Kon Knueppel’s 30-PT EXPLOSION | LaMelo Remains OUT and IN Trade Rumors | Vets Fail Hornets

Kon Knueppel’s 30-PT EXPLOSION | LaMelo Remains OUT and IN Trade Rumors | Vets Fail Hornets

The Hornets lose another NBA Cup game to the Miami Heat. LaMelo Ball still on the injury list and now he’s showing up on all kinds of trade rumor list. We’ll get into all that, plus a recap of that loss to Miami today on 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] Welcome in. Welcome in. Welcome in. This is Locked On Hornets, your daily podcast on the Charlotte Hornets, part of the Locked On Network, which now is the number one sports podcast network. Congratulations. Locked on. Let’s do it. I’m Doug Branson. You can find my work on every hornetsboxcore.com. I’m also an associate producer of Yahoo Sports Daily on Everyday. Uh check it out on the Yahoo site or on YouTube. I’m typically joined by my co-host Walker Mail of WFNZ, Wesson Walker 12 to3. He’s off today. Uh so I will be digging in to this latest NBA Cup loss to the Miami Heat. I want to go inside that loss for sure. I want to dig into the details. That’s what we do on a daily Hornets podcast. Uh plenty of time for that. But also what we do on this podcast is occasionally try to zoom out and talk about the major storylines that are happening with this team. Not just game to game, but over the course of multiple games. And I think the two biggest storylines with the Charlotte Hornets right now are number one, injuries once again for what feels like the 10th or 15th or 20th straight season is a major storyline and why the Hornets are losing basketball games, particularly injuries to your best players in LaMelo Ball and Braden Miller and into critical uh role player pieces like Grant Williams who is still on the mend from a major knee surgery, Josh Green from a shoulder surgery. These were starter level players last season uh that are absent for the Charlotte Hornets. And and then in this game against Miami, you also had Colin Ston who has been one of the brighter spots and additions for the Charlotte Hornets this season on the bench as well with a neck strain that does not appear to be uh too serious. So that’s that’s one story line, but the other story line has been developing as a result of those injuries, and that is that the four Charlotte Hornets rookies this season have all got gotten more play time and more responsibilities. And so then the obvious question to that is what are they doing with that opportunity? Because as a as a rookie, I mean, Khan Kipo was a fourth overall pick. you you assumed that he was going to have a major role this season on a team uh that won 19 games last season. It would have been ridiculous had he not. But for the other three guys, Seion James, Ryan Cockriner, and Leah McNeely, yeah, you know, sometimes you get opportunities early in your career in your rookie season because of injuries, because of different things, and sometimes you don’t. But all four of these guys have and for the most part I would say outside of maybe Liam McNeely who’s I think done some other good things outside of his offense but his offense he’s been a little tentative there but all the other three rookies have been outstanding and Khan Caniple really the major story line from the Miami loss because he gets his first 30-point game. 30 points eight rebounds three assists three straight games scoring 20 or more points. his responsibilities have skyrocketed as a result of both LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller being on the men and then Colin Sexon says and so you know you were really looking for Khan to do some special things and he did them against Miami. The rookies have played awesome unfortunately for the Charlotte Hornets. The veterans on this team are either failing in their responsibilities, particularly in the second half of that game against Miami. You had Trey Man and Miles Bridges shoot one of 17 in the second half. The rookies holding up their end of the bargain. Coniple, I mentioned, 30 points. Ryan Cochrinter 10 points, five rebounds on five of seven shooting. Seion James only 10 points but four of eight from the field. Strong takes, good defense. Ryan Cochrrener, how many blocks did he have in this game? I mean, he has been, you know, good for almost uh four blocks. Yeah, four blocks. There you go. I mean, it’s it’s four blocker is really uh what we should start calling him because Ryan has been devastating underneath the basket. Uh no steals in this one, but he had a 4-4 game the other night. So, you know, active with his hands, an impact player on the defensive end of the floor, but your veterans are failing in their responsibilities or they’re entirely absent from the team. Brandon Miller, shoulder subluxation, he’s being re-evaluated. We’ll learn more about him in two weeks. No timelines for Josh Green. they could use uh his wing defense appar especially in a game like this where you were looking to set a tone and and instead Miami sets the tone by scoring 53 points in the first quarter. Charlotte scored 33 that would have been good enough. You probably if you score 33 and play any defense, you probably go in at least with maybe just a couple of point deficit rel, you know, relative to the defense that they’ve been able to play normally this season, which is not a lot, but it’s some. You go in, you know, 3533. Instead, they go down 533 20 point first half. Could have used some of Josh Green’s wing defense. Grant Williams knee surgery absent. and they have LaMelo Ball more ankle procedures comes into this season and I think the team was confident that he would be available to play. I think fans were confident that he would be available to play and that this was going to be a a la a relaunch season for LaMelo Ball to, you know, prove that he could stay on the floor that he could impact winning in a special way and get back into his his all-star groove. Instead, he’s been on the bench with ankle impingement. Now, I look at this situation and I think what what are the incentives involved for everyone? And I think I look at the Charlotte Hornets and I think every incentive that they have right now is to get these guys back out onto the floor as quickly as possible to win games, particularly in the early part of this season where the schedule has been a little bit soft and and and should continue to be. I mean, they’ve got the Lakers on Monday. That’s going to be a tough game. They’ve had some opportunities to win some games and to not have LaMelo Ball out there, it just doesn’t it doesn’t make any sense. Like this was supposed to be a season where the Charlotte Hornets and they were voicing this a little bit that they were supposed to be taking this season more seriously. Maybe it wasn’t going to result in a an immediate playoff birth, but they were taking it more seriously and needed to see what Coniple looks like with LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. I’m going to get these numbers slightly wrong. Ben UHCCCC on on Twitter uh had this I’m going to get these numbers slightly wrong. I’ll try to look it up in the break, but I believe that Ben looked this up and the that LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller have been together as teammates on the Charlotte Hornets for 173 games and have played together somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 44 games. Truly disgusting stuff. Like we’re all sickos, but that is like those are truly disgusting numbers when you’re talking about a player in LaMelo Ball who is, you know, making somewhere in in the neighborhood of $37 million going up to $46 million in the final year of a 5-year uh max contract. And then Brandon Miller, somebody that you drafted second overall and had big hopes for and missed a majority of last season with the with the wrist injury and now this shoulder issue. like how do you how do you plan to be good as a team when you can’t have your two best players on the floor? And then on the the LaMelo side of this, that ankle impingement, we haven’t gotten any information from the team in terms of like what’s causing that a timeline for return. And it does make you wonder what’s the driving force in not having LaMelo Ball out there. these game time decisions saw him I believe both he and Colin Ston were out warming up. So these are decisions that are not happening like I don’t think are happening you know significantly before the game or like mapping out hey you’re going to miss like three or four games. I think this is a day-to-day situation. So who’s holding who out? Meanwhile this is all happening around the same time that LaMelo Ball rumor trade rumors are heating up. A lot of guard rumors. I mean, you’ve got John Mar rumors. You’ve got Trey Young rumors. You’ve got what’s Darius Garland situation in Cleveland. It just seems like the market is ripe right now for guard swaps, messes for messes kinds of trades. And then uh you you have people telling ESPN uh this is I’m reading the NBC Sports report on this, but this was from ESPN. Uh the situation in Charlotte with LaMelo Ball also echoes what’s happening in Memphis in one key way with John Morant. The star player is very popular in the market and helps sell tickets. While his trade value around the league is not high enough to have the Hornets considering a deal. Here’s what one scout told ESPN. Quote, “Would someone take a flyer on him?” For sure. But Charlotte isn’t taking a flyer price for him. And they go on to write again a ball trade is more likely next off season than at the deadline. The Hornets will be patient. They want to see what this core this they want to see what this core can do together when healthy, which could boost Ball’s trade value. Okay, fine. But what happens if you’re the Charlotte Hornets and you cannot see what this core can do together? What if the player in question is more worried about his long his maybe more conservative about playing for his long-term sake than is concerned about getting out on the floor and helping his teammates? What if what if that’s the case? What if that frustration builds within the franchise and they can’t get a good read on what LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Coniple, what if you strike gold on at least three out of your four rookies? What if that starts to make you question as an organization, hey, how what if winning sells tickets and you can’t win without LaMelo Ball and he’s not playing? I saw a commercial during that Miami game trying to sell tickets for a Saturday night contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the world champions. Now, no OKC doesn’t sell like LA. It doesn’t sell like New York. I get it. But it’s a Saturday night game. There’s still tickets available against the world champions. Why? Why are there tickets available? Because nobody knows if LaMelo Ball is going to play or not. It’s it doesn’t matter if you have LaMelo Ball to sell tickets on if nobody truly buys that he’s going to play or not. That then that’s going that has to change the calculus if you’re an organization. All right. Walker and I are going to talk much more about the LaMelo trade rumors, I’m sure, um, as this week goes on because I don’t, you know, particularly with the Moran situation looking like it’s got to come to a head at some point. I just don’t see these rumors cooling down. And the thing is like if you’re Giannis and or you’re a certain level of player, particularly if you’re that level of player in a smaller market where you’re you are playing a lot, I think certain rumors are always going to exist. But I think with LaMelo Ball, I don’t see him in a category of players where it’s like those rumors are always going to be there because he hasn’t played because he hasn’t been a storyline in the NBA because he hasn’t played. So I think when I see rumors come up about LaMelo Ball, I actually take them more seriously than some other rumors about particular players. And so I I you know I I don’t dis I don’t really like say well that’s just you know people are going to rumor about LaMelo Ball. Now I don’t think that’s the case. I think they come from a serious place. Okay. Uh coming up on Lockdown Hornets, I do want to dig deeper into this loss um against the Miami Heat. The Hornets falling to 1 and8 now in NBA Cup action. And in that first quarter, like what in the bleep went wrong for Miami to score 53 points? Was it just hot shooting? Was there something underneath that terrible defensive performance? I want to dig into that. Plus, I mean, God can nipple. Just got to talk about all the incredible things that he did in this game. That’s all ahead on Locked on Hornets. [Music] Today’s episode of Locked On Hornets is brought to you by our friends at Door Dash. Uh they’ve been helping the show out for a while. Help them out as well. The NBA season is heating up. Door Dash, they found the perfect way to keep fans in their bag all season long. 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Dash Pass members only. 50% off up to $10 uh the next day after a 50point game with promo code. Terms apply. No purchase necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to US residents 21 or older. Visit door-inyourbag.com for full details. Door Dash in your bag. All season long. More Locked on Hornets ahead. [Music] Back here on Locked on Hornets. All right. I feel like that first segment I had to get some stuff off my chest. It was a little sick. It was a little bit on the negative side. Uh there were some positive things to take away from uh this game. I did mention Khan Canipple’s big night. 30 points, eight rebounds, three assists. Let’s sit on that for a minute because we cannot take for granted that Khan Canipple was able to assemble 30 points against a Miami defense that did not have Bam Adabio, but also they were able to throttle the Charlotte Hornets in their previous matchup. And if I’m not mistaken, Khan Caniple was not able to do the things that he was able to do in this game. And so you’re seeing quick learning from the rookie. You’re seeing adjustments, but more importantly, you’re seeing a rookie that recognizes the moment and recogni and was was told, I’m sure, hey green, it didn’t need to be told, I don’t think, but was probably told, hey, kid, green light, right? I mean, no LaMelo Ball, no Brandon Miller, no Colin Ston. You know, Colin Ston was driving a lot of the offense, uh, along with Trey Mann in that game against the New Orleans Pelicans, although, you know, final shot of the game did go to Khan Kipple off the brush screen from Colin Ston. But you could still see there was a little bit of deferral from Khan Kipple. Not in this game. 23 shot attempts in this one. 39% from the field, but got to the free throw line. That’s the cool thing that we’ve seen from Khan Canipple overall, I think, is that he counters his weaknesses with strengths. Weaknesses being the initial burst, you know, not the speediest. The athleticism, by his own admission, not the highest. You’ve got to be athletic to be in the NBA. He is athletic, but it’s all relative. Everybody in the NBA is athletic, but there are super athletes, there are mid-athletes, there are below average athletes. By his own admission, Coniple is is probably in that average to below average category in athleticism. You’ve got to be able to counter that. How do you do that? You counter it with basketball IQ. You counter it with ball protection. How many turnovers did he have in this game? He did have two turnovers, but Miles Bridges had four. Ryan Conchprinter had three. Trey man had four. And again, 23 shot attempts. I don’t know what his usage rate. I don’t have it here. I don’t have the usage rate, but it’s got to be a lot. You scored 30 points. You take 23 shots. And you have three assists, eight rebounds. So, you’re probably taking those some of those defensive rebounds and initiating the offense, right? I’m sure the usage rate was pretty high in this one. So turnover to usage rate I would say probably pretty good for him actually on the two turnovers. Ball protection particularly when he’s driving like I saw him drive multiple times in that game against Miami and not cough it up. Can’t can’t say the same thing for Miles Bridges. Can’t say the same thing on some of the pass decisions for Trey Mann. If you look at Khan Kipple overall the turnover percentage is not great. I think most of those have been on bad pass decisions. We’ve seen him sometimes just get a little too quick, you know, whether he’s in the middle of the floor or coming off or driving off the corner. We’ve seen him be a little bit too quick with a kick out and somebody it’s a little bit too telegraphed and, you know, somebody picks up on it and jumps the passing lane. We’ve seen that. To me, that’s fixable, you know, but if you don’t have good ball security on your drives, I think that’s a little bit tougher to overcome. But he has that. He’s able to he knows how to protect the basketball and and then still, you know, get the ball up through contact, finger roll off glass, high off glass. One of those uh shots they hit was a moonball shot off the high backboard. He has an ability and so does Seion James of just like finding ways to get the ball in the cup where you’re like, man, I just didn’t know how he was going to do that. the help was there, you know, didn’t blow by the defender. The defender’s kind of on his hip a little bit running pace for pace with him and still finds a way to get the ball in. That’s where you go, okay, you’re looking at checkboxes to to figure out, hey, is he going to be a highlevel role player? That’s kind of the floor. You know, if you’re drafting top five, you want a star, but if you get a high level role player that you a number three that you can pair along two other special players, you know, you can win championships wi with with those kind of picks in the top four, but he’s flashing some stuff where you go, there’s something a little there’s something a little special here. There’s something a little different. He’s seeing things things are slowing down quicker for him and and and being able to absorb the contact and being able to get to the free throw line and knock down the free free throw shots. The the being unafraid, the saying, I’m going to take 23 shots in this game and I’m going to go up against this Miami defense and learn from what happened last time. His ability to make three-point shots, I mean, has been revolutionary for the offense. is having a guy that can catch and shoot the way he can and what and and I think his ability to hit those threes off the dribble and off off the quick handoff. I think that’s only going to improve for him. So yeah, I mean I’m super impressed with Khan Kenimple. That’s not like a that’s not a big take, you know, that’s not a hot take. I think a lot of people are looking at this and having the same opinion and I’m ready to believe that Khan can be more than a highlevel role player. I’m ready to believe that. I got to see a lot more. We got to see how this season turns out. We got to see if he can stay healthy or just be healthy. Like that’s, you know, that would go that would go so far in determining that. I you know I don’t think he possesses the spe he obviously doesn’t possess some of the special physical tools that you know a a 67 point guard like LaMelo Ball does or the length that Brandon Miller provides you on the wing, but he has a lot of special he has a lot of special skills and a lot of special IQ. And I think we started to see against Miami, and we saw this in summer league, too. He wants it. There’s never going to be a question about Conimple wanting it. He wanted the ball in that final moment against New Orleans. Didn’t didn’t hit the shot, but he wants it in that moment. And you cannot take any of that for granted because of what we’ve seen historically with the Charlotte Hornets and their rookie selections. You cannot take that for granted. And then defensively, I was texting someone before the game and I said, “Well, you know, with Bam Adabio out, the way they shifted the starting lineup for the Miami Heat, I said, “Well, at least, you know, he won’t have to chase around Andrew Wiggins because Wiggins slides to the four. I, you know, I figured they would put Miles Bridges on Wiggins and then they would put Khan Canipple onto uh Pella Larson because I figured like, hey, they’re going to they’re going to let Khan Caniple try to cook in this game and I figured they would let him take over 20 shots so they wouldn’t get, you know, maybe you put him on Pella Larson. No, he had to guard Norm Powell like who didn’t play in the last game. So, you know, he didn’t even have any experience guarding him previously. So, now he’s going to have to like, you know, just go based on the scouting report. And, you know, Norman this game and it wasn’t all I mean, had 25 points. He was good in this game. But, there were some moments where, you know, Khan was able to stay in front. Some moments where he he could be an impact defender. And that’s that’s it’s just encouraging that Charles Lee views him in that way. Views him as somebody like, I’m going to put you on Norm Pal. I’m going to challenge you in this way. I’m not going to hide you. That’s what they do with LaMelo Ball. I mean, they try to hide and that’s, you know, that’s reflective of how special he is of an offensive player. You know, Khan’s not at that level yet of like so special an offensive player that I’m going to afford to hide you. But also, I don’t think they’re going to have to hide Khan in that same way because he is an effort defender. And this team features a lot of effort defenders and yet they could not defend the Miami Heat in the first quarter. Coming up on Lockdown Hornets, I dig a little bit deeper into this Miami loss 126 to 108. Particularly that first quarter and the disaster of offense from the veterans in the second half. We’ll talk about it all coming up. Locked on Hornets. [Music] Today’s episode of Locked on Hornets is brought to you by our friends at Prize Picks. This episode is brought to you by Prize Pix. You and I make decisions every single day. But on prize picks, being right can actually get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, the NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. If you haven’t tried it yet, prize picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineups, and you can play anywhere. Price Picks operates including California, Texas, and Georgia. Uh, I love so many of the features on prize picks, including uh picking my favorite players. 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Conimple actually did have a good game against Miami in that 144 117 loss uh back before Halloween. 19 points, three rebounds, four assists on seven of 15 shooting. A 126.7 points per shot attempt, which actually higher uh than his points per shot attempt. That’s an efficiency measure. Uh higher even though the points were lower. Higher efficiency against Miami. I was thinking of the follow-up game against Orlando. Same team or same state, different team. Uh in that one, uh 20 uh 83.3 points per shot attempt, only five points. And then Minnesota bottled them up as well. Five points. So something about Miami, he likes the matchups there and uh is is able to perform well. So that’s great. I mean, like anytime a a Charlotte Hornets player can play well against Miami, uh that’s going to be welcome to the sickos out there who desperately want to see uh the the Charlotte Hornets show Miami something for once as opposed to the other way around. And Coniple also represents one of one of only two players on this team right now that has an above average usage percentage and an above average efficiency. So they get the ball a lot and they do good things with the ball more often than they do bad things with the ball. Um Khan Canipple sitting in the 60th percentile among wings and usage and the 58th percentile. So above average points per shot attempt according to cleaning the glass. He’s joined by Colin Ston. Khan and Colin. Colin even higher 75 uh percentile usage way above average almost in the first quartile there in uh in usage among combo guards and 81st percentile 128.9 points per shot attempt conimple 123 okay keep those numbers in mind 128 123 you contrast that with lamelo ball 91st percentile in usage one of the highest usage players will always be that uh as long cuz he’s starting and points per shot attempt average at 111.1. Miles Bridges 109.4 that’s 25th percentile in the bottom quartile. And then Trey man at 90.9 in the eighth percentile. That’s I mean you’re near the bottom in points per shot attempt if you’re Trey man. And in this game that that pretty much reflects what happened in this game, particularly in the second half where I mentioned one of 17 between Miles Bridges and Trey Mann and prevented what was a valiant comeback, you know, prevented them from really taking control of the game in those moments where they had the opportunity. They were able to make Miami question themselves, but were not able to strike at the heart of their confidence, which is what you’ve got to be able to get a lead, five-point lead, hold on to it for a few minutes, make that one more run in order to finish off those incredible comebacks. And the Charlotte Hornets were they were able to sort of get the snowball rolling a little bit, but it stopped midway down the mountain. And that’s I mean that’s kind of normal when you go down 20 points in the first quarter. Steve Clifford would say it all the time. Former coach of the Charlotte Hornets would say it. You cannot win games in the first quarter, but you can lose them. And that was I mean you could lose them in terms of you can go down 20 and stay down 20, but more often than not because of the way this league works and particularly because more teams are taking three-point shots than ever before, that allows teams to get back into games. But the energy that it takes to get back into the game prevents you from actually winning the game. And I think you could see some of that in Miles Bridges and Trey Man towards the end of this game. Why did they get down 20 points in the first quarter? It’s very easy to say, “Hey man, Miami tip your cap ba tip your cap season for Miami in that first quarter.” I’ll just run it down in terms of the three points. Da’Von Mitchell one of two. Norman Pal two of four. Andrew Wiggins two of two. Pella Larson hit one. Jame Hawkins hit one. Simone Fonteio hit one. Khel Wear hit one of two. Drew Smith got in on the action. The only one that didn’t hit a three. The only player was Nico. So that’s nine rotation players in the first quarter. Eight of them hit three-point shots. Incredible. 10 of 15 uh overall for the Miami Heat. It’s easy to be like, “Good job. Well done.” But you look a little bit deeper and you go, “How many of those were created on the number of turnovers that the Charlotte Hornets had in that first quarter as a team in the first quarter? 12 points off of turnovers for Miami of the 53. And I think what the turnovers do is they create opportunities for teams to get out into transition. And Charles Lee pointed that out after the game, like the transition defense in the first half wasn’t good. But that wasn’t because they weren’t getting back. That was because they were coughing up the basketball and and giving teams giving the Miami Heat an advantage where they didn’t need one. Because I mean, this team has had difficulties this season so far stopping Miami in the half court. You don’t want to give them opportunities in in transition. So, seven turnovers of the 18 18 too big of a number. Now, I would look at it and say you’re playing four rookies significant minutes, you’re going to have turnover issues of some kind. And it’s it’s degree. And it should, you know, to me, I think you look at the veterans and say, “Hey, veterans, you know, that you’re going to have some turnover issues with the rookies, seeing a lot of these defenses for the first time, seeing a lot of these players for the first time, adjusting to the speed and the complexity of NBA defense, which is the toughest thing for rookies to adjust to as they come into the league. Second, well, maybe the toughest thing is them actually knowing where to be on defense. But it’s a pretty close second of like knowing the tendencies of opposing defenses and how quick they are to jump these passing lanes and uh how effective they are at taking your cookies when you’re when you’re driving. And that was one of the most frustrating things I think about Miles Bridges’s game in this one because I, you know, I thought there were sections of the game where he was doing a lot of things, a lot of good things. Seven assists. I thought there was a lot of hustle for him on loose balls. He got a few of his baskets on offensive rebounds. You know, there was some there was there there was some good things that he was doing in this game, but one of the bad things he was doing is and we’ve seen this so much from him when LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller aren’t playing, getting into these ISO situations, taking it one-on-one and not being able to finish and turning it over. Either not being able to finish at the rim or turning it over. And I think that’s what someone’s going to do when you cannot fully create the offensive advantage that you need to do and you try to do a little bit too much. And you saw Andrew Wiggins take his cookies as he’s driving. Uh and they were being really physical with him at the rim knowing uh that you can force the miss pretty easily. So, you know, veterans not not really stepping up in those situations. But that’s to me like 53 points. There’s a little bit of tip your cap, but there’s also a little bit of protect the basketball. And these rookies are going to have to learn quick. Look, I mean, it’s unfair, but like that that’s the situation they’re in. They’re going to have to learn quick to not, you know, not cough up this basketball, value possessions, uh, because not only does it cause advantages for the opposing transition offense, but it just completely takes your offense out of rhythm. They were actually, to me, they actually fortunate not to be down 30 and and a lot of that was just on shot making. Trey man was particularly good in the first quarter, four of six. um 13 points in that first quarter. Like his shot making and then being able to get to the line uh twice and make all four of his free throws. I mean, that was critical to just keeping them even within shouting distance to even give yourself an opportunity to get back in that second quarter. You have to hand it to Trey Man there, even though he failed to really deliver in uh the second half. Also, man, I think if if Miles Bridges is going to like be point person on your offense, you got to make sure you got Musa out there because Musa was able to just be a force on the offensive rebounds and clean up a lot of those close misses uh by Miles Bridges. Uh and Seion James, I thought another couple of takes that I look at and say, man, that looked like uh like a fringe allstar take to the rim. strong, fast, he does have that burst to get by a defender. Uh I was watching uh the game uh with a friend of mine who uh played a little college ball and knows uh knows a lot about playing basketball and said Lou Dort looking like Lou out there. I would take, you know, I know a lot of you would take a Lou Dort on this team. Uh, I’ve been, you know, I think Khan has been the best rookie, but I just think in terms of like where I thought this player would be and where they actually are, Seon way higher. The differential is higher with Seon. Caul too, but like even more than Cockrinter, I think. And I think Seon even has a little bit more room to go than Caulbrrenter. So exciting. And that’s the thing, you know, uh you look at these injury reports and I had a lot of fun on on X, you know, posting my reaction to some of the injury reports and it can uh get a little disappointing to look at those, but at the same time, there’s a lot to be excited about. And all we have is time, I guess. You know, all we have, we’re sickos. There’s no choice. We’re here. We were we were born into this. Uh we didn’t choose this. So, you know, all we have to do is is just wait and hope that these rookies uh can are are made of stone instead of glass and and can continue uh to put up numbers and get this experience because if they are going to have to restart or rebuild then better to do it with some of these rookies that look like they’re ready for the moment, older rookies, like you’re not going to have to spend so much time and development with these guys. better to do it with them. I think if you’re looking for evidence that the Hornets should invest at the trade deadline and like really go for it, I haven’t seen that evidence so far for all the stuff we talked about in the first segment, but we’ll talk about it more next week. Uh, Walker and I, we’ve got some just some programming notes. We’ve got some schedule oddities next week. So, you’re going to see a lot of me solo. You’re going to see a lot of Walker solo. You’ll see us get together once or twice next week. Uh but we will be here every day for you covering the team uh that we love um that in some respects we’re forced to love because we have a disease and that disease is Charlotte Hornets basketball. Uh, all right. And the treatment, there’s only one treatment and that’s watching the show and getting together and going and joining the sicko brigade and checking my stuff out on every Hornets box score because and I mean that sincerely like community is the way uh that we do this talking to each other, having fun, enjoying these amazing rookie performances. That’s going to do it for this edition of Black Dot Hornets. Thanks so much uh to you for listening every single day. We’re the number one sports podcast network. How amazing is that to be a part of that? Uh, and that’s been because of you, because you watch every single day. We love you. We love the everydayers out there. All right, for Walker, I’m Doug saying, “Go Hornets, go America. Let’s swarm Charlotte. Have a great rest of your weekend. [Music]

The Hornets’ injury woes continue as they lose another NBA Cup game to Miami, giving up 53 points in the first quarter. We get into Kon Knueppel’s incredible 30-point game, the struggles of the team’s veterans, and the trade rumors heating up around LaMelo Ball.

Doug flies solo to cover the latest Hornets loss to the Miami Heat, an NBA Cup game that got out of hand quickly. The first quarter was a disaster, with the team giving up 53 points, largely fueled by seven costly turnovers that led to easy transition buckets for Miami.

The game highlights the two biggest storylines for this team: injuries and rookies. The injury list is brutal, with LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Grant Williams, and Josh Green all still out, and Collin Sexton missing this game too. LaMelo’s continued absence with ankle impingement is now fueling serious trade rumors, with reports suggesting the market is ripe for a “mess for mess” guard swap. We explain why this trade talk feels more legitimate than simple speculation.

On the positive side, the injuries have opened the door for the rookies, and Kon Knueppel just kicked it down. He was outstanding, dropping his first 30-point game and scoring 20+ for the third straight time. His IQ and confidence are flashing star potential. Unfortunately, the rookies are being let down by the veterans, as Tre Mann and Miles Bridges went a combined 1-for-17 in the second half, killing any chance of a comeback.

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