What do Hornets Lottery Pick Paydays Look Like? | Sixers Trade Idea Featuring Two Familiar Names

What do Hornets Lottery Pick Paydays Look Like? | Sixers Trade Idea Featuring Two Familiar Names

Coming up today on the Locked on Hornets podcast, Josh Giddy agrees to a four-year 100 million contract with the Bulls. We find the local angle there. Doug has a trade idea and I think I probably don’t think we’re going to get to who wore it best number three. Doug is probably going to figure out a way for us to kick it down the road. We’ll see. 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 Network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast. And that includes YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. You can find him on his Substack Every Hornetsboxcore.com. He’s also a producer for the very new Yahoo Sports Daily Show with Jason Fitz and Caroline say one more time. Renford Fenton Fenton Renford is what I said. I don’t know who Caroline Renford is, but Caroline Fenton that who is a host alongside Jason Fitz. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me on WFNZ alongside my co-host. What’s his name again? What? Wes Bryant. That’s right. Wes Bryant. Wes Redford. Wes Bryan. Wes Bryant. Uh, no, I’m kidding. Wes, it’s Wes Bryant. Wes and Walker Sports Radio 927 WFNZ each weekday from 12 to 300 PM. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel football season. It’s here. And right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. Download the FanDuel.com app, FanDuel app, or go to FanDuel.com to get started. Um, you can win $5. Uh, if you bet just $5, you can win a lot more than that. I can’t promise that you’ll win Josh Giddy money after his new contract extension. $25 million annual contract. Four years, $100 million, Doug. It’s a lot of dome. And good for Josh Giddy capitalizing on his opportunity with Chicago because it was a weird space he was in down in Oklahoma City. OKC decided to trade him to Chicago for Alex Caruso. I think we all know that’s a huge win for what the Thunder were able to do in the postseason. They saved Caruso during the regular season. They deployed the defensive menace that he was offensively helping you with some of the shooting and it was just an awesome awesome acquisition for OKC. I don’t know if we would have described the Bulls acquiring Giddy as an awesome acquisition, but it did kind of turn out that way. Like they didn’t know if they wanted to pay him a whole lot of money or not. But post Allstar break, Josh Giddy averaged over 21 points per game, almost 11 rebounds per game, over nine assists, and one and a half steals on 50 46 81 shooting. Those are actually some crazy numbers. Not just really good, but actually some pretty damn crazy numbers he provided. And yet, when I see that money, I think don’t love it. Don’t hate it, but don’t love it. I think it’s about right. I just don’t know what I don’t know if I would want my team to do that. Thus, the giddy conundrum. Thus being the first bullet point. If you’re watching on YouTube, that’s where we bring in the giddy conundrum. What are your thoughts? and we can find the local angle after this, but what are your thoughts on Josh Giddy agreeing to that contract and Chicago, both parties actually agreeing to this contract? Yeah, it’s a really interesting story that could be relevant for the Charlotte Hornets in the future. It’s not relevant to them now because of of Book Knight and Kai Jones being in that draft class and the Hornets not really having to worry about that. But in the future, uh, they could face the same problem that the Bulls, the Sixers, uh, the Nets were all facing, Kaminga and Golden State, where you have these players that are kind of, you know, they’re obviously not max level players, but they’re not players that you can sign for a little bit of money because they do contribute in some way in the box score that is significant. They have talent that is significant and yet they’re not really needle movers. Like that’s the thing about Josh Giddy. Had a great year, not a needle mover for the Chicago Bulls. And so all of these teams are taking these players to the mat. Why? Because the CBA puts those teams up against the mat in terms of second apron penalties. And so, you know, you you you’re going to face these tough decisions if you draft a player that doesn’t exist on the two ends of the spectrum of player that obviously is not going to garner a big deal or player that is obviously a max player. It’s this middle class of the NBA salary-wise that’s going to continue, I think, to get squeezed until they go into other CBA negotiations. And so, you know, it could be a problem for the Charlotte Hornets when they’re talking about Khan Canipple someday. If Khan Canipple doesn’t break out in a way over the next three or four seasons that makes you go, “Yeah, obvious max contract player.” The Hornets could find themselves in this exact same situation where they’re either dealing with the prospect uh that Oklahoma City was of like, “Hey, we got to move this guy because there’s no room. there’s no real roster fit. Plus, we don’t want to give them a bunch of money or because Brandon Miller, LaMelo Balls suddenly hit his all all NBA stride. We want to make sure there’s plenty of money to go around to try to retain those guys. Not much left for the coniples of the world. So, they could be facing the same problem. I don’t think Josh Giddy is an extremely malleable player. I think that’s part of the biggest issue with him. So, if you’re not a two-way player and you do have to have him serve as this fulcrum of your offense in order for it to be working at its peak with him in the rotation, I think that causes a lot of issues for you. For instance, I think it’s the exact opposite for somebody like Khan Canipple where Khan is pretty malleable. All you have to do is throw him in there and say secondary playmake at a high level, done. Shoot at a high level. That’s exactly why we drafted you, buddy. is because we’re hoping in the top five that you’re going to be a 40% shooter for your career. So, that works in a lot of different lineups. But your point is still understood in that it basically do we feel like you’re unequivocally good or not? Uh unequivocally worth this contract that is still a lot of money and a decent percentage of the cap. And so, here’s the local angle. Let’s find all of the players that the Hornets have drafted and figure out how many issues the Hornets might have because, okay, Giddy was a part of the 2021 NBA draft class. And the 2021 draft class for us is an all-time worst draft. Kai Jones, James Book Knight, those are your two selections. The Hornets made decisions pretty quickly on both of them. Don’t have to worry about paying those guys anymore. Next year they selected Mark Williams and Nick Smith Jr. Nick Smith Jr. still on the team. I I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be on the team. He could be cut. Mark Williams they made a decision to trade twice. Once it was rescended in almost unprecedented fashion and they just because they didn’t want to have those conversations at all with him and that’s what teams are deciding earlier that hey we’re not even going to go into these negotiations. We’d rather just move on and keep the books, you know, flexible and and know know what we know and and and not have a lot of unknowns there. Yeah. So, speaking of the unknowns, I mean, so, okay, so Mark Williams, they don’t have to worry about that anymore. He doesn’t play on the team, so the Hornets don’t have one of these issues. Next on the list is Brandon Miller. We’ll get back to him. Tan Salon was drafted after Brandon. You know, I if if you had to bet money, I would say he’s not on track to be a $25 million a year player. It’s also one season in the league. So, who knows, man. Still jury out on him. And Khan Canipple hasn’t even played a game. What are your thoughts on the last three guys with Brandon Miller and Tan Salon? Khan Canipple. It seemed like you wanted to start there with Tan. If you have thoughts there. Yeah, I think that if Ton continues to improve and shows promise, then when you get to extension time, you can either do something that is, you know, moderate and short-term puts him back onto the market. If you’re like, “All right, this guy’s we’re two years from understanding what he is. He likes being here. We like having him here. He’s satisfied with our development program, you know, two years, whatever the dollar amount is, but it’s not anywhere near like significant money.” I think you can do that. And it’s it’s the benefit of taking somebody that was like barely 18 years old coming into that draft is that you can get to that second contract and it doesn’t it’s it’s not automatically like a conversation about how massive it has to be. Um who are they? Well, Brandon Miller, I mean that’s you know to me he’s heading towards a max deal if he can get anywhere near the all-star conversation in the next couple of seasons. So the max deal stuff is going to be interesting for him, right? like do you get to this Jabari Smith place which there was some Jabari Smith comps with Brandon on somewhat of the lower end and he got five years 122 million. You you had something that’s why I stopped my point. It looked like you were wanting to say something there. What what I’m always wanting to just say you know you know you know the rules here. You you know the rules. Just keep on keep on going until I just you know I just have to make faces. No, that’s that’s fine. It seemed like you really had something right there. So, I wanted to give you your space. But so, so that’s the question, right? Okay, I’m with you. It It seems like Brandon is on track to get a max contract like that. And I’m It’s not even like I’m wincing over it. I’m not 100% comfortable with it, but I’m not wincing so much to where I don’t want to do it. So, the Hornets have to decide at the end of the season if he just blows everybody out of the water and he’s awesome, cool. We don’t have to worry about anything. If it’s a little bit harder to decide, then you have to figure out maybe we could even stick with the Rockets. Do you go with some type of Jabari Smith contract, 5 years, 122 million? Do you go with a Jaylen Green contract where you actually use some of your leverage, you play some hard ball, there’s a three-year, $16 million contract, so it’s more annually, but less years. And then eventually they end up trading him anyway after moving for different stars. I I think Jaylen a little bit like the way we were talking about with Josh Giddy and Khan Canipple. Jaylen Green I don’t think is all that much of a fluid player where you throw him in any system and he just works. I think Brandon because of the shooting that’s I think the key skill set to have in a just throw him in any rotation and he’ll work at least a little bit. Those guys are going to bring you a little more value. So, you probably wse a little less at throwing a lot of money at those types of players. I I do think we could be in store for an interesting conversation with Brandon Miller at the end of this season, but I do think the Hornets are going to exhaust every opportunity to figure it the hell out. Like, we don’t want to make the wrong decision here. There are worlds where that could happen. So, we’re going to give him every opportunity to prove that he is a Max type of player. And if he doesn’t, then we could be in store for some interesting negotiations between both parties. And if it doesn’t reach Max, I just feel like it’s it’s so rare for those players that go top pick don’t meet expectations to end up getting the money with the team. I think about Harrison Barnes like he did he you know four years with Golden State ends up getting his money 22 like $22 million a year u off of his rookie extension but it ended up being with the Mavericks. Um an exception to that was Will Barton who I think his rookie extension ended up being with the Nuggets but he popped off. It was he wasn’t a high pick. It’s not it’s not the same, but he did get he did get a decentsized deal without it having to be like a massive deal because he was a role player, but he was always expected to be a role player. With Brandon Miller, you’re expecting him to be a star when it doesn’t live up to that. I think that’s when it that’s when those negotiations become difficult. But you bring up the Jabari, you bring up the Jabari comp, and I think that is that is the comp. But that would be, you know, I’m sure a lot of people listening to this would be like, good lord, please don’t let that happen. A lot rides on Brandon Miller actually meeting I mean this year is huge for him. A lot rides on him starting to meet those expectations. Well, so and when you say please don’t let that happen, do you mean please don’t let Brandon Miller perform to a level where we have no clue what to do. So we just I’m speaking to God. Please do not let that happen. I’m not speaking to Brandon or the coaching staff or I’m I’m speaking to the basketball gods. Uh to every religion’s God. I’m speaking to all of them. I want counsel with everyone to please end our suffering. I will take a deal. I will I will take a max deal from any god to make this suffering stop. Um yeah, I because I’m still a little confused because you because you think Jabari isn’t good and you don’t you don’t want like or is it just I’m I’m still confused. You’re you’re asking I actually don’t know what you mean here. I want I want him not to be Jabari. I want him to live up. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I’m sorry. That was a kind of a weird moment, but I didn’t I still I didn’t know if he was like I want him No, I’m sorry. I want him to be very very very good where there’s just like no question. Similar to LaMelo, even with the ankle injuries, he was so elite. He had such elite skills that like when we got to those negotiations, you and I never had the only conversation we had around that contract was maybe build something Zionesque in there uh to make sure that if he does blow his ankles that you can get out of it. And guess what? They decided not to do that. They they really were just like, “Hey, we’re going to make sure that we get this deal done and not fool around with it.” Um that’s how important they felt LaMelo Ball was to the future. And I hope that we get to the point where they feel the same way about Brandon Miller. Uh but you can definitely see some avenues where that doesn’t happen. You could really see the confusion in my head. I was really trying to figure that out. That wasn’t good potting. I apologize to everybody listening/watching, but I really needed to make that clear in order to know where to go next with September. We’re doing that. You know, it it’s fine. Maybe we finish up some of that conversation with Tan Salon and Coniple and Doug has a trade idea coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. It’s a good one. Everywhere. Lord knows what it’s going to be. I’m speaking to God saying, “Help me with this Doug trade idea. We figure out if he does help me.” Coming up next, LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. We appreciate them as always. And NFL season, it’s here. FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using FanDuel because it fits however you like to bet. Player props, building a same game parlay, or even jumping in live as the action unfolds. It makes every game more exciting, whether you’re watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup. And it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s the best way to add a little bit more energy to your Sundays. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app today by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. More locked on Hornets ahead. [Music] Okay, we had the Brandon Miller conversation. Tan Salon. It this is a harder uh back and forth to have because it’s just one season with Ton. Don’t know how he’s going to look going into the second year and Khan Kipple hadn’t even played a game, but you get the idea. The Ton, how do you feel about these contract conversations and how you expect them to play out maybe 10 times, 100 times? Like do you feel more good than bad? Is it vice versa? I cuz I got to tell you like I I feel like that right now is headed towards a really complicated matter and I’m almost hoping for complicated Doug because that means Tan Salon is doing something for me to think about paying him a lot of money. No, it’s up to Tan Salon to make it interesting at this point. Yeah, I mean there’s no, you know, there’s no doubt about that because he’s making, you know, in term because he’s a high pick because he was six, like you can take the swing that’s fine, but when you take it at six, because of the way the rookie scale works, that’s going to be a significant percentage. Not the most significant, but I think he’s making like six or seven million. Like it’s a significant chunk of change when you’re talking about percentage of your cap. Uh, so they they will have to they will have to make a call, but I think it’s just as likely he gets wrapped up into some, you know, trade situation uh where some other team uh they they can convince another team to take on that money and take on that risk of Tan Salon flaming out and they package it together with a couple of first round picks in the summer before they ever even get to those conversations. I think that’s just as likely as them actually getting to the table and doing a deal because that to me would require again him showing some significant development and him having a desire like hey I like coach Lee. I like what we’re doing here. I like the development that I’m under. I like my role and you know I but those so often you know those so often go in a different direction. So I’m I’m I’m just open to anything happening there with Tan. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s probably too early to have that conversation. And last thing to put a bow on the Brandon Miller point. I I don’t think Jabari Smith happens where we have to settle for five years, 122. I think he ends up this year, as long as he stays healthy, that’s always the issue. But he stayed healthy his first year. Anytime he was injured, he would come back. As long as he’s healthy, I think he’s going to perform to a level where you just pretty easily decide here’s a lot of money. Maybe there’s some quibbling back and forth, but overall I feel like it’ll be a pretty comfortable decision on we want him to be here long term and we’re going to try to make that happen and exercise every avenue possible. I hope it’s definitive one way or the other. I hope you and I are having a conversation when it comes to these negotiations and we’re going it’s pretty clear what they have to do in either direction. either they need they’ve got to play hard ball and make sure they get a fair deal because he he’s not a max level player or and I I I just hope you and I aren’t arguing about it. Honestly, it would make for better potting, but just for the health of the team because the the danger is you look around and LaMelo misses a bunch more games and you’re like, well, that’s a huge question mark on the future. Now, we just got to we just got to anchor ourselves to Brandon Miller. Whatever Brandon Miller is, we just got to ride it out and give him the money. And that’s a dangerous place to be. Then you end up uh like the Chicago Bulls. Uh just sort of no one knows where you’re at. You’re in the middle of the ocean. Um you know, that kind of thing. So yeah, I I just hope it’s it’s definitive. By the way, while we’re talking about other people’s money because we spent really the entire show so far doing that. I don’t know if you read this, Rod Boon went out to the for the Charlotte Observer, beat writer for the Charlotte Observer, went out to a Charlotte Knights game where all of the Hornets rookies, and there are a lot of them, they drafted enough players to field the baseball team, four of them. Uh, so he got to interview all of them. And except for Liam McNeely, strangely, he asked the other three what they were going to do uh with their new contract money. What are you what what’s the first thing you’re going to buy? And I thought all of them had an interesting answer. Would you like to hear their answers? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s hear it. All right. So, Ryan Caulbrinter when asked about it, he said, “Now that you have your first pro contract, what have you purchased or planned to buy that you’ve been eager to get?” And Ryan Cogbrer said, “I’ve got a baby on the way. They’re expensive enough as it is. I’ve got to spend all my money on her.” Right answer. Smart decision. Smart decision. He also had a smart Love Island answer. I think every answer Ryan Cochrrener gives is calculated, if you will. Everything he does is calculated. Um, all right. So, let’s move down to Khan Canipple. Uh, this was great. Uh, he asked him, uh, do you Oh, I think he asked him like, “What have you purchased?” Um, Liam mentioned Legos. They had a Legos conversation. Oh, do you have a do you have a target in mind? A nice car or something? Rod Boon just getting right in there. He wants to know what you’re buying. Wants to know what kind of car you’re buying and if he can get a ride to work. What are you spending before taxes? I think Rod’s in the market for a car and he just is is figuring out what other people are doing. And can you Here’s here’s Conanipple’s answer. I just got my Ford Explorer that I have. Yeah, I don’t know. I have to think about it. Totally. Con, man. I don’t like this is why do I know these rookies so well after hearing from him so many times? I knew Liam McNeely was going to tell me about Legos. Uh Ryan Caulkinter that matches with other answers that he’s given us. And same thing with Khan. It’s a Ford Explorer. I would picture nothing less like that or nothing else. That’s exactly what I picture him driving. All right, last one. Seion James, the last of the Hornets picks was a second round pick. Still a higher second round pick. Not a deep deep deep second round pick. And K Brener was the last, by the way, just to be clear. I’m sorry. It was Seion. Yep. Seion then. And I You know why I You know why I thought it was Seion last? Because I wanted Caulk Brener in the McNeely spot. Like I was like, why are you waiting on cockbrinter? Um that didn’t feel very calculated to me. I wanted them to just go ahead. I didn’t want them to be calculated. I wanted them to just get printer. Seion James, second round pick. Here’s his answer. What are you looking forward to purchasing most? And he said, “Yeah, all the stuff I really want to get is going to have to wait for another deal.” Yeah, I like that. See, now that’s an answer. I like that one. I Well, it’s a forward answer. It’s an assuming answer that he’s gonna get another deal. I like that. I love the confidence. You want these guys to have confidence. But then it’s also like, you know, I It reminds me of uh the guy and I don’t I don’t remember his name. I don’t remember the actor’s name, but he played I bet in Community. He was being interviewed uh by Larry King. And Larry King was I can’t remember the the context of the question that he asked him, but it was it was money related. And uh the actor said, “Listen, I’m I I’m a voice actor on Ducktales. Like I’m not a multi-millionaire.” I got drafted in the second round, man. Like I I got money. I I don’t want to get it twisted, but I’m going to need another contract before I really answer your question. You want to give us your trade idea? Uh, let’s do it in the Let’s do it in the third segment. We’re We’re up against time. I don’t know if we’re going to get to this number three. I’m just going to tell you right now who wore it best. It’s not It’s not looking good. I don’t have any words. I don’t I don’t control time. You want me to control time? I You know, I don’t have This is not some like Zelda game where I can just like slow down time while a sk g giant scary moon stares at me. That’s not what this is. Okay. Coming up next on the Lock on Hornets podcast everywhere. We have to listen to Doug’s trade idea. Not in segment two, but we got to do it in segment three. It’s coming up next. LO. [Music] I saw a comment in the sicko sewer that said Walker is about to have a mini crash out over this who wore it best number three. And never have I seen a comment more right. I’m about to have except mini. Mini might have been the wrong word to use. You’re gonna have a mini stroke. Everyone watch the left side of Walker’s face. If it starts to droop, let me know in the comments and we’ll do uh we’ll do number three. I’m fine. All right, let’s hear it. What’s your trade idea, Doug? All right, so this trade idea doesn’t come out of or didn’t come out of nowhere. Um, I was perusing for content ideas and I stumbled upon real GM wiretap and uh this is uh you know wiretap it’s a it’s a website that has news and notes from around the league. Not a lot going on right now in the league but as I mentioned in the first segment there are some teams that are still trying to get some negotiations done including the Philadelphia 76ers who have yet to resign Quinton Grimes but they want to. The problem is for the Philadelphia 76ers that they are up against those aprons that I talked about. So they they could according to real GM wiretap actually this is according to Jake Fisher Bleacher Report. We’re going fishing, baby. I got a big one. Oh nice. They could move Kelly Ubé. Familiar name. Oh god. And another familiar name to Hornets trade conversations. one Andre Drummond, Kelly Ubé, Andre Drummond. Drummond’s set to make $5 million and then it’s an expiring contract. UB also an expiring deal with the contract being worth 8.4 million. But remember, you’ve got to save the the Philadelphia 76ers need to save about a million and a half bucks. So, you’ve got to come in at a million and a half under that salary number, 8.4 million plus 5 million. You’ve got to combine some salaries and and and ship off two players. Well, guess what? The Hornets could do that. All they have to do is send Pat Coneton and his expiring $9.4 million deal. That might get it done right there and save them even more money. I haven’t run this through the trade thing, but then you could just throw in a two million. You could throw in Spencer Denwitty at $2 million and just call it a deal. And then you bring back Andre Drummond who just eats boards. He’s not doing a lot of other things. He’s only playing 40 games, so he’s not even going to get get in the way too much of your Musa Diovate love. He’s just going to eat boards. Something that Mason Plumbley is not going to do. Something that a lot of these players are going to struggle with. So, um, you get Andre Drummond, you bring back Kelly Ubé Jr. who was just a just a wonderful life force to this team when he was playing for them. He’d have to, you know, have to do a little damage control after what he said when he went to Philadelphia. But yeah, I forgot about that. You know, beyond that, you know, he was he was Tsunami Poppy, baby. I just you get Tsunami Poppy back. And here’s the thing. You don’t just do a two for two. You’re helping you’re helping them out. So, you got to get a top five, top three protected first round pick out of the deal. Come on. What are we talking about? Let’s do it. Philadelphia. What What’s great is that Kelly Ubé did seem to turn into Tsunami father permanently up in Philadelphia. He kind of had to because they were just terribly injured. Kelly had 52 starts with Philadelphia his first year and 57 starts with Philadelphia the second year. I don’t think that was in the plans. Certainly not this past year from what I remember yet. They had to call on him because of Paul George’s injury and you get the whole idea up there. What’s going on with the 76ers? I I can tell you I will delight in watching Kelly Ubé only give us one assist per game and also shoot a decent amount of threes and only make 30% of them. Uh but again, Tsunami Father like attacking the rim a lot more, 47 overall. Like I that that we saw a little bit of that turn up here in Charlotte and it kept going that direction up in Philadelphia. Last time the Hornets won 40 plus games, it was under Berago. And they did it really on an incredible uh season from Miles Bridges, good season from La Mlo, good season, really good season from Kelly, too. And it was an offensive powered season. And that’s what this this team’s already built around offense. They are going to have to overachieve defensively if they want to, you know, pile some wins up. So, you’re just leaning into that, bringing back Kelly Ubé and hoping that he has just a banger contract year, looking for maybe one final deal or maybe maybe two final deals to go out on, but he’s going to be on a contract year, so you know, he’s going to play his bleep off. Andre Drummond is just going to be happy to be there. Again, you just send him out there to gobble up boards and and just be a big presence, which they don’t even have a lot of. They don’t have a lot of size when you take into account, I mean, they’ve got cockprint, but that just allows him to to slowly, you know, skill up. um and and maybe learn a thing or two from Andre Drummond along the way. Veteran presence that could be good for Coaulbrunner. I’m telling you, if you get a first round pick out of this, this to me is just a no-brainer. This is exactly the kind of deal that you want to go out for and give the Sixers a life preserver in the in in terms of $1.3 million so that they can sign Quinton Grimes. And then Paul George gets injured again and then Joel Embiid gets injured again and they end up with a sixth pick. Except you end up with a sixth pick now. Uh, so what are you sending out again? Like I heard Kelly Andre Conitan and Spencer Denwetti. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I’m in. Um, I’m in. There you go. Nice nice trade idea. Um All right. But what if you have to send out Tan Salon? What if that’s the Well, that I don’t think that would even work contractually. That wouldn’t save them any money. So, forget that. They They can’t even do that. Yeah. Um I I don’t think they can either. Okay. So, I imagine that’s the end of the show and we’re not going to have So, you’re doing the deal. You’re doing the deal. Kelly Ubé, Andre Drummond, and a first with the first being valuable. And I do want first from Philly. Like I know you have to you have you have you can’t bring back Spencer and Pat Coneton. Yeah. I mean that’s that’s that’s a no-brainer. The only the only thing that you’d be wary of is Kelly coming in and being like do you how much do you want him to be a part of your team? Does he fit what you want to do all that well? But the first round pick is going to be so valuable. Like I’m sure it’s going to be out I don’t know how many years from now. Uh I mean he’s not point I mean at least Kelly Ubé is not a point. Neither of these players are point guards. They’re Yeah. Kelly two point guards away and you’re bringing back two players that are not point guards. I think that’s a in terms of just making rosters fit. That’s a positive. Yeah. So Brandon Miller injury insurance. Now you have a three that you can go to. There we go. I’m telling you, I I don’t often come up with good trade ideas, but I saw this come around the old wire tap and I thought, “Oh boy, this feels like just the kind of thing that old Jeffy Jeff Peterson could cook up.” Chef Jeff. Oh man. And then uh we’ll see what number he would wear. He wore 12 the last time he was here. I don’t think we had Kelly Ubé wearing number 12 the best, but who knows? Maybe he Oh, no. If you want to vamp a little bit, I can definitely look that up. He did. He definitely did not win. No, there’s no way that he would wear he there’s no way. So I don’t know what he would wear because interestingly enough, he’s actually only worn the number 12 as far as I can tell. I think Oh, that was Vlatty Vlatty. He wore nine and three. Okay, I apologize. Vlatty Dotty won for 12. Kelly Ubé did wear the number 12. You know who also wore the number 12. And this is a good uh good thing to end on was Dwight Howard in 2018. Shout out Dwight Howard, now a Hall of Fame Hornet. Yeah, one of the more interesting players to debate here in Charlotte because he did give us some good numbers and but 3030 he had a 3030 game. At the same time, I don’t know how conducive he was to winning around here and Dwight what has been to be fair like what has been? No doubt. No doubt he he was I think he was the last or or his play in Charlotte that was the last year of Dwight actually showcasing himself as a premier talent and because you could argue his role was better with the Lakers when they won the championship as just this rim runner, you know, shot blocker. But in terms of dumping it down to the post and seeing what he can do, him and Charlotte, that was the last time that he showcased any of that. And that year, the Hornets went 36 and 46. And also didn’t seem to get along with Nick Batum. I think there was some, you know, there’s some rumors out there. Kima Walker wasn’t the biggest Dwight Howard fan, but this is the Dwight Howard experience. I I will say if Kima doesn’t like you, then I’m I’m gonna have to side with him. I’d be foolish to side with anybody else. And it is Dwight Howard. So anyways, so he made 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight straight All-Star games between 2006 and 2013 14 and his points per game average with Charlotte in 2017 18 16.6 was the highest uh that he had during that nonall-star final stretch of his career. Um and then he would average 12.8 with Washington. But yeah, you’re right. I mean, it was a weird statistical like flash in the pan for Dwight Howard. Uh, perfect opportunity reuniting with Steve Clifford and he got the 3030, which is I don’t think a lot of players have done that in NBA history. Yeah. Yeah. It would weird weird season. Um, yeah. One of the weirder seasons there are, but by the way, deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. No question about it with what he was able to accomplish before then. Okay, that’ll do it for Lockdown Hornets. We don’t get to it. Shocker. Doug Branson. Every hornetsboxcore.com. also check out. Yeah. No, 100%. It’s going to happen. We got to do two of them because David Walker’s coming on. I I promise you we’re going to do two of them because David Walker’s on and I don’t want him to do number three. I want him to do number two because he can actually give us some insight about who’s going to win that because he watched him play and I don’t think either of us did. So, we have to do number two with him. We might skip number three and do number two. How about that? No, no. I I believe you. I I fully expect to do both jersey numbers next time. I don’t know why I wouldn’t believe you at this point. It’s Doug Branson of every hornetsbox.com. Also a producer for Yahoo Sports Daily. Go check it out. I’m Walker Mail listening to me WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3:00 p.m. Have a great rest of your day. Um we’ll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye. [Music]

Josh Giddey’s new $100 million contract prompts a look at the Hornets’ future financial decisions, specifically what a second contract for Brandon Miller might look like. Plus, we propose a trade that brings two familiar faces, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond, back to Charlotte.

On today’s show, we start with the news of Josh Giddey agreeing to a four-year, $100 million contract with the Bulls. This deal perfectly illustrates the “Giddey conundrum,” a tough spot for teams navigating the new CBA with players who are good, but not quite max-level talents. This leads us to examine the Hornets’ own roster and future extension decisions. While the 2021 draft class is a non-factor, the front office will soon face a huge decision with Brandon Miller. We explore whether he is on a max-contract trajectory and what happens if his performance lands somewhere in the middle, similar to the contracts for Jabari Smith or Jalen Green.

To lighten the mood, we share some fun reporting from Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer, who asked the Hornets’ rookies about the first big purchases they plan to make with their new money. Finally, Doug presents a trade idea with the Philadelphia 76ers that would help them with salary cap issues while bringing Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond, and a first-round pick back to Charlotte in exchange for Pat Connaughton and Spencer Dinwiddie.

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