How the Charlotte Hornets back into NBA play-in. When LaMelo returns who sits? Mann or Martin?

How the Charlotte Hornets back into NBA play-in. When LaMelo returns who sits? Mann or Martin?

I think Doug’s lost it he’s going to pitch an idea on how the Charlotte Hornets can actually make the play in tournament I don’t know if I’m going to buy in but I’ll stay tuned as you should as well and then we’ll get to some of the guys coming back from injury what

Happens when lamelo ball returns Mark Williams does Mark Williams play basketball again this season we’ll get to all of it going into the All-Star break today on lock 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 it’s lockon 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 includes YouTube I’m Walker mail you can

Listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 300 p.m. on Weston Walker 927 FM and there’s Doug Branson you can find him on his substack every Hornets boox score.com Doug what’s with the first bullet point come on man what are you doing I don’t I don’t look you you

Brought out the ele uh the elevator don’t bring out the elevator you brought out the umbrella a couple of times yeah don’t go down you brought out the umbrella a couple times and I don’t want to re on this idea but I quote somebody that was also on this podcast and his

Name rhymes with mug Manson okay maybe you go with a different last name there we Doug Branson also a couple of days ago saying well look I’m not telling you they’re going to win a lot more games with these new additions I’m not telling you that’s gonna happen I said yeah I

Would check you on that if you did but then they go three and 0 and here you are contemplating if the Hornets are a playin team you are the guy at the chalkboard going crazy trying to figure out a way that they can get in there

Have you figured out the way that the Hornets can really get into the playin tournament well listen the playing tournament was built for dreamers okay it was built for for teams it was built for teams to continue to compete even though they had no reason to compete

Before under the old playoff system and the Hornets are perfectly built for this because again they’ve already struck gold twice in the draft with lamelo ball and now with Brandon Miller damn the draft and it’s a weak draft the difference between you know really one to seven is really not that significant

This upcoming season and so there’s no reason to even go for those top you know those top bottom four seeds to go for the top odds there’s no reason so why not compete as hard as you can to get into the play and and then the question becomes is it mathematically possible

Because you look at the record and they’re 13 and 41 and they’re only 13 and 41 because they’ve won three straight they were at 10 games now they’re at 13 and so you look at that and you go no way just no way but then you look up a little farther in the

Eastern Conference standings to that 10th seed that final spot in the playin and who sits there the Atlanta Hawks the team that the Charlotte Hornets just beat by double digits 122 to 99 they are playing incredible defense right now and the offense they finally have an offense that’s coming off the bench everything’s

Falling into place for the Charlotte Hornets so going back to Atlanta they are seven games back of 500 okay let’s just let’s just say look the Eastern Conference is not very good this year or at least you know top to bottom not very good this year so let’s put that number

Back let’s go let’s say that the 10th seed this season I I won’t even go too far I’ll just say eight games back of 500 you still with me eight games back of 500 makes the bottom of the play in okay you all right you good okay yeah

I’m good I’m good so that would mean that the Charlotte Hornets would need to win 20 of the next 28 games that’s insane right to win 20 of the next 28 games that they have remaining that’s crazy that would that would be only eight losses okay but if you think

That’s insane I would refer you to the 2013 2014 Charlotte Bobcats team that that was coached by who who coached that team not Mike Dunlap nope not Mike Dunlap not Paul Silas it was Steve Clifford and they now they finished 43 and 39 now the Hornets aren’t going to

Win 43 games but that team if you look at their last 28 games get how many games that team won in their last 28 is it 20 it’s 20 congratulations good guess how did you guess that I’m a smart man that’s how I was able to guess it 20

Out of 28 I I I would say it’s it’s a beautiful beautiful way for us to get to the playin tournament it does leave out a little context on to who was on that team compared to who was on this team with the Eastern Conference that was

Definitely weaker that year than it is this season this is the Eastern Conference as we’ve said before that is not your daddy’s Eastern Conference it is very different but I don’t want to rain on the parade anymore you can put away the umbrella if you want to create

This way that’s totally fine because the Atlanta Hawks Chicago is right ahead of Atlanta they’re 26 and 29 it feels like Atlanta is the only if you have a shot anyway how are you doing this you’re getting me to actually try to explore this a little bit but Atlanta is the 10

Seed that’s the only team that you could even even possibly pass on your way to the playin tournament and they’re seven games below 500 as you mentioned yeah the well some added context I’m not going to rain on it either but there are a lot of away games especially coming

Off of this of this break they got to go to Utah Golden State Portland then they have a home and home against Milwaukee and then another game against Philadelphia but it but after that initial pain it it does let up a little bit and they’ve got a significant number

Of home games in in March and April and so I you know again is it is the longest of long shots but the Hornets have every incentive to continue to compete and so it but what I’m trying to get across here is it’s not it’s not only not mathematically impossible it’s actually

Something that this team has accomplished before and I understand yes Kimo Walker and Al Jefferson but also this team seems to be functioning at a high level and they’re going to get lamelo ball back I mean I think I hope it just seems like lamelo ball Fair yeah

Right I mean they’re going to get their best player back and they’ve just won three straight so yeah I I think that I’m just trying to give some hope to people out there who want to continue to watch Hornets basketball because a lot of people like if you look at my uh ex

Timeline right now the number of people who are interacting with these tweets they’ have just been sitting the the silent majority has just been sitting back being sad about Hornets basketball and as soon as something great happens everybody’s flooding to talk about it and I’m just telling you that they’ve

They’ve got a shot here Hornet Hornet’s Twitter is interesting to see just how and it’s interesting in a way that it’s predictable but also like really in a fun way right like the the the the way to get a lot of Engagement is to tweet a highlight Montage of lamelo ball tweet a

Highlight Montage of Brandon Miller and then you know put out a clip with maybe just like a little tiny piece of analysis or just tweet some nice jokes when the Hornets are playing well or terribly now usually we’re doing the latter and I’m I’m only jokes guy on

Twitter like maybe a little bit of analysis here and there like I’m not arguing because this is something you follow as well but you’re right Doug like Hornet’s Twitter it’s a fun place to be actually right now like now now it and it’s not usually that usually it’s

It’s uh pretty dark in a lot of cases especially with people that come in with their own ideas and their just whatever but it’s been fun to watch all the Hornets fans interact with the way that they’ve been winning the last three games this is why the Hornets fan base

Man they’ll show up if you give them a product to cheer for and we’ve seen it way too many times it’s why it’s so frustrating when you see some of these rankings of Hornet’s fan bases or NBA fan bases and hornets fans are dead last man th this team is showing up for

Freaking meic okay like you can’t be dead last and show up and start falling in love with meic if you give them a two- game winning streak it wasn’t even a two game winning streak Doug they beat Memphis and the fan base was going crazy

Like they will show up and cheer for the Hornets if you give them even a minuscule amount of something to cheer for and that’s why I’m glad the Hornets are given the fan base a little taste of success here and we can all understand that’s part of the fun just how little

Taste of that success that this is right now because it’s it’s pretty damn small but we’re not one of the worst fan bases it’s just the Hornets have been one of the worst teams in forever no no you’re right and everything you just said there was important but while you

Were talking I was thinking of another argument I was thinking of another argument for the Hornets making the play in think about how many times they played teams out west before they made all these transactions before they started playing well and all of these teams both out west and and some of the

Good teams that they played here in the East think about all the times those teams did not take the Hornet seriously they were out there trying to get Xbox achievements you know Joel embiid would even to score he would just try to rack up like 15 assists they were just trying

To go out there and and see how much energy they had to expend and sometimes in the first half of those games a severely depleted both from a talent perspective and and an injury perspective Hornet’s team would sneak up and before getting blown out in the third quarter I think that’s going to

Continue to happen there will be teams in the back half of this schedule that that look at the record they don’t look at The Scouting Report they look at the record and they do not take the Charlotte Hornet seriously except this time the Hornets are coming with way

More weapons than they had in that previous run they are coming with meic they’re coming with man they are coming with Grant Williams from three and getting tough boards they’re coming with Seth Curry who has the ability to score 18 points Off the Bench like yeah I I

Don’t want to we should whisper when we talk about this we should whisper so that these other teams don’t hear because the Hornets are back baby but let’s keep it a secret and you know what last thing like it’s a secret but we really need to get on FanDuel

Immediately before Vegas catches up all right I mean we’ve been messing up you got bet the bus H we we should have been bet the buzz after the first game we should okay we got three wins in a row Doug we need to do it post All-Star break I’m hoping nobody pays attention

All-Star break maybe we get a fun Slam Dunk Contest that’s what everybody will be talking about and nobody will adjust oh wait they have a bench now and Charlotte and they shouldn’t be a double- digit Underdog we need to do bet the buzz as much as possible so we can

Try to climb back up from the depths of hell that bet the buzz put us in all right let’s move on we have a couple more topics to get to coming up next on the lockon Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet are these

Guys going to get healthy in lamelo ball and Mark Williams and once they come back specifically lamelo who hits the bench we’ll get to that in just a moment on lockon Hornets this episode has brought to you by eBay Motors our partners at eBay motors have teamed up with locked on

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Maybe until lamelo comes back he’s a guy that could potentially hit the bench that’s true but Cody Martin was on this list Health permitting could find himself in a strong role for Charlotte with Gordon Hayward now out in Oklahoma City we’ve seen him have an uptick we

Saw Brandon Miller shout him out he’s playing because of his defense and he played well against Trey Young and the Atlanta Hawks so maybe he just runs into some offense and so if you’re looking for a Charlotte Hornet then Cody Martin is that guy Josh lyd from lock on

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Making and I’m with the masses this is not a bird’s eyee view of this this is me understanding what’s going on around me because I am Direct within the crowd and so what happens is we get excited about this three-game winning streak right and what happens when you go into

The All-Star break now we get a lot of time to think you used your time to think on how Hornets get into the playin tournament a lot of other Hornets fans are using this time to think about well wait if lamelo is starting to warm up a

Little bit if lamelo is coming back soonish based on reporting and based off of us seeing him starting to warm up a little bit more then what happens when lamelo ball comes back should we get a lot more excited great of course we should get excited he’s the number one

Guy on this roster highest paid could be a star once he gets back it’s great he was a star before he got injured so he comes back but now you start to maybe worry a little bit about okay who goes to the bench is it Trey man is it Cody

Martin in that backourt and now how does everything change because lamelo is such a high usage basket player he’s got the ball in his hands so much that means very good things for everybody else involved but for a guy like maybe Trey man maybe taking the ball out of his

Hands isn’t as great and so you have to think about moving him to the bench and so okay what does that do for a guy like meic because Trey man historically at least the last few seasons not a great shooter but he’s been playing very well

Here meic same thing so both of those guys it feels like they need the basketball in their hands and so does the bench continue to provide this type of production I I feel like lamelo coming back Doug this is what happens when you bring a guy back of his caliber

But I’m fascinated to see how Steve Clifford navigates lamelo’s return to injury who do you think hits the bench and how do you think the Hornets look when lamelo comes back I think when you ask this question and when you try to predict it I I try to lean back on my

Knowledge of Steve Clifford and how he operates with lineups and you know with a starting lineup he wants guys that he can trust that that he’s seen a lot and knows will make make the right play at the right moment and knows will play solid defense to start off a game and so

When I look at Trey man or Cody Martin I just have to lean towards Cody Martin the guy that Steve Clifford knows a little bit more at this point and gives and gives that starting unit a little bit of a size boost Cody Martin 66 Trey

Man 63 and then I go to your point which is that if you’re going to bring lamelo ball into the lineup he is going to need the ball a ton and so does Trey man and so I think if if you’re a manst and there are a lot judging by my timeline

Yeah yeah if you’re a man stand you actually want this guy going to the bench because he’s going to have a big role and and he’s going to be featured in some lineups where he can be the man instead of you know waiting on lamelo to

Do what he does and then being sort of a secondary playmaker or Creator from from that spot so I think it actually benefits man to go to the bench I think Cody Martin look defensively I love what man has given this team over the past

Three games and and I think there is a a a defensive ceiling that he has not even reached yet but I think Cody Martin Steve Clifford trusted Cody Martin to shut down Trey young and he got the job done so I really think that kind of

Tells you all you need to know having Cody Martin beside lamelo ball it’s kind of the dream h honestly like all those times we looked at you know Rosier and ball together and you went man both those guys really Dynamic Playmakers and they can create for themselves and it’s

Amazing offensively but defensively like this thing just can’t work but like having Cody Martin Cody Martin was somebody that you wanted on the bench unit because he provided a little bit of of defense and versatility on a bench unit that didn’t have it but it has it

Now like you don’t even need that so so Cody Martin in starting lineup I think makes the most sense for both players yeah I I think it makes more sense too but I I the I was trying to think of how it works with Trey man and lamelo in the

Lineup so the backourt that’s the more fun backourt certainly offensively with Trey man playing this well defensively which is new for him compared to just what you’ve seen in Oklahoma City and what people have talked about with him in the past if he keeps this level of Defense up

Then there is a path for Trey and lamelo to share that backourt with one another Doug you tweeted out did we just trade for younger and cheaper Terry roier Terry roier and lamelo ball shared a back court together for quite some time here in Charlotte so do you just it’s

Tough because Trey isn’t the shooter that Terry is and so when do you can’t just like plug tray into all of the plays that were designed for Terry and there were a lot you’re not going to rely on Terry to do the half court bailout thing or you’re not going to

Rely on Trey to do that like you did with Terry and some instances and so perhaps that leaves more opportunity for lamelo and then just dishing it to Trey man and then he’s got a knock down his catch and shoot threes and his open looks because lamelo is gon to get a lot

Of attention but it like especially if we like having another ball handler alongside lamelo because I I’ve always been a huge fan of that right two ball handlers right next to each other lamelo’s such a good catch and shoot guy I like the other bat Court member to be

Able to break guys off of the dribble and hit lamelo wherever like that was always excited it’s it’s part of the reason why I like scoot Henderson so much at the beginning of all of this but Brandon coming in you know clearly blowing that out of the

Water and so do you get a little bit of this with Trey Mann in the starting lineup this is a hard decision like yeah because you’re right Cody Martin seems like the right choice because he’s the defensive role player he played so well against Atlanta Steve Clifford knows him

Well but also Cody Martin’s a little injury-prone and so maybe you just see how Cody Martin feels and then if he goes to the then you’ll have Trey but you know Trey could just maybe cook and Destroy these fools as the six-man and going against second unit players like that this is

Tough like I think you make a case for either guy I think you can too because Co if Cody Martin were shooting better then I think this would be definitive like I would just come on here and say there’s just no question it’s Cody Martin but but that shooting thing is is

The rub and uh but I do think that having Trey man come off the bench I mean he’s just like a perfect sixth man I know he’s enjoying starting right now especially because he was completely out of the rotation in Oklahoma City but you could sell man on hey you’re not you’re

Going to be a huge part of this rotation it’s just going to be in a slightly different role um so I I think this will be a tough decision for Steve Clifford ultimately I think he leans he goes with what he knows and he leans on Cody

Martin in that starting role but it’s just lovely to get on here and talk about the Hornets having difficult decisions to make having options not difficult decisions because both players stink but but like difficult options because both players provide you with some vital things that you need you need

But what’s been good about Trey man’s starting and if he continues to start if lamelo doesn’t come back immediately out of the allstar break is that man is developing a great relationship with Nick Richards and if Mark Williams eventually returns whether it’s later this season or next season it’s going

You know and man goes to the bench too like it’s going to be man and Nick Richards continuing to create for each other in that second unit and that’s just going to be great for the Hornets you know the other great thing about this and it’s a little weird to talk

About considering we’re talking about the Charlotte Hornets it’s that now you you you can start man as well and you don’t have to rely on playing him too much because you need a point guard for the second unit because you have meit coming off of the bench we just have an

Embarrassment of riches out there in the back court this is weird you play those two guys together the beauty of man Martin meic these these three m is that you can mix and match the three m i mean it’s great no it is great and so to have

Meit coming off of the floor um once salad yummy yummy fruit salad although although we’re kind of throwing that away now we’re starting to see clear skies we’re starting to get mental clarity through I’m going crazy I’m I’m still going crazy I’m just going crazy in the opposite direction it’s a

Spectrum of crazy on both ends of the spectrum is crazy I’m just on the happy crazy end Asos to the sad crazy end all right so we don’t even just have to worry about the bat cord or not even worry about just talk about what pieces

Fit where once this team starts to get healthy again we also have to worry about the front Court what are they going to do there are they going to sign a different player as Mark Williams coming back we’ll get to that in just a moment coming up next on lock on Hornets

Don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet will Mark Williams Come Back post All-Star break at all Mitch cup had some comments about that last week post deadline during press availability and are they interested in newans Noel could they bring in another Center out there

On the market and put him in with the second unit I think I think I couldn’t hear you Doug I think you were just singing Noel though that’s good you got it you know me so we’ve been working together too long even though you couldn’t hear it you know it boom all

Right Sal Yumm yummy we’ll talk about all that coming up next yeah now have Dougs singing in my head I’m trying to get out of that this episode is brought to you by Robin Hood did you know that even if you have a 401k for retirement you can still have

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Possible it does look like he is somewhat on the menend I before we get to the Mark Williams combo though I do wonder how they would play this with if they didn’t look so much better these last three games is there any uh hey let’s just hold off a little bit and you

Know rest you a little bit more so do you think the three- game winning streak how much has it has it changed like has it changed what you do with a lamelo and some of these other decisions that you have or even if they were 0 and three

They were still getting beat by double digits maybe they win against Memphis because of their injuries too but then they lose the next two you think lamelo is still on the same timeline I would hope so I would hope that three games wouldn’t change that he’s your most important player and he’s been

Injured so much that I think even if they continue to win that there there should be no rushing him back it’s just too it’s just too important you’ve signed him to a Max contract that doesn’t even take effect doesn’t start the clock on that doesn’t start until

Next season just I don’t care I don’t care if I don’t care if they here’s how strongly I feel about it I don’t care if they’ve won 19 of those 20 games that they need to win to back into the playin and they need one more

And and it’s whether lamelo plays or not I don’t care he doesn’t play if he’s not ready to play then don’t play him I there’s nothing that you could throw at me that would be like oh yeah Rush him back just one second now it is look if

He’s healthy enough to play then he needs to play because you point I wasid that’s the point I was asking because I didn’t want to rush him back it was okay he is healthy but we still going to just make sure we stretch this thing out even

More so okay now we’ve won three straight now we have something to play for lamela’s healthy enough to go go ahead young fella and get some buckets for us like that it was more so the ladder in what I was focusing on but as soon as he’s healthy enough to play and

That’s a determination that I’m sure he’s making his team’s making the training staff is making which is a little but whenever they make that determination then he’s got to play cuz that’s the only way that he’s going to fully and fully get better is to play on

It make it stronger and and prove that he can stay healthy like that’s there’s no there’s no path to him becoming what we all want him to become without him playing basketball so he’s just got to get out there if he’s if he’s healthy no he does that that’s absolutely for sure

All right let’s go to the other injury that was a big one for the Charlotte Hornets earlier this season Mark Williams the question is do we think he’s going to come back and play post All-Star break Mitch cup did address this during you know post trade deadline media availability and here’s what he

Had to say about his injury it is taking longer he did see a specialist within the last week and it’s going to take some time he expects 100% return to play there’s nothing here that will impact his playing career I think the next update is four weeks and that was

Actually exactly a week ago from today so three weeks uh referencing Mitch Cup’s timeline so three weeks and then we’ll see what happens there but as I’ve mentioned time and time again when asked about Mark Williams we never get good news with that with that quote perhaps

You could look at the glass half full approach and say it’s not career-threatening according to Mitch cup Che okay I’m going to take your word for it I don’t know why but I’m GNA just go ahead and do that because for my own sanity you’re also saying that he is going to return

Okay I guess glad last half full that’s a good thing it’s certainly better than him not playing the rest of the year but overall Doug we really don’t get good news on Mark Williams hopefully he comes back well this is a classic cup check quote where I think he gives you like

Both sides of the answer in the answer because you could look at it and go well there’s nothing here that will impact his playing career that’s great news and then he expects 100% return to play he expects 100% return to play not why would you even say that it’s like

Why wait why why would you why would you say expects 100% return to play was there was there a worry that there was 95 or 90 or 80% return to play like why would you even say something like that um and I think it’s because always usually right like you can’t use both

People will do that like it’s always usually correct wait which one is it is it 100% going to play or do you expect him to if you expect him to then you yeah you’re you’re right about that so that so I think there is serious concern

ER with with the back injury and and I think and this is speculation but I just really feel like this is a situation where they’re trying to avoid surgery because having back surgery big guy this early in his career would just not be great and so I think they’ve been doing

Everything that they can in terms of rehabbing it’s just this is this stinks because it was just they it was a lower back contusion and then he was out and then they he tried to play again and he just hasn’t been able to play since and it’s just it just stinks because there

Is so much promise it felt like the Hornets finally had their center of the future maybe they still do but the fact that I even have to say maybe is what stinks about all this because I really you know and and Mark just seems like

Such a a good guy that wants to play that wants to do the right things when he’s on the floor and so I I just I really hope that four weeks from now we’re talking about ramping Mark Williams back up to play and not well

He’s out for the rest of the season and we’ll see what happens in the offseason all right and and so because of Mark Williams injury they are still depleted at the center position you are getting some nice offense from Grant Williams the rebounding has been very good for Grant Williams certainly compared to

What he’s been doing his career and it’s been very different he’s physical he’s given you defense but he’s still small so do you need another big guy to throw into the lineup because of course if you don’t have to throw out Nathan Minah then they’re not going to do it and I

Think Steve Clifford is wise to not throw him out there anymore if he you know has a chance not to nland Noel he’s a guy that’s out there that the Hornets might be interested in according to Mike Scot he said free agent center New Orleans Noel has drawn exploratory

Interest from the New York Knicks the Houston Rockets and the Charlotte Hornets League sources told Hoops hype it would make sense I think New Orleans Noel has been a guy that’s right on the line of all trade rumor team with the Hornets it’s it’s been the centers in

The past Miles Turner is a Hall of Famer in this discussion it feels like Russell Westbrook is a Hall of Famer in this discussion nerland Noel it feels like he’s right on the line he’s he’s not getting enough he’s not first ballot he’s not getting a ton of votes the

First couple go rounds but by his 10th year of Eligibility he might just get in and this rumor is the last one here maybe not trade but this rumor might just get him in here Doug what would you say about a new orans Noel Edition yeah

If this is sort of recent report where the Hornets are exploring him and not like oh well they they called about him you know a year ago and so let’s include them in the report too if if that is the case it still would make some sense to

Me from a couple of perspectives if you don’t believe that Mark Williams is going to return and you think you can if you’re like me and you’re crazy and you think this team can you know make that uh 20134 back half insane run 20 of 28

Games and and get in and sneak into that playin then stocking up at Center would would be good because look you’re right they have played well with Grant Williams on the floor I threw this stat out on Twitter over these three games small sample size really small sample

Size but there have been six lineups that have played greater than 10 minutes together over that three-game winning streak two of those lineups featured Richards at Center and those averaged a plus 13 net rating good the other four lineups featured Grant Williams at Center and those lineups averaged a plus

44 net rating they were they’re with Grant Williams at Center they’re not only playing well offensively they’re also still being able to maintain good defense and I think that’s just as much about Grant Williams and the effort that he’s expending but also the fact that you can throw some guards out there that

Don’t get automatically crushed on the ball so Grant Williams isn’t even having to work as hard but when you get into a playin scenario or you get into some tight games late in the season teams are going to look to exploit the fact that you’re going to have to play Grant

Williams so many minutes so they’ve got to find some help but there’s this other sneaky thing too that I think they would be smart to find some kind of Center on the free agency market right now that they could try in in no and in is it

Noel or no I’ve always said no Noel no it’s Noel yeah I don’t know then I’m gonna go and say trial go ahead Doug sorry no go ahead I was gonna say well I interrupted you I’ll throw a dollar in there but I I just when every every time

I think of him I think of the mixtape coming out like 2021 his high school mixtape was absolutely ridiculous and you get some of these guys that maybe don’t live up to it and you know he was fine enough in the NBA here here he is

Still in the NBA 10 years later anyways Noel null mixtape still fire go ahead so I think you have an opportunity here to trial him and then you go into the off season Nick Richards was in uh these pre-trade deadline rumors I think he’s going to be continue to be because of

The way played this season which is well and the size of his contract which is small I think he will continue to be in trade rumors this upcoming off season when they’ve got picks and they’ve got I mean they may have uh you know a a star

In the making guard and Trey man they may have too many guards you know they’ve got a lot of things they can mix in the old you know trade pot and Nick Richards could be one of those players and so it would be U interesting to trial somebody if you believe that Mark

Williams is going to come back 100% and be your starting center you know it’s not not a bad idea to see if there are other centers out there that could fill that backup role if you think you can get some serious value for Nick Richards you know and just last thing on

Mark Williams uh I feel like you know we we’ve had our conversations with Mark and there’s been some growing pains for him in the second season there’s no doubt about that I didn’t expect to see him as frequently as we did and we still get the flashes of just awesome play

Like really impacting the game at a crazy high level and then the lack of physicality that’s the way you beat him right you drive him out of the paint you just get a little physical with him and he can still finish I mean offensively the Finesse is there you know that’s

Still a lot of fun but physicality is the way you beat him Doug even though we we’ve seen some of that I still think Mark Williams is kind of the player that you don’t realize what you have until he’s gone and I I think the Hornets I

Think as fans we we did know that like we we did know a little bit of okay we finally have our Rim protection was very good as a rookie he still had some very good games as a second-year player but you just look at some of the advanced

Metrics on how much he helped this team like it’s the onoff numbers are pretty crazy even offensively and defensively like both it’s it’s nuts like for a big guy now that’s at the beginning of the season when you weren’t as depleted injury-wise and so I think the numbers

Are you know skewed a little bit there so you can take that into consideration but Mark just changes the way that guards can attack once you get inside in a way that Grant can’t but Grant is clearly the better shooter and so offensively he can open up a bunch of

Lanes and Grant’s like IL legitimately good shooter has been his entire time really in the NBA and provides the physicality Mark might not but when you’re just that big and smart and know where to be and even if somebody can push you around the fact that they have

To right the fact that you don’t have to be all that physical to get a hand on the ball if they’re trying to float it above you or float up a lob pass or try to make the decision on I got to wait a split second to figure out what I’m

Going to do I I think we continue to see the lack of Williams presence still affect what this team can do and Nick Richards like has been a fine backup he just doesn’t impact the game defensively Mark the way that Mark Williams does and I I really want him back like I just

Want to see what it looks like again because it’s been a while and it’s unfortunate that it’s been so long we’ll see I think some of the moves that they made around the trade deadline counter some of those weaknesses when you’re talking about sort of physicality under

The under the boards like you you’ve got Grant Williams but you’ve also got Trey Mann who had eight rebounds against the Hawks he had nine rebounds against the Pacers lamelo when he comes back uh will have an impact on the rebounding and so you know I think they’ve done some

Things that sort of would would help that I think what what’s Difficult about Mark Williams this injury at this time is it comes like just as he was I think starting to get the valuable experience that he would need to sort of take his game to the next level

And so I think some of that process will have to restart because I’m not sure how much that he’s been able to do because you know you’re so concerned about ramping that lower back up and making sure that you don’t you know do anything that’s going to like I I don’t think

He’s out there running like five on five or anything so you know a lot of this process is going to have to restart and it’s going to maybe have to restart at a very critical juncture for the Charlotte Hornets as they uh as they March to the back half of this play in

But don’t say it too loudly like you got to whisper they’re going to March to the back half of the playin this is lock on hornets part of the lock on podcast Network it’s your team every day actually go ahead and scream this you can let everybody know

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The daily podcast Monday through Friday baby we’re talking Charlotte Hornets basketball like no other podcast out there thanks again for joining us have a great weekend have a great Allstar break we’ll be back with you Monday to take a look ahead at the Hornets post All-Star break schedule

Doug is using his crazy to carve out a path for the Charlotte Hornets to make the Play-In tournament. Is it really possible? Walker and Doug move to figuring out who starts when LaMelo Ball returns from injury. Will Tre Mann or Cody Martin run along side LaMelo? Finally, the guys discuss Mark Williams and if he’ll return post ASB.

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