Brandon Miller steps up against his GOAT! PLUS: The best plus-sized players in Hornets history?

Brandon Miller steps up against his GOAT! PLUS: The best plus-sized players in Hornets history?

The Charlotte Hornets go 0 and2 over the weekend we’ll discuss the biggest takeaways including Brandon Miller versus his own personal goat well not pet goat but you get the idea we discuss it 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 it’s a pretty good goat sound honestly I didn’t know you were good at that it’s locked on hornets part of the locked on podcast Network it’s your team every day thanks for making us your

First listen we’re free we’re available anywhere you get your podcast and that includes YouTube there’s Doug Branson find him on his substack every Hornet spox score.com there you can also get his sub text information you can listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12: to

300 p.m. sports radio 927 FM don’t know if you guys are watching col basketball all weekend I was too but also making sure that we got our Hornets coverage down and so we’re going to update you on anything you might have missed after watching NC State go on this miraculous

Run watch out last segment we might talk about the best chubby Charlotte Hornets basketball players of all time that might be a thing you know honor of DJ Burns baby Bringing Down the House yeah awesome stuff from DJ so that’ll be the link there we’ll make it local we need

To talk about some of the big story lines and and over the weekend with the Hornets they lose to Golden State they lose to the Clippers it’s expected at this point but we are looking at some of the biggest notes over the weekend and Doug I think all of us can agree there

Was some anticipation between Brandon Miller facing Paul George because it became such a wild take from Brandon Miller through the interview process as he was getting drafted he said Paul George wasn’t his favorite player nobody would care if he said it was his favorite player but he said Paul Geor

Was the goat he said Paul George is the greatest of all time this is the same Paul George right now by the way where it and looks increasingly more like he’s not g to come back with the Clippers which would be interesting with them moving to a new Arena so Brandon Miller

His own personal goat uh BR is Paul George he went up against him in this game and both of them had a pretty good game here Doug 41 points for Paul George he was eight of 12 from three-point range Brandon yeah he was amazing he was

On fire this one 22 points for Brandon Miller five of 13 from Beyond The Arc six rebounds four assists that’s nice only two turnovers so pretty solid not amazing but really you know really solid game from Brandon Miller the rookie what did you make of the battle between these

Two and somebody that uh Brandon Miller idolizes solid game from Brandon Miller but I I don’t know if you could tell but it seemed like Brandon Miller really got up for this matchup right I mean he wanted to he wanted the iso possession against Paul George he wanted the

Challenge and and from from the jump you know they tried to trap Paul George in the corner like on one of the first possessions of the game Brandon Miller and Nick Richards double him in the corner and Paul George gives his goat gave him a little shoulder um and and

Push Brandon Miller out of the way and then later in the game it was Brandon Miller giving Paul George the shoulder as he hits the step back three as the the crowd had the oo and the Oz for that one and there were a couple of those

Moments where you could see Brandon just fire in his eyes wanted to show his Idol that he had been studying his game and copying his game and was going to use his game against him and I love that and here’s why because the Hornets right now

Don’t have much to play for except to get better for next season they don’t have meaningful games uh in terms of playoff positioning and they won’t have any meaningful games in the postseason and so I love that Brandon takes this opportunity and he played it like it was

One of those meaningful games and and while you know miles Bridges did a majority of the scoring for the team it wasn’t like you know Brandon Miller was sort of the top player of the of the team in this one he was up for that matchup and I really loved seeing that

As as really you know watching Paul George Walker is like watching you know taking a time machine into the future to watch Brandon Miller it’s really exciting their games are similar I I wonder just how similar they’re going to be as Brandon Miller grows within the

League but I like the whole attitude as well if if one thing is a glaring takeaway of how the kid is going to be all right with Brandon Miller that you can go to the three-point shooting you can go to a lot of just skill stuff with him clearly amazing but it’s the

Attitude that we’ve talked about from the very first week of his NBA career getting to watch him out there on the court compete and have the right kind of attitude and Doug like I mean to the exact te to the decimal point exact right attitude because there does seem

To be this genuine respect for the legends of the game or the best players in the league but also he wants to compete so badly against those guys that he’s not going to back down to anyone and that’s a little bit of a cliche like we overuse that oh man he’s not gonna

Back down from anybody this guy is a dog he’s got the dog in him and then you know they don’t do it the right way but with Brandon Miller he clearly loves watching Paul George but he also wants to make sure he destroys him and he takes it as a personal Challenge and

Then as he grows older I would imagine he’s even doing like the team competition right stuff but right now yeah we’re here for the one-on-one battles we want to see you cross up Jonathan Isaac maybe the best defender in the league we want to see you cross

Up Paul George the guy that you made pretty much this viral sensation of being the greatest of all time because it’s one of the weirdest answers we’ve gotten to that question before so I want to see you cross that guy up I want to

See you take it at him and also for him to deliver like for him to hold his end of the bargain that was really cool too I I think that made for good theater it’s the I go back to Chad Ford all the time Doug and what he said about like

What he’s learned throughout the NBA draft evaluation process and if I if I knew then what I know now in the evaluation process it would be to put more stock into the guys that I I hear put a lot of work in that have the right

Kind of motor that have the right kind of drive and so it it goes back to what we said with Brandon he’s not going to fail and he’s doing even more than that and it’s because of that kind of attitude that he has that like it’s exactly right

Competition respect all of it it’s so good to see from your star well Clifford talks about that all the time too that’s that the best teams in the league are filled from player one to Player 11 with guys that have the right attitude want to get better put the work in every day

And it doesn’t matter how good you are it doesn’t matter if you get to Kevin Durant level skill you still every summer are coming in what can I improve on what did I what did I fail at last season how can I improve on that and and

Brandon Miller does seem to be one of those guys one of the things that he has to improve on is playmaking and I thought it was interesting to hear from Miles Bridges after the Warriors game when he was asked about Brandon Miller he said quote we know he can score the

Ball and we know he could guard he’s got to get better at his playmaking I think he’s made a huge stride at that he’s already patient with the ball his pace of the game is good once his passing gets better I think going to Skyrocket it’s because that’s unquote but that’s

That’s the Paul George mold it’s scoring yes he could he could as as Clifford said after this game he could have gone for 60 if they had not thrown you know the kitchen sink at him defensively and thrown double sometimes triple teams at him so it’s scoring yes but it’s also

Being committed to the defensive end of the floor we’ve heard Brandon Miller talk about that he’s got to get stronger in order to be that impactful player but we’ve heard him talk about it that’s good but it’s also the playmaking Paul George is like an incredible passer as

Well it’s and I I think Brandon’s answer to that question him being his goat was weird at the time but the more that people have started like asking people about that and peeling back some layers on some younger guys it’s not all that odd like a lot of young players in

Brandon Miller’s sort of age group idolize PG because he can do everything and that is what sort of is is the model of NBA player now it’s not guys who can solely score it’s not guys you know who can solely uh you know make plays for

Other people it’s guys that can do a little bit of everything and that’s Paul George to a t you know what I I think with Paul the Paul George comparison is interesting just because of his own position in the league and what it’s been for a while because Doug it’s

Actually been a really long time like a decade it’s crazy to think about that it was 10 years ago when Paul George was the best player on the best record in the Eastern Conference going to a seven game series with role players and specialists around them against LeBron

James and damn near going to the NBA finals like it was it was one of those things where you always going to give LeBron the benefit of the doubt but Indiana gave them fits and Paul George was the best player on that team but we don’t think about him that much anymore

Because one it was so long ago and it’s been a long time since he’s been the best player one you have the phase out Indiana process where okay Roy Hibert gets play out of the league overnight David West just gets a little too old father time starts to set in and the

Pacers are like a seven seed six seed in the Eastern Conference fizzling out okay after that era is done then they trade him to Oklahoma City not the best player on his team anymore that belongs to Russell Westbrook nerds might disagree right just saying Russell is the MVP

Then he goes to the Clippers unexpectedly he’s not the best player on his team again so we view Paul George as this secondary best player but if you go back to the Pacers I wonder if that’s what we can try to copy and paste to Brandon Miller can Brandon Miller be the

Paul George in Indiana because then you can even have the small Market comparison there that’s what I want to see and that’s what I wonder how much of that is in Brandon Miller and some of these other younger players minds of this is why he’s my greatest of all time

Brandon Miller said after the game he’s gonna work out with Paul George in the offseason he looking forward to it and if you’re correct that Paul George might not be returning to the Clippers next season I’ll tell you what I want to see I want to see uh old Brandon Miller get

His recruiting hat on talk to his boy PG get him in the CLT Jersey swap it happened if if you do a jersey swap then you might just like the guy enough to come play with him that would be sweet all right let’s move on with some other takeaways coming up

Next on the lockdown Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet we have another game to discuss as well the Hornets played Golden State in an L we’ll talk about Steph Curry’s performance as well that’s all still to come on lockdown Hornets before we get to the next

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Code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 Again download the app today then use code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 more lockdown Hornets ahead Doug what were some other takeaways outside of the Brandon Miller Paul George matchup against the Clippers

You have anything from the Golden State contest share with the people I mean the Golden State game came down to defense well it came down to offense in the first half nobody could hit a shot like half the I think bton was the leading scorer he was on fire from three

Nobody else could hit a shot they played good enough defense in the first half and Steph Curry was sort of playing decoy mode and wasn’t uh really taking an aggressive stance offensively letting other guys get involved like Wiggins and and so the Hornets were able to sort of

Maintain but then Steph Curry picked it up in the third quarter and put them away and the Hornets were just getting back cut to death over and over again guys are getting behind the defense so stuff to get better at stuff to shore up

For sure and then um in the you know in this in this game against Los Angeles it really comes down to and I think you could probably apply this to most of the games they’ve lost recently except for like Atlanta which is the team played up

To the level that you would expect this particular version of the roster to play and they ran into a good team with Superstar t tent that you you can’t take away everything and and these teams like LA and like Cleveland and Golden State They’re all playing for something right

Now they’re playing for playoff positioning they cannot afford to take a night off against the Charlotte Hornets and they’re going to be playing Boston tonight so it doesn’t end it’s not going to end for the rest of the season that’s probably good for the team but it’s

Going to mean L’s what you’re really looking for are they playing better and I think even against that Clippers team yeah the answer is yes they are finding way to play better as we close out the season yeah it felt like very different games despite losing to both it felt

Like different games between Golden State and the clippers because offensively it was kind of a tough watch for them you know they got to 97 which is better than some of the other offensive performances but this one was rough for Brandon Miller at the beginning now he actually salvaged some

Of that efficiency but what was it Doug like was it seven yeah okay 0 of seven to start off this game it was kind of rough and then he went five of 15 so again he he did kind of save some of those numbers from being you know really

Bad miles actually scored over the last couple games Doug how a big of a storyline was miles over the weekend getting to 33 against the Clippers yesterday and 22 not a good three-point shooting game against Golden State but was actually pretty good with inside the three-point AR yeah I don’t I don’t know

What you know what really turned the light switch on for him but he stopped taking those like horrendous mid-range shots I really people just get loud enough like because I it felt like we got to the peak it it felt like okay he loves the foot on the line or 23 foot

Jumper like yeah like two three dribble pullup like it was awful and they’re bad shots and he sto he stopped taking him and that’s been the transformation he’s hitting his threes he didn’t against I don’t think he did well against Golden State but he did um against uh I think

He had six main threes in this game against La so a lot of miles’s offense is going to be does he hit enough threes and and does he get to the rim enough and he’s and he’s doing both of those things uh and and how much does the team

Get out into transition because he’s so you know when when they’re moving and grooving he’s so deadly in transition so uh yeah I mean I think he’s certainly he’s certainly turned it on here at the at the end of the year I do want to talk

About the bench I know you and I are both were talking about Davis berans I I want to talk about Grant Williams too but the bertans decision it’s it’s on a lesser level but Doug you are trying to figure out meic and man’s role within this team right trying to figure out

Where they are in the foundation Sixth Man seventh man trade pieces whatever bertans is interesting because you have a non-guaranteed contract it’s going to hit for a lot of money 167 million next season that’s that’s a lot right but you can get out of it if you want to and

It’s not that big of a deal it it was interesting at the very beginning of his time here with the Hornets it’s like okay wait a minute is this guy going to just go complete flame complete flamethrower the rest of the season to where it’s like do you just go ahead and

Allow him to eat up that much money I never got there but I did see that a little bit on my timeline and he still is somebody that is impressive when he shoots but buddy on the other end like there’s a reason that he plays as little

As everybody that is a legitimate part of the rotation and then when he plays Doug he’s going to give you a a field goal attempt per minute that’s going to happen and that’s because that’s how you justify putting him out there well his role right now is a lot larger than it

Should be you I think that’s a lot a lot of the problems that we’re seeing with batons which are mainly on the defensive end of the floor where Good Team Defender knows where to be but if the ball is in the hands of an offensive player that is going one-on-one with him

It’s over like it’s just game over they’re getting by him and you saw against La saw them get back cut a lot which you don’t see as often against Golden State but against La Just One V one matchups they’re eating him alive and then that causes the ball to go

Under rotation and good teams are getting getting it to Shooters and against La it was Norm Norm pow was just getting open uh Time After Time both on the double teams on kawhai and on Paul but also on breakdowns that started with bton and so really comes down to can

Baton hit five or six threes to make him a plus player and the the the right role for him is the role that he had when he first came to Charlotte after the trade deadline when he was like the ninth or 10th Man he’d come in for like seven to

10 minutes and just bomb a couple of Threes And then if he hit if he hit two of those you were happy you were you were like great love it love it Braton thank you go back to the bench you know what I’m saying like that’s the role but

You don’t pay $16 million for that role so the question is can you restructure the deal such that he can be in that role the problem is Walker is if they do have a few injuries and then you have to depend on him again like they are now

That’s when you run into trouble so it’s it’s going to be a tough call for them I think ultimately if you ask me to predict right now I think baton is one of the one of the players from this trade deadline Hall that gets uh moved to The Cutting Room floor and finds

Another another team next season well and it’s the right decision like he’s fun as hell I I mean but we also understand look if we really want to do this thing where we take a next step and we’re trying to figure out what guys who want to keep longterm man that that’s

Too much money for guaranteed if if you restructure that’s fine like you’re right you’re not keeping them at 16 million that’s that’s not really all that logical to do that so if you want to keep them it has to be something less and even Steve Clifford is telling you

Like with this roster with the lack of Health that we have right now he’s still averaging about what 17 minutes per game like it’s still not even all that much and that’s with the roster way less healthy than we wanted to be even with some guys that kind of are at his

Position so you’re talking about B you’re right I think that’s the person that you’re talking about that’s out and he went on a hot streak at the very beginning of the month he was in double digits for every single game for those first five games and then he went on a

Real cold streak having only reached double digits one time in the very middle of the month to basically until Golden State when he scored 14 on 50% shooting and then he had another nice shooting performance against the Clippers there’s one bench player I do want to get to Grant Williams before we

Go on to the next segment and talk about chubby Charlotte Hornets in the past I you can throw him in the I don’t think we talked about him when we were making the list but I think you could throw him into the bucket too I was trying to

Think if there was anybody recent and I was like well doesn’t get much more recent than somebody on the team right now I think that’s true with Grant you know when when Grant was traded for we talked about the strengths being the shooting which was for real he was a

Really good shooter we talked about he’s strong I think defensively we know that he can hold up really well he was a pretty terrible rebounder there are times where the shot isn’t going in but dou Grant Williams has been really good for this team and and he and he

Continues to be really good with this squad like the shooting’s actually down this month but even so he’s making up for it in ways that he used to not with other squads right like if if he wasn’t knocking down three and that was true a little bit at the beginning of his time

Here with Charlotte if he wasn’t knocking down threes then I didn’t think he was great but he continues despite shooting 30% for the month of March from distance it’s not good he’s still he’s rebounding better than he ever has which is great so if you’re rebounding better

You’re not an amazing rebounder but I just wanted you to be better and he is he’s better defensively we know how much he matters we know that he is a good passor even if you can have some terrible turnover games it just feels like Doug he’s mitigating some of the

Big time mistakes that maybe unplayable is too strong but that really make it hard for you to play him in certain matchups because he is a big but he’s shorter but he’s mitigating some of those mistakes that don’t allow you to put him on the floor and I think that’s

Why like I just I’ve been impressed man Grant Williams has been real better than solid for this team and tip of the cap to the way he’s played yeah he’s been an impact player Off the Bench and really if you’re a bench player right now because the the rotation without poku

It’s like down to seven guys like he refuses to Play Thor and mcal like put this is crazy that Thor and gow can’t get any more minutes after as much as they played before the trade deadline it is it is astounding that they cannot get more minutes than they did last night

Against LA with poku out but if you’re a bench player right now you’re essentially a starter like you’re getting as many minutes as everybody else except for Brandon and and Miles so uh but but he’s been an impact player I will say though against La he had the

Defensive play that probably ruined any shot of them getting back into the game and I don’t know if if you when you were watching this if you heard this but it was in the fourth quarter the Hornets were down seven and they’re they doubled Kawai Grant Williams moves to the post

To guard zubach and he was supposed to leave the paint and go to the corner to contest the norm P because the ball rotated around the second side of the floor and got to Norm PO he was supposed to go out and then Brandon Miller was supposed to

Take his spot he doesn’t and so Brandon runs past him to try to contest it too late and Brandon like yells at Grant about and Grant was like Grant threw up his hands like all right man I know I got it and then but the funny part was

That made it 10 the game was over at that point the funny part was coming back down the floor because the crowd had cleared out a little bit in Spectrum you could hear Clifford yell out the next play angle five clear angle five clear damn

It it was just clear as day he was so upset about he clapped his hands he was like damn it there he had those plays though I think that’s the point right like Grant Williams is that kind of player and and like I’m just bringing up his his uh analytics like the rebounding

I it’s still pretty terrible it’s still pretty terrible but it’s better like he we’re talking about worst in the league to still bad but better right like and that’s I’ll take it like I’ll take it compared to especially if PJ Washington that’s the player that we compare PJ was

Not a good rebounder for this squad at all but but still better than Grant like at least Grant is there and also hitting his outside shots more so and making plays for others he’s just he’s been good and and it’s it’s F it’s almost funny almost like just for the comedic

Value at least now until we start winning and trying to contend to the postseason that I don’t want to see these mistakes but it is funny to get those moments because he he’ll have a six turnover game he’ll have the what the bleep are you doing grant he’ll have

Those moments it is funny now but I still the overall theme Here is that Grant has been quite the pleasure to have on the squad well he’s very similar to PJ in that way PJ would have the busted rebound or the busted defensive possession that would cost the Hornets

Games he’s very similar to PJ where he’s not similar though are in two areas he’s a much more consistent score he he’s similar to PJ in that he has those heater moments including in this LA game I think he missed his first two shots and then hit his next eight eight of 10

Yeah he he missed his first two and and went eight for eight like he can get on a heater just like PJ could 40-point games against Oklahoma City right so he has that here’s the other difference though he’s got a toughness he’s got an edge he’s got an attitude that is going

To be beneficial to them on the floor and in the locker room like that’s what you’re that’s what you traded for and so yeah there are similarities to PJ but there are some pretty Stark differences that are all positive in the direction of the Charlotte horns yeah it it’s yeah

They’ve got some differences so Grant Williams doing a good job all right one more segment to go coming up next on the lock on Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet Grant Williams a perfect transition into this because of the run that DJ Burns is on

With NC State an incredible run to bring the Wolfpack to the final four in Phoenix with DJ being everybody’s lovable chubby basketball player who have been those guys with the Charlotte Hornets we’ll get to it coming up next on lockdown Hornets did want to tell you before we

Go into more DJ Burns conversation that this episode is uh sponsored is brought to you by Fire TV Amazon Fire TV Fire TV is your destination for sports from live games to Highlights to in-depth analysis Fire tv offers amazing viewing experiences with Smart TVs as well as

The Fire TV stick that you can plug into your existing television that provides access to millions of movies and TV episodes as well as free and live TV whether it’s opening weekend for baseball or the college basketball tournament you’re going to want to have a fire TV and Fire TV recently created

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You haven’t checked out Fire TV channels you should trust me on this to learn more visit www.amazon.com loock onfire TV more lock down hornets ahead DJ Burns and the run that NC State is on in large part because of him an emphasis on the large by the way it’s

Been amazing to watch what they’ve been able to do it’s it’s like I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say it’s the best NC it’s the best ACC storyline in years like you have Duke in North Carolina in the final four that’s great but just watching this type of run that is eerily

Eerily very weird similar to 1983 except now you have this big chubby basketball player leading the way that everybody loves like it doesn’t matter he impacts the game in so many different ways offensively in fact when he goes to the bench that’s when their offense is

The worst and they have to figure out how to survive without DJ burns on the floor he could score four points and dish out eight assists against Marquette or he could give you a 29 piece against Duke against a rival that is right down the road and also like weird history

With Duke because Duke you could say is part of the reason NC State lost a lot of its luster in the 90s with the rise of the Blue Devils program and DJ burn said get on up out of here and we’ve loved him every step of the way doug

Because he is is everybody’s favorite chubby basketball player we wanted to bring this hyper local and talk about all of the loveable chubby basketball players on the Hornets roster throughout the years and I didn’t realize this but we got a lot like we got an extensive history of lovable chubby ball players

Yes and before we get to this list I just have to talk about my lovable meatball with the red gravy uh DJ Burns because I want to be very clear about what we’re about to do this is not what we are about to do is not fat shaming

Well at least not on my part cuz look I’ve had a dad bod before I was a dad I you know I wasn’t blessed like my friend Walker here with the the the lean uh Cuisine physique uh you know that the metabolism that won’t stop like I you

Know not me folks all right so there is no fat shaming here this is fat celebrating and I’ll tell you why right because for the same reason even though it’s it could not be a more different physique for the same reason that we here in Charlotte worship

Mugsy and I don’t know if you heard this when Seth was doing the game Call of the Golden State Warriors game uh with cuz he’s you know he’s injured he’s got the ankle injury so they brought him on the B the broadcast for the curry celebration yeah and Seth Curry said

That he met Mugsy you know early on as a kid would to go over to Mugsy’s house and he said he was taller than Mugsy when he was 10 years old it’s like Seth why why you got to throw the Stray at Mugsy I remember being you being so obsessed with the NBA

And the Hornets as a kid like I I’m a tall dude like when I was in uh third grade I got to 53 and that was a like I don’t know how tall I was in any other Mark but I knew I was as tall as an NBA

Player once I got the third grade and that’s what made me happy it’s ridiculous okay so the reason we’re happy the reason we love it is because for just a brief moment when we watch these players we imagine ourselves in their spot oh I’m not I’m not as tall as

Some of these other monsters but look at Mugsy I’m not as you know I’m not as fit as some of these players out there but look at DJ Burns he’s out there doing it we forget that they all are incredible basketball players uh in in spite of their physique they they succeed because

Of their High skill level um so this is what we’re about to do when we talk about these Chubbies or chubby bees if you will uh we are we are celebrating uh them uh not fat shaming them so go on that that no you’re right we are

Absolutely celebrate part of this is too like it’s the novelty we love it there’s not anybody that looks like that regularly but also it is because it is so obvious I mean we would be just kind of you know okay DJ like no DJ knows it

We we know exactly how obvious it is for him but also the quickness that he moves with at that kind of weight it’s stupid like it’s it’s nuts to see him constantly beat guys’s Baseline on a spin and then the touch it it is amazing to see him play like hakeim alijan at

That kind of size and so now we love him so much and as we go down the list that are on the Charlotte Hornets alltime roster Doug we we wrote the list like we have it in front of us and yet we forgot to include somebody that actually has a

Jersey currently hanging on your wall I think Baron Davis is a great place to start because it’s not somebody we talk about a lot also crazy athletic I feel like a little bit though will you give me a little bit of the like a little bit

Of the no I can’t I cannot count this one we haven’t even gotten to the list and I’m already telling you that you got to take something off because Baron was Shelt when he was a member of the Charlotte Hornets I don’t know what happened in new New Orleans I don’t know

If the beignet were just too irresistible but like cuz I know yes later on you know he’d pack a few pounds but like no no no it wouldn’t he was in Charlotte he was he was a Lean Cuisine okay no all right I just wanted to make

Sure uh let’s go down the list then shall we let’s go down the list with some of the guys you can share some of the names uh real quickly if you want take the first few that you like the most or whoever you wanted to start with

Well the guys that immediately come off the top of my head are uh tractor trailer was just big a big beefy boy who was doing a night in and night out doing the dirty work for those uh late 90s uh odd teams and then Boris di unfortunately that what you know I’m

Trying to I would like to avoid the ones that have a little bit of a negative connotation because that one was you know are we talking about our players that are that were successful and they happen to be chubby because like Boris was not chubby then became became chubby was out of shape

And criticized for it and then so I don’t even know if I want to put him on the list but it’s certainly a name that you think of in Bobcat’s land well it’s because now like you were very you were very sure to tell the people that this

Was fat celebrating not fat shaming but it feels like you bring up Boris Di and you’re starting to cross that line and so maybe we just stay away from the whole Boris di experience all right goodbye Boro you’re no you’re right so Raymond Felton Raymond felt definit

Was it was a chubby boy we celebrate it because it it’s it’s the fact that when you do stuff it doesn’t seem like you should be able to do it that size that’s what makes it so fun and Raven Felton did get big but also this was the leader

Of the fast-pace offense with the tar Hills that won the championship and then was also a you know pretty good basketball player especially got better as his career went on right and was fun you know makes the top 30 list at least according to Walker M on the all time

Hornets and So Raven Felton being there he absolutely counts as well I’m going to roll down the list and you just tell me your general thoughts on these people see here here’s a perfect example like you know again if I don’t think we you know we could include Shawn may on the

List people are going to think Shawn may because he was drafted by the Bobcats and he definitely uh continued to pack on the pounds into his NBA season but I don’t know that that was that that has a negative connotation to it not a we can

You’re right no it’s perfect so so we can bring up those people but this is a b image positive show we do not care it we can also just maybe like when we get to the Derek Coleman’s of the world we say his name and then we just move right on

And then we don’t really talk about how much we celebrate it because we didn’t really celebrate it on the at the time at the time no we did not no we did not we certainly didn’t uh but here’s one we might what about Melvin Eli that’s a

Deep cut Doug you like okay sweet I like I like Melvin Eli again you know a lot of these players are role players you know they’re not you don’t find many stars without physique stars have but that’s why we like them we like them because they are the they are often the

Dirty Work player the Every Man’s player you know that’s that’s what we like so Melvin Eli was a perfect role player for those early to mid Bobcats teams maybe my favorite one on the list just because I remember watching him at Cincinnati dunk on everybody’s head with the most

Thunderous slams you could ever see Jason maxiel former Charlotte Hornet great one on the list we also have an obvious one Anthony Mason who is like maybe the closest comp to DJ Burns but could also run the floor and dribble and wasn’t as tall but as far as the vision

And the feel for the game maybe the best style comp to DJ burns on the Hornets he was definitely he was bigger see I would I would challenge this one in that I put him into a class of players that’s not really chubby but just they were built

Like a brick bleep house like you know what I’m saying like you just they were a wall they were strong yeah they they weren’t cut and you know a lot of this by the way I don’t know if you’ve seen this picture of Jason Kelce or not Jason

Travis Kelce and how can I get that how can I mix those guys up uh Travis Kelce and uh Taylor Swift running on a beach and people were criticizing Travis dad bot and it’s like our our vision of sports player uh you know Fitness our our

Vision of that has G so a skew probably because of influencers and people transforming their bodies in ways that aren’t healthy at all and Sports Science in particular has really dialed in the body in a way that probably is shortening careers and making post player careers probably much more

Difficult for players because they’re going through such radical transformations of the body to be to make themselves in football make themselves missiles in uh basketball we’re seeing ankles explode I there’s a reason for that folks and so it’s so morph that we look at a picture of

Travis or we look at Anthony Mason and we say we say look at that chubby boy it’s like no that is a normal that’s a normal human body that’s also pretty actually that’s a not even a normal human body that is a fit human body that

Is that is well tuned to play sports now I I feel incredibly guilty for trying to make Baron Davis on this list when it’s be Diddy and I’m trying to I’m the problem yell at me I am absolutely the problem a couple of other names on

This list I wanted to get to uh CU Anthony bason you’re you’re kind of right but also he was a big boy uh I think Elden Campbell on this list once he played for the Hornets like I he’s tall if you if you compare him to his

Lakers days I think that’s where I maybe get the the mixup here but Elden Campbell is a little bit debatable we also have PJ harston who is probably the most athletic of the player on this list that guy could fly and shoot he he had all of the skill set of your like

Supercharged athletic Dereck Rose type point guard except in a bigger body and not that athletic but play with me for a little bit here like that’s that was what his skill set was in a body that said hey he should be the old man at the

YMCA down the street yeah he had a bowling ball body and and unfortunately for PJ he had a bowling ball for a head too like you there just nothing not enough upstairs that could keep him in the game but PJ was uh fun to watch Dwayne bacon wasn’t a chubby boy but his

Name sounded like it should there there were a group of names that sounded like they should have been our our Chubbies right except Dwayne was the exact opposite he was the he was the person that hurts the body image for people because yeah that that’s somebody that

Really hurts you last one here I don’t know like I have a basketball card of Cory mgti where he looks like the most cut player in the NBA but you were saying maybe it got a little meetti spaghetti once he came yeah bowl of yeah bowl of Cory spaghetti by the time he

Got to the Bobcats that was just a weird time Bobcats it really was that’s what I’m saying folks you know as as tough as this era of Hornets basketball is a lot of losing they are going to be in line for you know another good odds for the

Number one pick so that that should be exciting but you know it’s tough to get these losses even though they’re playing better it’s tough to deal with these losses okay but at least this organization even under the latter years of Jordan were making moves that you could agree or

Disagree with but they were rational moves the things that the Bobcats were doing at that time nobody could make any sense of them they they just made zero sense no one could justify them uh and so that that take hard in that folks that I think even under this you know

New ownership Group whatever happens whether it works out or not I’m pretty confident that whatever they do is going to make some rational sense and it’s going to make sense in the fact that it’s like oh they’re trying to win basketball games what they were doing in

The Bobcats again insane I like that it pull for this team they’re trying to win basketball games that’s the slogan that’ll do it for lockdown Hornets let us know if we missed anybody I’m sure we did Walker mail at Doug Branson lockon hornets and then go follow Doug’s work

On his substack every Hornets boox score.com and text him as well on a subtext about some of the basketball players we might have missed listen to me on WFNZ every weekday from 12: to 3: thanks for making this your first listen check out the locked on 247 Channel on

YouTube you’re not going to want to miss it and honestly you really can’t miss it anytime you tune in it’s going to be on it’s 247 folks this is Anchor Man 3 style we got it rolling here on the lock on podcast Network have a great rest of

Your day we’ll be back with you tomorrow byebye no

The Charlotte Hornets go 0-2 over the weekend, but Brandon Miller steps up against his favorite player in Paul George along the way. What are the chances Brandon Miller ends up being the next Paul George? The guys break down other takeaways over the weekend including Davis Bertans’ role long term and an appreciation for Grant Williams. Finally, Walker and Doug are inspired by DJ Burns, so they stroll down memory lane and say hi to chubby Hornets basketball players.

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