Hornets Face CAP CRUNCH 💰 | LaMelo Ball TRADE OPTIONS | ANOTHER Evaluation Season?

Hornets Face CAP CRUNCH 💰 | LaMelo Ball TRADE OPTIONS | ANOTHER Evaluation Season?

Bobby March releases the offseason to-do list for each team in the NBA. What does he have to say about the Hornets? We’ll take a look at some LaMelo Ball trade possibilities and continue our unrestricted free agent draft where we’re looking at some bargain options here in Charlotte. That’s 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] 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. were free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. You can find him on his Substack every hornetsboxcore.com. You can listen to him on his other podcast, Locked on NBA with Matt Moore and Hayes. I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Well, taking care of your finances. That’s a nice segue into what this first segment is all about because the Hornets need to take care of their finances. There’s a lot of money that they’ve spent on different players, whether it be Laamela, who makes the most money, whether it be Miles Bridges, which we all agree is a tradable contract, but still a decent chunk of change when you’re hitting over that $20 million a year mark. They got to figure out what they’re going to do with some of the other players, right? Extension eligible Mark Williams. We’ve had the Trey man conversation. What are you going to do with the Kogi where he’s got a non-g guaranteed contract, but you get to wave that if you want to and then if you do so by the June 30th deadline, well, now you start to save a little bit more money. I think it’s like 7 to8 million trying to make up some money as much as possible. They are projected, the Hornets are projected to be around, I think $18 million over the cap, 17 million. Now, emphasis on the over, right? You might hear that and you might think, “Oh, okay. They got that much to spend.” No, no, no, no. They’re actually 18 million over the projected cap right now. So, they got some work to do to get back close to that cap number, under that cap number, and they do have a couple of other tools in their bag that they can use in order to acquire new talent. Let’s go to Bobby Mark’s write up just real quickly where he has this to say. Um, I want to read this first sentence to just get Doug a little angry today. I don’t know why. I just feel like I’m an agent of chaos. The goal for the 2024 25 season was not for Charlotte to break their playoff drought that extends back to 2016. Yes. Already we’re off to a banger. Perfect. I I hate the playoffs. I I know. It’s They’re terrible. I have zero interest in making the playoffs for a year and then being out for the next four or five. Why Why ever make the playoffs or two and then out again after that? First year GM Jeff Peterson said in February. So that’s where we’re starting off. Anyways, so so that’s the mantra that Bobby Marks wants to set immediately, right? That’s the president. Um, here are the finance stuff though. The Hornets valued picking up an additional first at the deadline from Phoenix in exchange for taking on the Nerkage contract at $19.4 million. The Nerkage salary, their own first in the Treyman free agent hold has Charlotte right over the $154.6 million salary cap. They mentioned a Kogi $7.7 million salary becoming guaranteed if he’s on the roster past June 30th. The team will still be over the cap even if they wave him prior to that date. So Charlotte has the $14.1 million non-tax mid-level exception. You also have the $5.1 million by annual exception, second round veteran minimum exceptions available to use also. So I throw all that to you, Doug. What are some of your thoughts on Bobby Mark’s offseason uh finances? Some of the to-do uh task on their offseason list. What are you thinking with this Hornet side? I wish I could go into my boss’s office. I wish I could go into David Lock’s office and say, “David, I want to be great for many years to come, which is why I have to be mediocre at Locked on NBA and Lockdown Hornets. We have to produce less of a show this year so that we can sustainably be a great show.” And try that with your boss. Go into your boss’s office and say, “Listen, boss, I want to be great. I really do. I want to be great for many years, consistently great, which means I have to do a a crappy job, a terrible job this year.” Okay, great. Yeah, try that. Right. Right. I don’t know if it’ll work. It works with Schlathkin. That’s their guy. All right. So, we got to see. Well, yeah. Look, when you look over the finances, uh, they’re going to be even more over the cap if they take the number four overall selection. I don’t know if you mentioned that. Um, I blacked out when you when you started in on the You’re good. No, I I did not I did not mention that that they’re going to be more over the cap. I I So, that that was not included in all those numbers I threw at you. Yeah. $10 million for the fourth overall selection for the rookie scale. And you know, we’ve been talking a lot about packaging the 33 and the 34 together to move up into the first round, but if you do that and you take the fourth pick, I mean, I think that’s that’s going to be difficult to square financially. Um the the big thing is the Nerkage cont just for this season is the Nerkage contract because they essentially went all right we want this kind of weird fake firstrounder that maybe we could package into a future deal but is not really going to end up being a significant firstrounder for us in the near future. They wanted that and so they took on the Nerkage contract which is $19.3 million this season but then expires. So honestly, when I look at this situation, I think this really does jive with everything we’ve heard from both Schlotkin and Peterson about this being a patient process and this really not being about next season because two seasons after that and and really or well the next season after that and then two seasons after that the books really open up and so you know I think the question that they have to ask themselves is do we want to take another evaluation year, see if we can get everyone healthy and look at what this thing is or are we do we have enough questions about whether LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller, if all of that works together well enough. And if we’re solid that it doesn’t, then you can start to make those moves this season, even if it makes your team worse. So, I’m glad you brought that up because I I’ve seen some people talk about the another evaluation season, which it’s going to be tough for Hornets fans to endure that in the first two years of this regime, the first two full years of this regime. We’re going to have to go through something that we went through a lot with the old regime, too. So, you’re not even getting, oh, we hired new people, now we’re going to start winning ball games. Not yet. We’re not going to start winning ball games yet. So, if you look at how everything is set up, okay, we go to this past year. They draft Tan Salon. In what was a weak draft, they draft one of the most non- ready NBA players available in that weak draft. Okay, got it. Loud and clear. You’re not getting anybody that’s going to help you win a whole bunch of ball games this season. We move on. Now, we’re at the end of the season with still not a lot of clarity as it pertains to the players that have been injured often. Then, you added another player that got injured often this year and Trey Man. Now you just throw in another body onto the pile. Brandon Miller, now he got injured this past season after staying relatively healthy his rookie year. So, okay, great. There’s another body on the pile, too. So, now you’ve got all these injuries that you’re dealing with. But no, we’re going to evaluate again this upcoming season. Well, if this is another evaluation season, right? If this is another year where you’re not necessarily trying to make the playoffs hell or high water, now we’re going to do that same thing with LaMelo. Now, we’re almost putting Brandon Miller on that LaMelo track because that will be his third season where we’re not going to add talent around Brandon to see what the hell Brandon might have. And no and no postseason experience. And we’ve been over this. Stars in this league tend to get they don’t wait four or five seasons before they make the playoffs. They get there in their second or third year. Right. So, now we’re whether Brian Brian whether Brandon Miller is a primary, a secondary, they’re going to turn Brandon Miller into Brian Miller is what they’re going to do. Brian Miller. I don’t want I want to see what Brandon Miller is all about. So now he might be on that same timeline. I just Okay, you can make the argument for it. You can make the argument for it. It’s just it it honestly segus pretty well into our second segment because if we’re talking about LaMelo Ball trade ideas and maybe not even possibilities in terms of what he could get in return, right? Just we’ve had that conversation a bunch, but just the possibility of actually pulling the trigger on whatever LaMelo ball trade. If you’re just going to go through another evaluation season, if LaMelo’s healthy all year long, but you don’t do anything all that drastic to the roster, and then you’re depending so much on everybody improving internally, which the math on that would say at at least like a successful season with that idea would be 50% of all the players internally improving to the level and what you want, right? You can’t bank on everybody doing it. Then this is why we have these conversations because do you are you going to do this with LaMelo again or Okay. Okay. Now we got some cap space that we can free up. Nerkitch’s deal is off the books. So LaMelo, you’re going to have to wait until your seventh season before we really really start to go after it. Now we’re And then who’s to say when you do go after it that it’s all going to hit that same very year, right? And then then then okay, now we’re really really contending by your eighth season. Like that’s It’s tough. It’s tough pill to swallow. When you retire, that’s when we’re going to finally make our move, right? Uh two two quick things before we transition. Uh one is if Joshi and his $7.7 million that is that can be uh essentially gone off the books if there’s a certain date that they have to guarantee that June 30th. June 30th. If Joshi is sacrificed at the expense of figuring out something with Mark Williams or at the expense of not being a certain level over the cap, that will really disappoint me because Joshi was one of the uh even though he dealt with some injuries too after he was traded from the Suns. Like he was one of the bright spots last season of like, oh, that’s a Hornets DNA player. Oh, that’s what they’ve been talking about. He’s giving everything. And if you look, we did this whole chart about uh how many turnovers a player creates versus how many they give up. and Musa Diabate and Josh Aakogi created so many turnovers for the Charlotte Hornets um that I think he’s just such a valuable asset to have on your team and if you’re if you’re serious about culture setting then a Kogi should remain whatever that means. Um, and then the the other thing is that the the draft situation, I’ve been hearing that the Hornets are open to options to to moving back. And again, this if you look at their financial situation, that would make sense because if you’re not sure that the player that you’re going to pick at four has the potential to be a star player, then eating that $10 million that slightly goes up over at least two seasons before the team option kicks in and the extension options kick in, that would be a tough pill to swallow if you’re talking about just a uh a minor role player that doesn’t have the potential to be a star. uh you don’t really want to go down that road. So, I could see them moving back and saving four or $5 million. And we’ll see what the Hornets decide to do, but there’s not a lot of flexibility on their part. Coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast everywhere. Doug said he tried not to trade LaMelo Ball in a crossover episode with Locked on Kings. How hard did he really try not to trade LaMelo? And what did he trade LaMelo for? What are some of the options out there? We’ll get to all of that in just a moment. [Music] LO, this episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, signing Miles Bridges, signing LaMelo Ball, and entertainment, it’s easy to lose track where all your money went. That’s where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s complete financial command center with all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. You can go beyond just managing money and start building wealth. You might be surprised at how much you’re spending on things like food delivery or streaming subscriptions. But with Monarch, you’ll see exactly where your money is going, so you can budget smarter and save more instead of juggling multiple apps. Monarch Money makes it easier to check your finances, track spending, and even plan for long-term goals all in one place. And if you’re managing money with a partner, it’s never been smoother. You can track shared and personal accounts, set goals together, and stay on the same page without the stress. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money, and then you can use code locked on NBA at monarchoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchoney.com. Code lockdown NBA for half off your first year. More locked on Hornets [Music] ahead. LaMelo Ball trade ideas. I don’t even know if they’re trade ideas. You basically just set this up as trying not to trade LaMelo in a crossover episode with Locked on Kings. So, we also have a Psycho Satchel question that goes along with this. Doug, the floor is yours. Set up the combo. Uh, the Siko Satchel. Join subtext.comlockonhornets if you want to put your question into the Siko Satchel. This is Bobby of the Walter Hermmon Hair Club. No division, no brigade, just back at home base. Uh, making sweet, sweet waves in your in your hair. Walter Hermman. Shout out to the great hair of Walter Hermats. Yeah, for sure. Oh, yeah. No, no, I’m sick enough to remember. No, I I I loud and clear on Walter Hermmon’s hair. Among the better things that have ever walked into the Spectrum Center. And and Bobb’s hitting on something that I think we didn’t say explicitly in the last segment, but I think you could uh you could ascertain from our comments, which is that that $150 million, $151 million projected to spend next season is a lot of money to spend, particularly for an ownership group that isn’t made of a billionaire. It’s like just a lot of like multi-millionaires together. And that’s a lot of money to spend on a loser. You know what I’m saying? And particularly when your your two uh highest paid players, $38 million in 25, that represents half that team’s expenditures on a on a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 10 years and doesn’t project to make the playoffs next season. So the question is with uh this is Bobby with 3.4 million in cap space. So we just said that that’s you know it’s it’s tough to look at these numbers sometimes, but they don’t really have any cap space. But Bobby goes on, there’s no way the Hornets go through this off seasonason having both LaMelo and Miles Bridges. Why not trade both to the Chicago Bulls? Hornets can get back Kobe White, Kevin Herder, IO Dunmu, Nico Vousvich, and the 12 pick. Use 12 to get to two and get Dylan Harper. Or trade Melo for White Dumu 12 in a future first. Orlando could be an option for Melo for Suggs and a first. That’s a lot. Okay, that is a lot. Bobby was on it. He was on the trade machine, baby. Yeah, I I follow it though. It’s a lot. But I I do think I follow. My My biggest question is, didn’t Sacramento just do the thing where they copied the Chicago Bulls blueprint and then it not go so well. I don’t want to do that. Sacramento, they’re making that decision. We’re competing with Sacramento in terms of trying to not be the last most made fun or the most made fun of team in the league and then also last in the standings of what everybody considers a good basketball team. So, uh, Kings, Hornets, they catch more strays. I don’t want to copy what the Sacramento Kings just did. The spirit of the question being, would you be willing to trade both LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges for whatever doesn’t have to be to Chicago or whatever. If you’re gonna truly do another evaluation year and then not really try to go after a playoff season and then go go all in in again what’s going to be LaMelo’s seventh season at that point. This upcoming season is going to be his sixth and then the season after that will be his seventh. If that’s the case, then you’re talking about, you know, this next year, Miles is going to have one more year off of the books. Remember, it’s declining in value. So that’s going to be a highly tradable contract by uh his expiring contract year. I just depends on what their vision is. I I don’t I don’t know what their exact vision is, but for instance, when we talk about trading LaMelo, right? Like I don’t want to trade LaMelo on a somewhat competing basketball team. I want LaMelo here. I’m a LaMelo fan. I’m a believer in putting the right talent around him to finally seeing what he’s all about. I want to see that through. I understand that he’s got some flaws, injuries, all that, but I that’s just not the risk I’m taking. We’ve talked about it a lot. But if the plan is, well, by the time we get to LaMelo’s seventh year in the league, that’s when we’re really going to contend. Well, then yeah, just go ahead and trade him. If if that’s the plan, then it makes more sense to move off of him right now than to really go after it by the time he gets to that point in his career. This is what I said on locked on Kings when we were discussing trade packages and how willing the fan base would be to move on from the Melo Ball. how willing the team would be. And I said, what complicates a LaMelo ball trade more than LaMelo’s injury history, which complicates it for me because I think if he sustains another half season ending knee injury or I mean ankle injury next season, then that’s I mean it becomes a negative contract at that point. But what complicates it more, I think, for the team is that they didn’t get to see enough of Brandon Miller’s year two development. Because if you’re if you were confident that Brandon Miller was on a superstar ascent, then I think you would be much more comfortable moving on from LaMelo Ball. But the danger is that you do that and you say, “All right, we’re building around Brandon Miller and he turns out to be a really good jump shooting, maybe one time all-star when he catches a heater type of player that we’ve seen that that player is not uncommon.” Um, that you know that that’s what Brandon Miller ceilings out at. And then you’ve just traded the the one star that did have some potential to be that’s already been an all-star and and was almost a two-time all-star and now you’ve traded away that talent for whatever you get back, right? You know, it would be that would be difficult, right? That would be difficult. So, what did you do on the locked Kings episode? You know, we didn’t come to a determination on a package. I said, you know, in particular with the Kings, I think it would have to come with at least three first round picks because they didn’t have a lot of players on that team that I was super interested in. Although, you know, if you So, the thing is, if you sacrificed two first round picks or whatever, two first round and maybe like a some kind of pick swap in the future with the San Antonio Spurs who who are being really obstinate about, well, we’re not going to move off this two, we want Dylan Harper. If you do throw a lot of picks at them to pull them off of two and you get Dylan Harper, then you could use LaMelo Ball as a way to recoup some of those assets and then you come out, you know, even Steven. And so then you’re targeting a team uh like I think Sacramento that would do something like that. But there are other options for them if they want to get serious players back. Yeah, Minnesota could be interesting because they’ve got a talk about financial situation. and they’ve got a financial situation in which they’ve got some some players role players that were critical to them, you know, building out that that playoff team that are going to be free agents in Aquil Alexander Walker and Nas Reed, I think, has an option, but I don’t think he takes that. I think it’s a player option. I don’t think he takes it. So, could there be some sign and trade possibilities there where maybe you get less pick return, but you get Nquil Alexander Walker back, you get Nas Reed back, and you can build out a a depth team again if you’re confident. I don’t know how confident they are in Brandon Miller. But if you’re confident he could be the number one option on your team, then you build out depth that way and and recoup recoup a little bit of your pick assets, but not all of them. Uh that could be interesting because Anthony Edwards needs a point guard. That guy tried to play point guard and everybody criticized him because they didn’t take enough shots. So they could look to add another point guard there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that that’s another I mean I just think there are options. And then we’ve talked about the Clippers one that brings you back defensive role players and maybe a few more pick assets because they they are totally focused on winning now around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. So there’s another option as well. Yeah. So really the the point we’re hammering home the way to really make a big change this off season is by trading one of these guys with the big- time salary. That’s the way to do it. If you’re talking about having a turnover of this roster by going out and spending a bunch of money in free agency, can’t do that. Again, you have the $14 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception and you also or the non-t taxpayer level exception. You also have the bianual one with 5 million, right? You got $20 million that you can spend essentially. So, you can’t spend a ton of money and have this huge overhaul of like meaningful players that you’re bringing in in terms of what you would think of. That’s why we’re doing the undrafted free agent draft class. We’re trying to find the the bargain pieces, but it’s hard. Like it that’s why you get credit when you hit on one of them because it’s really hard. That’s why you get credit when you sign Malik Beasley for 6 million. That’s why you get credit when you sign Ty Jerome for two and a half. It’s really hard to do that. So that that’s the task. The Hornets task is to do something really hard with that. Uh and also it’s it’s how how much are you willing to trade one of these guys that they’ve been propping up in miles? So, okay, that if that’s the case, if you view him as such a we can’t get rid of him type of leader, well, now that takes one option off. You got Nerk’s deal on your books, which you got a first round pick. You you made that bet. You decided we’ll take the 19 million for this weird first round pick that Mike Convey might not. Um, but you have to attach something to that contract. Nobody’s looking for that contract just for 100 cents on the dollar. So, yeah, it’s it’s going to be tough, man. It’s going to be tough. Well, you you bring up the good point there that these these teams that do hit on the low salary players like and and some of those are are rookie scale players. So, when you just completely flame out in one draft with the book Knight and Kai Jones, that’s going to set you back because now all of a sudden to fill out your roster, you’re going to have to look for players that are going to make a little bit more money than the rookie scale and you can’t control um how that process goes down. And then, you know, Mark Williams struggling hurts you. Nick Smith Jr. not really, you know, hitting as as hard as you need that to hit. You know, that could be a great if you could say, “Oh, well, Nick Smith Jr. is going to be like a significant role player for us next year and he’s at 2 million, so maybe we can afford to move a whatever whatever.” But you can’t do that. And so really, I mean, if you look at Miles Bridges and his $25 million, I just don’t know what the return on that’s going to be. I don’t think that to me moving miles only would be more about all right we’re going to we’re going to go after a high draft pick next season and we want to save a little bit more money and become financially flexible. But I don’t think there’s a scenario where you trade miles and become significantly better as a team next season. Uh that that doesn’t include also a complete reshuffleling of the entire roster. So yeah, I mean the options uh the options aren’t great. It’s going to be a little bit of a puzzle to solve for Jeff Peterson who is who has honestly like he’s put this puzzle, you know, for so long now or not for so long, but we we’ve been giving him a little bit of like, hey, he’s new on the job. He’s got to figure this out. You know, he’s dealing with a lot of problems, but now some of these problems are problems that he’s he’s created for himself, like the Nerkage deal and and like some other deals. So, yeah, uh we’ll we’ll see we’ll see what they do. It’ll be very interesting to see if they go for full reshuffleling. How much evaluation did they get last season from these players? All right, coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast everywhere. Unrestricted free agent draft, mock draft. I don’t think we have any other drafts, just two. We’ll have to suffice in the last segment coming up next. [Music] LO had a lot of fun on Friday with Natada joining us. By the way, ion college basketball podcast producer Natada on Twitter at Natada the scribe. He was judging what we were doing with the unrestricted free agent draft and the idea. This comes from a sicko satchel question. Sorry. Do you remember who wrote the question in Doug on Friday? It was Bam Bam. There you go. Bam Bam. How could I forget Bam Bam? I’m sorry. Bam Bam, that was mad disrespectful. Bam Bam wrote the question um or the idea really just giving us some content about, hey, what kind of free agents would you go after if you could create some kind of unrestricted free agent team except you could not exceed 20 million total, right? Like that that’s that’s really tough to do, but we took that challenge on. Doug created this draft and uh give the people the updates on what we did in terms of who we selected with our two uh unrestricted free agent teams here, Doug. Uh yeah, so we did uh the first two rounds on Friday and Walker, you took a fellow Walker, Nquille Alexander Walker with your first pick. Uh this is a snake draft by the way. I took Paul Reed and then Tai Jerome and then you followed up in the second round with Trey Jones and Trey Jones nine and a half million. As you can see, I don’t have a whole lot that I’m working with right now. Uh for three players and and Doug is set up pretty well with That’s right. You have $6 million left. I have you made your big spend on Trey Jones. Uh now you’re sitting at $6 million exactly and I have $15,969,625 remaining. Okay. So, uh with it being a snake draft, it’s me again. It’s me again. And it’s it’s tough because I did some of the math on this, Doug. And you did the math. the guys that I was going after. I ended up at I think 20,87,000. I was I was so close. I was like, “All right, I have to readjust just ever so slightly.” I was so mad. And I was like, well, it’s funny because all those weird numbers that you get, for instance, Javvante Green being like 800 or 696,955, those those numbers in the ones in the 10 spot, they add up enough to for me not to be able to spend on some of these guys that I want. All right, enough stalling already. Walker, let’s get it done. Okay, so I I was going to have to sacrifice at some point. I think a guy that I’m gonna go after is Jeremiah Robinson Earl. Wow. At the power forward spot. 1.4 million. I think Jeremiah Robinson Earl is a guy that I’m taking a chance on being 24.5 million. I think this is someone that has enough versatility to, you know, give you a little something um offensively from the corner. If I’m not mistaken, I think he did a pretty good job hitting some threes from the corner. uh which is something I’m gonna look for if you just want a dude to get out of the way and allow all these other guys to handle the basketball and then hit you on some kickouts. I do think there’s some defensive versatility. He’s not going to be asking for a whole lot of usage at all. So, that’s good. Uh the the shooting accuracy again from corner he was in the 80th percentile. Shot 42% from three. Um at 68 I just play in the front court. I I I had to spend not very much money cuz I decided I wanted Trey Jones really badly. But that that’s the that’s the pitch that isn’t very good honestly on Jeremiah Robinson Rob and I needed to spend less money. So 1.4 welcome to the team. All right. So I’m looking at Paul Reed. Some good defense, some good length there. Tai Jerome. Uh nice shooting. You know I’m going to select Oh, you know this it might price me out though. Although I’ve got two. Yeah, that’s going to price me out. I can’t do that. Uh I got to get cheaper. I was going to go Precious Achua just to make sure that he didn’t completely destroy me and and destroy the Hornets many years to come because he’s the guy along with Deuce McBride that always comes to town. And Eric Collins goes, “This guy hasn’t made a three in three years.” And suddenly goes, you know, uh six of nine against the Hornets. So, okay. But that’s two got some playoff minutes. Precious that Chua did uh over the weekend. Um so I’m not going to go Precious here. You know, I’m gonna take Jake Laravia uh from now with Sacramento, but was playing with uh with Memphis for a while. I think that’s that’s going to be my power forward. All right. So Jake Jake Loravia uh Jake Labavia, sorry. No, you’re good. A little spice there. Play played played for Wake Forest. I really like him. was a part of my team that was 20 million $87,000. So you you kind of you you just fell into that for me, but I couldn’t I couldn’t get him. Lorravia was the sacrifice. Uh good three-point shooter, man. That that’s his thing. And I think there’s still some talent there. He got traded the first time just kind of in the wash of the big deal with Memphis. I think going after uh like Marcus Smart went to the Wizards and it was just like just I think it was for money purposes, not so much that I think Memphis didn’t like him if I’m not mistaken. Uh I like Loravia. That’s a good pick. What’s your next one? Oh, I get I get to pick again. Snake draft, baby. Oh man. Yeah. All right. So, I don’t see none of these none of these small forwards that are listed by Sprak really uh give me give me the willies. They don’t they don’t make me tingle. Didn’t have anyone on my list. I I’ll help you. I’ll help you. I mean, Lindy Waters runs deep. Uh, he played he had some good minutes for for Golden State before he got traded. Um, all right. So, you know what? I am gonna I think I’m gonna have some money left over here. I think I am going to take Javvante Green as my next pick. Oh, what’s the pitch there? I just gonna have a lot of money. Is that Was that 6.95? You’re gonna have You know, you can spend this. I I know you’re very frugal, apparently. Oh, don’t worry. I I have a plan here. I have a plan. You’re going to go after a star. All right. So, Javvante Green, what’s the pitch here? You just You just need a lot more money and then you’re trying to win on the margins. That’s it. That’s it. I need I needed the money. I needed something cheap. Uh he’s a player that I feel like uh plays hard, experienced, 32 years old. Um coming over from a champ from a uh east almost an Eastern Conference regular season champion team. Those are my reasons. And you’re going to get good synergy between Jerome and Green. Okay, gotcha. Um, can you scroll back up so I can see how much money I have left over because that’s going to influence obviously how much $4.5 million. I have $11 million left. Okay, you got a lot. Um, so my guys that I have on my team right now, I got a front I got my back court set. So really, I’m just looking for some front court guys unless I want to run small and uh I could do some of that as well. Um, God, I think what I’m going to do is Loravia was interesting, but I just didn’t have enough money after Trey Jones. That was the sacrifice that I made. I think what I’m going to do here, Doug, is four and a half. God, I’m just over the spending limit for both of these guys. I’m just over it. That makes me mad. Um, give me Gershon Yabielli. Yeah, that was somebody that I was targeting as well. and one of the players that would have been just too expensive for what I’m about to do. So, you you’re really saving it for this this one specific guy. I can’t I can’t even get to 2.5. God. Oh, God. I’m like, give me a I need $3. Give me $3 and I can do what I want to do. No, you I mean, you know, you got Yabasella a little center for you. Yeah, right. I I’m not I’m just looking for talent, you know. I don’t even care about building your conventional basketball team. I just need some talent. Get some Get some Ma Get into Mamu, baby. Remember Sandro for the That’s why I honestly Paul Reed was my safety valve and then you decide maybe I go Bism again. Do I just decide to go with Bismac Bybo? Um yeah, real quickly the Abuselli sales pitch is that he shot well from three and uh he’s just strong, not going to take any BS from anybody. Can’t move laterally all that well. He is close to 30, but remember Yabiselli came onto the scene with the Olympic team and was awesome this past Olympics and actually was a bright spot for Philly despite Philly being bad. So for $2 million, that’s it. Uh I have no problem welcoming him to my team. All right. So if I’m going to look somewhere else, do I decide to just run small and have Yabuselli and Jere Jeremiah Robinson Earl just kind of running around in the front court? How possible is that? something I’m looking towards for sure. H god, Jackson Hayes is not somebody that I would be, you know, extremely happy welcoming to the team to be honest with the Lakers wanting to move off of him. It’s a tough It’s a tough one. It’s a It’s a tough one. See, I think I I just I just painted myself in a little bit too much of a corner here and that was the issue. Two and a half million. I’m searching. Guy Jones $1.1 million. Do it. I know. I’m searching. You know, God, BB Bowl would make you happy if I’d select. I thought I thought you might go after BB Bowl. Um, I think I’m going to go with I’ll go Jackson Hayes. I’ll go Jackson. All right. Well, there you go. Jackson Hayes bringing your you I mean, right under you have $175,000 to play with. My final pick. We got to get out of here. I’ll make it quick. It’s gonna be Christopher Paul. Welcome to the team. Point guard extraordinaire. 82 games played last season. He still has something left in the tank. He’s going to lead my team to glory. And I still have a million to play with, but I’m still a millionaire. Okay, there you go. You’re still a millionaire. So, the teams are my team is the starting back court contains Nquille Alexander Walker, Trey Jones. I have Jeremiah Robinson, Earl and Gershon Yabiscelli, and Jackson Hayes. Um, I don’t love my front court. I don’t. And I thought I was going to and then I realized that I was 87,000 over and I had to adjust and I don’t think I did so very well. Doug’s team is Paul Reed, Ty Jerome, Jake Loravia, Javvante Green, and Chris Paul. You know what Doug, you know what Doug’s team is? Doug’s team is, you look at that, you look at that back court and you think to yourself, man, you’re gonna be able to shoot over that entire back court. But I’m telling you, we’re gonna steal the basketball before you ever have an opportunity to shoot. We’re going to be in your shirt. Paul Reed, he’ll be back there swarming, doing some things. Lavia can shoot. We’re going to be This team’s going to be fine. But you can vote. We’ll put it on We’ll put it on the poll. I think that’s my back court. I think my back court is going to steal the basketball before you know what happened. Ty Jerome is food. He’s good offensively, but he’s going to shoot on this in this game. Okay. All right. That’s true. That is true. I got We’ll put it on the poll on YouTube. You can vote on whose team you think would win. Mine are all right. Let us know. Locked on Hornets. Go search us on YouTube and uh vote on the poll. That’ll do it for Locked on Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast. That does include YouTube. Doug Branson, every hornetsbox.com. Also, Locked on NBA. I’m Walker M. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

The Charlotte Hornets’ offseason is officially under scrutiny, and ESPN’s Bobby Marks didn’t hold back in outlining the massive to-do list for the franchise. In this episode of Locked On Hornets, Doug and Walker break down the financial mess—including the impact of the Nurkić contract, looming extension decisions, and the harsh reality of being over the salary cap with a 19-win team.

Could this really be another “evaluation year”? If so, what does that mean for stars like LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges? Doug discusses a hypothetical trade with the Kings and weighs whether the team should move both cornerstones now or risk wasting more seasons of Brandon Miller’s development. Plus, they answer a Sicko Satchel fan question that proposes blowing it all up—including wild trade packages involving the Bulls and Magic.

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