Tre Mann & Collin Sexton SHINE, but should we be WORRIED about Brandon Miller?! | Full Recap!

Tre Mann & Collin Sexton SHINE, but should we be WORRIED about Brandon Miller?! | Full Recap!

We have another preseason game to recap again against the Thunder. How do the starters play after receiving increased minutes? And if we have some time, we’ll rummage through the Siko satchel. That’s all today. Locked on Hornets. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked On. Your team every day. in a minute cuz we live. [Music] It’s Locked on Hornets, part of the Locked On podcast network. It’s your team every day. Thanks for making us your first listen. We’re free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube. There’s Doug Branson. Every hornetsboxcore.com. Also, he is a producer for Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fittton. And I’m Walker Mail. You can listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 300 p.m. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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. Head to fanduel.com to get started. I myself am a sicko. Got a little bit of the gambling itch. And I may or may not have put a four-legg prop parlay on the Thursday night football game happening right now. Fingers crossed. You got to bet the birds. Okay, let’s move on. Let’s talk about the Buzz. Actually, I don’t know if anybody bet the Buzz to beat the Thunder in the second preseason game of the season. If you did, you would have lost. Uh but but but closer game. 122 116. The Thunder do beat the Hornets. Starters got a lot more minutes this goound. Doug didn’t play all that much in the first preseason game. That was more for the starters/reserves. This one the starters played I guess starters minutes preseason speaking 26 for Diabate 23 minutes for Brandon 24 for Bridges 25 for LaMelo. Trey man played 23. Tan Salon did lead the way in minutes played at 29. Coniple was the only one north of 20 outside of those players at 24. Where do you want to start? Uh, you know, I mean, I think my overall takeaway is that the Oklahoma City Thunder decided to play their starters and the Hornets looked good for portions of this game, but Oklahoma City, even when they’re running, it seemed like kind of half or 3/4 speed for some of this game, like you didn’t get really like full-on SGA in this game. I think like their defense is just so physical and executes so well and it’s so difficult to dribble drive against them. Uh and and yet the Hornets were able to hang around. And I think in large part that was due to the fact that they have so many guys now that are willing to play hard every time they step onto the floor and and give full energy, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. Colin Ston with the sexy steals. He was ripping them left and right and getting to the cup. You had Musa Diabate. I I won’t even I won’t even start with Musa because I know you’re going to wax poetic about him, so I won’t even steal any Musa time. I love him. He was great. I’m sorry. Klein was hustling all over the place. Mason just trying to get in the groove. Mason Plumbley debuts in this one. Trey man was great and he gets the start in this one as Charles Lee continues to experiment, particularly at that second wing position. Uh 18 points, four rebounds, two assist in 22 minutes. Seven of 12 from the field. He was hitting from everywhere and he was only two assists, but I thought his passes were clean in this too. four of six from three. Colin Saxon three of five from three. LaMelo Ball four of six. So, they had the three ball going that kept them afloat. Uh, you know, look, there’s a lot there’s a lot that this team has to work on, but at least finally, it’s a team that they don’t have to work on effort. No, they do not. Not a lot of these guys anyway. And yeah, I mean, so you’re right. I do want to talk about Musa Dybate because it’s a day of the week, but I I do also want to discuss some of the starters here. There was a lot of good. You mentioned going down the list how much you liked from Diabate, from Trey Mann coming in and playing hard. You mentioned Colin Ston who really got things started for the Hornets. I forget how many points he had, but he made all four of his field goals in the first quarter and ended up really it was the damage that he did in the first quarter that would do the heavy lifting for everything else that he did in this one. As I’m pulling back up the box, 12 points 12 points in the first quarter and and more most importantly 12 points when really no other Charlotte Hornet could get anything going. It was Sexton to start. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. And then Trey Man helped lead that run in the second quarter and then LaMelo took it from him to end that second quarter on a 2613 run that dragged them back into it and made this a competitive game because this had a shot. Uh I mean really like if you’re might uh if you’re Dageno, what were you doing? Just play the C players, play the B players. Like that’s what beats the Hornets by 20. Instead you played your starters and allowed the Hornets to get back in it. I mean what’s this guy what what does he have? What kind of coach is he? Uh Colin Saxton ended up with 15 on the night, but you’re right, he did have 12 in the first quarter. Looking at some of the starters, what they did. So Trey man led all the starters in points scored and led the team with 18. LaMelo just a cool 15 points, quick, smooth, efficient, five of eight from the field. He was four of six from three-point range. Had the nice spin move on on I don’t know why I put Quesan on there. Quase Wallace. Quesan, baby. I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why you did it. because of that shot that he hits falling out of bounds. LaMelo ball on his back, the shot clock on his back and Kesan Wallace throws it over the backboard about 90 ft in the air and it goes in the basket. I was like, what kind of Can we stop there for just a moment? Um, it’s preeason. I know. Also, one of the wilder shots that I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t think that’s really an exaggeration. Rob, if you take away time and moment and playoffs and all of that, just degree of difficulty given where we were in the shot clock, he throws it up. It’s It’s almost as if he transfers the energy all the way through. It’s not like he picks up the basketball and has to push it again. He guides the basketball in over the backboard. It was nuts. It was cra Yeah. One of the crazier shots as I was watching it happen. It was one of those, this happens in sports for me, and I don’t know if this is a relatable experience. I haven’t talked to a lot of people about this, but it’s one of those, I throw the helmet catch in there, uh, a couple of these moments in sports where time slows down and like midway through my brain is trying to process it and I swear as the shot reached its peak arc, my brain went, “That is that going to go in? That’s not going to that’s going to go in.” like it was just like, you know, I just had time to process it, but it happened in an instant. It was uh it was remarkable. I hope it makes the top 10 even though it was against the Hornets. Yeah. Yours might bring you joy. The moments that you think of, you know what I immediately go to when you bring that up? I go to the Zack Lavine shot. Time stopped for me. I knew it was going in and it was I Everything stopped. There’s no way he’s going to do it. and Eric Collins. It was such a great call because it was as if he was calling in slow motion as well. Everything just it stopped. All time stopped. That’s when it went in. Let’s focus on this particular loss. We have other losses we could talk about. We got plenty of them. Let’s talk about this one. LaMelo 58. We just went through there. Uh his performance there. Okay, just enough. All right, let’s get to Diabate who this is going to be a heavy Musa Diabate propaganda uh segment slashshow. I How come every time he’s on the floor, the Hornets are just a better basketball team? It’s just how it works. It’s how it’s been. How about this? How about this, Doug? He was the leader in plus minus. He was plus 14. That matches just the eyeball test. It’s not a perfect stat by any measure, but that matches. I decided to look up the Hornets leader in plus minus last year among players who played after the All-Star break, weren’t traded, and weren’t in the G-League last year. Okay. So, I’m just trying to get rid of the guys that played 13 games like Trey Man, 27 like Brandon Miller, 15 like Grant Williams, or Nick Richards, Cody Martin. They didn’t have enough games to rack up the minus. So they were a little bit higher than Musa, but of all the players that would essentially count, Musa of course led the Hornets in plus minus at yes minus 123, but again everybody who played more, the next closest to him is LaMelo atus 130 and then you get to the other guys that played a lot like Miles Bridges 259. just every time he’s out there, they play better. Which is why I understand that he has all these limitations and I I know it’s rational to think that he’s going to limit the Hornets offensively and he’s going to limit the Hornets defensively. And yet I know all of this stuff to be true and every time I look at the box score, every time I look at the scoreboard and he’s on the floor, oh, the Hornets just had their best quarter. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe we just continue to play that guy who continues to allow the Hornets to play their best basketball. It happened again like just all over the place. He creates offensive opportunities by being active and stagnant half court possessions. He created two buckets for Khan Canipple when things stagnated and Trey man by getting to the spot, getting to the offensive rebound and kicking out to the corner. He was with I believe it was Khan Kipple in transition where he misses the layup, but nobody else would hustle back with him except for Musa. Grabs the board and then hello, they score on that possession. I love him. I’m sorry. It’s It’s a propaganda show. It’s a propaganda segment. I just can’t get enough of letting the Moose loose. Yeah, he was great. And you know, I I still I’m still going to stick with my prediction that at least in the early going, Mason Plumbley is going to get more starts than Musa Diabate. But I am getting closer to your position on this only because as I watch this team in the preseason, and there’s still plenty of preseason to go, and and then we’ll see how they do in the early going in the first couple of games. But I’m I’m becoming more convinced that their window to win is just going to be max effort from everyone and then a few guys knocking down a ridiculous number of threes. I think that’s going to be their window to win. That’s a pretty narrow window, but Musa Diabate is probably more a part of that window than Mason Plumbley. But I still I still think Lee is going to go with the guy that is just bigger. I mean, I I think that’s just what it’s going to come down to. So, we’ll see. Um, some nice rim protection moments from him, too. Uh, some nice rotating moments from him defensively. Uh, hit a push shot, which is going to be really important. Found himself in kind of that tweener spot with the basketball. Couldn’t pass it anywhere. He thought about it a little bit. He’s like, “No, I can get this shot up.” And throws it up, hits it. That That’s going to be really important for him. So, you know me, I love Musa. Let’s move on. Coming up next on the Lockdown Hornets podcast everywhere. Let’s provide more observations on this game. Still some player notes to get to. Tan Salon, another ouchie game. Brandon Miller looking good, but not hitting a shot. What do we make of Brandon Miller’s performance? That’s still to come. LOH. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code lockdown NBA. More lockdown Hornets ahead. Uh more good moments to comb through here, Doug, if you wanted to. Um again, Musa check. LaMelo kind of check if you wanted to get to him. Trey man, you talked about him just a little bit. Colin Ston as well going five of nine. Uh any other notes on some of those players or other players you felt had strong games? I think LaMelo’s in his groove. I’m not worried about LaMelo at all. And I’m glad they played both LaMelo and Brandon late in this game. I wrote that in my notes. Like, play these guys. Like, they’ve missed a ton of time early in their careers. Like, play these guys. There’s no reason if they’re fully healthy, if they’re 100%. There is no reason to treat these kids with uh kid gloves or treat these players with kid gloves. And so, I’m glad that they played. And I thought LaMelo uh did did play particularly well. And he had a couple of good defensive plays um in this one. He did. Uh weird weird game for Miles. uh seven rebounds again uh tied for the lead in rebounds. I think that’s going to be a trend. Brener had seven. Uh Diabate had seven. So he did some work there, but just every time he had the ball in his hands offensively if he was trying to create for himself or others, it wasn’t it wasn’t working. Uh let’s see some other player because I really want to get to Brandon. I want to have an extended conversation about Brandon. Let’s do that and then Khan. Um so Brandon Miller 14 points, one rebound, three assists. He was three of 11 from the field. He gets most of his points from the free throw line, six of eight, because OKC really bailed him out. Um, you said he looked good. I mean, you know, hair’s looking good. Uh, you know, he’s he’s a little bit stronger. I mean, I agree with that, but like I I thought this was a pretty other than getting bailed out uh by OKC’s defense fouling him on three-point shots. I thought this was a miserable followup uh to a bad first outing for for Brandon Miller. And and I’m willing, we had the patience conversation a couple of shows ago and and I’m willing to be patient through the preseason with Brandon Miller, but this was not a good game. And I I’ll give you a couple things for you to chew on and then and then let you try to convince me that I’m I shouldn’t be worried. Uh, number one, he drove the ball a couple of times and it looked exactly like his last two seasons where he he gets maybe one, two dribbles and then it doesn’t even have to be somebody digging down or putting pressure on him. It’s just the guy guarding him is able to poke it away and or he’s falling to the ground. He cannot keep his dribble. And then one rebound. How does he only have one rebound in this game? if he wants to be like Paul George. In in Paul George’s second year in the league, he averaged 5.6 rebounds. In his third, when he was most improved player and an all-star bid, he had 7.6 rebounds per game that season. Like, Brandon Miller cannot keep coming away from these games with like, and I know the minutes are not the same, but this was a problem uh in in in his rookie season, his sophomore season, too. He comes away with these games with like one or two rebounds. Can’t happen. Got to be more active. Yeah. Looked good. You’re right. probably a little much. I would say to me I don’t feel like his floor game was as bad as the three of 11. Sounds like you do, but it it didn’t feel like to me it was as bad as the three of 11 performance. Perhaps I go back and watch it. I didn’t have as strong of feelings as you did. What I liked from Brandon was some smart bailout offense getting fouled on the three-point line. Now, he did miss two of his free throws on one of those trips to take three free throws, but he did get to the foul line with what I thought was some heady play from him. did have a couple of nice dimes in this one. So, getting to the foul line, I thought was impressive there. I didn’t think Brandon just looked as bad, I guess, as what the uh box score indicated from him. But, you’re right, one rebound. I will say in terms of you being worried, I think this does go back to the last episode we had discussing Brandon in that this is the first bit of basketball that he’s playing in a very long time after that wrist injury. And we are talking about the second preseason game, but this one against a Thunder team that just won the championship that you mentioned in the first segment. They do such a great job of sto stonewalling drives, which this is somewhat of a bad matchup for Brandon. If he struggles at putting the ball on the deck and getting to the cup and the Thunder do a great job of stopping that sort of thing, this probably isn’t the best game for him to produce some confidence fresh off of that wrist injury playing high level basketball. You probably would like to go against a team that didn’t just win the championship and has all of the depth. So, yeah, I guess I’m with you on that. I it Yeah, it was a strong phrase. It was a strong tease. I got a little excited about it. Uh, I understand where you’re coming from. You’re right in that. I just didn’t think that it was as bad as maybe the three of 11 and it’s to the point where I’m not crazy worried. We just got to get some time for him, man. It’s It’s going to take a little bit for him to cook. I imagine I’m not crazy worried. And I hear you on and I and I’m sure there are people listening to this right now screaming preseason caveats at me right now. And I get it and I’m with you. It’s preeason. He’s been a long time since he’s played basketball. I get all that. At the same time, I’m looking I’m looking at Khan Kipple’s floor game and I’m saying to myself, yeah, it’s pretty sweet. I’m I’m pretty confident Khan can do like two or three things on offense that I’m like 5050 at best that I think Brandon can do right now. Now Brandon just physically has the length, not necessarily the the strength yet, but has the length that would say ceiling way higher than Khan Canipple, right? Like if that game fully builds out, ceiling way higher than Khan Canipple. But in this moment, there were passes that Khan Canipple made. There were dribble moves into the lane, taking contact, keeping his dribble, pulling shot fake, pull up from the middle of the paint. I’m like, I don’t I don’t think Brandon could execute that kind of play consistently. There’s just things that I’ve seen do that I’m like, those are pieces of what you would need your super wing to have in their game. Right now, the only thing that we’ve seen from Brandon is really just the ability to kind of catch and shoot on the wing and knock down a three-point shot. And that’s important and he can do we know he can do that. It’s just like to become whatever all of these pundits and what we all desire Brandon Miller to become. We need to see more of that and hopefully by the end of this preseason so that the Hornets can get off to a strong start in the regular season. Yeah. Let’s transition to Khan. You mentioned his floor game. Totally agree. It’s what I leave his games feeling the most that the kid, the con is going to be all right with just understanding exactly what to do pretty much every single time. I love if he’s on the corner and you don’t come correct on close out, then it’s just over for you. He’s just going to he’s he’s going to smoke you and you’re going to be you’re going to see a bunch of different things in your brain and you’re not going to know what just happened and it’s going to be like the Krusty Krab meme from Spongebob where everything is disorienting around you and Khan is already beating you to the paint and probably somebody is going to be fast enough to recover but when that happens he’s going to make the right pass and then Musa is going to get another nice push shot or he’s going to get another shot on the opposite low post block. Khan is going to get to the foul line and then draw that defender in just like he did at Duke time and time again. And then he’s going to throw an alley to Ryan Caulk Briner. Khan Canipple did not shoot the ball well in this one. He was three of 11 from the field. He was one of seven from three. The lone three that he made was wide wide open on what was a nice around the horn sequence. But I watched Khan play and he just knows exactly what to do to maximize that team’s possession if he has anything to say about it. Now there are athletic limitations with Khan. For instance, there was one I will say there was one time out there on the wing where the guy did come correct on a closeout. Okay, so didn’t blow right by him. Got by him a little bit. Defender recovered. Had to throw up a shot late in the shot clock. So it didn’t go in. Tough shot. Bailout offense didn’t work. Okay. Still, I don’t mind him being the bailout offense guy in a pinch. You want that to be reserved for LaMelo. You want that to go elsewhere. But he’s showing signs. I every time I watch him, I just I feel comforted. Khan is a warm blanket on bad decision basketball. He he decides to take the fire out that way and and it’s awesome to see. Yeah. And again, back to back to this weird Khan uh Brandon Miller comparison that I’m doing right now, like the athleticism that Brandon has like in transition, the dunks that he can throw down, how how how high he can get over the top of someone that’s trying to defend him in transition or even in the half court sometimes. I mean, we’ve seen him throw down some ferocious dunks. Like, that’s not coming from Khan can nipple. If he gets a, you know, if he gets a complete runway, Khan can dunk it. But, uh, Brandon, uh, Brandon can rip someone’s heart out. Uh, so yeah, like there’s there things that exist, a gulf between them, and yet there are some things that I’ve seen Khan do that I’m less confident that Miller can do. And Miller needs to do all of those things if he’s going to reach that sort of AllNBA level that we think he can get to. Uh, couple last things on Khan. Uh, I thought he did a good job on a possession where he was up against Shay Gilgis Alexander. That’s going to be that’s difficult for everyone in this league. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 10-year veteran or a rookie. And he was guarding him, stayed in front, and Sheay tried to pull that sort of grift that he’s so good at. And I don’t say that in a derogatory way. He finds a way to get to the free throw line, which makes him a super efficient offensive player. and he tried it on Khan and Khan got those arms back. He knew like that’s scouting, that’s IQ, that’s knowing the matchup, knowing what the guy’s going to do and he anticipated it and was able to not only prevent himself from fouling, but then also stay in front of SGA long enough to make him move the basketball. So yeah, there’s so much to be excited with Conanipple. There’s so much to be excited with Trey Mann, Colin Ston. Um, and then like we put that over here and then say to yourself, LaMelo has not really even turned it all the way up to 11 yet. He seems to be play. He’s just kind of getting into his groove. And then Brandon, if he can shake whatever this is, rust, uh, trust, I don’t know what it is, but if he can shake it, you know, the the Hornets are going to be able to outscore some people, uh, on a given night. Must. Is it stinky? It could be a little must. Yeah. must rust crust. I don’t know what it is, man. It’s not good. It’s not looking good. And I know, look, I’ve been watching him uh well, like one and a quarter year. Like, I’ve watched him very closely. The guy is capable of great things and I’m just hoping that it shows up sooner rather than later. All right, coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. Everywhere. I think there are two more players we should highlight. You can find out who those two players are coming up in the next segment and then we’ll answer a sicko satchel question. Final segment l. [Music] This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win with this NFL season. 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 so many ways to play. You can build parlays, you can try player props, even follow the live lines during those games, and it makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. 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. Two more players I think we should highlight real quickly. We should highlight Tan Salon and I think we should highlight Ryan Caulkrunner. So Ton played the most minutes of anybody in this game. The roughest shooting night via volume and percentage. Two of 11 from the field. He missed all six of his three-point attempts. Did grab 10 rebounds. He was the leading board getter. And he only scored six points. did have a couple blocks, three turnovers, four personal fouls, did not have any assist. Ton also just it it’s rough. It’s a rough watch for Ton. I I don’t know. This was a terrible game. Um both shooting and I thought so like I I I like the rebounds. I like that he brings all the effort. I just when you have a conversation about Khan knowing what to do every possession and then you have a guy like Ton who I just I he’s not the warm blanket. I don’t know what’s going to happen wherever he is on the floor. It’s still just going to take a lot of time and we’re going to have to practice the patience that we preached when they selected him sixth overall and it was the time to take one of those risk in a draft that nobody considered weak and there wasn’t a shorefire pick at that spot. I I think you’re seeing more evidence of that here in the second preseason game kind of like he did in the first one and kind of like he did the last summer league game that he participated in. It’s kind of impressive. So his game score was.7 and he had three stocks. So, he had two blocks and one steel. It’s got when you have three stocks and your game score is at 0.7, that’s honestly impressive. Uh, but it’s because the shooting was so horrific. And he did get to the lineup. How many times he get to the line? Uh, just two of three. So, you know, at least he was making some of his free throws. Defensively, it’s weird. like he makes good plays and then yeah he he will foul and he got he got completely roasted and toasted by Shay Alexander like he was playing with him like a cat toy. Um and that’s SGA, right? Yeah, that’s SGA. But he gets targeted like guys go after him on defense. So like I’ll find myself going, “Oh, that was a good defensive play.” And then like after five straight possessions of him being put on defense, I’m like, “Okay, that’s this is clearly they know that all right, if we go at him enough, uh, we’re going to find some success here.” Like he has to play defense a lot when he’s on the floor. Uh but yeah, I mean I I did think I did see some good things uh from him, but you know, you have to wonder, you said he played the most minutes and and you have to wonder if like that’s a function of all right, we need to see what Ton can do here. You know what I’m saying? Like we got to throw him out here and just give him every opportunity to succeed or fail and then make our evaluation there. And um we said it a show or two ago, like if Ton’s not hitting shots, particularly from three, it’s very difficult to justify keeping him on the floor because he has the I don’t know if it’s a I don’t know if it’s a skill issue or if it’s a yips issue, but man, he gets close to the basket. There was a transition play where God love Colin Ston, man. It was a 2v2 with him and Ton and two OKC defenders and Ston, he’s so good at being patient on those transition plays and driving, driving, driving. You think, okay, he has to take the shot, right? And he gets him all the way down to the baseline, draws both of those defenders and then throws just the niftiest pass to Ton who has all the room in the world to put and he almost he almost smokes the bunny. He taps it back in. And I thought, God, thank God he tipped it back in because I’m pretty sure Colin Sexon would have murdered him on the floor if he did not after all the work that Sexon did to set that transition play up. That’s a scary man. You do not want to let that man down. Um so, uh yeah, Ton, man, it’s it’s a struggle almost everywhere on the floor. Um and yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know what happens here. This is this is weird. The very beginning it’s not even the very beginning of the second it it’s pre beginning of the second season. This is what happens with these RAW guys is that we’re okay watching you improve your rookie season which he did. We should remind ourselves of that he absolutely improved the second half of last year. That happened. We could see the wheels turning. We could see him processing in real time. and it’s not been a great watch in the first two preseason games, but we’re going to have to continue to be patient with him, even if it gets harder and harder the further along we go. Yeah. The the issue I think with with young guys, and you see improvement in the back half of years, particularly when they’re on bad teams, it’s because a lot of the times the competition level isn’t real. The games aren’t real. And so, so that’s part of the issue. And then if games do become real, like say in the first half of a season when everybody’s kind of playing at full strength and playing each other uh somewhat hard at the beginning of the season, then all of a sudden you’re like, “What happened to the guy that was great in the back?” Well, because that wasn’t real. So, that’s one problem. The second problem is that they do end the season with momentum and then they go into the off season and there’s this whole plan to scale up. Okay, we’re gonna add this. You gotta start doing this and duh. And so you add all of this stuff and then it’s almost like kind of going back to square one a little bit where it’s like, all right, now I’ve got to like focus on this thing and this thing and this thing. And all of a sudden the guy who like had everything sort of like I know exactly what I’m doing. I know exactly where to be. Now there’s like 10 different places where I’m supposed to be now. And so it looks rough again. And and so maybe, you know, he steadies he steadies the ship a little bit. But right now it doesn’t look good. Have those whispers of Giannis, Giannis, Giannis gotten further away from the microphone. Did it used to be Giannis? Giannis and now it’s Giannis. Giannis. Is that what it is for you? I don’t know. It’s a little further away. Okay. Yeah. Well, they were only whispers, so I don’t know what’s quieter. What’s quieter than a whisper? Yeah. A silent but deadly fart. I mean, that’s we’re we’re heading towards that. We’re heading towards that ter we’re not there yet, but we’re heading towards that territory. And uh that that’s difficult because he was a first because he’s making a lot of money because he’s on the first he’s on that first round pick top 10 money. So it it all the evaluations become different and that’s you know when you’re gonna take a swing when you’re gonna take a swing on an 18 year old in the six pick that’s that has to be the consideration because people go well he’s only he’s only such and such years old and it’s like yeah but he he still has to skill up quickly because if he doesn’t the money doesn’t make sense anymore. Um caller thoughts before we end today’s show. I thought he got put into some good position. I think he’s going to have to go to Greensboro. Like I think they’re going to go into this season with uh with Diabate and with Mason and be fine with that and let Cochrrener figure some things out in Greensboro. I mean I I think there’s there’s some good stuff in his game, but I think overall like you can’t like you can’t have him out there for 20 plus minutes in real game situations and and like expect to be successful. I don’t think right now players players are finishing against him. They’re they’re going in his body. I do think that he is contesting. I actually thought he contested quite well in this one, but they are finishing against him as well. So, this seems like one of those games where you measure rim deterrence from field goal percentage allowed at the rim. I think rim deterrence is still decent, but the the latter wasn’t very good. I I don’t know what the stats would be on that one, but it just felt like Jaylen Williams got the and one. Um, was it Young Bloodood that hit another shot against him? Not quite sure, but it was He will not. I’m tired of OKC Thunder, by the way. I’m done. Like I’m done with these guys. Like Young Blood. They’re in the West. Gortman. Whatever a Gortman is. I thought I was like, “No, it’s Lou Dort, right?” No, it’s Gourd. It’s Gortman. They just have Orts uh just everywhere. They’re growing Orts in OKC. I’m so tired of this team. Particularly the B and the C team. Those are just They have stalwarts. That’s what they have all over the place. God. Yeah. I’m I’m done with them, too. They can go back to the West Coast. We can come back to our nice little East and we can play basketball there. Okay. No, no sicko satchel time, but that’s all right. That’s a good basketball conversation on the second preseason game. We’ll give you one more episode before we end the uh before we end the week. It’s locked on horse. Maybe a full maybe a full satchel episode because we got a lot people did put it. They did take the time. So, we we just covered a lot of that preeason game. I’m not sure that we even have anything left over. So, I think I think we go a little full satch Friday episode. Did you want to touch on Musa anymore? Did you want to talk about him anymore? Uh, that’s just a joke cuz I’m saying I could talk about him all the time. You said he didn’t talk about anything. You’re Yeah, I’m not I’m not fighting you on this one. like I thought he had an excellent game and if he strings look if he if he plays at this level and maybe Mason uh takes his time sort of getting back into uh game shape after having missed training camp. You know, again, I’m not I’m not discounting the idea that Musa could grab that starting spot to start the year. And once a guy gets a starting spot, then it’s sort of like it’s theirs and they got to they got to play themselves out of it. And I’m not sure Musa is going to play himself out of a spot. Uh to be clear, that was not anything where I thought you were arguing. That was not a QB Neil. That was not an Armcross podcast QB Neil. That was me taking advantage of. I don’t think we have anything else to talk about with that second preseason game. I was like, wait, we could always talk about Musa. That was the joke because I do want to pretty much all the time, but um we can move on anyways. I want to get to the My QB Neil was before He missed training camp before Mason missed training camp. This was like I tried to do the QB Neil and someone jumped over the line and like smashed me and I fumbled. But that, you know, I couldn’t anticipate that that was going to happen. Uh but we’ll see. I might recover the fumble if if Mason, you know, finishes the preseason strong. I don’t know. All right, it’s live ball right now. We’ll see if Doug or Musa Dabbate jumps on it. That’ll do it. All right, we’ll get to another Siko Satchel episode the next time we hop on the mic. Doug Branson, every hornetsboxcore.com also produces Yahoo Sports Daily. Go check it out. Go help that endeavor out. Jason Fitz, Caroline Fenton. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12 to 3 p.m. on West and Walker 927 FM. Have a great rest of your day. We’ll be back with you tomorrow. [Music] Hey, [Music]

We’re recapping the Hornets’ second preseason game, a close loss to the Thunder where the guards lit it up, with Tre Mann and Collin Sexton providing a huge offensive spark. However, Brandon Miller’s struggles continue, and we debate whether it’s time to be concerned or if patience is still the key for the former number two pick.

The Hornets dropped their second preseason game to the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-116, but this was a much more competitive contest against OKC’s starters, and there were plenty of positives to take away. On today’s recap, we look at the stellar performances from the backcourt. Tre Mann got the start and led the team with an efficient 18 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three. Collin Sexton provided an instant spark off the bench, igniting the offense with 12 first-quarter points, while LaMelo Ball looked smooth and comfortable in his 25 minutes.

Of course, the Moussa Diabaté propaganda continues, as he once again started at center and led the team with a +14 plus-minus, reinforcing the idea that the team is simply better when he is on the floor. However, the biggest point of debate is the continued struggles of Brandon Miller. Despite getting to the free-throw line, he had another rough shooting night (3-of-11) and we discuss whether it’s time to be concerned or if patience is still required as he works his way back from a long injury layoff

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