WEEKEND RECAP: Charlotte Hornets’ house still haunted + Stangin’ or Clangin’ Brandon Miller edition

WEEKEND RECAP: Charlotte Hornets’ house still haunted + Stangin’ or Clangin’ Brandon Miller edition

The Charlotte Hornets lose their fourth in a row and of course suffer more injuries along the way we’ll discuss that and play some St or clanging today on locked on Hornets you are locked on Hornets your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast part of the locked on podcast

Network your team every day in a minute cuz we Live it’s lockon hornets part of the lock on podcast Network it’s your team every day thanks for making us your first listen we are free we are available anywhere you get your podcast and as always that includes YouTube today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel you can make every moment more

Right now new customers get $1150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started there’s Doug Branson you can find his work on his substack every Hornets boox score.com and you can listen to me walk or mail

Every weekday on WFNZ 12 to3 p.m. 927 FM I you know it sucks man I see the first bullet point the house is still haunted Doug I didn’t know you were going to drop that on me but then I start to think about it in okay yeah

Hornets get destroyed a couple of times against Milwaukee they lose to Philly they lose to Toronto OH and they’re suffering more injuries along the way the high after the trade deadline is it safe to say that that I I still think we’re experiencing like the remnants of

The high but that very specific high that we experienced I think that’s no longer here after the fourth loss and of course more guys getting banged up well we’ll see right because the Hornets are due back to come home for a while and you know we’ll see what the reaction is

In Spectrum Center if they can get a few more wins against some easier competition will we hear some let’s go Hornets chance in the building but there’s there’s no doubt about it that this team has fallen all the way back down to earth and some of it you can

Excuse uh for injuries uh not only to lamelo ball and Mark Williams who continue to be out but also recent injuries uh to Seth Curry and Cody Martin thanks to even more ankle turns I mean it is really it is really incredible you know I don’t pay

Attention to the rest of the league and their injury reports like I’m not like totally locked in there but it just seems like the Hornets have an inordinate amount of freak ankle injuries and just brutal turns and here we are once again Seth Curry someone that uh every time he stepped on the

Floor he was doing good things uh was able to you know knock down mid-range shots get assists not turn the ball over not make a ton of mistakes he was crucial coming off the bench he he injures himself stepping in for Brandon Miller over the weekend who himself had

Some you know lower back issues that kept him out of a game and he turns his ankle and and we have no word but that looks significant the Cody Martin one looked bad but not like oh he’s going to be out weeks bad uh and Cody Martin has

Been the engine of this team’s uh at least the backourt defense and so losing him was was critical as well so it’s but it’s not only that I mean you know I think this Hornets team had this weekend two winnable games Walker against a Philadelphia Team without embiid and

Against the Raptors who are still sort of trying to find an identity and they lost those games for two different reasons in Philly they just let them crash the boards tons of offensive rebounds and in this game against the Raptors a a game you knew coming in the

Raptors were really good at getting out on the run fast break transition that’s where they live that’s where they make their money if you can just you’re not going to stop them but if you slow them down teams have beaten them over and over again just slowing them down into

Transition and making shots on the other end and the Hornets allow 26 points in transition so it’s like something different every game uh and and certainly you can Source it back to the injuries but I think it’s more than that too yeah the transition was terrible Steve Clifford talked about that the

Transition defense I mean they got out and they ran quite a bit because the Hornets allowed them to before the Charlotte Hornets could even get back on defense and you’re right so here we are with the house still being haunted you have injuries to Cody Martin who Steve

Clifford called Elite very Matt rule esque Panthers fans are twitching right now but he called Cody Martin Elite defensively and he was nowhere to be found because of his injury you mentioned Seth Curry Doug we just did it was like a minor fawning but we did love

Us some Seth Curry before he hopped on or we did it I think the last episode we talked about how good things happen whenever he’s on the floor yeah and he’s not on the floor so because that the ghosts are now catching up at first we accused Vegas of not catching up with

The Hornets the ghosts are now catching up with the Hornets and making they just went on vacation we we thought we thought The Exorcist came in and removed turns out to Cabo and now they’re back now they’re back um with this loss as we mentioned 111 to 106 to Toronto and just

In case I hadn’t revealed the final score any positives you want to take away here any any negatives what’s something that stood out most to you watching this one get away maybe outside of transition defense something we already mentioned well I think you had good moments in the second half to get

Them back into the game because in the second quarter they took a 10-point lead gave all of that back because of poor transition defense and it was every it was across the board we’ve talked a lot about Brandon Miller getting upset with players for not getting back into

Transition defense but but in this game I think I could identify multiple plays where he was not getting back running as hard I wonder if the lower back thing if he came back from it you know maybe he could have stayed out a couple more games but he’s you know been a guy

That’s tough Grant Williams looked like he was dealing with an injury in that game too to his leg he was limping around for a while there seemed to get better as the game went on uh but I’m sure that held him up a little bit but

It was across the board you either guys were not running back hard enough or they were out of position they were not stopping the ball they were worried about sort of staying in position staying on the shooters but you know it was it was just a tragic effort in terms

Of transition defense and that gave away the lead in the second quarter but in the third quarter positives miles Bridges got out of I’m going to take these mid-range jumpers that I’m terrible at and back into I’m going to drive this basketball down their throat over and over again and dare them to

Stop me and he was able to score I think 12 or no excuse me 16 points and I think he only had 18 to that point I think he only scored like two or four in the in the first half he scores 16 in that third quarter gets the Hornets all the

Way back and then I thought Bridges and Brandon they’re combined defensive effort in the fourth quarter got enough stops to allow the Hornets to get back in it and then you know late game execution wasn’t there Bon was hot from three they tried to really feed him the

Ball get him into a position late in that game where he could take the three that got them over the hump and the one that he had in the corner bad pass didn’t really catch it in Rhythm and then the final play meic uh you know

Great Play by Gary Trent I I’m really not even going to blame meic there were multiple turnovers in this game from me that you could go okay that was totally on meic but that was just a great play by Trent and had Trent not made that

Play meic had Bon’s wide open for three and so they just didn’t execute there and speaking of scary hours that scary for Toronto if Trent doesn’t make that play So here’s something I’ll notice real quickly and it’s been more of a trend I I think now once we get to the

Four or five game Mark maybe you can explore whether it’s a trend or not the shine of the new bourt post trade deadline starting to wear off a little bit so now where you have Trey man the last five games he’s only reached double digit scoring one time and before before

That he had reached double digit scoring every single outing with the Charlotte Hornets team meic I don’t know how your timeline looked Doug my timeline people are really starting to get over me’s act where the shooting is really frustrating people and then the turnovers you mentioned he had four in this game Grant

Williams had six meic had four and those were the guys that turned it over more than anybody and so if you wanted to lump with Williams he rebounded really well like six offensive rebounds he made a shots and inside the three-point Arc so not so much him for this game but I I

Think with the backourt specifically where Trey man comes in and is this electric guard and meic is so much fun I think now we’re starting to see them come back down to earth just a little bit and that affects them especially because they’re offensive oriented players and well they haven’t been

Playing well offensively the last five games yeah and the problem is so much of the shooting has gone away what do I say over and over on this show shooting covers all sins when you have have all five guys out on the floor that can

Knock down shots and they and they do so then it really challenges defenses and defenses get out of position on multiple possessions and that’s where you know as as the offensive team you can get a lot of confidence and you’re not making some of those blunders that we see meic

Making now because I think he’s second guessing I think when he drives and he’s trying to kick he’s looking into the corner and instead of seeing Seth Curry or instead of seeing bton sometimes he’s seeing Bryce mccallin and JT Thor and these guys you go uh oh should I throw

It to this guy I’m not sure even though Bryce had a good game JT Thor did not um but you know I think there’s some second guessing there’s some times when me just gets caught in the air you know and and he was making those plays those kind of

Incredible like his feet almost touch the ground and he somehow gets the pass out those plays were being made because I think defenses were still sort of sinking down and allowing Shooters to be open I think the the trend of these four losses is that the good teams have

Gotten wise to what the Hornets were doing and they’ve adjusted a little bit and the Hornets have not been able to adjust to the adjustment and Mee’s turnovers are part of that Grant Williams is part of that uh you know I think mil Bridges when he’s when he’s

Driving is good but I think him taking some okay shots or bad shots is part of that I mean that mid-ranger that he took uh towards the end of that game was just awful shot selection it was a guy in bridges who was who was trying to make

Something happen because he felt that pressure to make something happened and he made the wrong play and Brandon Miller has been a victim of that as well and it just all goes back to the thing that we’ve been talking about over and over and you can’t honestly you you have

To keep talking about it because it is the thing which is if lamelo ball were on the floor right now things would be completely different even with the injuries to Curry and Martin even with all of that if lamelo ball were on the floor right now things will be a lot

Different maybe we can get to some more of that and more thoughts on the weekend coming up next next on the lockdown Hornets podcast oh sorry Eric I didn’t mean to interrupt you ER was a little slow there to be I to be fair to you Eric was a

Little slow on the uptake there I don’t want to step on you that’s radio etiquette broadcasting etiquette 101 but I Ste on them I apologize to Eric we’ll give you our thoughts on the Philly game and maybe overall Trends some more developing over the weekend in just a moment here on lockdown Hornets Before we do that I want to tell you how this episode is brought to you by FanDuel the weight is almost over North Carolina FanDuel America’s number one sports book is coming to your state on March 11th you’ll finally be able to bet on all your favorite teams and all your

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Fanduel.com lockon make every moment more with FanDuel 21 plus and present in North Carolina if gambling is more than a game for you or a loved one free help is available text more than a game to 533 42 call 877-718-5950 exciting fun player had 20 points was assisting at a high rate I think that’s why we loved him so much against Memphis I think he while didn’t shoot well did have seven assists in that one and so he’s not starting he’s not playing as well anymore and Doug

Something we’ve talked about quite a bit is despite us really being excited about what man can bring to the table Steve Clifford has not been closing the game with him it had been Brandon Miller and meic and last night he still doesn’t close Trey man he instead goes with

Davis bertans who gave us a dunk and continues to give us the threes so why is Steve Clifford refusing to go to Trey man even when it felt like there was an opportunity so I think we can take some of Clifford’s pregame comments on the difference between man and meic and his

Postgame comments on bretton’s and like put them all into a cauldron mix it all up and try to come up with some analysis about why why he’s not deciding to close with man and went went with bons cuz look bton was hot from three and I think

Only he and Brandon hit a three in this game they each hit four and no one else was hitting threes and so you you needed that shooting on the floor and Braton was hot Trey wasn’t so that you could go with the simple explanation there for this particular game but before the game

When discussing man and meic he said look man is a Score first guard and meic is a guy that looks to pass first and score later although I think a lot of people in your timeline would argue with that because sometimes meic does fall in

Love with his own shot or his own drive to the detriment of loves driving loves it when he can I mean because he can’t shoot right and so he tries to drive when he can and sometimes it I it actually works a lot given you know what

The defense is doing to him but yeah you you you were going along with that point so so man is a Score first guard and then after the game when talking about bton he’s saying look bton is a is a really good Team Defender he went out of

His way to say he was good on both ends of the floor Good Team Defender didn’t say good one onone Defender cuz I think all of us can see that Braton can get beat like he’s not you know side to side you know One V one like he he can get

Roasted and toasted well they hide him I mean against Milwaukee when galinari was in the game Steve clipp was like thank God I think it was vice versa it it felt like Doc Rivers and Steve Clifford just agreed hey I’ll put in bton if you put

In Danilo we good cool right right but in terms of help defense in terms of Team defense when they go Zone like you can see bton quickly recovers out to the corner like he’s good at just sort of knowing where to be and so I put all

That together and I think that you know look Clifford really values team defense I think even over sort of one-on-one defense or what I think man delivers a lot of the time which is lamelo ball defense and what I mean is the ability to jump a passing Lane he sort of has

Those defensive instincts that allow him to get some steals especially early in games he can catch offenses sleeping he’s good at the same kind of thing that lamelo does which which like post entry he’s on the weak side he can come and sort of sneak in the back door and poke

It away we’ve seen man do that multiple times but team defense I think is something where he’s still got a lot of work to do just sort of understanding the the assignments understanding help and so you know I think in late games he’s going to Clifford is going to Value

Team defense and man is a Score first guard but he’s not Elite offensively like lamelo is like you’re willing to live with Lam whatever defense lamelo is giving you because he’s such he’s such a valuable scorer and he takes so much attention from the defense from the

Opposing defense man doesn’t do that yet maybe he develops into that player but he’s not doing that yet so I put all those things together and that’s sort of my speculation as to why he’s not closing those games well his usage percentage is down too if you look at I

I wonder if that was just allowing Trey man to get a feel for the game but those first three games those first three wins Trey man had the basketball ball in his hands quite a bit and remember Brandon Miller the first two games with the new guys Brandon did not reach double digit

Field goal attempts and after that it was against Atlanta where he exploded again to Hut was his normal shot diet and 19 attempts in that one Trey had a lot then after that it started to dwindle down a little bit more but remember that was in a blowout and I’m

Trying to think if Trey ate in garbage time all that much that game you know I know his usage was you know even true before that but yeah it’s it’s just the offense while you might have the sudden jolt because you’re experimenting with different things and so the defense

Can’t even really figure out what you’re going to do because they’ve never seen this group together I’ve mentioned it a million times it’s crazy the it’s a dramatic rotation change it’s over 50% to over 60% sometimes given guys in and out of the lineup due to injury when you

Have that much of a change it is going to be very different for the defense they don’t have any film to watch like when you bring in your second unit it’s okay here’s Grant Williams here’s Seth Curry here’s Davis Ban’s only playing like 12 minutes so what the hell do we

Do once you get some film it’s like okay may you know we realize that we can do different things such as all right meich can’t shoot and so we’re g to make sure that we try to keep him out there on the perimeter there’s not too these are the

Guys we need to help on if Brandon Miller if we play aggressive against him give make him Force the basketball away then we’ll have a shot because of how gifted he is and so now the offense has come back down I it’s it’s still not as

Bad as it was pre deadline I think that I want to make that clear they frequently could not get to 100 points and 100 is is not even an impressive Mark anymore at least they’re still getting there despite bad offensive efforts at times but yeah it’s still

It’s still not good Doug the offense is still not good hence the whole we need lamelo thing yeah no totally you know when they acquired Trey man and then you know immediately put him of the rotation Nick Smith Jr went down to Greensboro and I’m like man this is bad news for

Nsj you get draft and then all of a sudden they get this guy who’s kind of you a little bit you and but but older you more experienced you someone that they could depend on like this is bad news for Nick Smith junior I could see

You know Nick Smith being floated out in in some trades in the offseason but I think since then I think if you’re Nick Smith junor you better be really working on your defense you better really be working on your playmaking because there is a window open here for that sixthman

Spot and and it’s going to be decided in the off season like I think you know there there’s plenty of room for Nick Smith Jr to come and say I’m I’m better than Trey man I I want to I hope that one of those guys doesn’t get traded

Before this you know next upcoming offseason because I would love to see those two duel for that role within the offense uh Bryce McGowan’s getting a little bit of that and if if there was somebody that was an old Hornets player that’s now starting to crack the rot

Just a little bit he’s like that was two come on that was yes the the the purposeful joke feels like he’s been around forever because time is a construct and it dilates in times of misery and despair and so it does feel like Bryce has been here for like six

Seasons that’s right so you know it’s the it’s the joke as soon as the new guys are here none of the old guys play none of the Nick Smith Jr Greensboro Macwan bench JT Thor bench right none of them play McGowan’s he’s getting some run because of injury because of

Whatever but 21 against Portland only five against Milwaukee nine against Philly 16 last night and and I thought played pretty well there was The Possession early where he kept um battling it was the weird Kelly linic like rebound or steal and then he throws it away and mwan

Capitalizes on it that was an early possession like yeah I I thought Bryce gave us something you know where okay he’s continuing to battle and we’ll see what he can make make up at this offseason uh good good effort on the boards I didn’t notice him in transition

Uh when he was open and he had a shot he tended to make it I mean that’s really all you’re trying to ask of Bryce because Bryce has to come in in these in these minutes and just not stand out for making mistakes and that’s going to give

Him an opportunity in this upcoming you know training camp summer league period if he goes back to Vegas that’s going to give him an opportunity to say no I’m I’m worthy of of you know let’s let’s keep experimenting with me let’s keep let’s give me another opportunity here

And I think he’s he’s well positioned and if he keeps playing like this he’ll continue to be well positioned unlike unfortunately the guy that that I championed for a long time JT Thor who got subbed into this game and immediately gave up four points for the Hornets like it’s just H it’s just

Brutal man I don’t I don’t see the Hornets continuing with that experiment unfortunately we have stanging or claying next but you did have some Brandon Miller Thoughts real quickly you wanted to we can take him into stanging or clanging I can tell you what’s been

St cuz I think he some parts of his game have been stanging over these past four losses and some parts have been clanging all right that that’s good let’s do it coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets

Just yet it’s been a while but we play staying in orlang and and Doug has some Brandon Miller Thoughts coming up next on lockdown Hornets before we Stang or clang I got to tell you about prize picks this episode is brought to you by PR picks it’s America’s number one fantasy sports app with over 3 million members and it’s the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports it’s just you

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Staying or clanging it’s here it’s been a while but you decided to bring it back and I’m glad you did Doug let’s talk about Brandon Miller here first so yeah you said both right I’m I’m going to hear both from you what is stanging about Brandon Miller right now and what

Is he clanging on well I think stanging is his rebounding it’s it’s way up over the past four games 6.3 rebounds per game we really prior to I would say the trade deadline you could really kind of trace it back to there prior to that Brandon Miller had really been focused

On one thing and one thing only and that was scoring the basketball what you weren’t getting many assists from him you weren’t get you weren’t getting much playmaking you were getting a little a few too many turnovers uh you were getting some Steals and blocks here and there but rebounding wise you were

Getting really nothing from him he stepped that part of his game up significantly post trade deadline and that’s that’s good to see I want to see you know well look they have because they’re sort of still in winning mode they’re going to depend on Brandon Miller to take a ton of shots that’s

Just what did Clifford say the other game uh he is their best offensive chance so he’s going to take he had 21 attempts against the Raptors I expect that to continue 20 plus that’s what they need from Brandon they’re gonna miles is going to try to shoot a lot

Especially if you know they’re going to be missing some of these role players as well so that’s going to be the case but like the rebounding piece I’m really excited about he was staying in there so what was he clanging on well clanging wise you know another well I’ll give you

One quick stanging that’s going to pair with this clanging St he is hitting some incredibly tough shots over good defense there was the shot with in in the Raptors game where the shot clock was on his back and two Raptors were draped all over him and he turns around and knocks down a

Three-point shot that just made you go wow and those are important shots honestly they maybe meaningless within the context of the game probably but like they’re important shots because those are the kind of shots that all NBA players make like you’re looking for those constantly you’re looking for

Those signatures of like is he going to be this or is he going to be that like that’s the kind of play that Jason Tatum hits right well well and it felt like he had Balden on the roll and it could have been balin’s first field goal but he

Just decides to throw it up I I don’t know if he just didn’t have the angle on it you know we can only see from the side camera you know two you know not the two we we don’t have the 2K view so the fact that I don’t I don’t know about

The angle but it looked like Balden was rolling open but he decides to throw it up man that was it I don’t know if you watched Balton play that whole game but I’m glad he didn’t throw it to balt Balon did not showcase himself as a player that I’m super confident in with

The with the shot clock going down I want Miller thinking in that moment I’m going to take this shot that’s that’s great and later in the game you know he gave it up to Bron for that that go-ahead three that put them up I think 103 102 that was Miller in transition

Could have very well taken it himself he’s been effective in transition and decided I’m going to draw the defense down a little bit kick it out to bton and he hit a three so he’s more than willing to give it up in those situations but the clanging piece is

That overall he’s had to take a lot of shots he’s not making a ton of them like efficiency wise it’s bad thir this game actually helped him but you’re right for a while it had been hurting him yeah cleaning glass has him at points per shot attempt 110 that’s 33rd percentile

He is really like a large part of his game is still scoring and he’s doing it inefficiently now I’m confident that once lamelo gets back once Mark gets back if this team were healthy and he didn’t have to take 20 to 25 shots a game that efficiency probably you know

Draws back down a little bit early in his career and then later in his career he’s going to be the kind of player that can take 20 to 25 shots and still be efficient it’s all there it all just hasn’t come together yet but it is clanging right now in terms of his

Efficiency as a well it so I I don’t want to I want to play the game still but over the last couple of weeks partly because he hasn’t been hitting as many shots but Doug it the advanced numbers like they don’t they don’t love him right now and he’s a rookie let’s all

Talk about this under the umbrella that he’s a rookie it’s important I know people will fast forward through this part and then just say oh they hate Brandon Miller he’s gonna be a dud that’s what I want to talk about I just want to make sure everybody gets that

Clear but they don’t love him Doug I don’t know if you’ve noticed that I think part of it one is he he still isn’t finishing at The Rim at a high enough clip to get respected by cleaning the glass and whatever Advanced metric number I guess you want roll with not

Not enough to get respected compared to his peers at that same position and then you look at his mid-range game while we like his mid-range game we do it’s clearly there I it’s not Elite and when your when your game is you know predicated a lot on threes and mid-range

Well if you don’t hit those shots and it’s tough to hit mid even if you do hit shots at mid-range right like it’s well I want to can I jump in can I jump in yeah yeah yeah you you but you made the point I think we really need to

Highlight this if your shot profile is what Brandon Miller’s shot profile is which is super heavy on the mid-range I mean if you look at cleaning the glass and I look at the frequency of shooting his mid-range he shoots 40% of his shots from mid-range that’s 90th percentile

Among Wings which means like there there aren’t a lot of guys shooting more mid-range shots than him as a wing his mid-range field goal percentage is 43% which is above average okay 62 percent but I want to highlight what you said if you’re going to take that many shots

From the mid-range you have to be elite you have to be in the 90th percentile in terms of your accuracy otherwise because of the two three disparity you are going to actually be a minus offensively for your team and so 62 percentile isn’t good enough he’s going to if he’s going

To take that many from mid-range he has to make nearly all of them and he’s not doing that and so what we’re I think what you and I are really asking is that at some point that shot profile has to shift a little bit and he’s got to take

More threes and more shots at the rim and then make more shots at The Rim because right now 59% from the rim that’s 27th percentile in terms of accuracy just straight up he’s not making enough of those as he gets stronger as he gets better as he gets

More experienced all of that I think will correct itself but just identifying what his game is now that’s where the improvements have to come right so you can see a guy that can clearly get better in every single one of those phases that we discuss in fact I think

It’s awesome to see the type of skill that he uses to get to those mid-range spots and delivered still a a good amount at an above average rate here in his rookie season and then even the three-point shooting is real like the three-point shooting is going to be

Crazy good for the rest of his career and then once he gets used to an 82 game schedule all of that’s going to even out I think right now if if you’re asking why are the Hornets losing games well Brandon Miller is your best offensive chance we’re going to say that a million

Times but that’s what the coach believes so if Brandon Miller is your best offensive chance and that’s what your best offensive chances numbers looks like then who else are you going to rely on in order to help you win games and get over what 100 consistently and get

To 110 and you just don’t have that outside of Miles Bridges we know some of the problems miles has had on the court this year so that’s this is what it is for the Hornets right now even after the deadline your best offensive chance is still not enough to just outright take

Over in his first year in the league like it is for every rookie it’s not enough for him to be able to take over and win these games you know what a crazy stat I saw on the broadcast is that Brandon Miller is fifth all time

Among rookies for 20 point games in a season I think now it’s should be 19 now it was 18 when they were showing the stat against the Raptors that’s crazy and and and the the four not included in the four were two rookies of the Year

Lamelo ball and AA okaf for and AA could look I I understand lamelo not having that because he was doing so many other things I heard NBA history not franchise history I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry yeah my bad my bad franchise franchise history okay I heard NBA history I was

Like that that can’t be true but no franchise history I yeah I’m I’m surprised about that number too like on the low end now it’s very different right it’s very different but now it feels like on the low end as my whole world revolves around Hornets basketball

Yeah so no franchise history yeah it’s it’s it’s it was like zo and LJ and and I can’t remember the other two names but it wasn’t lamelo ball who is understandable but I’m surprised that a Mecca in that first season with the Bobcats I’m sure he was getting a lot of

Like 15 and 10 double doubles but that he didn’t have more than 18 I think he played most of the games like that he didn’t have more than 18 20 point games is surprising to me yeah it is surprising and Brandon is not going to win rookie of the year because he’s he’s

In a class with two absolute aliens I mean he’s he’s full alien right now wimy is going full alien let’s let’s do one more miles Bridges we can keep it quick Stang or cling and Doug what have you made of the other best player on this team with lamelo being out it’s branded

And it’s miles what do you think about miles right now he’s trending towards St and I think he’s he’s recovering a little bit but man the shot selection and the pass the pass selection too is what continues to irk me like every time he tries to thread the needle in

Transition to a cutter like my body just seases up because I know it’s going to be a turnover and the the turnovers killed them in that game against Philly uh not so much here but but I say Trend and stanging because I think he is

Starting to to drive a little B more I just wonder if I wonder if early in his season because you know he got a late start to the season if early in his season he he was driving a a ton and he was missing a lot of bunnies and I

Wonder if like he lost confidence in the drive and then he started to pull out and take a lot of mid-range shots and and now he’s he’s not hitting a ton of those his three is sort of wishy-washy sometimes he’s like amazing from three sometimes he’s not but but the but the

Selection has been pretty consistently bad in terms of just you know a lot of pull-ups off the dribble not moving the basketball earlier in the shot clock I would hopefully he’s trending toward Stang because look to win basketball games the the look Brandon Miller might be their best offensive chance but I

Think that Bridges is still the better overall player right now and he’s got to play at that level and he’s got to demand more attention from defense is the only way you do that is by knocking down shots and moving and when you do command that attention moving the

Basketball effectively and he’s just not doing it right now well I mean yeah if if we bring over some of the stats that we did talk about for Brandon Miller and we apply them to Miles Bridges like miles is somebody that was very good at

The Rim the the last two years that he played and that’s not the case I I still see him missing bunnies like I don’t really think that’s maybe the volume of that has changed but he’s still missing like quite a few shots at the rim and so

So honestly what’s helping him out is his three-point shooting over the course of the season because there was an outlier three-point season that he had and that was the the two years ago right it’s weird because he missed a whole season so when we’re talking about three

Years ago if you will right three years ago is when he had the outlier three season but that’s it’s closer to that he’s shooting 37% I think he shot 38 that year that we’re discussing so it’s a little reversed he if if he was shooting normally at The Rim alongside

This three-point percentage Yeah I mean that’s a that’s a dangerous dude out there on the court like so what we’re talking about with miles is not quite hitting at that level anymore trying to apply those stats to to Miles like you know we did with Brandon it’s it’s

Different and and by the way like miles his game is predicated on that it’s give him space get him downhill let him go you know toe-to-toe with whoever the big is challenging at the rim and absorbing that contact that’s a lot of what miles game is and and you’re right like I

Don’t I don’t know how much of it’s mental but he is missing more bunnies than we can remember when he played the last couple years yeah and I don’t even know if it was really predicated on like drawing the contact and getting fouls like I don’t know what his foul rate was

Two years those it got better because remember that was a big criticism of his game it it got it got better though so but but but like having that skill being able to finish through that contact is great especially now I don’t know if you’ve seen this research from Tom

Hastro but like and you could see it in this Toronto game they weren’t calling anything at The Rim I don’t know why they called that Ticky Tac foul against uh breton’s against quickly that was an absurd foul at the end of that game that gave quickly Two Shots uh because they

Were in the bonus like that was a silly foul that they had not called all game and and Clifford mentioned it at the might might lose some money for mentioning it at the end but uh they weren’t calling anything at the rim and that’s not just exclusive to that game

Tom hastro on his substack did some research and like foul calls have really cratered um at the toward you know towards the back half of this season and and is influencing offense’s ability to score because so much of the scoring over the past couple of seasons has happened at

The free throw line and the and the refs are adjusting to that whether that’s from the NBA or not I don’t know but but miles’s ability to get by his guy and finish through that contact would be a valuable skill if if he could accomplish

It like you were saying in the way that he has the past couple of his past couple of Seasons yeah maybe he’s trending in the stanging category we’ll see that’ll do it for lock maybe be do we like that that’ll do it for lockon Hornets thanks for joining us and making

Us your first listen again we’re free and available anywhere you get your pods that includes YouTube every single day make sure you go check out Doug on his substack every Hornets boox score.com and you can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3 pm 927 FM

Subscribe hit the notification button on YouTube as well have a great rest of your day we’ll be back with you Tomorrow

Walker and Doug recap a weekend that saw the Hornets go 0-2 including Sunday’s loss to Toronto. Has the post trade-deadline shine lost its luster? How come? The guys finish up by playing Stangin’ or Clangin’, with added commentary about Brandon Miller’s recent stretch.

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