Brandon Miller MUST Be An All-Star?! | Josh Green INJURY UPDATE | Is Kon the Starting SG?

Brandon Miller MUST Be An All-Star?! | Josh Green INJURY UPDATE | Is Kon the Starting SG?

We have an injury update regarding Josh Green. If he misses a little bit of the beginning of the season, does that open the door even more for Khan Canipple to start? Zach Low, we’re aggregating again. Oh my god, we’re aggregating a lot. Zack Low had some things to say about Brandon Miller and his impact on the Hornets in the future. Sicko Satchel to finish up the last part of the show. All today locked down. Hornets, please aggregate me. 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 Network. It’s your team every day. Maybe every three days now. silly season, but it is still your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast, and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. He’s on a substack of his own, every hornetsbox.com. He also has another podcast, Locked on NBA, on this very network. He hosts that alongside 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 locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Okay, we have some more updates regarding this Hornets team. They pick up players. They make the content easy to come by, baby. We love the silly season because we get to have fun. Also, there are genuine things that affect this team to talk about real stuff here. We have an injury update, of course, for the Hornets. We’re all too used to that. Here’s another one from Rod Boon of the Charlotte Observer. He writes this on Josh Green. Green is still recovering from shoulder surgery and was in a sling as recently as Las Vegas summer league action earlier this month. While there’s no definitive word on his recovery timetable, league sources told the Observer Green probably won’t be ready to go by training camp. That of course just further complicates any possibility of moving him off the roster via trade before the season begins and his value isn’t great coming off of his initial season in Charlotte. Real quickly, go read the article. I don’t want to do that to Rod and I know he doesn’t like it. Go read the article on the Charlotte Observer from Rod. Well, and and also and and I get it, right? This is how this is how he puts money on table. This is what he does, right? Puts money on the table. put bread on the table with your money, but this is what he does. So, go read the article. Um, you see that update by Rod Boone on Josh Green, trade value, just overall useful player kind of in the rotation. What you think? That’s the first time I feel like Rod has said that his value wasn’t great coming off the initial season in Charlotte. That’s the part that stood out to me. I mean, we’ve definitely I’ve said that a lot on this show. Yes. uh because you know I thought they brought him in to be a secondary scoring option and a chaos maker on defense. I think he did an okay job at performing the latter and was really absent completely as the former and yeah you they needed a particularly once players started to get injured and he wasn’t one of those players. I felt like that was a perfect opportunity for him to show up and say, “I’m not the guy that couldn’t score any points overseas in international competition. I’m not the guy that sort of uh was shrunk in the moment during my time with the the Dallas Mavericks.” It was time for him to prove a point and he did it. Well, he proved a point. It just wasn’t the point that I think a lot of Hornets fans wanted him to prove. And so now he’s going to miss this opportunity to what what essentially is defending his job. not even his starting job, but just his job on the Hornets because they went out and they got Colin Ston, they drafted Khan Canipple, both players slot in right at his position. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s now I think the one thing that’s going to save him once he gets healthy is that Josh Green unquestionably better, more experienced defender on the wing than Khan Canipple or Colin Ston. So, that that will help him hang around the rotation at least in the short term, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as crazy as it is, right, I I always come across as I’m defending Josh Green as this big Josh Green stand. It’s only because the difference between us is so vast, not because I love him, but because you’re still so far down on the Josh Green. And I do get it. You’re you’re right. And Charles Lee played him a lot of minutes last year. Even when guys were healthy, he played Josh Green a lot. The reason he did that was because he felt like defensively they could lean on him a lot more. And because he does provide size, he provides some kind of physique out there on the wing. He can shoot threes. He can shoot corner threes specifically, but he was not someone that you felt good about attacking the rim anymore. He had a pretty abysmal shooting percentage at the rim and beneath the three-point line. So really, if he wasn’t hitting threes, then he wasn’t really helping you offensively. Like even the passing point, Doug. Yeah, I that he wasn’t Yeah, that was his game. On the other hand, defensively, how many players do you have on your team right now like Green? That’s the issue. And so I I wonder what the I I that’s the hardest thing for me to gauge going into next season is the difference in value on Josh Green when it comes to Charles Lee, when it comes to Jeff Peterson, when it comes to the fan base. I know what the fan base thinks of him. I don’t quite know what Charles Lee thinks of his first year because he did play him a lot even still. Lot of minutes for Green. I Khan Kenipples here. You’re right. You have a few more wing players to roll with, but this is why we didn’t love having to get rid of a Kokei. It just made too much sense. It was too much salary to dump. You didn’t want to pay him more than some of the other guys that you either traded for or resigned in the Trey man stance. And so, we liked a Kokei. We wanted him here for defense. It just made too much sense to have that salary non-g guaranteed and then just to get rid of it anyway. I Green is still that kind of player. I I’d be interested in how Charles Lee thinks of him. Yeah. I mean, ideally, you know, with with the salary that he was making, you would want him to come in and make an impact year one. And even if you even in that scenario, if you drafted Keniple and moved Josh Green to the bench, you’d still want him to perform. I mean, that’s just going to make him more tradable. Now, I think if if he doesn’t find his way back into the rotation that he simply becomes an asset that you could use, you know, the dollar figure because I don’t think that another team is going to find him attractive enough uh to to make a move for him or to look at him as like, oh yeah, this is part of the deal is I’m getting Josh Green. You know, it turns into a little bit of a negative contract in that sense. So, you know, hopefully he can get back, get healthy, and become a, you know, productive bench defender where I would say my expectations of his scoring at that point, particularly with all of the other scoring that they’ve added to the roster, would be more in line with the scoring that he did in the in the previous season. It’s just in that season, he needed to score more and he couldn’t. And I mean, yeah, we we saw we we knew he wasn’t going to be a high usage player. That was the role. It’s why I felt like he filled in a nice fit here. It’s because but the usage percentage went further down. Like he was in the 25th percentile with the Mavs. He was in the seventh and and LaMLA was out. Brandon Miller was out. Trey man was out and we still were like no. So I guess okay part of that’s coaching. Also part of it’s like I it’s not like I wanted Josh Green to have the basketball in his hands a lot more. So, it’s not like I thought Charles Lee made an issue or had an issue here. I God, he just never had the basketball in his hands. Doug, he was a corner three merchant. That was what he did. This is what he did offensively. Yeah. You you want these guys to be like Cody Martin. What Cody Martin would be a uh he was somebody that would stand in the corner, you know, in that one year where he was nearly leading the league in three-point percentage, he would stand in the corner and knock down threes. But then when a guy did go out, when he got more minutes, he was aggressive. He said, “Okay, I understand that I need to be more now and I will be more. I also understand that you cannot consistently count on me to be more every night. And so once those other players that you can count on become healthy again, then I will go back to my role.” That’s the brilliance of really good role players. And you saw this all over with your TJ McConnell’s of the world, with your Nissmiths of the world, with everybody that OKC throws out there. It’s role players who can go to their role and then when you need them to step outside occasionally, they can raise the level of their game. That’s what we didn’t see from Josh. That that didn’t happen. No, that’s a good way to put it. It Yeah, if if I can just give you a workhorse of a pitcher defensively that can hit corner threes, guess what? You have value in the NBA. I’m not saying that you don’t have a spot here on a roster. You hit corner threes at the level you do. Hell yeah, baby. I I’ll take that. You play as much defense as you do. like just I I feel good about you on that end of the floor. Cool. I you’re right there. So many guys went down and there was a little bit when they traded for green like a play on the upside. Hey, there might be some untapped stuff here and I I would argue that’s exactly what he didn’t give us was stuff. It was I’ll shoot, I’ll defend. I ain’t going to do much else for you. And that’s what we saw. So, we’ll see how much Charles Lee values that. All right, coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. He’s everywhere. From an injury update, maybe dabble a little more into who we think starts at that spot. We know who is going to start. Brandon Miller. How important is it for him to become an allstar, not only maybe next season, but years after? Zack Low thinks it’s very important. Zagregation coming up next. L. I like that. [Music] You sounded surprised. Zagregation. I like that. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can be easier. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchoney.com. Code lockdown NBA for half off your first year. More locked on hornets ahead. [Music] Zagregation. It’s happening again. Hey, thank you for talking about us. We appreciate it. Uh we you’re kind of one of the guys to go to in the basketball podcasting sphere and so we’re going to discuss your opinions on the Hornets. Um well people talk people do talk about the Hornets. He’s the only one I think that talks about them intelligently in the sense that it’s not that I think he’s always right about the Hornets, but I do I am always confident that he has watched the Hornets enough to to have an opinion 100%. And like I was about to tweet it. I still might, but the the running joke that I kind of have is it’s been zero days since the Hornets have caught a stray. There was a Jeff Teague story he was telling back the first couple of Coach Bud days in Atlanta and somebody said, “Yeah, man. If Coach Bud didn’t come in there, y’all would have turned into the Hornets.” I was like, “All right, great.” You know, here’s that. That’s what we’re used to hearing when we listen to basketball pods, not so much Zack Low. So Howard Beck joined the Zack Low Show. He and Zach were going back and forth drafting what they feel are going to be the most interesting players in the NBA this upcoming season. Zack Low’s pick maybe about like three, four, five rounds in um a a little bit into it. I think they pick six players a pop. So, you know, somewhere in that range. Zack Low picked Brandon Miller. Brandon Miller is one of the most interesting players to watch going into this season and had some strong thoughts on how important Brandon Miller is to the Hornets future. Here’s what he had to say. This is going nowhere. I’m talking nowhere for the next 5 years. Nowhere interesting. Nowhere close to interesting. Interesting. You can’t even see with a telescope. This is going nowhere. If Brandon Miller isn’t an all-star, nowhere. And so after a lost season last year, I’m excited to see this kid come in for year three offseason. Get get healthy, work on your game. Maybe LaMelo’s healthy for most of the season. I I’m excited to see what he is because I was super excited about him as a rookie. And this this is a whole wad of nothing if he doesn’t hit. And I think he can hit. Okay. I thought the audio was important to play just because he emphasized it so much. Clearly, he thinks essentially the Hornets’s future hangs on Brandon Miller hitting in like the 80th to 90th percentile, I guess, right? maybe 80th because there there could be some all NBA potential there too. Uh thoughts on Lowe’s emphasis with the point that he brought up. I think he’s right. Like you when you draft somebody second overall, uh particularly in that draft, that was not a that was not a terribly weak draft. When you draft someone second overall, you have to have expectations for that player that do reach all NBA. And you and those we talked about it when we were looking at the list of the top 100 players of all time in the NBA. And we were scrolling down the list and the Hornets had Alonzo Morning for a little bit of that, but people regard him as a member of the Heat more than they do the Hornets. And then that’s it in terms of players that they drafted or acquired and had their prime in Charlotte. That was it. They have not even accidentally fallen, tripped and fallen into a top 100 player. And so many other franchises have. And that’s what get you playoff series wins. That’s what gets you Christmas Day games. all the other things that every single other franchise in the NBA except the Charlotte Hornets have enjoyed over the past, you know, two plus decades. They have top 100 players all time. Um, so that’s, you know, and I’m not trying to put that necessarily on Brandon Miller, but he has to hit. And I think what Lo is saying there, and Lo is a guy who’s been higher on LaMelo ball than most people, but I think his expectations are now just slowly coming back to reality, which is like LaMelo is a very special NBA player, but he’s not the type of player that you can put an entire team on his back and say go. That’s why Brandon Miller’s ascension is so important. And Khan Canipple, we just don’t know what Khan is yet or what he isn’t. And so you can’t really make any judgments about the Hornets future based on Khan even though he was a fourth overall selection. Yeah. If you have two foundational pieces for your future and those pieces are LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, if one of those guys doesn’t hit, then you are screwed. I was trying to I was wrestling with I was wrestling with just how the amount of fervor he brought with that take. Like it’s going no. He wanted to emphasize hardcore that it all hinges on Brandon. He He is putting the organization on Brandon’s back. If you are not an all-star, it all goes in the tank. Like this is this is what it is. I I was trying Okay. Is Is it that dire? I that this is the question to me. Is it that dire? Because clearly if he doesn’t hit, it’s a real issue. All right. How do you get out of it? Yeah. How do you get out of it? So Miles, they uh structured that contract to be tradable. it’s, you know, only on the books for two more years. But they structured it that way because I I I don’t think even in that anonymous executive record, uh, Keith Smith article, the anonymous executive did not say Miles was a pillar of the organization. It was Brandon Miller and it was LaMelo. So, okay, we know about Miles. You don’t have Mark anymore, who used to be a part of the quote unquote core four, but he’s gone and you couldn’t wait to trade him, so you did that. Khan Canipple, I like him. Awesome. Summer league MVP. Hell yeah, baby. Thumbs up on all of it. You’re right. We don’t know what he’s going to be. Tan Salon. My god. If your future hinges on Tan becoming a star, I’d walk around all over the place. It would change a lot of conversations if he suddenly came into camp looking like a potential all-star. That would change a lot of things. You You could argue, okay, well, what if LaMelo just goes nuclear and is your 25 to 30 point per game score? Didn’t we see that a good bit in the first half of this season? Hornets clearly clearly depend on LaMelo so much offensively. He makes a world of difference. Their record is much better with LaMelo on the floor. And that record with LaMelo on the floor still isn’t playoff worthy. It’s still not we’re going to win a playoff series worthy. Yeah, I understand why why Zack brings that type of take with with that type of spice level, right? It’s it does matter a lot and I think it does put into perspective even for us where I don’t know if we’ve spoken about it with that volume but it he clearly is one of the more interesting players to watch this year and we were robbed of that last year. I think we did put that into context Doug but it matters and I think his volume level is correct. I think Zach Low has a really good pulse on what franchises are capable of doing from a spending level, from an ownership level, from an aggressiveness level, what they’re capable of doing, what they’re willing to do, uh what history shows that they will do. And so I think part of that is goes into this conversation as well because I think that Jeff Peterson has been more aggre I mean vastly more aggressive than Mitch Cupchack in terms of finding opportunities out there to acquire assets to to build the team while and this offseason in particular build the team while you’re acquiring those assets to be more competitive. So, I think he’s been vastly more aggressive, but they this franchise still has not taken a risk anywhere near the level of some of these other billionaire owners like your Balmer or your Ishbas that come in and say, “We’re going to we’re going to take the big risk on a big contract on a huge player.” And and some of that is limited, I think, by Charlotte’s reputation. So, they’re working on rebuilding that, but some of it is also limited by your willingness to risk all of that money and spend all of that money. And so, I I think that’s part of this discussion, too. If this were a franchise that had shown willingness to do that, then maybe you don’t put it all on Brandon Miller. You don’t put it all on LaMelo Ball being healthy and Brandon Miller hitting because there are other options that you could pursue. But they really need they kind of need that to hit so that it helps build up a reputation such that you could go and trade for another player and feel somewhat any kind of confidence that you could retain that player on a sec on a next contract. Well, and you know, of course, we want Brandon Miller to become an all-star for the direct result of him, you know, giving us uh nice basketball to watch and so I don’t have to play the and so I don’t have to play the cup jack sound again of him saying we don’t have any allstars on this team. Yeah, I don’t want to play that. No, no, please. Those are bad times. Um, Brandon Miller is extension eligible at the end of this season. And if he makes it hard to figure out what you’re going to give him, Yeah. Like it even from that standpoint, even from that specific standpoint on deciding how much Brandon Miller is going to be worth, is it more so like it it’s going to be more than what Jabari Smith, I think, was asking for, which was la was pretty much lauded all over NBA podcast fear, right? It was a fair deal for Jabari, fair for Houston. People still are buying in, but there’s untapped potential possibly there, especially as a top three pick. Okay, Brandon’s going to get more than that. But does Brandon play this year to a point where it’s a no-brainer and you just hand him almost all the money or are you going to try to play hard ball with Brandon because he gives you some something to play with? He actually does shoot 37% from three. Isn’t an crazy dead eyee guy. He does take a lot from distance, but you know, maybe the turnovers are still a little bit of an issue. The ball handling might be still a little bit of an issue. you’re paying for what you’re going to get in the future, but also like you you want to have an escape hatch to a tiny degree. I even in that context, just deciding what you’re going to do contractually a year from now, even there, it matters a ton. And if you decide to pay that guy without ever reaching an all-star game, All-Star money, then yeah, that that’s another reason as to why it might be going nowhere if he doesn’t become a top 30 player for a couple of these seasons. Well, and that’s what makes the timing of that scaffalunit injury, the wrist injury, uh, just more devastating to me because, you know, we got an update in that same Rod Boon article or no, this was on the Brandon Miller. Uh, this was a different article, Langston. Uh, you have to remind me, which I embarrassingly called him Hughes about five different times during my ESPN 7:30 days. Um, it’s Langston Warts, not Langston Hughes. Got it. Um, not the Harlem Renaissance. No, not not uh, you know, one of the best riders of all time. His his dream not deferred. Okay. So, uh, Brandon Miller said this during that interview uh, about his wrist injury. It’s probably around 90 to 95% now. I started contact drills. I’ll be ready the first day the season starts. So, great news. He’s going to be ready the first day the season starts. I don’t know if that means training camp. I don’t know what exactly that means. if he’s just like not gonna be fully ready until pre who knows who knows what that means. But I’ll tell you what it means. It means that this summer he’s just starting contact drills, so he’s missed a lot of opportunity to kind of get in and figure some of that stuff out. Like I mean he needs to improve his ball handling. He needs to improve his defense. There’s so many things that he needs to improve that would really I think require you in some kind of way to be able to get out onto a floor and you know scrimmage and do some things like that. But obviously he can do tape study. there was a lot that he could do and I’m sure he did it and but but just you know when I think about the timing of this injury and and how it kept him off the floor, he’s got a lot to overcome. I you know there are other players that the Hornets have drafted in their history where I would go I’m not really confident he can overcome it. I don’t feel that way about Brandon Miller. I think he can overcome it and we’ll just have to see what is what the beginning of a season looks like. Yeah, we were robbed of it. We were all robbed of it. That that one that one sucked having him out for as long as he was out. All right, coming up next on the Locked on Hornets podcast. Everywhere, we go back to the Sicko Satchel and we rummage. We rummage for letters from the front line. More to come here. LO. [Music] Before we get to Letters from the front line, I want to get to an exchange from Brandon Miller and a reporter. Doug, you liked this back and forth between Brandon and was it Rod or it was Langston actually. Okay, in the same Yeah, it was in the same article that that I mentioned before. All right. What what what you got for the people? Uh, so this is the question from Langston. If I told you the Hornets haven’t won 50 games in a season since 199798 before you were born. What’s your reaction? Brandon Miller. No reaction. Next question. Is that He didn’t say next question. I’m saying next question. Yeah. Is that going to change? Brandon Miller, I guess we will see. Yeah, let’s do it. Can you feel the excitement? Yeah. Okay, let’s do it, baby. All right. Couple of things. This is brand new. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, a couple of things. I really hope that I really hope that Khan Canipple is good enough to be interviewed in the future because I need one single player on this team other than Grant Williams who is both really good and can give good interview because Brandon, I’m sorry that was that was bad interview to be told that the Hornets haven’t won 50 games in a season since 9798 and your answer to that is no reaction. And here’s what I also understand. I understand these guys are PR coached not to set playoff expectations, not to get out in front of the coach, get out in front of the organization, you know, not not to talk about baseball innings or anything like that. So, there’s like that. You don’t want them to do that. Although players will do that. Uh you you probably as an organization, you don’t want them to do that. But then there’s this whole gulf between that and no reaction. like you could say something. Give the fans something. Give the sickos something that they can chew on, some kind of hope that you understand the pain that has been wrought on this fan base and that you’re here to fix it. Um, Langston Wartz is a legendary high school sports writer for sure of the Observer, which makes him a legendary writer for the Observer. I will say to defend Brandon a little bit. First question could be worded a little better, you know, and like I I have to do this all the time. Like I gotta word my question. Sometimes I leave an interview asking not so good questions because I don’t get good answers and that’s on me. That’s not from the subject that I’m interviewing. That’s on me. If you ask Brandon, hey, what’s your reaction for the Hornets having failed so miserably for the last 30 years? I don’t know. Like if if you wanted to say, do you feel a pressure with do you feel some kind of pressure to win basketball games because this franchise hasn’t been to a playoff series in forever? Like I I think it could have been worded better. And I I’ve interviewed Brandon a handful of times, like I think four, maybe five. And it’s it’s not the easiest, but also it’s not that like if you engage with him, if you have fun, radio is very different than a back and forth between the reporter, but there’s also the kind of privacy of just being there with a, you know, pen and paper instead of being on the microphone where you automatically know what you’re saying goes out to the public. I He Brandon was still fun and engaging when asking him questions about the Hornets, about Alabama football, whatever. So anyways, just to defend Brandon a tiny teeny tiny bit. No, I’m I totally disagree with you. This question was fine. It’s perfectly understandable. They have not won 50 games since before you were born. What’s your reaction to that? I don’t I don’t know. I wasn’t born. I wasn’t I wasn’t born. My reaction is sucking my thumb cuz I was No, my reaction is I’d like to change that. Hey, that’s you know that’s that’s what the money’s for. I’m going to come in here and do everything possible to help turn that around. That’s what they, you know, I wake up thinking about that. I go to sleep thinking about that. You could have said that. And again, that doesn’t say that’s not setting crazy expectations of being like, “Yeah, I guarantee we’re going to win 50 games that, you know, in the next couple of seasons or we’re going to make the playoffs this season.” It’s nothing like that. It’s just like no to say like no reaction to that is is um a little crazy to me. And and also, here’s another I’ll give you another response, Brandon. Next time you ask asked this question, here’s a free one. You should say maybe they should have hired Mike Danton a few years ago. They would have won 50 games. Maybe they should have traded for Rudy Gobear. They would have won 50 games. There are a couple of free answers for you next time Langston asked this question. Don’t No, I actually don’t take the advice of saying they should have hired Mike Danton. That now we have drama. Doug is single-handedly responsible for causing drama in the Brandon Miller wants Mike Danton as head coach. Oh god, don’t do that. But the other question, too, is that going to change? And again, this is a little bit of a trap question. And and I appreciate Langston for asking it. And you could, yeah, you could answer that a million different ways and not say, I’m going to bring playoffs to the Charlotte Hornets and make that headline and and and do and get out in front of the organization. But he said, I guess we will see. And maybe he did that tongue and cheek with a little bit of a grin. It’s tough to say because this is in print. It’s not a video. It’s not on radio. You can’t hear the intonation in his voice, the inflection in his voice. So may but again when you see that in the cold black and white of print I guess we will see. It’s like yeah well maybe I guess I’ll buy tickets. I don’t know. I guess I’ll renew my season tickets. I guess we’ll see. Like come on. Give me some con give me some kind of confidence. That’s what I’m saying. Khan Kippo will give us confidence. I will say Khan’s media tour wasn’t the greatest. So I I don’t think your wish is going to be true. What was wrong with it? Oh he was good with Bill Simmons. Oh, the other interviews, the con interviews, they weren’t they weren’t great, but he’s a rookie. He’s Liam McNeely, that was fun. Uh, Seion James, Ryan, printer, they were good interviews. Uh, see, Liam, you don’t want to put him in this interview set because Liam would have been the guy that go Yeah. 50 games. Got it. I’m on it. Yeah. Headband logo turned frontwards. Let’s go, baby. Okay. Letters from the front line. Sicko satchel questions. We have a few different things. fan listener engagement segment wise. What we got for the people here today, Doug? Uh yeah, let’s do uh let’s do one here and then we’ll do a bunch on the next show. This one and uh Frank Kaminsky reviewed Happy Gilmore 2 and I watched Happy Gilmore 2. I have thoughts. Frank Kaminsky used to play for the Charlotte Hornets. So, I’m going to use that as the the angle, the the reason why I talk about Happy Gilmore, too. So, stay tuned for that on the next episode. But here’s Davis of the eighth Bismac Brigade who asks, “Uh, we saw Tan and KJ really improve from April to July. How much better do you think they can get leading up to the next season?” Also, just a comment on the Khan defense situation where he lacks in athleticism. I thought he made up for it in taking great angles and understanding how to use his body. He’s going to get blown by in that next level of wing in the NBA, but he’s not hopeless out there. Did you see it the same way? Um, yeah. Saw it the exact same way. Did I think for summer league Khan Canipple was not this glaring issue. Oh my god, it’s going to go horribly, horribly wrong at the next level. I did not come away from summer league feeling that way. First game, we saw him get blown by by Isaiah Collier. Yeah, okay. I saw some Hornets fans. Shout out to my guy Herman photography. Go check out his business. But Herman said Isaiah Collier had a push off on that play. Khan wasn’t in position. It was a bad defensive play after a turnover. Not a good sequence. Yeah. So, yeah, he’s not going to be a lock down guy. I I thought there were some moments where he was just downright good at it. Like, he was taking the basketball away from people, getting his hands in passing lanes. I did not see him as a monster issue this whole on that end of the floor. To answer your other question, how much better do you think they can get leading up to the season? Tan Salon and KJ Simpson. Great question. I don’t know. I I I I’m hoping that they can get a lot better because now you’re going to be running fives, you know, with these team sets. I I don’t know if you’re going to be running ones versus twos, you know, mixing it up a little bit. You’re probably going to get a lot of different lineup looks, but I’m hoping that they can get a lot better. Um I I I think preeason matters. I can’t help but think, Doug, of the PJ Washington preseason when he looked like ready to play right now in that moment and we weren’t exactly sure how to feel about that PJ selection and preseason mattered. Um, and then he played like 30 minutes a game that rookie season. Context matters, too. But yeah, I I’m hoping we see some good stuff preseason from KJ and Salon. That’s the next step uh in terms of what we can watch because we won’t be able to watch training camp. Yeah, that’s the thing. between now and when they get into camp and preseason. It’s all about doing that, all of the individual stuff, getting all of that stuff locked in so that you don’t have to think about that while you’re processing everything else that’s happening out there on the floor. The the only way to get better at that, processing everything that’s happening out on the floor, which is way more important for Ton than it is for KJ, who I think has a handle on on what’s happening out there with everyone else. Um, so really KJ, it’s just like getting those reps in for shooting, becoming a more consistent three-point shooter, uh, both off the dribble and off the catch. That’s going to be important for him. But for Ton, um, you know, I think daily improvement is the thing that they’ve been constantly talking about and drilling, particularly into these young guys, about going into every day, how can I improve? They’re obsessed with it. How can they get better at? And they’re going to have to do that with the individual stuff. And then the only way you get better with that other stuff is by getting those reps in camp in preeason and you know ultimately whether it’s G-League time for Tan early on or whether he has a a role uh with with the big squad. I mean it’s just making the most of those moments. Um and Khan defense question. What do you think about Khan’s defense? Yeah. Go there’s a lot of like fluff and BS in the men’s health article on Luca Donuch that everyone’s talking about Luca 2.0. There’s a lot there’s a lot of like weird stuff in there, but one of the things that I liked in that article was about his I think they called it eccent eccentric force and it was just a lot of talk about how Luca Donuch not somebody that even when he came into the league and was kind of skinny was not seen as like elite athlete and how he used low center of gravity, strength in his legs to create space for himself offensively and also hang in there defensively. Now, I mean, Luca not a very good defender. Gets blown by a lot, can lock it in occasionally. Very similar to LaMelo in that way. It’s like there there are like glimpses of where he like locks it in and then, you know, he’s he’s managing his energy to focus on the offensive end a lot. So, you know, for Khan, I don’t think that he needs to be some like elite athlete to survive in the NBA. He’s just going to have to use every available tool. His uh his basketball IQ, his lower body strength, I think, is going to be super important for him to hang in there. Uh so yeah, uh I think I’m not I’m not crazy worried about Khan’s defense on the next level. And in in summer league, I think uh I don’t think it was an issue. All right, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free. We’re available anywhere you get your pods. That includes YouTube. Check out Doug Substack, every hornetsboxcore.com. Also listen to his other podcast with Matt Moore and Hayes. I’m Walker Mayo. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. We got one more show to go this week. [Music]

On today’s episode, we’re jumping right into the news that always seems to find the Hornets: an injury update. We discuss the latest report from Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer, which indicates that Josh Green is still recovering from shoulder surgery and will likely not be ready for the start of training camp. We break down what this means for his already complicated place in the rotation, his trade value, and whether this opens the door for a player like Tidjane Salaun to get more opportunities early on.

Rod Boone article: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article311481680.html

Langston Wertz Jr. article: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article311476077.html

Then, we’re firing up the aggregation station once again to discuss some powerful comments from ESPN’s Zach Lowe. On his recent podcast, Lowe made it crystal clear that he believes the entire future of the Hornets franchise is “going nowhere” unless Brandon Miller develops into an All-Star. We play the audio and debate his emphatic take, exploring the immense pressure on Miller in his third year, especially with a contract extension looming after the season. We also touch on Miller’s own recovery from a wrist injury and analyze a recent interview where his non-committal answers about the team’s history raised some eyebrows.

We’ll wrap things up by dipping into the Sisko Satchel to answer a listener question about the developmental arc for rookies Tidjane Salaun and K.J. Simpson heading into the season.

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