Hornets GO NUCLEAR, score 145 | LaMelo’s highlight of the PRESZN | Miles Bridges DOMINATES Grizzlies

Hornets GO NUCLEAR, score 145 | LaMelo’s highlight of the PRESZN | Miles Bridges DOMINATES Grizzlies

The Hornets play by far their best preseason game of the preeason. This an all-star game. Nutmeg fullcourt alleys from LaMelo. That’s what we’re doing now. Unbelievable. We’ll get to all of it today. Locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. in a minute cuz we live. [Music] It’s Locked on Hornets, part of the Locked On podcast network. Unreal, baby. We got some fun basketball to talk about. There’s Doug Branson. An excited Doug Branson. I didn’t know if you were going to actually say anything. You basically just Shador Sanders did there. Uh every every hornetsboxcore.com. Go check it out. It’s his substack. It’s great stuff. And also go check out Yahoo Sports Daily. He helps produce it. Jason Fitz, Caroline Fittton, again, Yahoo Sports Daily. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. This episode is brought to you. It’s brought to you by Game Time, Doug. They’re back. What time is it? Game Time. Game Time. Game Time. Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re back, baby. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. I’m glad. That’s how you know the season is back. Now, the Hornets giving us a 145 point performance. That That’s something that I would welcome in the regular season. Goodness gracious, man. I mean, by far their best game. They just went nuclear starting really with Miles Bridges. He was 29, 10, and five on the night, hitting pretty much every single shot that he took. He was 11 of 16 from the field. hit a lot of threes. Just excellent shot making from Miles. But man, I mean, pick your player that you felt like was worth talking about here. Brandon Miller really came on late uh and got hot in the second half. Seven of 16 for him. LaMelo was excellent. Gave us the play of preseason. You know, Kase Wallace had the crazy play where he shoots it over the backboard from like 10 ft out of bounds. That was nuts. This one was also a nutso play with LML going nutmeg. Jock Landale’s jock strap. Okay. Under Jo’s jockstrap and then fullcourt alley to Brandon who had to go all the way back to get it. Unreal stuff. Musa diabate. Oh my god. The moose is loose. Where do you want to start, Doug? I mean, so many fun things to talk about regarding the Hornets. Who came out like this game mattered? Who who who they they cared? I thought the energy level was exceptional in this game. Shout out to Colin Ston and Musa for bringing all of the energy here too. Like I lots of great stuff to talk about here. Where you want to go? Uh people will go to that Kase and Wallace shot u and and say that man that’s the shot of the preeason. You know, all the people that talk about shot of the preseason and and I would say to those people, I would say, hold on a minute because what LaMelo did uh nutmegging lndale and then going way up top scoop left-handed alley one, you know, just like and then Brandon ju Brandon the the athleticism just to get to that basketball and yammon he had to go he had to reach all the way back into his back pocket. It was an incredible play and it capped off an incredible game. And you mentioned it, LaMelo and Brandon really getting it going in the second half. I think LaMelo had 16 in the third quarter, had two points, all of two points uh in the first quarter, maybe the first half. Uh two points. It was it was a struggle for LaMelo. And I’ll say like the Hornets scoring 37 points in the first quarter when LaMelo only scored two points on two attempts. Like that’s not going to happen very often. But it’s nice to know you can do it because the Hornets last season, I don’t think they could have done that. I think you could have given them 300 games and they would have not been able to score uh 37 points on two atte on on two attempts from Lamelo Ball. two points. It was crazy. Just it was Colin Ston putting pressure on the defense in transition. It was Miles Bridges lighting up the nets. Thank you, Triple J, for completely laying off of Miles Bridges and taking taking the night off. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was incredible. And Miles was like, “Okay, thanks. I’m just going to rip the nets like I did the other night.” I’m not sure if you watched that game, but Okay. Eric Collins, it was uh he said, “Disrespectful. Miles Bridges left all alone.” And then he banged it home. Yeah. I look if you want to start with Miles just kind of doing it all but also it’s just it’s good oldfashioned shot making from him just yeah you mentioned it burning up the nets man even made both of his free throw attempts uh you know real hot in the 30 minutes of play from Miles the 10 rebounds he was doing it all the five assist as you mentioned too plus 14 if you care about that sort of thing uh Miles was the player of the game um I don’t even know what what’s funny is like I don’t even know if he’s the most interesting story line here it’s just he was downright good, downright fantastic in a lot of different aspects. I I think the LaMelo Brandon Miller second half performances especially were particularly noteworthy. You know, my boy Musa Dioate it. He’s I’m not going to be able to lay claim to him solely anymore. He’s becoming a fan favorite with him diving on the floor for loose balls. He has created so many second chance opportunities in a way I don’t think many other players would. They they could because it’s an effort thing for Musa. It’s not necessarily a talent thing unless you subscribe to TJ McConnell’s philosophy and that effort is a skill. Like people don’t view it as a skill, but it is a skill. If it is, then Musa is in the 99th percentile where he dies for a loose basketball close to the half court line to save another possession. Eventually, the ball finds itself in Liam McNeel’s hands early in this game. McNeely misses the three and then Musa is almost there to grab the offensive rebound off of the missed three on a second chance opportunity. Anyways, he actually he actually has some stuff in the box score to talk about with 18 points. I’m I’m all over the place. Do we start here though, Doug? Were you surprised with the starting lineup this late a week from the regular season? Were you surprised at the starting lineup featuring Ryan Conquer again as that starting center and Coniple starting at the two right next to LaMelo? No, I I really wasn’t. I I I’m not surprised at this point of any experimentation that he’s doing at either of those positions. I think for Cockrinter, it was about saying, “Hey, nice game, rookie. See if you can follow it up.” Like challenging him to do that. You know, I I think with Khan Canipple, I just think he wants more looks at how all of these pieces fit together and if Khan Canipple could have a bounceback game after some struggles turning the basketball over. And I would say, yeah, he had a bounceback game. It he he’s I think he’s got a difficult choice here because with Khan, you can see like the basketball moves so fluidly when he’s on the floor. But with Colin, it’s not that it doesn’t move fluidly, it’s just that he moves fluidly in transition. But and and here’s the other difficult thing is like Colin Ston makes Musa Diabate even better because there were multiple plays in this game where Colin Ston runs full speed in transition knowing full well he’s not going to shoot the basketball. He’s just drawing defenders so that Musa can get a clean look under the basket. And Musa converted or Musa hit a bendy euro. Like there was all kinds of stuff that Musa could do because he didn’t have to create too much of that on his own. Uh it was he was just simplifying things. It’s like an offensive coordinator simplifying the game for a quarterback. Like that’s what he that’s what Colin Ston was doing for Musa Diabate. And it was a beautiful thing. And so I just think he’s got some tough decisions here in terms of like Colin Sexton’s good enough to be a starter. He’s played good enough basketball to be a starter on this team, but maybe he wants that Musa Diaate Colin Ston magic going on off the bench. What What do you think about the Moco duo? Moco P&R with Musa Bate Colin Ston. That’s what I was looking at when we were watching those two create sweet. Sounds like a drink at the low bar. Moco. Give me a a moco. A little mojitoish. Maybe we’ll we’ll figure it out. But it definitely sounds like a drink that I’ll be ordering. Please and thank you. It feels like they’re the only They’re the two players that keep up with one another. It’s who’s going to match Collins energy? Who’s going to match Moosees? Oh, it’s just going to be those two together. It’s it’s the two guys that are the fastest on the track team that are always out in front and then so they’re just talking about life and they develop a friendship because everybody else is behind them a few paces. It’s those two working with one another and benefiting from one another because their energy level is just so much higher. That’s what it felt like. And and here’s the thing, maybe we move on after this. When we talk about players starting at the two, Doug, if Colin Ston is going to give you six dimes, I think the case for Khan to start over him becomes a little harder. Even if I agree with you because the ball does more move more fluidly. I thought again Khan showed another example of attacking a closeout. incorrect come correct at Khan or he’ll attack the close out and then he’ll find open shooters on the wings or on the elbows. Um yeah, man. Even with that being said, like and there’s still some times where I I feel like there was a moment I thought Colin could have hit an open shooter behind him. I think it was Khan on a pick and roll opportunity, but it like passing isn’t his strong suit, but it was a strong enough suit here to where you could see him facilitate for others. Yeah, he he was excellent. It it feels like Colin with this performance and others, he’s the guy if he’s going to be talked about as the leader, it feels continued to uh for him to be the guy as that starting too. I want to talk more about Miles because I think when you dig into the numbers, there’s something that’s obvious in terms of why he’s playing so well in this preseason relative, you know, efficiency wise, relative to how he played last season. I’d love to get to that. Uh there’s just a there’s so much in this game. Cochrinter block. How many blocks did he have? Felt like he blocked like a thousand shots. I don’t know what Jaylen Wells what were these Memphis Grizzlies thinking? And then we h I think we should address like does this mean anything? Like they scored 145 points. Does it mean what we think it means? Like how excited should we be? Kind of get into all that, too. All right, you heard the tease. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. Bees everywhere. More celebrating a preseason win. 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Swipe, tap, ticket, go. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. Mile shot making was fantastic in this one. All the threes, all the dunks. Uh he was five of seven from distance and then it felt like really every other bucket that he hit was at the rim. We’ll welcome that. I think Charles Lee welcomes that shot diet for Miles. As long as he’s hitting the threes for sure. So the threes were fallen, the dunks were fallen. You love to see it for Miles. Uh yeah, for sure. Here’s what I love to see though most is that he’s doing it in a variety of different ways. And one of those ways is not isolation. One of those ways is not the first action broke down. No one has any idea what to do. Throw it to Miles. See if he can make a play. Like that’s what that’s what the offense reverted to. Particularly if LaMelo wasn’t on the floor or Brandon wasn’t on the floor. Too many times the offense reverted to that and it it it typically ended in a bad step back three-point shot for Miles Bridges that that did not go in. Okay. So now when you look at the preseason numbers, courtesy of Synergy, I’m looking at 11 transition possessions. I’m looking at 10 spot up possessions that were no dribble jumpers, meaning he is he is being fed and and he hit those at two points per possession. That’s great. That means he’s hitting a lot of three-pointers, spot-ups in general, 1.8 points per possession. That’s amazing. He’s doing it in pick and roll ball handler. He’s doing it even there’s six handoff possessions. And I’ll say like the third three-point shot that he hit in the first quarter, he had three in the first quarter, was off a Sexton assist where Ston hands him the ball and then immediately sets the screen. Like the timing was perfect. Handoff, boom, set the screen. Miles had a clear look at the rim right above the break. Like that’s just you’re getting that off the bench. you’re getting that execution level off the bench where it’s like I I’m going to set Miles up and I know exactly how to do it and it’s not an isolation play for Miles. Just I mean I look we Memphis was a disaster in this game defensively. Memphis had no idea what to do. It’s not always going to be this easy, but at the same time like you’re just seeing flashes of execution that would have just been like it would have been the play of the season last season. You asked if this was real. The question becomes, what can we take away? Look, it feels like you can take away some level of crispness in which they play because it doesn’t feel like they have this crispness that they’ve played with in previous seasons, in previous games. And I think that again, what are the things that feel different? Maybe maybe we start there. what looks different in other preseason games and other seasons, other preseasons. I think it’s that the efficiency in handling the basketball. I think there’s a level of fun with these guys that I have not been reminded of since they were a league pass team a few years back. That was a thing we got there. They were a league pass team. So, it’s been a few years. Um, it’s so effort, fun, execution, shot making. I I that that was all there too. the the shot making doesn’t look um to to be faux th this looks like a stable shot diet for this team um from what we’ve seen where for instance Colin getting to the rim that’s something you can bank on he’s done it this entire time you see that here love to see that second chance opportunities for Musa and for the entire team because Moose is grabbing offensive rebounds we know this about Musa he’s going to collect a lot of offensive boards okay check uh LaMelo Oh, have you noticed that he like he’s been taking still some wild shots in terms of wild and like oh my god, can you believe he hit that? But it it it feels like he’s also getting better looks too because there are more threats on the floor. I it there’s talent around LaMelo at this point. It feels like everyone is accentuated by one another because there is more talent on the floor. Just wait till Grant Williams gets back and now you have another shooter who does dirty work and shoots. A big high off off the supply, baby. It is what it is. It feels good because a lot of things feel different about what you’ve seen so far this preseason and especially in this game than in other years. Yeah, look, I don’t know if they’re going to shoot 40% on 50 three-point attempts every night. If they do, then that might be a playoff team. But, uh, they took 10 less than Memphis and they took 50 three-pointers and Memphis made more. Memphis was 26 of 60. uh 43% the Hornets were 40% 20 to 50. Again, not a lot of defense in this game. You know, I think the Hornets, we’re going to see plenty of games this season where they build a big lead and then give that lead up very quickly. Like they they’re not a team that understands at this moment how to play defense all the time. a partic like when they built that 20-point lead in the first half, they seemed to just I mean at the end of the second quarter, I think they gave up like an 11-point advantage in the la in the last four minutes. And there were some possessions where I was watching LaMelo and I’m like, LaMelo, I need you to guard like you’re only up two. When you guard like that, when you’re only up two, that’s great. And then when you’re up 20 and you guard like that, that’s not great. So the whole team, but that’s not just LaMelo. That’s like the whole team has to learn, hey, we’ve got to play defense all the time. 20-point leads are nothing in the NBA with how teams are shooting threes. Perfect example is what Memphis did to pull themselves back in it. And and luckily LaMelo’s offense, not luckily, I mean LaMelo’s offense came on and we’ve seen this so many times where he can have a godawwful first half and then even first three quarters, we saw this last season, he could have three just awful quarters and then fourth quarter he could score 20. Like it’s just that’s just you can never give up on LaMelo’s offense. Um he’s not he’s just I mean I mean we could probably count on one hand the number of full games where he’s been a dis I can think of one last season where it was just full game disaster. It just happens so rarely. So you know you can you can count on that. But it’s like can you count on the defense for this team? Probably not. But it’s like you said it’s going to be fun. And the more fun that these guys have together, I think the better chance that Charles Lee has at getting through to them in in terms of like, hey, okay, now we’re having fun. Here’s what we need to do to to win sustainably. So, if if you’re one that’s watching us right now and saying, geez, guys, all right, let’s reel it back in. You’re not wrong. You can reel it back in. We I shouldn’t get the big dub hat. I should leave that on the No, let’s let’s have some dignity. Leave the big dub hat on the shelf for a moment. But if you’re one to say reel it back in, that’s totally fair given context, given opponent. All of it’s fair except, you know, you do think about Grant Williams not being back on this roster yet. Okay, so that’s one 100% bonafide rotation player. Think about Trey Man also not suiting up in this game because of hip soreness. He he does look good to be he looks good for next week, by the way. So that’s when the opener against the Nets is going to happen, October 22nd. But no Grant, no Trey. Also, no Josh. No Josh Green. I I look frustrating player. He’s going to be a part of the rotation. He does something better than 90% of the other players on this team, maybe even 99 in defending the perimeter. Seion James is one of those guys right now, but you get the idea. You’re down three pretty significant pieces a part of your rotation. One that we have as a possible sixman of the year candidate. So, okay, you asked me to reel it back in. That’s fine. You’re not wrong. But then I’ll ask you, does it matter that three rotation guys were out of this game also and have they’ve been missing a couple of other ones? You know, they’ve they’ve missed Grant Williams and Josh Green the entire time. They’ve missed Trey May the last couple. Like there there’s reason to be optimistic. I to me I don’t even look at 145 points. I don’t look at 23-pointers made. Uh the highlight plays are fun. They’re they’re fun to watch. Uh but again, I just I think Memphis was a disaster in this game. Here’s what I take away. Uh one, they’ve added shooting and the shooting seems real. Two, the the major pieces in LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller are coming fully online. Like, no worries there. I mean, both of those players coming off of of injuries and procedures and different things. Both those guys look great uh and getting better. And then uh I would say the transition game and this game in particular, I thought things are starting to click. They’ve been asked to play faster in the first couple of preseason games. Faster was not better. They were not they were not finishing at the rim. There were passes that should have been made that weren’t. Uh passes that were made that shouldn’t have been. And in this game, I mean, even highlight plays aside, in this game, I just thought better execution across the board. The ball was uh getting kicked out when it needed to be kicked out. Uh Musa, Musa’s just gotten better. Like, if I can just name one improvement for him that I’ve seen clearly, it’s finishing in transition. Finishing in half court still a little bit of a question mark, but in transition, I mean, dude was hitting euros. uh he was he was finishing plays in transition and for a team that was not doing that well last year, anyone that’s doing better in transition is a welcome addition. Yeah, one missed shot from the field tonight for Musa. And here’s something else, by the way. Only two missed free throws on eight attempts. That that’s something that that’s going to it’s not going to be pretty from the free throw line for Musa Diabate. It it’s actually going to be a little bit of an issue. We haven’t talked about shooting from the center position at the free throw line. If it if it’s not Caulkr runner, you can’t feel great about it with Mason and Musa, but six of eight from him. Hopefully hopefully that just shows some level of proh progress, even if it’s not on an escalator. Um, nine offensive rebounds for Musa. Just that’s what he does, man. All right, coming up next. Yeah, nine. That’s right. Nine offensive boards coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast. That’s so dumb everywhere. All right, producer, isolate that. That’s so dumb. I like that. Isolate that sound. Uh, we’ll have more observations. Last few things we want to note. Brandon Miller, maybe a few more thoughts on what Brandon Miller showed us in this game. Uh, a few more notes to get to. Final segment. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season, I mean, it’s been here, man. We’re almost halfway through the season now. It’s crazy. And FanDuel, they have an offer you don’t want to miss out on. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets. If you win, that’s right, pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using FanDuel because it gives me a variety of different ways to play. Uh FanDuel gives me uh parlays, player props, uh you can even follow the live lines during those games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you got a little something riding on the action when you’re I got something. I’m I’m going to tell you a hot tip here. I’m going uh Titans Pat’s trap game. I like the Titans. New coach, new coach energy. Come on. Let’s go. New coach bump is a real thing. It’s it’s a real thing. I’m staying away. I’m staying away right now. Uh if you want to get in on the Pats, I would say next week they have the Browns at home, by the way. So, yeah, there there’s your FanDuel team. I’m going Titans. I’m not going I’m saying Pats. They’re feeling themselves right now. They think, “Oh, I’m first place, you know, blah blah blah.” No, Titans are going to Titans are going to do it. Right. If you want to bet on the Pats, the next week is the time to do it. I see what you’re saying. Sorry, I wasn’t listen. That’s your NFL segment, Unlocked on Hornets. Whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fan.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. More Lockdown Hornets ahead. Um, final observations here. Yeah, we we talked about Brandon Miller, you know, we had the conversation about him coming along slowly from the scaffalunit and 21 points for him. Second half is the time when he really got it cooking here, Doug. Three of eight from three-point range, four of five from the free throw line. How about six assists, one turnover for Brandon Miller, too. What’ you think of Brandon’s performance? I thought it was good, man. I think he’s um I thought his passing was good in this one. I thought his defense was great. I mean, he’s getting, you know, he he’s poking the ball away at least twice a game now. I mean, I don’t know if they result in steals all the time, but he is a defensively impactful player for the Hornets right now in this preseason, and I’d love to see that continue. Uh, I’ve just I’ve weirdly had my eyes on his rebounding number. What did he come in with in this one? Uh, Brandon, where are you, Brandon? Uh, two two rebounds. Just two. Why can’t he get more rebound? I don’t know why. I maybe it’s not an emphasis for them. I don’t I maybe I’m just I just want something that is not going to exist because that’s not an emphasis for them because you’ve got Miles Bridges 10 rebounds. You’ve got Musa Diamate vacuum cleaning 13 rebounds. Uh LaMelo Ball Miles has always been good about it and Miles has always been great. Well, they’ve clearly asked him. They’ve clearly like because teams will teams will figure this out in terms of like I remember with uh with MKG back in the Bobcats sended Hornets transition days. Clifford would talk about like only certain guys are allowed to crash the glass because we want to get back in transition. Now that was their defensive strategy. I’m not sure exactly what Charles Lee’s thoughts on that are, but there were certain guys that were to sign like you go and rebound and everybody else, you know, get the H back. So, you know, maybe it’s Brandon Miller, we need you back in transition. Don’t, you know, don’t crush those boards. Or, you know, be available in case Musa does be available for the kickout. Maybe, maybe there’s something to that. It’s just, man, he’s got long arms. He’s super athletic. He’s just he keeps coming up with like one or two rebounds. I don’t know. Um, okay. Rapid fire. That’s never really rapid fire. Uh, Liam McNeely, 21 minutes in this one, Doug, which is notable because you look at the starters, Brandon Miles, they got 30. LaMelo Khan. They got 28 25 minutes of play. And then after that, it’s Liam McNeely getting the most with 21 minutes. Got early minutes in this one, too. Was three of eight from the field. Missed all three of his three-point attempts. Grabbed five rebounds. Finished with seven points. Liam McNeely, any interest there or an eyebrow raised at the amount of run that he got in this game. Charles Lee called him a Swiss Army knife type of player doing a lot of the little things. You know, not going to stun you in the box score probably early in his career, but somebody that that I think coaching staffs are going to view as an impactful player. I’ll say this, like if you look at the lineup data, the when he was on the floor, the Hornets were 104.5 defensive rating. When he was off the floor, 122.8. So, and how much of that was Liam, I don’t know without really kind of going back and digging in, but if he was on the floor, they weren’t very successful defensively in this game a lot, unless Memphis was just completely tripping over themselves. So, if he was with lineups that were successful defensively, that might have gotten him a little bit more run, particularly if he was a major part of it. Also, I think we are you’re probably going to see one or two guys get a little bit more run as we close out this preeason getting a final look before Yeah. you know, they get their ticket to Greensboro. Well, I guess they were in Greensboro. Get their ticket to stay in Greensboro. I saw Rod of course with another great tweet or Rod Marorrow at Rodamus Prime black guy who tips podcast. Go check all of it out. You won’t regret it. I saw him tweet out, “Man, there’s no excuses for Ton tonight. He’s familiar with these rims. He He knows He know He knows Greensboro.” And you know, I can’t help but think after reading that tweet, is he going to continue to know Greensboro? Cuz it we’re we’re not having the game. We’re not getting it here. We’re not getting the moments where, you know, it’s it’s not happening for Ton in the first, again, three preseason games. Okay, that’s it. But all the rookies are getting run like in a decent amount. Seion James played the least least amount of minutes and it was 15 compared to 18 and 21 25. So uh Ton man he might continue to be familiar with those rims. Uh do you think that Ton was in the locker room at the Coliseum and he starts to like kind of pack his locker away and somebody from the team comes up and goes don’t don’t worry about it. You just leave that there. Don’t worry about you can leave that there. Just hold on. We’re it’s a back and forth thing. You know, we’ll we’ll we’ll get you some more stuff of the same kind up in Charlotte. Yeah, I we know what it is with Tan. We’ve talked a decent amount. Uh last couple things, no run for Spencer Denwitty. If you’re just looking at that last spot on the bench, Pad Conitan, Spencer Denwitty battle. Pad Conetan gets nine minutes, goes, “Oh, a five. Doesn’t hit a shot.” Um Spencer Denwitty gets a DNPCD. It still makes more sense to me that they would keep Spencer Denwitty on the roster. Um, but it’s there is a shot that Conetan would make it over Spencer, even if Spencer did just get that contract and Conetan was only acquired because you wanted the picks that came with his salary. So, uh, I wish I had some analysis for you here. I have not I have not seen anything out of either of those guys. I’m shocked, honestly. Like, I I wasn’t expecting either of them to wow me in any kind of way. like they’re on this roster right now because they were not able to wow any of the other teams that they’ve been a part of or were currently a part of before they got moved here. And so like I wasn’t expecting huge things, but I guess I wasn’t expecting nothing. Like I was expecting something. Uh, so yeah, I’m I’m I’m a little surprised and I really don’t I think whatever whoever stays, the reason is going to be something that we don’t quite understand because it’s it hasn’t shown itself on the floor. Um, okay, I I lied. I did want to make one last point. You know, Mason Plumbley, man, just getting nothing, just not getting anything. And I know he had the personal stuff where he wasn’t in camp early on. If if he doesn’t see an uptick in minutes these last couple of preseason games, then like we can pretty much settle on it being Musa and Caulk Brener with Mason being third in line, right? If we don’t get an uptick in these last couple preseason games, it’s a week out, baby. We we seven days away from the opener against the Nets, I would expect him to receive more minutes if he’s going to be a part of your early rotation. But maybe he’s just not and he’s going to be the Taj Gibson of this year’s team. I think that’s looking more likely than it did uh before training camp got kicked off. Yeah. I mean, zero points, did get four rebounds, but only five minutes of play. I just think this I mean and to the Denwitty Conetan point, I probably underestimated the Hornets willingness to prioritize rookie play and and overestimated their desire to get veterans on the floor. And to to those rookies credit, I mean, I think Cochrin’s already grown a lot in preeason. Uh Khan’s just making great decisions. He’s going to have games where he looks like a rookie, but like he’s making great decisions. Liam McNeely looks like he belongs. Seion James, again, limited minutes, but I could see them sort of making him out to be the Josh Green successor. Um, but you know, I I think the rookies pro and and this has probably been a camp storyline, too, where the rookies have just looked more comfortable and and accelerated their progress to the point where it was like, “All right, do we really do we really need to lean on Mason? Do we really need to lean on Spencer Denwitty or Patton? Can we just like grit our teeth through the first 20 games as these rookies figure it out because none of them look lost?” Old rookies, too. I I I was looking at the age. Did Did you know Caulkr Brener is 4 days older than Musa? That’s it. So Musa’s Musa is 4 days younger than Ryan Cochrrener who was in college forever. Was at greaton and just felt like forever. And Mason is a four-year pro. So it’s wild. All right, that’ll do it for Locked On Hornets. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free. We’re available anywhere you get your pods. That includes YouTube. Happy version of Locked On Hornets today. Doug Branson, every hornetsbox.com. Go check out Yahoo Sports Daily. It helps him out folks. He produces it. Jason Fitz, Caroline Fitton, they do a great job. I’m Walker Male. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. If you join us tomorrow, by the way, we’re going to be talking with the Charlotte Hornets, I believe, I don’t know about head chef, but we’re talking with the Hornets chef to discuss some of the new food items at Spectrum Center this year when they’re open for the regular season. Going to be trying food on air. And so, we’re going to have to work on our guy like our guy Fiieti reactions on TV. M. Oh my god, this is delicious. The The deliciousness of this delicious treat is so delicious. We’re just going to have to go with something better than that. The crispiness. You got to go You got to You got to do the words. Yeah. The crispness. The It’s a flavor combination of sour and sweet. It’s, you know, Yeah. You got to You got to get all of those like descriptor words in there. It’s delicious. That’s what it is. Uh yeah, I’ll be the mayor of Flavor Town uh tomorrow if you want to check us out. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music]

The Hornets played their best game of the preseason, dropping 145 points on Memphis in a contest highlighted by an unbelievable nutmeg alley-oop from LaMelo Ball to Brandon Miller. We’ll look at the incredible performances from Miles Bridges, the energy of Moussa Diabaté, and what this offensive outburst means for the regular season.

That was, by far, the best game of the preseason. The Hornets went nuclear, putting up 145 points in a performance that felt like a return to the fun, league pass darlings of a few years ago. The entire game was capped off by an unbelievable, all-star caliber play: LaMelo Ball with a nutmeg on Jock Landale into a full-court, left-handed alley-oop to a streaking Brandon Miller.

We have to start with Miles Bridges, who was the player of the game with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists on incredible efficiency. He’s getting his points in a variety of ways, from spot-up jumpers to transition finishes, showcasing a more sustainable shot diet. We’ll also examine the contagious energy of Moussa Diabaté, who has become a fan favorite by creating countless second-chance opportunities and cleaning the glass with nine offensive rebounds. His chemistry with Collin Sexton off the bench has been a revelation, and we’ve officially dubbed them the “MoCo” duo. The question now is, what does this all mean? We’ll consider if this level of execution is real, especially with three key rotation players still out, and what it says about the team’s new, faster pace.

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