth. The two other ones I have written down here, Doug, I do have center rotation because that was such a talking point both for the offseason and just where we are now, right? Like it’s still that like Yeah, it’s not gone away at all, right? It has not Charles Lee talked with media I think during one of the practices I think actually the practice today. He said, “Look, we got three starting spots already locked up. We all know what that is. It’s LaMelo Ball’s going to start. Same thing with Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges. Bang, bang, bang, cake, easy. Now we have to figure out who the starting shooting guard is. Colin Ston, I think, is the leader in the clubhouse, but there’s an argument to bring him off of the bench and just let him wreck shop against second units. I could see that if you wanted to, or um you could start him either one. You also have Musa Diamate, you have Ryan Cochrrener, Mason Plumbley, and he was in the running for a while. I don’t even think he’s in the running to start now because of the way the Caulk Brener played at the end of preseason and the way Musa played the entire preseason except there are limitations in what Charles Lee wants to do with his center that Caulbrunner doesn’t have because he is gigantic. He’s just not nearly as mobile. So, the center rotation, that starting spot, that conversation, it’s not gone away. Really, since the first day of free agency, Doug, when we saw all of these centers go off the board, it reminds me a little bit of the NFL. If you football heads know out there, you know, linebacker just was not available, right? Like, center just wasn’t available. Dron Sharp was going for, you know, x amount of money. Same thing with Luke Cornett. They’re all off the board in the first five, six hours of free agency. And if you didn’t get one, then you were left without a chair. The Hornets got one. It’s just one that they’ve already had before. And nobody was a fan of it. Like nobody was a fan of bringing back Mason, unless unless he was going to play this Taj Gibson role, but that wasn’t sure. Now it looks like he might play the Taj Gibson role. And the conversation really comes down to who starts between Musa and Caulk Briner. The center rotation question, man, even when we find out who starts on Wednesday against the Nets, it it doesn’t it doesn’t even answer the question fully because this could be something that is still a revolving door as the season goes on, Doug. Like, it’s going to be a question, a seasonl long question. Yeah. Well, I think the center position will be one where he plays with it a lot depending on the matchups with the shooting guard. I think it will be malleable, but it will but I think who we see start game one is probably who we’ll see start for a little while unless something doesn’t work and then they move. That’s just my that’s my thought on it. I think he knows who I think he’s Yeah, I think he knows who he’s going to play it to. I think five is just going to be like, you know, for because you So, if you’re just tuning in, uh, which, you know, some people do, week of the season, you you plug into the daily podcast. Uh, Cochr Brener is young, but he has but he’s also an older rookie who I think has shown good instincts, particularly for blocking shots, help defense, like a lot of those fundamentals, but he’s slower. he he cannot really guard at the three. He really he can’t switch. And so, you know, you’re gonna want to play him against some bigger lineups with with uh with bigs that don’t shoot particularly well. And then with Musa, you’re going to get I mean, he just Honeybadger like energy on the defensive end of the floor and strips uh galore. Uh, but if they do put a bigger lineup out there, he can get punished inside and it might give you a rebounding disadvantage. Also, I mean, I I think Coaulbrunner too offensively is a little bit cleaner on the pick and roll, you know, operating around the basket. Particularly, he’s gotten way better at that. Caulbriner has, as he’s adjusted over the course of this preseason, I thought in the final couple of games, he just looked really good near the basket offensively. um and then has some upside to shoot which uh which Musa has zero. Yeah. So yeah, I mean I I just think they’re going to play with that a little bit. But so that’s why like I think the team is more serious just like emotionally, but the roster isn’t serious. Like it’s not a serious playoff roster because you don’t you don’t go into a season thinking we’re going to make the playoffs. There’s no doubt about it. And if we don’t, we’re disappointed with that center rotation, you know? But I get why they don’t want to box themselves in financially by going out in free agency and paying Don Sharp or whoever a bunch of money. Like I totally understand the thought process, but at the same time, like that’s not a serious center rotation. Well, and speaking of Don Sharp, like it what’s funny is that those guys, it’s not like they were getting a ton of money. It’s just that you were really worried about what you were going to have left over in a market where there just uh wasn’t a lot of centers left or or you in a market where you didn’t want to spend a lot because you’re saving your money for next year, right? Like so all that is true. Now, yeah, the M I will say with the center stuff, we went from, oh god, you know, we have lots of questions about the center rotation to where now I’m I’m saying that in a different tone just because, you know, I love Musa, but K printer, man, hey, shouts to him for improving over the last couple of games. Now it’s like, yeah, we got some center uh questions. It’s very different the way I’m framing uh that question. La last thing here, just something quick. Capitalizing on competence, and this can go into some of the renovations that they’ve had over at the Spectrum Center, just the new feel, uh, the summer league title. Can you capitalize via the wins loss record? Can you capitalize on a lot of the things that you’re doing around the organization, and it all comes with looking like a competitive franchise, improving pretty dramatically? You know, I’d want to temper expectations. I’m not telling you that this is an outright playoff team, but what I am saying is it’s okay to go from 19 to over 30 wins. Like, I know that’s a dramatic win increase, but also if we consider the context of all the injuries and the G-League guys from last year, it look Yeah, it it’s typically you it’s it’s usually not great to ask for, can I get 15 wins or you fail? 15 more wins or you fail. But like it’s okay to go from 19 to over 30. Capitalize on the competence that you’ve shown so far. And if you do, then we’ll see the fruits of all the good feelings that we’ve had leading up to this year. Yeah, I think you know the professionalism of of the players in terms of like showing up for events and staying out of headlines that that are are bad for that are distractions for the season. You know, I think there has been a professionalism boost and I think that’s a credit to the players obviously because, you know, they’re the ones living their lives, but it’s also a credit to who they’re bringing in. You know, drafting uh Ton uh drafting Khan Canipple, drafting all the players that they’ve drafted so far. Um and you know, haven’t been giant distractions uh to to the franchise. But also, I think there’s been some pressure uh from the front office to the players saying, “Hey, show up for these events. Let’s, you know, we need to we need to be professional at all times. And when you have a young team, that is important. Uh, you know, if you’re not going to add the like talent veteran leadership, then, you know, you you’ve got to put a little pressure on uh from the front office and from the coaching staff. And I think they’ve done that. And and overall, I think the respect they’re starting to rebuild. It’s a start. They’re not, it’s not fully rebuilt, but they’re starting to rebuild the reputation of this franchise that had it absolutely cratered under Michael Jordan. And people, they’re still pooping all over the center rotation and they, you know, there’s a lot of questions about LaMelo Ball, a lot of criticisms about him that he has to answer this season, but you’re not hearing some of the same like existential like this team is going nowhere. Um, and it’s because it’s rotten to the core, you know, from the top down. Stuff that we heard from national podcast and national media that was plugged in that knew why that was the case and just couldn’t say it outright. And you’re not hearing that same stuff anymore. And so I think they’re starting slowly to rebuild that reputation. But you got to win. You got to win. Have to win. I created a couple of Hornets memes regarding the strays that they would catch from all of these national podcasts where the Hornets just weren’t the topic of conversation and they would be used as the oh my god could you imagine if you were them example like they were always the worst example and then I would put up the meme saying it’s been zero days since our last hornet stray. I have not had to post that in a while. It’s been quite nice when people talk about the Hornets. Hey, there could be something down there in the Queen City worth paying attention to. Okay, let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lock Hornets podcast everywhere. We’ll give you the final preseason thoughts and then you know us man, we’ll go rapid fire and we’ll stick with it. Renovations, uh, the height issues that seem to be surrounding this franchise. We’ll get through all of it coming up next. LO. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season, we’re almost at the midpoint. 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. There are plenty of ways to use FanDuel. You can build parlays. You could try player props. That’s kind of my uh soup dour, if you will. And you can even follow the live lines during the games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something writing 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. This episode is also brought to you by Game Time. Game Time basketball season, it’s it’s almost here. It’s almost officially here and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. And between waiting in cues, surprise fees, prizes 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 fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. You could use Game Time to grab seats for your favorite basketball team, like the Charlotte Hornets here in the Queen City. Hello. They have zone deals. They’re a game changer. You pick the section. Game time picks your seats and you save big. And you can even find NBA tickets for under $25. 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 Loca. Locked on NBA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. More locked on Hornets ahead. Okay, final preseason thoughts. We didn’t have a chance to talk to the people about this final preseason game against the Knicks. The Hornets, they do fall below 500 on the preseason. They lose their last one 113 to 108. I know that would have been a nice nugget going into the season, but got some great performances. The shot making for Miles Bridges was just stellar all preseason long. He was four of eight from distance in this one. He had 20 points. So, he almost led all scores. Colin Ston actually led all uh Hornets scores that is with 21. But Miles in 18 minutes 20 that that’ll play. Miles eight of 13 from the field, too. So, Miles, I think if you just look at the efficiency from what Miles gave you, the crazy three-point shooting, really all off all preseason long, excuse me. Uh Yeah, man. Miles a big time storyline. Yeah, man. I just It’s I really hope it’s not just like a preseason fluke. Like, I really hope he can take it in because when he’s when he’s hitting threes, it’s a game changer. And it was a game changer uh before he was due for you know his big uh contract that he never got. I mean that was you know that outlier season for him three-point shooting wise uh was a significant difference maker for this team offensively and they are going to need to be really good offensively because they’re not going to be very good defensively. they by the end of the year uh maybe if they make some moves at the deadline to figure the center position out they could be I think average defensively and if you’ve got you know if you’ve got a top 10 offense and an average to slightly below average defense then I think you’ve got a shot to hang around a playin game you got a shot to be there and then you got a shot to actually hang around but you can’t have the worst defense and a top 10 offense then you’re going to end up where that 43 win Hornets team ended up which is getting shellacked. Uh I can’t even was it the that was the Hawks. There was a Pacers one and there was a Hawks one. I think that was the Hawks one. So yeah. Yeah. I I I think that uh Miles Bridges his offense unlocks so much for the Hornets particularly in transition where they’ve been wanting to play a lot faster. Uh and they have been and they just haven’t been able to execute in the preseason particularly early. I thought they got a little bit better as the preseason went along. Um, but just his three-point shooting uh in the break, you know, because Colin Stson and LaMelo Ball both like to kind of get out in front and they’re going to drag they’re going to drag that transition defense along with them and there will be players uh like Miles who and Khan Caniple who are going to be wide open Khan in the corner, Miles above the break. They’re going to be open for three and if they can hit them, then the Hornets are going to have a much better opportunity to win basketball games. Uh so yeah, it’s been exciting to see. You said you hope it’s not a fluke from Miles. I I think that’s always the worry when you’re talking about shot making being such a distinguishing factor in how somebody plays. Oh, he played well. He hit shots or you know what else did he do? I I think Yeah, cuz I’m with you. I hope it’s not a fluke either. I think it’s a fair question. I think what I’m comfortable with or what I’m encouraged by is that Miles is going to be playing a different role with talent helping him a lot too. We focus so much on LaMelo. We focus so much on Brandon because that’s your two-headed monster. those are your best players on the team. How much have we talked about Miles playing out of position because one, he’s just been healthier than everybody. So, he’s been playing a lot with those G-Leaguers that we’ve talked about with LaMelo, too. And also, they’ve had to rely on him to be the scorer. And I just don’t think he can do that consistently. He can give it to you in stretches. He did so last year, but remember when he went on that monster five maybe seven game stretch where he was going nuclear and then I mean he fell hard like he wasn’t hitting anything in the last I don’t know 10 15 games of the season something like that well with all this talent that’s going to help him too like Colin Ston had 10 assists didn’t have any assist even if I think he’s actually has really grown into a pretty nice passer but it’s Miles getting the basketball in advantageous scoring positions. So, take advantage of it, buddy. If they’re advantageous, take advantage of it. I don’t know if anybody has set him up like that since LaMelo when LaMelo hits the pine, right? There’s nobody and there’s nobody else. LaMelo’s gone. Miles, you got to create for yourself, buddy. Good luck. Now, that’s not necessarily the case. That’s nice to see, which is why again, I’m encouraged that this isn’t just a fluke. Final thoughts on the last preseason game. Any other thing of note? Well, just one more thing on Miles. Last season, he tried to be ISO guy and and again, I don’t really like fault him necessarily for that because Yeah, particular Yeah, exactly. So, he tried to be ISO guy. It didn’t work. Being this guy that he’s been in the preseason, that’s that’s going to be the ticket. And and that requires a lot of players to be healthy and for him to stay disciplined and not take those step back three-point shots that just have zero chance. Although he hits some contested jumpers, including in this one um against New York, like he can he can hit them with defense on them, but it’s like, yeah, if he’s one dribble pull up or no dribble pullup, that’s the Miles Bridges that was successful in this preseason, not the the ISO guy. It’s it’s a question though that they’re as a franchise, they’re going to have to answer eventually is who is that ISO guy? Is it Brandon? Um, or do you have to turn yourself into completely turn yourself into the Indiana Pacers who really didn’t have that other than like other than maybe Mathan um who was kind of again a sort of a second tier ISO guy. Uh, but you know most of these playoff teams that make deep runs, they’ve got ISO guys. So, any other thing from this one? It felt like Ton Stallon, I think that’s the most he scored in this preseason. So, nine points for Ton, only hit one of five from distance, but went four of nine from the field. 10 rebounds for Ton, only a couple turnovers, three assists. Uh, played the most amount of minutes outside of Liam McNeely. So, young guys getting some run. KJ Simpson got 21 minutes. Seion James got 15. Felt like one, you were giving a lot of the guys breaks. LaMelo didn’t play. Brandon Miller didn’t play. Um, and Miles is the only starter, like bonafide starter that played any amount of minutes, and he only got 18. So, it felt like Charles Lee was just trying to see what the young guys had. Oh, yeah, for sure. This wasn’t this wasn’t a game about winning. Uh, this was just a lot of starters getting rest and seeing what you had. And boy, I mean, did he see what he had in Musa Debate. I mean, he had he had a monster spike in this one. And then he he locked up, I think it was McBride. He locked him up on defense and and then you had uh Charles Lee burst out on the court. What what was in Charles Lee, man? He was just going nuts this game. But he hugs just bear hugs Musa Diabate. Again, that’s the kind of thing when you’re buil when you’re trying to rebuild the reput reputation of a franchise to have that kind of relationship with your players. Like I don’t think Musa Diabate is going to retire as a Charlotte Hornet. he will go somewhere else and someone will ask him, “Hey, I’m thinking about going over to the Charlotte Hornets. What do you think?” And he’ll tell him about the time that Charles Lee bear hugged him in a preseason game against the Knicks because he locked somebody up. And that’s what coach appreciates. And so like that’s, you know, that that’s the kind of sort of it’s going to take years for that to have some effect, but but it will eventually have some effect. Uh what a couple other things, man. The ball well two things. one, the ball movement has been so excellent the past couple of games. That’s so great to see. Um, it’s going to unlock so much for them offensively, particularly when LaMelo’s not on the floor doing all of the LaMelo things. The fact that everybody is committed, has been committed this preseason to moving the basketball. That’s been exciting. I wanted to go back to Ton for all of his struggles. He has gotten bigger and he’s not afraid to like drive and put a shoulder into somebody. That is good. that is I mean he is using his physicality to get himself open. Um and so you know if if some of the technique stuff can come along with it you know there’s there’s a the light is still shining on Ton. It’s just we’re going to have to be patient. Musa can go somewhere else if he can escape my bear hug Charles Lee style. If he can escape then he’s allowed to leave. But I don’t think I’m gonna don’t think I’m gonna let him go. I look what else I I mean seriously man what else do you say what else do you say did did you if you watched nothing but him and forgot about the basketball and you only watched him for every single second that he was in you would be highly entertained like it’s crazy and it impacts winning just straight up straight up so I don’t know I can’t get enough of Musa um all right by the way the other thing about Musa hitting his free throws quietly the last couple of games. That’s I mean, goodness gracious if if he hits his free throws, man. I I don’t I can’t tell you that I trust it, but he did hit him on pretty good volume the last couple of games. I’m trying to pull up the box score here against the Mavs. He didn’t hit very many. He was two of six. Um but then I’m I’m looking here. I’m looking at the box score. Yeah, I think he only missed one against the Knicks. Uh I think he hit him the the second to last game or two games ago. Either way, uh, Musa hit his freetos. Um, all right. You want to move on? Renos Heights. You want to rapid fire this? We saw the renovations. I mean, I saw pictures. I thought the lighting looked better. I mean, that Yeah. Spectrum Center, particularly in the upper levels, was like a cavern. Like, it was not inviting. It wasn’t an inviting space, but I’ve seen this LED lighting that they put in and it looks really nice. No, that’s a good takeaway. The lighting was a big deal. That was a selling point. Talking with some people over there, uh, that that’s something they wanted to sell. like, hey, it’s a little dungeonyy in some areas. I don’t think anybody would go to Spectrum Center and say this sucks because it is I guess it was one of the newer arenas. It’s really more so the NFL that that builds all these new arenas every single year. Um or these new stadiums. The NBA, it feels like they’re a little bit behind on that. Um but even still, Spectrum Center going through some of the renovations, it made a big difference. I think it was noticeable. So, just to hit some of the highlights, everything’s pretty damn transformed. They have 1,400 new lower level seats. They were added, so lots of every seat is also changed out, so you have new seats at the Spectrum Center. All seats throughout the bowl have been replaced, offering improved comfort and sight lines for every fan. So, they kept that in mind. There’s a lot of family-friendly stuff to do. Um, the whole concourse, it’s very, very new if you do the loop as soon as you walk in on that uh first level. Um, like there’s bars everywhere. There’s a couple of different corners that you can go hang out in. Um, they flipped 50% of Spectrum C Center’s concession menus as well since last season. Nearly 40% of food and beverage locations are now equipped with frictionless technology to increase speed of service. They introduced a unique yet fan-friendly menu that has something for everyone who walks through the doors. Even some healthy options. I wanted to hit this real quickly. I what was cool about what they decided to do uh the Hornets emphasized making this fanfriendly because they’re very cognizant of where their money is coming from. Their money is coming from taxpayers that is in the tourism bucket and they wanted to make sure that fans could benefit from it because they are the ones spending money on this or people that come to the city that where that money could be used elsewhere. The team wants them to be able to benefit from it. So, it’s the Steve Balmer idea of nobody likes waiting in lines. They want to go watch the game. You don’t want to have to pick and choose your spots. Okay. Uh I don’t know. It’s it’s 3 minutes left to go in the second. I want to beat the halftime crowd. Let me go now and miss some basketball so I can get back and not have to wait in lines. They were very cognizant of that, saying, “Well, let’s go ahead and and install a bunch of graband go services. Now, you have a bunch of different stations all throughout the arena.” And I just thought that was really cool to keep in mind. they they didn’t lose sight of trying to do what was best for the fan that walks through the Spectrum Center and get them back to the game that they paid for. I just thought that was a nice presence of mind by the team. No, that’s great. You know, but I think bottom line and they know this is that fans care about two things really when it comes down to it and it’s not grabband go and it’s not menu items. Season ticket holders care about some of that stuff because they go to they go to so many games that they have an affection towards, you know, where where is the Chick-fil-A and where is that bar that I like that serves the beer that I like, right? But the fan that, you know, pays for a couple of games a year or maybe pays for the fancy seats once a year, those fans care about two things. How quickly and easily can I get into the building? And is the does the team have a shot at winning? Does the team have any does the Charlotte is it going to be a competitive game? Some people just go to watch LeBron James or Steph Curry, you know, those people, whatever. But it’s like most people, the majority of people are going to go to a couple games a year and they want to know, did the char are the Charlotte Hornets going to field a competitive roster where I’m not going to like watch a 30point blowout and watch the home team get killed? Um, so that’s, you know, that’s Charles Lee’s job. That’s LaMelo Ball’s job. That’s everyone’s job. And, you know, hopefully you came away from this podcast thinking, “Hey, you know, they they’ve got a shot to start to make that happen.” Capitalize on competence. Final thing, uh, Charlotte Hornets height discrepancies. They picked up a little bit went NBA viral because of the weirdness of it all where it just felt like the reported heights initially with Hornets Reddit having it player heights on the NBA site. They were updated on October 16th and there were some like big time changes. Miles Bridges went from 67 to 66. The biggest change was Colin Ston going from 63 to 6 feet tall. I you lose 3 in man. It’s a lot. Okay. Sorry, Colin, that you lost all that. But also, they updated again and there were changes after some of the updates. Coniple went from 65 to 6’4 to 66. Diabate went from 69 to 610. A couple I look, I’m not sure what’s going on here. It doesn’t seem that hard. You know that heights have been finagled constantly throughout NBA’s history. yet it feels like they’re able to agree on one height and just stick with it. And apparently not this year with the Hornets. We’re changing everything. Whose height is it anyway? The heights don’t matter. The measurements don’t matter. I don’t know. Just, you know, I know. That’s good. I I I know that LaMelo Ball uh is taller than what they listed. I know Brandon Miller, they’re lying out of their teeth on that one. It’s what you but again it’s like SC what you see on the website that these scouting teams they know like the scouting reports that are slipped under their hotel room they know they’re not taking them from the website they know how tall these folks are and so like it’s fine everything’s fine it’s funny it’s fine it it’s it’s also a little maddening I want it to be right and I don’t know what that says about me you’re right that it’s fine I’m not my dayto-day life you know you got to get in that renovated spectrum center and use that credential and do one of these numbers. I do. That’s the issue. LaMelo, guys, I’m going to tell you this right now. Hear it from me, okay? I am the one that will give you the official listing. LaMelo is freaking tall. I am 6’6. LaMelo is taller than me. He’s 6’7. Brandon Miller is taller than LaMelo Ball. I don’t know why we’re messing with the height like that. I I don’t get it. They’re legitimately really tall. And I will tell you, for instance, one of the things that made Dwight Howard such an enigma as to how he was able to dominate was that he wasn’t 7 feet. He was actually quite short. Doug, I know you were in town for that. I don’t know if you remember Dwight Howard walking up to the podium, but Dwight was supposed to be the 7 foot larger than- life guy. I was actually kind of close to him. And LaMelo is more towering in a he’s slimmer and a point guard way. Brandon Miller, with you playing on the perimeter, you shouldn’t be that tall. Uh just anyways, they’re taller than what their list. I don’t get it. I really I’m with you. I don’t get it either because again who benefits because I think like players know like I like they know relative to if they’re matching up with LaMelo Ball. You know maybe with the rookies it has some maybe it has some difference because it’s the first time you’re seeing them. But for these for LaMelo and Brandon it’s like you know how tall they are if you have some experience playing against them and if you’re scouting the team you’re not like going to the website going to hornets.com to pull up the heights. Like I mean I think you can look and see. So anyway, I didn’t It bothers me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It bothers me. Let’s end it. 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. Check Doug out. Every hornetsboxcore.com is a Substack. Also go check out Yahoo Sports Daily. He helps produce it. Jason Fitz and Caroline Fittton. I’m Walker Male listening to me WFNZ. Every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. We have one more show to go before we get to opening day. So, join us the rest of this week on Lockdown Hornets. [Music]

It is finally opening week for the Charlotte Hornets. As we prepare for Wednesday’s opener against the Nets, there’s a different feeling around this team—a level of seriousness we haven’t seen in years. We’ll identify the biggest storylines heading into the regular season. It all starts with the leaps we need to see from the dynamic duo of LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller; Melo needs an efficiency jump, and Miller needs to take that next step toward stardom. Another huge storyline is the impact of Collin Sexton. He’s already being called a culture changer , bringing an aggressive “competitive joy” that this roster desperately needed.

We also have to talk about the center rotation. Charles Lee confirmed three starters are locked in—LaMelo, Brandon Miller, and Miles Bridges —but the battle between Moussa Diabaté and Ryan Kalkbrenner for the starting five spot is still raging. This roster may not be “serious” at center, but the goal is to capitalize on the competence shown this offseason and turn it into wins. Finally, we’ll give our last thoughts on the final preseason game against the Knicks, including Miles Bridges’ stellar, efficient shooting and an incredible moment where Charles Lee bear-hugged Moussa Diabaté after a great defensive play.

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