The Charlotte Hornets get Bucked and add ANOTHER OKC player

The Charlotte Hornets get Bucked and add ANOTHER OKC player

So the Charlotte Hornets winning ways they’re no more after just getting trounced by the we getting bucked mind you by Milwaukee uh we do have some good news though to report the Hornets just continue to steal players that Sam prey drafted a long time ago we’ll discuss

The signing of poku also 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 we live It’s lockd on hornets part of the locked on podcast Network it’s your team every day thanks for making us your first listed we’re free we’re available anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel you can make every moment more right now new

Customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 50 bucks if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started there’s Doug Branson you can find him on his substack every Hornets boox score.com that’s where you can find his work you can find him on

Twitter Doug Branson loh a lot more active these days with what was winning basketball but the Good Vibes are still there and he’s putting out jokes and they’re great jokes and so Doug Branson Lo and you can follow me on Twitter at Walker mail listen to me on WFNZ every

Weekday from 12: to 3: p.m. Doug the jokes were plenty to be had last night watching them just get destroyed against Milwaukee and look man this is not this is not some Victory lap this is we could see that the offense wasn’t performing all that well speak for yourself speak

For yourself I’m taking a major Victory lap here I tried to tell everyone I didn’t want this to be true I didn’t want this to happen I I hope that the Hornets would figure something out offensively enough to at least comp compete in this game because this this

This roster as they showed during the four game winning streak that they had out of the deadline like this team is capable of competing with really good teams it’s just offensively they they have taken a major step back and the only difference between really this game and the win

Against Portland is that Milwaukee is essentially the opposite of Portland in terms of offensive execution and so this is the result um some pretty heinous plus minus numbers in this one some heinous numbers all around the first half the Hornets put up 26 and just because I haven’t

Said it yet the Bucks beat the Hornets last night 123 to 85 and it was worse than that and I’m not one for hyperbole it was worse than what the final score was even if Milwaukee beat the Hornets by like 40 points because of how bad it

Was in the first half they scored 36 in the fourth when it was was so over that you could have left by halftime Doug I it’s three games in a row golden state was terrible Portland was terrible and here’s another one where defensively okay you actually faced

Golden State enough to where you battled enough in the second half to where you had a shot like Golden State couldn’t just put it on cruise control Portland you won here it was immediately over and you’re right like I If you want to point to some defensive mistakes I think John

Hollinger pointed this out in a ride up about the Hornets they are one of the teams that are getting lucky because of missed open looks from three-point Land part of that is allowing Portland to just shoot because they don’t trust them as Shooters and so okay the Trailblazers

Had a lot of those open Threes And Thus is the day and age of before we start to really give a team credit we have to look at three-point percentage from the opposition because so much of that is luck based and we can even get into like

The 20 game sample if you see some good defensive teams like that stat holds up on a larger sample than just six games of good defense right so certainly that was affecting the Hornets but clearly the problems are offensive Doug right now and it goes back to needing lamelo

Back pretty badly all of the people that were saying uh maybe you trade lamelo just build around Brandon at least here at least here who buddy we’ve seen him provide a huge impact offensively in the past and I suspect he would do the same thing be it on on the floor there again

And we’ll talk about that whole conversation many times between now and you know next season but you I think you can build around Brandon Miller and not trade lamelo like both of those things you can do both of those things at the same time that’s right uh it doesn’t

Require trading lamelo to build around Brandon Miller but right now Brandon Miller is not ready to run this offense and and Miles Bridges cannot run this offense there’s no one on this team that I can’t that I think can effectively run this offense for 48 minutes and that is

The major problem and that’s where you get Brandon Miller making passes that he’s not ready to make and taking difficult shots that he shouldn’t be taking and but miles Bridges I thought was I don’t know the single worst player out there last night I mean maybe I mean

You could look at others statistically that were worse plus minus would tell you and it’s not again the most indicative but there are times where it’s real easy to see how much it lines up with the ey test and it might have just done that at a minus 48 last night

Yeah well there’s one particular play that stands out to me where uh meic tries to set a screen for Miles Bridges and Miles calls him off and me looks at him like are you sure are you sure you don’t want this pick it seems like you

Should take this pick he waves them off and instead decides to drive into two Defenders and turn it over that’s one play but there were multiple plays like that where he was just decision making was awful and and he’s your best player right now on the floor by talent and by

Experience miles Bridges is your best player he cannot play like that because if he plays like that this is the result and it’ll it’ll still be a loss against uh Miami or Atlanta or any other middling team and it’ll barely be a win against Portland OR Washington if

Bridges and Miller can’t hit shots if those things are happening it doesn’t matter how well your reserves are playing because they got some decent performances from Bon’s late and Seth Curry I thought had a good a couple of good moments Trey man I thought was a positive in this game but it doesn’t

Matter how good those reserves are folks if your two best players are are out there just chucking up shots that have no chance of going in then you know it’s going to be tough to generate enough offense to win and the reserves weren’t great by the way no no nobody was great

I’m not giving you know I don’t think anyone was out there playing Stellar basketball but but they but they certainly I think Seth Curry in particular was making good decisions with the basketball and it stood out like in the first half it stood out it’s like the only guy that was making the

Right pass making the right decision with the ball in his hands and and that’s what propelled this team to those four straight victories was everybody was moving the basketball it was it was Bridges and Miller taking a little bit of a step back in the offense they’ve they’ve taken and and here’s what

Happens to the Hornets and you can see you saw it a little bit against Portland but certainly against Milwaukee they came out they were driving their first of their first 10 shots six of them were at The Rim they were driving they were moving they were kicking everything that

We’ve seen and then timeout Milwaukee Milwaukee comes back Doc Rivers draw some stuff up they ratchet up the defense pretty significantly ball pressure was great up top and then they’ve got they’ve got seven Footers everywhere so you know was going to be tough to get to the rim anyway but they

Ratcheted up that pressure and the Hornets immediately instead of staying with the game plan they immediately sort of rescinded into you know all right I’m going to go and then if I that doesn’t work then next time you’re going to go and it’s just it’s not going to work

Against a team like Milwaukee okay I I want to play a game but I think I’m going to save it for the third segment think I’m I think want to play a game we would you like was that freaky I could probably do a really good would you like

To play a game now your voice is made for it i’ have I’d have to smoke a carton of cigarettes before I can get there which this I’ll be honest this game made me want to smoke a car it was I was going to ask it’s either it’s one

Or the other it’s either you were so pleasure to buy that game that you would want to smoke a c that’s one you smoke one for pleasure you smoke a carton because things have because you want bad things to happen to you okay that’s it

Now I know how to smoke now now the good news is the really good news is that the Hornets can just move on from this game and they can get ready for their next opponent which is let me look this up it’s the Milwaukee Bucks right Milwaukee

Okay let’s get ready for that game coming up next on the locked on Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet at least they’ll have a new addition sued up potentially possibly and remember what happened last time before the new addition sued up they got

Destroyed by the Milwaukee Bucks and so I don’t know how it’s broken by facing the Bucks again but they signed poku pocy from Oklahoma City we’re going to bring him on and not on the actual pod but on the roster and then see if that’d

Be sweet but we’ll see if they can win once he’s suited up for this team we’ll talk about it in the uh addition a little bit more here on lockdown Hornets this episode is brought to you by better help sometimes we all need the opportunity to get something off of our

Chest big or small certain things can really start to get to you it’s important to let that out especially to someone who’s unbiased on your life so today I want to say how I really feel about something you might even be thinking about the same thing this week

Doug I have to imagine you’re thinking the same thing after all of the success that the Hornets had post trade deadline here they are losing to the Milwaukee Bucks once more by like 40 points and it actually was a lot worse than a 40 Point Beatdown the first half was really hard

To watch and that might be what’s on my mind it might be what’s on your mind as a Hornets fan but also there could be other things that you want to get off of your chest in fact therapy can be different for everyone most of us have bigger problems than our favorite sports

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Good as you look gets start it today at stitchfix.com lockon that’s stitchfix.com lockon stitchfix.com lockon more lockon Hornets Ahead so Doug after the trade deadline the Hornets had acquired a couple of Mavericks players and a few Thunder players Grant Williams Seth Curry of course from Dallas the first round pick in the PJ Washington trade and then in the Gordon Hayward trade they get Trey man they get Davi span

And they also get meic and so when the Thunder dropped poku Alexi po povy we all were like well okay he was always like the fun first round like borderline unicorn but it was clearly not a polished unicorn like wimy or even a Chad holgren but there was something

There when the Thunder drafted poku a few years ago and so I think Hornets fans once they saw that Sam presty dropped poku they’re like all right that would have made sense if he was part of the deal well he wasn’t a part of the

Trade deal but now he’s a part of the Charlotte Hornets in fact Ali that’s going to be tough Alexi pokusevski we just call him poku for sure but I want to get this right the first time Alexi povi has agreed to sign with the Charlotte Hornets povi was recently

Waved by OKC he was the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft W dropped the news yesterday and so it’s hilarious because we all were like hey you you could have just thrown him in the deal just to see right take a flyer it’s a lottery ticket he still has this ability

But it never worked out with OKC because they’re ready to win now and Charlotte clearly isn’t especially if you let last night tell it so here is poku on the squad and The Vibes the fun it just keeps on giving despite that Milwaukee Bucks game and I guess the last few

Offensive performances but this injects a little bit more fun into the roster with having this guy on the squad a hornet’s going to the Thunder yard C and I love it because earlier this season I said that the team that I am most jealous of right now are the OKC Thunder

Now I say that or I said that because uh you know of Chets because of SGA because of a lot of their you know major showcase pieces that’s a fun roster but also they had such a fun roster that they had all of these little extra

Pieces like man and meic and now poku uh who the Hornets have been able to uh grab and and we’ll see what happens with po you know seven-footer you said unicorn that was certainly the hope when he was drafted he had unicorn potential because he’s a seven-footer that looked

Like I mean he could hit threes but it looked like he also had some playmaking potential as well I asked Ryland styles of the locked on Thunder podcast to give me a little mini scouting report and here’s what he said about poku he looked like a solid contributor last November

December but broke his leg just before the new year and that derailed his entire season then he got hurt again this offseason twice breaking his arm and later a bad ankle sprain the Thunder were simply too good to keep experimenting with him and he refused to

Go to the G league so OKC already knew they didn’t want to sign him so they cut him if he learns how to play Under Control just being a shot maker and a blocker he could help it’s worth a shot it’s just as ceiling as a guy you

Have to pay this summer to grab a few boards block a few shots and maybe hit threes his unicorn label is fully gone and there’s no reason or signs that it could ever be a thing again so at this point you’re better off just having a

Fun 25 games and calling it a day so Ryland with the the the brutal honesty from the Thunder perspective and yeah before that injury Walker you look at his stats and he was hitting three-pointers at a good clip and that was making him a positive on the

Offensive end um it’s just like he can’t make a shot at The Rim he’s not a very good mid-range shooter and so if he’s not hitting threes consistently then it’s like what is he what is he going to do out there so I I don’t know what his role is going to be

On this team um I I don’t know how quickly we see him I think it obviously means that balen is not going to Mar marqueis Balin is not going to be here beyond the 10day contract uh but but we’ll see what happens yeah balin’s 10day expires Thursday so that is a day

After this recording so you would expect that to be the move right who’s going to get cut it would seem like Balin is the guy and that’s the thing we’ve talked about the big man shooter the the seven foot shooter he did show a little bit of

That Talent this year before he got hurt to Styles point and if you look at the stats if just by basketball reference the field goal percentage did go up the last or every single year that he was in the league so rookie season 34% from the field terrible we see awful numbes

Numbers from rookies all the time 41% is second season 43 this year in just 25 games started or excuse me 2022 2023 just this past season so 43% and then also you mentioned it Doug like 36.5% from three on three attempts per game in 34 contests the numbers did go

Up every year and so if you were looking at this from a glass half full approach you would say we saw legitimate Improvement if you let the box score if you let the stats tell it then poku did see Improvement there but clearly there’s a lot more to basket

Than just being able to hit 36% from three and it seems like that’s where he struggled in a lot of other areas he did average over a block last season but we know if we’re talking about Mark Williams needing to play more physical not having a lot of meat on the bones

Then boy po poku makes Mark Williams look like Shaq so not necessarily that kind of skill set from him but there there’s enough talent and he’s really young to where I could see why the Hornets want to just see what he could possibly be and then if they decide to

Move on then so be it but if he can come in and hit a few three-pointers and then you’re like you stretch the floor a little bit when he’s out there at the center position it’s not anything that they have on this roster if youve pointed out many times so maybe poku can

At least if he knocks down threes that feels like the most likely path to success here Doug this is the perfect kind of move for whatever you want to call it a rebuild or retool whatever reword you want to use this is the perfect kind of move for a team that is

In that position because it’s it’s low risk you can see what you get you know you know if you’re making a more serious playin run then maybe you don’t you know give him a significant run but if that falls apart you know if lamelo doesn’t

Come back in the next few games and and they drop another game to the Bucks and another game to the Sixers and all of a sudden the math starts to you know look like it’s not going to happen then you can give poku a bigger showcase towards

The end of the season and then make the call then uh but you know this is the kind of move that I wish the Hornets would have been making for the past couple of years but they have been reticent to give up that final roster spot for reasons I don’t know money

Reasons maybe I’m not sure roster flexibility was always Mitch’s reason for that flexibility and you can’t see it you can’t maybe you can hear it in my voice if you’re listening but I’m doing the big bunny ear air quotes here roster flexibility it’s wallet flexibility speaking of playing a game it is a

Frequent game on this show where you’ll question the decisionmaking and I will tell you what their decision- making is and then you immediately say no it’s stupid like and I get it and I and then it and then it comes to me being like no

I know I’m just saying I’m just like in position protection well because that because that front office and it is still the current front office until they decide to make a move when is that happening I don’t know but um that front office engendered no trust by the end

Like I didn’t trust that front office not only did I not trust them to make the right move or a move at all I didn’t trust them to be honest with me anymore because they kept telling me things like this is a playoff team this is a playoff

Roster and it was clearly not and I think all of that evidence by replacing your entire bench and suddenly winning four straight games okay that’s we’ve had that conversation before back to poku um you know poku coming off these injuries is a perfect team for him by

The way if you yes it is you love recovering from injury let me let me introduce you to the Charlotte Hornets we’re very used to it here uh the training staff is a mash unit so uh but but Kenny regained his confidence he thought he was going to be the guy in

OKC obviously a lot of disappointment happened there and maybe even some conflict of not wanting to go to the g-league and then they draft Chad and then Chad is obviously the you know Plus+ plus poku so I’m sure you know he got in his feelings a little bit can he

Come here clean the Slate you know and aate himself with the coaching staff do some of the right things on the court uh not come in and try to like you know showcase an All-Star Game immediately you know all those things are to be seen uh but there’s an opportunity here for

Him and certainly if he can it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t become a unicorn if he can be a three-point shooting big that can block shots that’s something this team desperately needs well and and final thing for me like with the Thunder what they were doing is they were just

Playing the numbers game on the Unicorn lights and maybe even just fullon unicorn with Chad holgren but they they’ve done this three times now where Chad had the floor and we saw it at work at Gonzaga when they made the run that they did in the tournament not final

Four or anything but Chad hren was a dude and that’s why they selected him what was it second overall and so they finally hit on Chad but it all began with poku we’re like okay we got a bajillion draft picks hell yeah we’re going to take this shot we have a

Bajillion draft picks hell yeah were going to take a shot on Usman Jen who also hasn’t worked out quite yet and then they get ched Homen so they’re playing the numbers game which is totally fine when you have that many assets and then of course you it it’s

Not like oh okay we’ll just throw a dart here at the board and see if Chad hits anybody would have selected chat two or three you know there was a tossup at who were going to be the top three picks but like at Usman Jen and poku yeah they

Took their shots it didn’t work at least for them they’re talented enough to where they can just move on from them and now the Hornets are going to try to see if they can salvage anything from poku but there but that OKC team is good yes because of ched yes because of SGA

Like without those guys they’re not good but they’ve also hit on some Jalin you know they’ve done really good in the jayen game you know so they they’ve made some other hits in the draft too it wasn’t just about those two guys but you’re totally right and it makes me

Think of the two first round picks that the Hornets um have gotten from this trade deadline and if they continue to accumulate assets you know I I think that they’re going to use those assets to acquire a star level player to put alongside uh this core unit that that

They’re betting on uh but if they don’t decide to do that this is the other benefit of having a ton of picks is that you can you can take some risks and even if this team improves and those first round picks or or even if the first

Round picks that they’ve got from uh Dallas and Miami even if those end up being sort of mid first round or late first round picks you can take some swings that you may not have taken before because you know hey I’ve got multiple picks coming up in the next few

Years it’s okay and so yes that’s that’s the whole that’s the whole philosophy in team building right now and I’m glad the Hornets have finally jumped on that train let’s move on we have one more segment to go coming up next on the lockon Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep

On the Hornets just yet which Hornets team is real is it pre-trade deadline or is it post All-Star break where we’ve seen them go two and two on this road trip they will be back home though next time out against Milwaukee so we’ll see what they can do then we’ll get to that

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You know it’s not jealous of OKC a uh a important correction for sure I am jealous of the Thunder franchise run by Sam prey but Jaylen Williams was my favorite guy in that draft a couple years ago and that was the draft that the Hornets uh selected Jaylen Duren

Traded him then selected Mark Williams with their second first round pick right so with Jaylen Williams who was my favorite I also thought it necessary that the Hornets draft to Center because we had just neglected that position for so long right I I do wonder you know

What it it’s so easy to say this now in hindsight and the and Jaylen was selected a spot before the Hornets really had one so this isn’t one of those things where we can say oh the Hornets they really missed out on jayen no he was selected before so that’s not

The conversation I’m interested in having what I am interested in in just addressing is we were so hellbent on getting a center there like Jaylen Williams was close enough I I wonder if you know the Thunder who are just hey let’s just take the best player available it’s the age-old debate in the

NBA draft and the NFL draft coming up in just a couple of moments or a couple months I should say so like if we’re do we still have to abide by that if we’re the Hornets at that time it or or or did we look at it all wrong just because we

Had been without a center for so long was it still the correct way and thinking about it because Mark Williams I’m not even saying he’s a bust I love Mark Williams and what he can provide do do you still though like if you see the big old Wing then do you always well

Yeah the big Wing who can shoot and who’s athletic enough like even if we need a center if he’s there then we still have to go take that guy I don’t know I not to make nothing into something here but just the Thunder continue to do these types of things and

Here they are at number one overall well I think they approached that draft completely wrong but it wasn’t about selecting Mark Williams they could have selected both Mark Williams and Jaylen Duran now if they had done that it still would not have filled a gap that that

Remains to this day which is five that can shoot that allows them to go five out and you know this poku pickup is is not even about Mark Williams being out I don’t think I think even if Mark Williams had been healthy this whole time time and Nick Richards backing him

Up neither of those guys have shown me any kind of promise that they’re going to shoot they keep telling us about Mark Williams part of this is he hasn’t been on the floor to display that but also part of this is that he hasn’t been on

The floor and so you probably I don’t know has he been able to work on that at all certainly not in a game and so that all of that progress I think uh gets stunted a little bit and so they still have to find that and and if poku does

Work out it gets really exciting because then in my mind that makes Nick Richards who has played really well this season and I think would be attractive on the market would I mean that he would make it would make him it would make it even more palatable to move on from him his

Contract is desirable to other teams his stats look good you know then again we talk we go back to that second segment that’s how you can continue to accumulate assets if you can go out and find your Pocus and you know your Trey mans and all these guys that can next

Man up and then you’re okay you know moving on from some of the players that you’ve showcased and and that’s how you build a team we’re building a team Walker we’re doing something it’s 20124 and the Hornets are are doing stuff and I love it yeah they are doing stuff and

It probably wasn’t even a worthy point to bring up but it is interesting when we pigeon hole the NBA draft into one position you have to address the center where even people like you were saying hey we need to draft Center and we need to do it again and two picks later it’s

Like dude it best player available and I don’t know how I don’t recall how high I was on on that particular jayen but I think and this has been my point for the past few seasons which is when you haven’t won a playoff game in 20 plus years or playoff

Series excuse me playoff series in 20 plus years you you take best player available you cannot be you cannot afford to be cute in the NBA draft you just take the guy unless you can trade that pick for you know a season veteran who you know is going to play a certain

Way for you then you go out and take the best player available I I don’t care if you have three-point guards I don’t care what I don’t care what the situation is you go out and find that guy and then you move whoever you have to move you

Move because the draft is a crap shoot well and in that 2022 draft by the way it after Mark Williams I don’t think you’re shooting yourself because of anybody that was drafted afterwards at least like right now Tor een has won but een played 22 games year so anyways just

An interesting draft to look at as we move on all right I I said I wanted to play a game and it has to do with which Hornet’s team is real okay so Doug we’re gonna play classic good news bad news what what kind of news you want to

Receive first guy are you are you a bad news first or good news first guy I’m definitely a bad news I want to get that out of the way and then I want to use the good news to forget the bad news the good news is like a Band-Aid the good

News is like antibacterial cream on a wound that you just delivered to me bad news is the way to go I think most people would agree with that so here’s the bad news about the Charlotte Hornets upcoming schedule it’s the fact that it doesn’t really get all that easier in

The next couple of games so you have Milwaukee as you joked about Milwaukee at home uh on leap dat by the way so milwauke it won’t even count like yeah next year this game won’t even exist I love it February 29th it just doesn’t exist so they’re going to play

Milwaukee at home then they’ll play Philadelphia on the road now that’s no embiid Philadelphia so take that for what you will perhaps that goes into a little bit of the good news and they do have a lot of other tough matchups as they roll on in the post All-Star break

Portion of the Season you have back-to-back games against Cleveland who’s playing very well you have a couple of games against Golden State the Clippers and Boston that’s three straight games against those types of teams a little bit later on so that’s the bad news now we can get to the good

News the good news is Doug you have a eight eight game home stand stand into the second portion of the season eight games in a row which is shocking but remember at the beginning of the season when we did the whole schedule breakdown on scheduled release day I believe it’s

The longest homeand that the Hornets have ever had in franchise history if I remember that note correctly eight in a row that’s great and the uh the other good news is that there are some there’s also some stretches where you’re not facing gauntlets right you do have after this uh Philadelphia Milwaukee Toronto

Trio and Toronto you can you know however good they are in your mind whatever Washington Brooklyn Detroit Memphis you have that four game stretch so that’s the good news here as well so like this second half it’s I think it balances out I think yeah you have some

Tough matchups but also you have some matchups that you’ll probably be favored against and you have a ton of home games including that long stretch so do with that what you will well the only good news that I think would significantly impact The Hornet’s ability to compete

For a play in if you’re at all interested in that is lamelo ball returning I mean that’s it this whole thing hinges on that happening because I think the Hornets can play they certainly are capable of playing better than they did against Milwaukee I don’t know if they played 50% better they they

Might still lose by 10 to Milwaukee you know at home but they can play better but they they don’t have a shot at winning some of these tough matchups that they have coming up uh unless they have a significant amount more playmaking on the floor than they have

Right now um I hope that we see a little bit more bton early I’d like to see that uh Trey Mann got 32 minutes that’s a positive I’d like to see more minutes for man um meich struggled again in this game I I think you know meic probably

This this might be who he is just sort of an inconsistent player sometimes he’s red hot and then sometimes he sort of disa disappears in the background could be could be what’s developing here but we’ll have to see how it plays out over the rest of the season uh but look you

Know I I think that this particularly for Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges I think the remaining time that lamelo is out it’s really important for them to figure out how how best to lead this team is it best to refuse a screen and drive into you know three Milwaukee

Bucks Defenders and turn the back basetball over and then the Bucks get a three on the other end or is it best to say I’m going to actually lead this offense make good decisions with the ball in my hands and and Brandon more so I thought did against Milwaukee I

Thought you know he got into the mid-range because Milwaukee’s old defense was ball pressure we going to take away the three we got some guys at The Rim you’re not going to get there either and Miller did the smart thing at least in the second half and said all

Right well I’m just going to get to my mid-range shot uh but you know these these guys have to understand like it’s it’s yet they’re going to get their shots throughout a game but it can’t be all about them they’ve got to set the tone early and get other guys involved

So last thing for me on just like what Hornet’s team is real if if you look at their wins Doug after they got the new addition suiting up for them the teams they beat they beat Memphis who had a ton of injuries that very first game they beat

Indiana 111 to 102 and that’s a good defensive performance against a historically great offensive team based on the numbers they beat down Atlanta it’s their only big- time victory that they’ve had as far as that margin of Victory and then they beat Utah on the road and they beat

Portland losing against Golden State in between Indiana’s the best team and Indiana right now is an eight seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race so when we can get excited and we can get legitimately excited about what this team is what this team is is a squad

That’s not going to get beat by 20 against the terrible teams anymore on a consistent basis and that’s great that might be loser talk Doug but indulge me if you will it might be loser talk but that’s what we’ve seen from this Hornet Squad when we see the fact that they

Have a replenished bench and then we see all the victories they have the fact of the matter is the best team they beat is an eight seed who is historically great offensively but also is I wouldn’t be surprised to see historically bad defensively and the other teams they

Beat were Portland battling for that number one spot Utah who were sellers at the trade deadline Memphis who is terrible certainly with the injuries that they’ve suffered and they were able to take advantage of that that’s a good thing I’m not trying to take away from

It but then when we try to figure out could this be a squad that gets to the play in and the only team that they beat was an eight seed that’s where I think we have to temper our expectations a little bit more so that’s the only thing

I would say I’m here for the good basketball though we didn’t see it last night against Milwaukee but at least against the teams that like you’re supposed to be in that neighborhood with at least we’ll see the horn it’s compete and most likely win a lot of those games

In a way where I just can’t see them competing consistently with the top six squads in the Eastern Conference and the top eight 10 in a deeper Western I totally agree with you and my Robot vacuum is uh now making its way through uh my kitchen so I think I I

Love I love a good Robot vacuum when I bought one it was like the best decision I ever made so that thing can make an appearance it’s great it’s just it’s all automated so I can’t you know I can’t turn off it’s you know it’s doing its

Thing I’m a little scared of it honestly uh the technology it scares me but uh yeah so but I agree with everything you’re saying by the way I had a blind dog one time that we called a Roomba because he would just run into the walls

All the time so we’ll end on that one that’ll do it for locked on thanks for we loved him man God he was such a great dog that’ll do it for lockdown Hornets thanks for making us your first listen we are free and available anywhere you get your podcast and that

Includes YouTube make sure you go check out Doug’s work work on his substack every Hornet boox score.com and you can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. 927fm how’s it doing Doug do all right here boy Sit Stay turn off it’s a good

Roomba good Roomba have a great rest of your day we’ll be back with you Tomorrow n

After all the good vibes surrounding a new look Charlotte Hornets team, Walker and Doug were reminded of what happened pre-trade deadline with a terrible outing against Milwaukee. Which Hornets team is for real? The guys also discuss the Hornets latest addition of Aleksej Pokusevski and what he might able to do as a former 1st round pick.

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