Brandon Miller’s All-Star Weekend was ____? + GM Search – Evan Dammarell on Cavs GM Mike Gansey

Brandon Miller’s All-Star Weekend was ____? + GM Search – Evan Dammarell on Cavs GM Mike Gansey

Brandon Miller competes an All-Star Weekend what do we think of his outing in the riding Stars challenge we’ll start to talk about some of these general manager candidates for the Charlotte Hornets Mike ganzy up today a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers organization then we’ll just give you

Our All-Star break takes in general all today 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 lockon hord part of the locked on podcast Network we appreciate you making

Us your first listen you can catch us anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube there’s Doug dancing on a Monday you can find his work on his substack every Hornets boox score.com and I’m Walker mail you can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12: to 300

P.m. Weston Walker sports radio 927 FM we got to see the allstar weekend we got to see Brandon Miller participate and I saw a couple of tweets some thoughts from Hornet’s Twitter rolling in saying this is going to be the night that Brandon Miller shows the world what he’s

Made of everybody everybody’s gonna know today and then Bradon Miller statline afterwards zero points okay goose egg um inefficient shooting uh 0 of four 0 of two from three got a couple rebounds got a couple steals even had a block so we know that the defense is there we’ve

Seen the blocks before but uh we didn’t really see the offensive game on display um to be fair to Brandon Doug just like a lot of other stars up in naptown this weekend it seem like he cared a whole lot you know what all right hopefully you just Reserve that care for winning

Here with the Charlotte Hornets well and it’s clear I think from his statements at Allstar Weekend that that’s where his priorities lie and I I feel like he wanted to make that known and he certainly did with the performance I mean there was a little bit of lack like

I’m not I’m not totally engaged in this game and unfortunately it came in a game against these like g-league Allstars I called them team tryhards because that’s where they were that’s what they were and I don’t know how these teams were selected necessarily if it was just

Straight up pool of players and there was like a draft cuz there were four teams and the g-league allstar team was drafted by deadle shrim and if it was just a straightup draft then deadle was like Galaxy braining the whole thing by picking a bunch of g-league guys cuz you

Know they’re all there they’re they’re in on a big stage and they like appreciate that fact and they and they play like it they were all engaged and you know Brandon was teamed up with wimy and a lot of other guys that have that have bigger priorities than you know

They have playoff aspirations someday they have Championship aspirations so no one’s trying to like hit the floor and go after a loose ball and like blow a knee out or anything and so they were certainly playing like that and so like one part of me is like man I wish I wish

He did care because you never know if you’re going to get back honestly like that I I I don’t understand and this goes sort of for the All-Star Game too I don’t really understand this mentality of like well it’s just the Allstar Weekend it’s it’s just an I A

Lot of people are watching and you never know if you’re going to get back you never know if you’re going to if you are going to blow a knee during the regular season and then just never recover like this is your chance to to Really showcase yourself and and it does matter

I think narratively when when they have these moments on a big stage um but obviously he felt like it mattered more you know playoffs and championship and I’m sure most fans would agree hey I’d rather see Brandon you know actually achieve things that fans actually care about than than this Rising Stars

Challenge so I’m kind of of two minds about this yeah so I was looking back at lamelo balls Rising Star challenge statline you can actually find that it’s hard but you can actually find the history of the Rising Stars Challenge and I found what he did with Team Barry

When they were you know had a couple of guys also choosing those teams I think he had eight points he was like three of six from the FI from the field so it wasn’t a bad stat line it wasn’t amazing right but it was something where he put

Up some fun enough plays I don’t remember his Rising Stars challenge as much I I’m trying to remember if he was even if he did to because of course he got injured his rookie season and so maybe he just missed out on the All-Star break when he got injured his rookie

Year but then he was an All-Star in 2022 right so I guess it it might have even been the same year that he did rising stars and Allstars who might have had that conversation but I’m with you Doug like I look I get what it is for the players yes

You can’t expect me to be at the edge of my seat watching this every single step of the way if the players don’t care because I saw Scott Van Pelt tweet it this way and I kind of agree with it if you don’t care then it’s hard for me to

Like I like the half court shots that roll in the the dunks are a lot of fun but it’s I mean it’s pretty terrible right like you’re you’re basically watching these guys out there on an open court and then with the team try hard so to speak at least they’re trying to

Provide some competitive balance and I think that’s what we’re asking for it’s not like I want to see you go all at it that it’s a championship game and you’re if you don’t win you’re going home I don’t want it to be like the championship atmosphere because I don’t

Want players to get hurt that way it just feels like can you go 50% and then the rising stars it feels like this is a stage for you to just showcase to the world yeah man I’m that man I’m that dude and on a team with wimy by the way

On a team with a guy that you’re competing with for Rookie of the Year and it seemed like he he took a back seat he will it seemed like he willingly took a back seat now again I’m not taking the rising stars Challenge and like trying to inflate it into something

Larger about who he is as a player or a person or does he have that dog in him or not because we’ve seen him be really upset with some of these Hornets losses that piled up we know that the comp well at least I think I know that the

Competitive spirit is there but until we get to a playoff situation we’re really not going to know for sure where that sort of like crazy competition lies in him you know and this was an this was an opportunity to say to to to to look like a player that

Wants to win everything that wants to win that that’s how the some of these insane competitive guys are like the Kobes and the Jordans if they were going to do something they wanted to win it and they wanted to dominate it and so this was the first time opportunity to

See something like see something like that from Brandon and we didn’t get it well and and look if I told you that he was going to come up with a goose egg you would have said no way I’m hating right like I there’ be there’d be there’s a difference I’m not again the

Whole competitive stuff I don’t and I’m not even saying you’re saying this it’s it’s not an indictment on his competitiveness because there are plenty of people in the big old game in the NBA All-Star game that just don’t care that in the postseason go to freaking work

And that’s even true in the rising Stars challenge but if I told you yeah man brand Miller is going to go oer not going to hit a single shot he’s going to give you like a couple of assists but he’s gonna have zero points in this game

Are you excited then you’re gonna be like no like I I want to see something more from the only Hornets representation and that didn’t happen again we can move right on from this post All-Star break and be excited as hell that Brandon is ours here in Charlotte whether you were team Brandon

Or not whether you’re team Hornet or or not you can look at that guy and objectively say okay he is a freaking monster there’s a reason that NBA pundits are pointing to him and say hey pay attention in Charlotte because he’s the real deal it’s just he had a real

Chance to say that for himself on the national National stage and he didn’t have a single basket it didn’t have a single point and that’s frustrating yes and and here’s where I’m landing on it I’m kind of figuring this out as we talk about it all right so I want to read a

Quote really quick from Brandon when he was asked about being selected to the rising stars Challenge and that being something that he wanted to achieve his answer was no I think my main goal is to win win with Charlotte win the playoffs and like I said bring back a great atmosphere to Spectrum

Center great great answer and and F I saw some fans on Twitter praising that answer but here’s what I thought when I heard that man I kind of feel sorry for Brandon Miller and I feel sorry for him because I feel like it’s not cool to compete On All-Star Weekend anymore no

You’re right it’s not right and he’s grown up watching ing the past few Allstar games and and many before that be be absolute dog bleep when it comes to the effort of players it’s not cool to act like team tryhard did it’s not cool to act like team deadle did okay

And so I feel bad for Brandon because I think he does have that competitive spirit and I think he I think if more players tried hard it would be cool enough for guys like Brandon to come in and say all right I’m going to go give

It all but he doesn’t want to I I feel like he doesn’t even want to look like a try hard feels like if he takes Rising Stars challenge too seriously people will be like well he’s not focused on the right things I just you know I feel

Like he he I feel like he had to give that answer that he gave and I feel like that’s a shame that we focus so much on that stuff that like this showc this the Showcase that is supposed to be about bringing all of the best things about

The NBA into one weekend and showcasing it has turned into a joke yeah well the good news is we’ve seen him be an absolute dog out there in the regular season where in the fourth quarter he shows up and is one of the more competitive players on the roster like

Probably the most at least the most visibly competitive guy on the roster and I think that’s why this fan base is falling in love with him it’s because he’s the one cursing at veterans and rookies alike saying to get back on bleeping defense and transition and that that’s the Brandon Miller you’re going

To get again you’re going to get that immediately the first time you see another regular season game we just didn’t see it in the uh Rising Stars Challenge on any kind of level like we just didn’t see him take over we didn’t see him care enough to do anything like

That and a lot a lot of players didn’t so we move on post Allstar break once the Charlotte Hornets get back in Action we’ll still give you some of our takes though before then we have a guest coming up coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the

Hornets just yet was an excellent intrigued face Doug I appreciate you hanging at the end of your seat Evan damarell post of locked on Cavs joins us next to talk about the idea of Mike ganzy potentially being the next general manager of the Charlotte Hornets if he

Was named GM then what would that mean we’ll get to that in just a moment before we speak with Evan damarell about the new GM of the Charlotte Hornets I want to tell you this episode is brought to you by grammarly no matter what kind of work

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Grammarly.com g r MMA l y grammarly.com slmp podcast easier said done go to grammarly.com thanks again for grammarly we’ll be back with you in just a moment coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast we’ll give you the leftover Allstar break takes what did we think about the actual games Steph

Versus Sabrina the dunk contest all of that stuff in the last segment of lockdown Hornets now we’ll talk about some of these candidates that could be the next GM of the charlot Hornets let’s focus on Mike ganzy up with the Cleveland Cavaliers organization and anytime we

Need some Cavs content we might as well keep it in house and go to locked on Cavs host Evan damarell joining us now on lockon Hornets you can find him on Twitter by the way for all the Cavs coverage at amot Evan he is Evan with us

Though I don’t know about on Twitter he is with us talking Mike ganzy and talking some Cleveland Cavs Evan we appreciate the time man how are you good how are you guys doing we’re doing well Evan we’re just trying to figure out who

The GM is g to be and I I feel like Doug and I are both on the same page we like the fact that all right you’re moving on from Mitch cup Che you get a head start you’ve got some names that you want to

Go after and while my gansy might not be what we think is the favorite to land the job we do think that there is certainly something here to highlight as far as okay if he did get it then we would be getting some nice things overall Evan with Mike gansy being up

There still Kobe Alman calling the shots as the head guy do you know anything about his role and how he’s been able to contribute to a Cavs team that’s been able to turn this thing around post Lebron after of course he leaves the second time well he does have experience

Um running a basketball organization he was the general manager of the then Canton charge before they moved up to Cleveland and became the Cleveland charge but the G the NBA g-league affiliate of the Cavs um but more or less uh just based on the power structure in Cleveland Kobe Alman is the

President of basketball operation so he does have the final say but Mike gany is still heavily involved with uh trades transactions his biggest emo is scouting and talent Discovery I guess if you want to call it that he was a big factor in the cabs finding Craig por Jr or Dean

Wade or Lamar Stevens in the past um and I think being like a big advocate of the Cavs utilizing the charge as a Player Development tool so I think that’s just like some of the in intrigue that comes with him as just like a possible president of basketball operations um

Candidate but at least if you just look at his like career timeline like him being in consideration isn’t surprise because he has continuously climbed up the executive ladder in the NBA level and this is just the next step for yeah so let’s talk about that because he

You know the Hornets have not been the only team that that his name has come up in in these type of rumors I think around the time that the Wizards were looking for someone that gans’s name had popped up as well and so you know when you look at this guy’s background right

He’s from he’s from Ohio right I mean this is this is kind of a you know a a little bit of a a kind of Hometown kid story tell us a little bit about that and then and then I guess the question off of that would be like you know if it

Is such a great story him being with the Cavs why do you think his name keeps coming up in these rumors I think to start with the last question and go back to the hometown kids story I think it it does start with the fact

That the Cavs do have a bit of a level of success when it comes to their Executives it does start with David Griffin building that championship team because Kobe Alman was in the same spot of Mike gansy is in currently at the time when Griffin was running the show

During the second LeBron era where Griffin was patient and pragmatic and he knew how to be opportunistic when the time called for it or also just knew how to take a temperature check of a team and then uh as we all know Griff was let go um just due to contract disputes and

Then eventually joined the Pelicans and then Allman took his place and it was the last year of LeBron actually Kobe alin’s first move as pobo was um to trade K Kyrie Irving but um Mike gansy is then promoted the GM so I think he’s just been kind of paying attention

Keeping tabs in the situation I think he has a full spectrum of understanding which helps too because you have the end of the absolute high of Cavaliers basketball uh in 2018 with the last LeBron year and then the Cavs to go through a very heavy and hard heavy and hard rebuild

Um with the John Bine situation or just you know dealing with like the multiple years of being not a great basketball team that eventually turning it around but I think gansy scouting helped that a lot too but on the local level yeah he went to Olstead Falls High School which

Isn’t too far from Cleveland itself it’s more of like in that gray spot of Northeastern Ohio between Cleveland and akan but after that he went to uh St Bon Aventure then West Virginia and somewhere along the way developed a bit of a relationship with um John baline

Which the bayline hire wasn’t a success for the Cavs in the grand scheme of things but weirdly enough um Mike keny’s wedding was the Catalyst that brought Bine into coaching the Cavs um because he was able to connect with Kobe Alvin at that wedding just because of the

Relationship that ganzy and Bine had but I think long story short it’s just it’s always been more of like a Player Development thing and also just he grew up locally and I think you know it is a dream come true to be if basketball’s your life like he played basketball at

West Virginia and um at St Bon Adventure as well and try to take a stab at it the G league but if you are able to come back home and live out your dream with what you’re passionate about in your hometown I think that’s like a dream come true if

You’re a kid like M gansy I completely forgot about the beine hire like I just forgot that even happened now he is still married right Mike Anie still married yeah yeah yeah so we don’t have to worry about any bad hires via weddings which is perfect because I

Don’t want that here in Charlotte I want a good coach that’s going to be here for the Long Haul even if it’s really hard to decipher what Mye gz’s contributions are to the Cleveland Cavaliers because alman’s the head guy right it’s always tough when we get the assistant coaches

And we have to really try to figure out what they’re responsible for overall what is the Cavs team building structure what is the philosophy like whether it be Alton and then help to buy a Mike ganzy like what would you call that for the Cavs and how they’ve been able to

Build that team again post second LeBron era um so the structure is interesting I think everyone has a voice at the table whether it’s uh Kobe Alman who obviously like you said signs off on the final decision but he takes everything into consideration Mike gy as the general

Manager um handling a lot of like the player scouting and things like that or maybe turning over some stones that maybe the all men didn’t see or you know JB Baker staff speaks within the structure too like the coach has a voice at the table saying like hey I coach

Like this I need a little bit more of this from this position or kind of had this in mind so they like they all are on the same page when it comes to a team building philosophy and I think when it comes to to ganzy at least um he has

Gone from running an NBA D-League than G League now uh program with the charge he was named executive of the year at that level and then just continually kept climbing up the ladder his General day-to-day responsibility is a lot of it is um just doing a lot of player

Scouting and development and things like that even when he was still assistant general manager and even now like I have gotten texts from people at College organizations or people who are more affiliated with college scouting saying like hey gans’s at this big 10 game in the middle of um January or something

And like last year it was like Ohio State Michigan was a game he was scouting quite a bit just because I think if you’re a team like the Cavs you’re at the point where can we find guys that maybe are worth taking a stab at in the second round that we can

Develop to become cost controlled cheap role players that kind of support our very topheavy financially team or in gans’s case during this rebuilding process he really zoned in on the Darius Garland acquisition or just looking at him saying like Garland is a guy maybe we should take a another look at or um

Jared Allen like he’s a big advocate for trading for Jared Allen or you know acquiring Evan Moy despite the fact that they had Jared Allen in the draft like gany kind of has his finger on the pulse of getting hits when it comes to what the Cavs have built like those are their

Three core pieces outside of Donovan Mitchell and I think Mitchell is the biggest no-brainer the bunch like I said I was I was not surprised to see Mike’s name pop up on the somewhat short list I think when w reported it initially um but yeah Cleveland’s Executives whether

They stick around internally and keep leveling up in the system and eventually move on like I recently spoke with the charges news GM Len F fenan and she told me she’s like I’m like what’s what’s the end game for you she’s like well I want

To be in Kobe’s seat so I think if realistically speaking unless Kobe alin’s fired tomorrow which I doubt like most of these guys are realizing like okay I’m almost at the very edge of being at the end of this I got to look elsewhere where so I think Mika will

Would do a great job in Charlotte I think kind of put his finger on the pulse of the culture get to know the players a little bit too maybe figure out like who is or isn’t a good fit and also if he is a disciple of David

Griffin or Kobe Alin he will squeeze as much as possible out of a team for assets just because at least in their time with the Cavs every executive within this organization has been patient and pragmatic when it comes to the rebuild like they know when to

Strike they know when to be patient but they will acquire assets and use them appropriately to make sure that like it is building towards the final goal which is you know a hopeful Championship Contender one day Yo No we’re going to need those qualities if we get a GM we

Would certainly like to have those and it sounds like Mye ganzy could be a guy that we give the Hornets that very thing that is Evan damarell of locked on Cavs joining us on locked on Hornets again if you need any more Cavs coverage make sure you check him out anywhere you get

Your pods and you can check him out on YouTube also on on Twitter his Twitter handle is am not Evan Evan we appreciate the time man thank you so much thank you both don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast we’ll give you the

Leftover Allstar break takes what did we think about the actual game Steph versus Sabrina the dunk contest all of that stuff in the last segment of lockdown Hornets before we do that want to tell you this episode is brought to you by Nissan are you the kind of driver that

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Make here in Charlotte yeah good insight there from Evan about gans’s role within that structure and and I think this has already been reported but if it hasn’t I’ll just go ahead and speculate that I think the Hornets are interested in not just making one Higher not replacing

Mitch cup with one person like a ganzy or a Langdon but but developing a structure that I think has been successful other places like Cleveland where you have an EVP of basketball operations and then under that person a general manager because what Evan is hitting on there is that not only does

Cleveland have a good player development structure they have a good executive development structure where Griffin you know contract issues he goes to New Orleans langon under him and then you’ve got in Cleveland you’ve got Kobe Alman moving up to the big seat making the final call on things but then you’ve got

A general manager under him ready to go in case Kobe Alman decides um to to leave for another organization so you’ve got you’ve got structure there you’ve got development you’ve got multiple voices in the room so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hornets are looking to make multiple hires here and the

Question is who is going to to make the final call and if you’re going after a guy like ganzy whether you whether you’re looking for two or one you know ganzy and Langdon are both going to want to make the final call you know that they’re both in situations where they

Cannot at present and so part of your sell to them because look nobody’s going to move from New Orleans to Charlotte or Cleveland to Charlotte th that’s a step down in terms of your you know just standing situation so they’ve got to have some incentive so maybe money is

Part of it but I think also part of it is they get to make the final call we went through this when we interviewed a bunch of Insiders on different head coaching candidates for the Carolina Panthers and even just different general manager candidates where okay if it’s

Not going to be Dan Morgan then who else could it be but what happens is especially especially with the GM candidates because there’s not a lot of bad out there what we try to do is focus on the good within the organization and feel like that’s what they contributed

To and it’s really hard to do that it does not feel like Mike ganzy was just a bystander while Kobe Alman made all of these decisions in fact Evan I think did a good job of telling us no he’s got a real say in fact the Cavalier structure

Is founded upon everyone having a say and then Alman just being the guy that carries out whatever action they want to have take place there but he checked off the asset acquisition box okay so they’re going to be patient but they’re also going to do something that’s nice

There also is somebody here in my ganzy that is a good talent evaluator you’re not missing out on the round picks the rotation guys that might be there at the back end of your rotation I think Evan listed a couple of those names and that’s something that we actually had

Here with Mitch he did a good job in finding some of those players and then maybe even getting a first round pick in return for some of those players and you also have gany who remember one thing Evan didn’t talk about but it’s because most of us already know is that Mike

Gansy played at West Virginia and he was a part of the team that upset Wake Forest in overtime he had like over 30 in that game and so he’s a players guy I wonder if the relationship there Mike gy playing highlevel basketball at least D1 NCAA tournament sweet 16 level

Basketball gives him some type of relationship with these guys that maybe others couldn’t now when you’re comparing them to a trajer langon or Elton brand okay that’s going to be not even a wash you’re going to get a little bit more from that with langon and brand

Who are NBA players but at least you’re not sacrificing it Al together and gansy of a leaf also had a role within the Miami Heat organization I think that’s right maybe I’m wrong on that maybe I’m wrong I thought maybe Mike gansy did either way he does sound like a guy I

Would be cool with Doug like I I think langon is the one you want to go after um brand we’re not fans of just based off of how it went the first time he’s a retread higher Dany would be one I’d be cool with I’d like to see where that

Ends up if that’s eventually the higher and tomorrow we’re going to hear more about Elton brand because I know he said he’s not interested but the the way to be interested sometimes is to say you’re not interested so we’re going to talk to Kai Carlin who is of the locked on

Sixers podcast about Elum brand tomorrow so check that out by the way Mike’s uh uh tenure at least with Miami he was an unsigned uh free agent as a player there so I believe that’s his only connection we got some heat culture we can bring just a little taste of heat culture heat

Culture Cleveland culture I don’t care where the culture comes from at this point we just need a culture so anyone that can come in here head coach uh general manager Executive Vice President of basketball operations whatever we need to establish what that is name what that is communicate what that’s going to

Be I think that’s going to be job number one for this organization top down ownership group front office head coach let’s all get on the same page let’s emblazon it what Clifford did last time and during his first tenure here and blazing it on the practice floor wall like what is Charlotte Hornets

Basketball let’s go what do you want to get to First with Allstar break Doug first thing you want to talk about what is it I think they got a crap this All-Star game man I don’t think it’s working a lot of people were you know replying okay got to go to

USA World East West we went back to it didn’t work nobody gave a a poop so let’s go to USA world that’s not going to work either like the two guys that cared I would say the least were yic and donic who would be on team World so like

I mean I get the idea that like pitting especially after all the comments that Adam Silva commissioner of the NBA made during the weekend about like USA Basketball is falling behind the rest of the world in terms of developing players in terms of developing defense and so

Like making a USA versus World matchup would in theory on paper make a lot of sense but you know you’ve got donich out there throwing up three quarters court shots when there has no chance of going in when there’s 30 seconds left on the clock like and joic uh giving up dunks

For layups like the the the two guys on the world team that would be your best world players don’t care either so I think they’ve got to really consider scrapping this thing and moving moving it closer to what Saturday is cu Saturday works because it’s a bunch of

Mini games and it’s it’s not a game and so I think players take it a little bit more seriously it doesn’t last as long these little games and so you know you could invest a little bit more of yourself and you don’t you’re not afraid of like blowing a knee or something if

You hit the floor so yeah I just think we got to get rid of this thing man it’s just it’s it’s an embarrassment year after year for the NBA I don’t know why they keep running into the wall but yeah it like the the problem is they they’re

Successful every now and then and that’s what keeps us coming back and it’s the same with the dunk contest and so when when you have the 2016 Aaron Gordon Zack LaVine Dunk Contest I mean people have been complaining about the dunk contest long before that I mean they’ve been

Complaining about it I mean my whole not quite childhood but once I got to like high school people were kind of over it because all the dunks had been done but then Dwight Howard gives us this magical Dunk Contest we’re in the Superman cape okay we’re back in and then it’s a

Little lackluster and then oh Blake Griffin comes back okay yeah that’s the best dunker in the game all right well now we’re getting Jeremy Evans competing and you know Jeremy Evans who exactly he wins the dunk contest okay now we get LaVine and Gordon you get one every now

And then that draws you back in and it’s been a while for the dunk contest like MC mclung was good last year m mclung is not going to be enough of a draw and this is someone that also people were following all through his high school age and at Georgetown

Because he was such a freak athlete but we want to see what the Stars can actually do the best athletes at a star level and then in the All-Star break yeah like eling worked a little bit I remember when Kobe was like saying to LeBron shoot the last shot when it was a

Close All-Star game like there was some competition but you’re right Doug it’s just it’s a whole bunch of I’ll walk and I’ll shoot a couple of these three quarter shots and then you know I’ll even miss some dunks and that’s about it and it’s it’s hard to watch like it’s

For me at least it’s a hard watch well it’s boring oh yeah you know you can be you can be great or you can be terrible to watch like people hate watch a lot of stuff that’s not what’s happening right now it has gone into the place that you

Do not want to go to as an entertainment product which is boring and you know they were making a big deal about scoring 200 points no one cares they just want to see they don’t care about 200 points they just they want to see a good product and what was on the

Floor last night was not a good product what I think and and I don’t come on here every year and say scrap the All-Star Game in fact I think this is probably the first time I’ve ever come on the show and said scrap the All-Star Game and here’s why I say that because

Now the NBA has done what Nascar did with their whole championship series which they change it every year and they change it so much that it has lost all meaning like it doesn’t matter if we compare All-Star records now to All-Star records even 10 years ago like none of

It matters it has become meaningless and that is the perfect time to get rid of it and try something radical try something new get this TV deal done I think everything is waiting on this stupid TV deal once you get that deal done all bets are off things can change

Radically change it make it an Olympic style event where there are so all these little mini games and if you want to have an All-Star Game then do it and make it like three minute quarters or make it two quarters make it something so short that you you can have the the

Selection and you get an All-Star selection because that means stuff to contracts but shorten the game so that you can have something that is actually a little bit competitive make it three on three I don’t know get crazy but do something different because this thing is getting boring and I think people are

Going to start tuning out you know I I think the three on three stuff people have been rolling with the oneon-one like it’s the exact but then you run into the slam dunk contest problems because if these players don’t feel like there’s anything to gain then they’re

Definitely not going to do a one-on-one comp like that would be it it was like when Duke played North Carolina in the final four it’s the ultimate trump card okay you’re better than me as a player I beat you one-on-one in front of everybody nobody wants to sign up for

That not in public maybe at UCLA like Kobe was talking about in a pickup game but not in the public eye man I would I would watch a 3v3 tournament with that featured NBA players let’s get some g-league Allstars together let’s get some International Teams bring some

Folks over from Spain or some of these other places the best teams in Euroleague like let’s that would be I would watch that and I think that would be entertaining and I think that would cause players to compete so this is just something off the top of my head I

Usually am not like okay here’s this big elaborate idea type of guy but something at the top of my head to try to fix the All-Star Game I saw take from JJ IC earlier this year where it was Allstar voting season trying to figure out who

Was going to get there and he made the case of just how talented the league is that there are like more talented players than ever before not getting the allstar selection and the reason that’s problematic is because okay well these guys are clearly as good as some of the

Other Allstars that have made it in years past but the league is just so deep and talented we just need a few more slots that’s okay like it’s okay to expand the allar game so is there a way that you expand it to where I don’t know

You go to however many players you need in order to have like a four te tournament you play you play backyard style you go to 11 and then there’s some kind of compensation if you win the championship so it’s abbreviated you get more players it’s competitive and it

Kind of worked with the inseason tournament and so maybe if that’s your model because the inseason tournament worked like there was at least some level of intrigue to go back to go watch the Pacers and the Lakers to see who was going to win this thing because it was

Just a little bit different than what a regular season game was then I wonder if you could have an expanded All-Star roster you combine you split them up into like teams of five you play to 11 or teams of you know seven however many you want to roll with I guess that’s a

Lot 28 guys yeah whatever or I guess the top 30 make the make the All-Star team right so if you have the top 30 then you could split that four way somehow and then maybe host a little mini tournament like that that’s the thing but ultimately the only thing they’re

Competitive at Doug is the Three-Point Contest everything else is L Fair they don’t care the Three-Point Contest is such that you can compete where it’s you’re not running up and down there’s not this fear of injury like all you’re doing is going to each rack of balls and

Then letting them fly and you’re doing it where like you’re actually getting tired that’s what I love like it’s the only event that the all stars get tired in and so can can you bring it to a point where it’s abbreviated but it’s still high level competition I think

That’s the only thing the players will go for at anything to Max Capacity anything close to it well exactly because I think the NBA they’re out of motivating factors they tried money they tried charity they tried uh different endings they’ve tried everything at this point to get these players motivated and

There’s just nothing you can do because here’s the thing it’s a long NBA season these guys view this as a break and so they’re treating it like a break and there’s an argument that they should treat it like a break oh yeah pretty good because we’ve our all of our

Attention has turned to playoffs championship right so that’s why I think if you’ve got to do a game if you got to do a game to satisfy you know an All-Star selection and a team or whatever that’s a fine then do that but but de what I’m saying is like

Deemphasize that part of the weekend and emphasize bring more of Saturday into Sunday and do some more miname type type of things that that they would actually be competitive at and then we wouldn’t Focus so much on the fact that the deemphasized game is is not as

Competitive as it should be you know and and ultimately yeah right I I understand everything you’re saying too like I just remember last thing for me I remember when it was here in 2019 when the All-Star break was in Charlotte and I got to cover it so I got to go to

Everything um I got to go to the dunk contest I got to go to you know every event they put on and that was so much fun but I was thinking about it I was talking about this too with a couple of buddies if you had to choose only one

Thing to go to it would still be the All-Star game because you get to see all of the best players on one Court together where if you go to the dunk contest now you are lucky if you get to see Jaylen Brown and then you’re are

Probably one of the people booing him in the stands because the dunk contest wasn’t good and so the guys yeah like all of the shooters while the three-point shooting contest is so much fun like I love it the players clearly love it at the end of that

Roster you have guys like Malik Beasley you know so if you’re going to choose one event the All-Star game as far as attendance goes that’s the thing to go to to see them all live but of course we’re trying to figure out what to do

For TV and I just want you to make a more watchable product TV like it’s yeah it’s it’s going to be tough like the NBA has a hard decision on their hands on how to figure out how the hell do we not make this so painful the Pro Bowl look

People just keep watching the ratings keep on going up and so it’s like all right nobody likes it people watch people watch the worst football imaginable because of football right exactly they don’t have all right well okay here’s some dooo on TV cool people are still going to watch it and does it

Have a football on it great yeah yeah it’s hard for Adam Silver to try to figure this thing out man you you’re leaning into what works what worked about Allstar to me I think what worked is not only three-point shooting competition but what happened after it Steph Saina that whole thing there was

Because there was because there were storylines because there was narrative because there was comp there was legitimate competition and it wasn’t hateful competition it was like two competitors going at it and with respect with one another and it was a little bit of a mini game I’m telling you lean into

The mini games it’s more tick talkable you know this also game is not Tik talkable that is that’s going to be in the dictionary in the next two years tick table is is going to be one of the new words added to Mariam Webster’s Dictionary that’ll do it for lock.

Hornets thanks for making this your first listen thanks to Evan damarell also for helping shed some light on what Mike gansy could possibly do as the Hornets GM you can catch this anywhere you get your podcast there’s Doug Branson’s uh substack title right there under his name on YouTube Every Hornets

Boox score.com and you can listen to me walk mail on wfn every weekday from 12: to 3:00 p.m. have a great rest of your day we’ll be back with you tomorrow

Were you disappointed in Brandon Miller’s Rising Stars Challenge performance? Walker and Doug discuss Miller’s outing finishing with zero points. Evan Dammarell from Lockes on Cavs joins the show to discuss Cavs executive Mike Gansey as a potential Charlotte Hornets GM or front office member. Would Gansey be a good fit?

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