The Charlotte Hornets Are SUMMER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

The Charlotte Hornets Are SUMMER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

What is going on everyone? Trust the Buzz here. If you’re new to the channel, I make Charlotte all the horns content. So, if that injured you, make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button down below. There’s no even What is the point of me even explaining what this video is about? You know what this video is about? And that is the Charlotte Hornets are your 2025 2026 summer league. Well, is it just 2025? I don’t know. Either way, the Charlotte Hornets are your summer league champions. Um, I mean, to say this was expected would be a lie. like there’s nothing that you could have told me to make me feel like this was going to happen even though the great start we had even though you know we just beat the Thunder in order to get here. Um but considering just how the history of the Charlotte Hornets have gone. Um and then considering we’re missing Cion, we’re missing um Liam McNeely and Tan Salon. So, it was just Khan and Ryan Calbrer and KJ Simpson basically for the guys who and Damen Ball I guess um for guys who have are going to be on the team and Jaylen Sims cuz I really like him as far as you know being in the G- League. But still, I just I just wouldn’t have thought it. We were missing people. It those guys seemed healthy. It just seemed like they were kind of just sitting them. But I’m happy. I’m happy we’re here and I’m happy we made it. There’s not really much to talk about with the game. Like the game was fun, but I think that this just has just a bigger impact than just the game itself. And that is simply one con. I mean, I did not like his performance in the first game. I told y’all that. I that was my last video. That was one of the first things I said was did not particularly like his u performance in that first game. And the only reason I said that was just because I actually was okay with his first half. His shots weren’t hitting, but he was causing disruption on the defensive end. He was making good passes. He was making good reads. He was playing solid defense. uh getting rebounds like he was doing all of those things and it made me you know made me hopeful for what was to come because of the fact that once again as I’ve mentioned when I did my like scouting report on con is that what I really liked about him is that yes he he just seems like his his his best fit would be to just support the other team’s best player whatever team he to be on this is before the draft whatever team he would be on support the best players, but one thing that I felt like people didn’t realize is that he has this ability to also run an offense as well. And he’s not necessarily going to be the LaMelo Balls of the world, the Trey Mans of the world because, you know, though as many assists as they get, even though he can dish the ball as well, he wasn’t going to be like your true point guard type of offensive initiator, but he was a guy that if we’re talking regular season, LaMelo and Brandon for whatever reason are not on the floor, but he got Miles, Trey, man, um, Musa, uh, I can’t even think, Tan, I guess in this case, who who would be our wing? I don’t know. Grant, let’s throw Grant Williams, even though he’s injured. like in those kind of lineups, I could see him being successful because he can initiate enough to where those guys are able to get theirs and then of course they’ve been in the league, they know what they’re doing. Um, and then, you know, I think that that would just that’s what would help Khan shine. I didn’t know if we would get that in summer league just because of the talent. It’s not that these guys are terrible or anything like that, but it’s just not, you know, the stars of the league. But seeing him be able to still become that offensive initiator when you’re the guy because like let’s face it, KJ since these last two games have not he’s in he the first few games when Khan really wasn’t scoring. KJ was doing the scoring. You know what I mean? Um and then now these last two games KJ hasn’t been scoring. Khan has stepped up and that’s that’s just what I was looking for from him. And I saw it in that very first half of the first game. But then after that second half, it was like, ah, he lost all of it. Like he didn’t didn’t look like he was comfortable shooting the ball. He didn’t look like he was comfortable handling the ball. He didn’t look as good as he did on defense. Like it just he just kind of lost all of that. And it had me concerned just because of the fact that yes, it doesn’t for me for Khan and the summer league, it didn’t need to look pretty. It just needed to look like, okay, this is what he does and this is how I could project him to be. So now that summer league is over, I’ve seen him do it all and he’s done everything that I expected him to do. Um that that’s one thing I I would always say is that look, Khan may not be my pick. I mean, he was like second to me with Trey Johnson. I had Trey Johnson first and Khan. But one thing I a few things I could not deny was he’s not just a Cory Kisspert. I think people were just saying he’s going to stand there and shoot. I thought he from day one I’ve been saying he’s does a lot more than that. And then two, Khan is a winner. He’s going to win. He plays winning basketball. And I mean, I know it’s just summer league, but here it is. Like, he made some winning plays, and not everything he does that contributes to winning is automatically equal to scoring. And that that’s just like one of my favorite things about him. So, shout out to Khan. I mean, he he did his thing and he bounced back. And that’s something I look for from every player. Summer league, regular league, doesn’t matter. Yes, you’re going to have bad games. How do you bounce back from those bad games? And I think not starting summer league the way he wanted to, especially when you consider that for me at least, his role didn’t have to be necessarily I have to dominate in these minutes where KJ’s not scoring or I have to be just the perfect shooter when I am just this support role. No, just play good winning basketball. And you know, for that second half of the first game, he just wasn’t doing it. And in like the first like quarter of that uh second game he played cuz he didn’t play his actual second game. The second game he played he didn’t look as comfortable. But then since then he’s done everything that I thought he would do. He done everything that made him such a such a prospect that people love was because he just wins. He just plays effective basketball and I think and I think he did that. So shout out to Khan. Um I I know he mentioned that like KJ should be the summer league MVP and like in that sense like what K was saying I get it because KJ has been in leader on and off the floor. You could tell by how he talked to the guys, how the guys rally around him. Um how he’s able to make significant plays. I mean like I said last two games he hasn’t necessarily been on his offensive game, but he hit a big he a big three um in in the game. Um so yeah, I I just really like KJ Simpson and what he’s been able to do for this team. Um, and I think that once again he showed that I can affect the game in many other ways as well. And he kind of was doing that in the in the regular season last year, but when you look at who who he was out there with and then obviously who they’re going against, they’re going against teams who still fighting for playoff spots. It just didn’t come off as like as impactful. But we saw it in summer league. He he’s very an impactful player. Of course, the skill level is different, but still, I think that it’s good to see him just not be the scoring guy because that he’s another guy who scoring was going to be his main thing for sure. Um, but I thought there was more to his game and he’s been able to show that. So, shout out to KJ. U, but yeah, overall I think that this is just a good this is just a good win, man. This is just a good win for the Charlotte Hornets to be able to say they won a summer league championship. I know it’s just summer league. I know we could say all of those things, but at the same time, it’s just a boost of confidence for these guys. you ha you have Khan, you have Kal, you have KJ, you have these guys going into the regular season with this I belong here type of type of feeling because even though it’s summer league that that’s kind of like being successful in summer league can prove like okay I’m ready for the next level and I feel like that’s how these guys should feel going into the regular season. Um the only things I have concerned about and not to even rain on the parade is just Cal Briner and our center rotation. We’ll talk about another video. I’m trying to be specifically positive, but that’s my only concern like going into the season um as far as just like based on guys who are here. But either way, I mean, I think it was a fantastic win. What I liked about is game in, game out. They played tough games and they were able to win those games. They were able to win ugly. They were able to, you know, get ahead a lot, lose, you know, lose the lead a lot and then come back. They were able to scrap back into games like if they were down a little bit or the other team was going on into a run, they were able to play solid defense. It just it a lot of times so this is my thing a lot of times even watching regular season games it feels as though when we have everybody I know it’s not often but when we have everybody playing it feels as though we’re a really talented more energetic team and sometimes that comes off but it doesn’t really come off too often that we’re just flat out the better team when we play certain teams. It doesn’t feel that way. It just feels like we’re more talented, but it you just knew it just felt like even at our highest, which is not high, but even at our highest, it just felt like we’re just more talented, but if we had that structure, there’s a whole another level to this team. Um, but with this team, they weren’t, it wasn’t like they were always like this most talented team out there, but it just felt like they were the better team. They had that structure that, you know, we were talking about that we needed for LaMelo when they were winning 43 games and things like that. It was like this team is winning strictly off talent. They’re just winning off. Miles is, you know, showing out at this point. LaMelo showing out at this point at that and also during that time you had Gordon Herbert and Terry Rosier averaging like an efficient 20. Um but they just didn’t have like that structure to put them over the top. They were winning games based on just how crazily gifted um offensively LaMelo is and then just how everybody else was kind of feeding off that. But there there was just another level to that team that was never able to be tapped. Um, I’m not saying that this will automatically translate to the the regular season. What I am saying is that it’s good to see that even from the bottom up because it start I’ve mentioned time and time again starts from our front office. It goes into summer league. It all stuff is connected and I think that having a front office they’re more structured. Okay, now we’ve I’m I know it’s just one and I’m but I’m not going to say we mastered summer league, but we obviously won the championship. Um, but now we have that structure there where we, you know, we may not have been the most most talented team in summer league, but they had enough coaching, they had enough skill, they had enough will, uh, they had enough talent still regardless to, you know, have that upper edge on teams where it literally felt like most of the time we were the better team. Now, let’s put that into the regular season. It’s a lot harder to do. Um, it may not happen this season, it may happen next season, but still I think that we’re on the stepping stone. We got it in the front office. We have it in summer league. Now, the hardest part is doing it in the regular season and we’ll see how we step to that. Um, once again, I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight, but it is good. Like, you can obviously see the path and I and I think that that’s like what I’m most thankful for, but this is exciting stuff, man. This is exciting exciting stuff. Um, I’ll probably do another video probably this week just talking about the negatives going into the season, but I wanted to keep this video strictly positive. Um, there’s nothing too negative like when you think about where we are and what we’re trying to do. It’s just some stuff that I would wonder how the team will address it later. But right now, I’m happy that we won the summer league. Like I said, it’s just about structure. It’s just about putting people in a place to be successful. And I think that the front office has done their job for the most part. Um, obviously, they have still work to do with the team, but I’m talking about the structure and just having everybody on the same page, having everybody believe, having a good just system of uh power where, you know, I feel like everybody’s listening to everybody. And then that obviously has translated here to summer league where we’re mi we we’re missing I forgot to even mention we’re missing PJ Hall as he got signed to a two-way and then we’re missing players key players at that and we’re still able to dominate at some points and then when it got ugly still stand 10 toes down and get the victory. So shout out to the summer league team. Shout out to Chris Jent I believe is his name. Um, I remember he had a lot of people he coached um during, you know, during his time in the league, of course, just helping develop a lot of players. And I’ll see if I can pull that up cuz I I did talk about it at one point and I’ll see if I can put it in this video or put the link to the post I made um in here so you can see like all the players he helped out with. And it’s just cool. It’s just cool to see. It’s just cool to see. And once again, shout out to the Hornets. I mean, I’m I’m I’m actually really excited. I’m really excited just because once again, I don’t think it’s automatically going to translate to wins in a regular season. But what I do think is that we’re just going to look more of like a team. We’re not just going to look like a bunch of talented guys who just so happen to be together wearing the same jersey. I think we’re going to feel more like a team. And I think that’s going to lead to a couple of more victories. Once again, I’m not saying we’re automatically going to win 45, but some games that we shouldn’t have lost last year, even when we were missing people or even when we had, you know, a somewhat healthy team. I think we win a a couple of more of those this year. We go from a 19- win team to like a 30- win team or something like that. I think it’s just going to look more like that. We’re just going to look more cohesive. We’re going to look like we belong more. I feel like the structure is finally there. As long as we don’t have major injury, you know, if we just have the regular injuries of a regular NBA franchise, I think there’s something there to build. I just want to build this season and then the season after that. I think that’s when we really start to see the takeoff. There’s the way the East is this year and the way like things are going in and the way we do have some um flexibility at the center position. I think that we there are moves to be made to have us go to that next step. If if you know the landscape of the East looks uh like we can really make a move, then I think there is something there. But just for now, based on what we have, all the information we got, all the players we have, I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but we’ll see. But once again, thank you so much for watching and I’m I’m super excited for the season, man. But um once again, thank you.

The Charlotte Hornets are summer league champions and the path to this point might be better than the actually championship itself. In this video we disucss what does this mean for the future and how does it impact this upcoming season. We also discuss how valuable KJ Simpson and Kon Knueppel will be for the team this upcoming season. The Hornets have done it!