Is Miles Bridges really “in control” of the Charlotte Hornets offseason?

Is Miles Bridges really “in control” of the Charlotte Hornets offseason?

who’s in control this off season for the Charlotte Hornets we’ll discuss that with David Walker making his weekly appearance and we’ll give you some NBA Finals takes all 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 CU we [Music] live it’s lockon hornets part of the lockon podcast Network it’s your team every day thanks for making us your first team first team first listen we’re free and available anywhere you get your pods that includes YouTube there’s David Walker he’s a part of our first team First Team all looh you can find him on Twitter at David B Walker there’s Doug Branson you can find him on his substack every Hornet boox score.com and I’m Walker mail listen to me WFNZ every weekday from 12: to 3:00 p.m. this episode is brought to you by game time game time download the game time app create an account use code lockon NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply I’m glad to see David I’m also like you look younger without the goe going on absolutely younger but part of me misses the Tekken character that you were for the last couple of appearances I know I know we’ll see what happens this summer guys my barber told me it keeps your face cool actually if you have some facial hair on there so we’ll see if I can pull it off again I just thought we had to do new looks every show now I mean Doug had the haircut and the shave and then I thought I should shave and so you know we’re just keeping it moving your barara meant cool in the colloquial sense I mean you did look cool um you looked you looked wise you looked Sage uh you look like you had wisdom but you know I don’t know I don’t know about this whole idea that that facial hair makes your face cooler makes it itchier for sure it does make it yeah not had a different look I was sporting a sunburn pasty white look a couple episodes too so we are well let me just say this because we’ve done a lot of talking about changing looks and different things I’m just going to tell folks we’ve been doing this for what uh this is our seventh or eighth year doing the podcast um in in some kind of form and we’ve gotten older and as we continue to get older this is only going to get worse like a few of us are about to enter our midlife crises so buckle up that’s that I do want to go back I wish we you guys have some YouTube episodes before we really went to YouTube right and so maybe we could go back and see you guys the before and they do like the pictures before the presidents go into the White House and when they come out if the Hornets ever make the playoffs again oh my God yes yes we have to see what we look like then and what the Hornets have done to us physically when we say sickos we mean that but I think mostly we mean it from a mental health perspective but I think we also mean it because look the mind and the body are connected it has it has to have taken some kind of toll on us physically there is not a better example of what you just said than going back to see a picture of James bgo at his introductory press conference and the day he leaves Spectrum Center it is a monster difference Steve Clifford going through actual health problems because he’s staying up too late at night trying to fix this team Charles Lee you look good you’re young enjoy it while it lasts buddy cuz it’s not going to last very much longer Welcome to Hell Welcome to Hell Lee welcome to hell all right let’s try to fix hell shall we this offseason I want to take those steps in order to do so and Doug you have something interesting here via the rod Boon article on the Charlotte Observer he says a certain somebody is in control of the off season and you would like to think that Jeff Peterson is in control I think everybody would be comforted by that fact but that’s not what Rod Boone writes on the Charlotte Observer well Jeff Peterson schlotkin Rick schn G Plotkin one one of these cats I would love for someone to be in control for sure uh that that will be making decisions not just next season but many seasons after this that’s the whole idea when you when you let uh a player that may or may not play for you but because of trades or whatever when you let that when you let that aspect you know control your off season you can get into a lot of trouble and so uh Rod Boon here in his latest column for the Charlotte Observer titled Charlotte Hornet’s key offseason roster move uh move moves hinge on what happens with Miles Bridges and I want to just go to the final graph here and Rod Boon writes no matter how it’s dissected the common denominator doesn’t change Bridges holds the car keys and is in complete control of the direction the Hornets are about to embark on he’s in the driver’s seat reclining in cushy Comfort while deciding what the future has in store for him and the franchise trying to end the NBA’s longest postseason drought and and I’ll just say for me fellas that idea uh uh bristled me a little bit rub rubbed me the wrong way and I don’t even know if Rod Boone is really wrong in saying all of that when you look at the previous uh past few off Seasons that have been I think hijacked would be a good word by the the by Miles Bridges and and his actions and the the court filings and all of these things that is really that really froze the previous regime and what they could do in the offseason and now the idea that is impending free agency is going to be the controlling factor of this offseason um yeah it really grinds my gears yeah but doesn’t that lead you to believe that that has been their intention I know you guys talked about this with NADA yesterday would miles Bri would miles Bridges be there at um at media day right and I was kind of with you Doug and saying that if they’ve gone through all of this just to kind of pull the plug at the last minute when they have a chance has to commit it would seem it would it just seemed hard to believe uh and so from that standpoint I guess you can see where Rod’s coming from is that it’s it’s up to Bridges should he try and get a huge concert track somewhere else should he try and move on I find a hard time to believe that that they he will give them a HomeTown discount Hometown discount as you’ve said uh but it just feels like they’ve put a lot of eggs in the miles Bridges basket and to your point for the third offseason in a row stearing into you had something Doug well look there’s no incent I don’t think there’s any incentive for Miles Bridges not to maximize the dollar amount it’s not like Charlotte as a franchise presents him with an opportunity uh to go deep into the playoffs or some of these other incentives I’m sure I don’t know it seems like he spends a lot of time out west uh so I don’t think that like Charlotte as a city is is some like attractive piece of this puzzle and so I think it’s all going to be maximizing the dollar amount and I think Charlotte as a franchise should really have already decided whether they are willing to go as far as they want to go to bring Bridges back because look they get a chance if uh it was in this article you know if this uh Series this NBA final series doesn’t go seven games which it doesn’t look like it’s going to by the way I’ve got an NBA Finals take that has a Charlotte Hornets flavor to it later on in the show stay tuned for that are you going to make another prediction now that it’s 3 are you going to are you going to lock in your prediction from 20 oh for sure well now now there’s no better time there’s no better time to lock in a prediction than when a series is gone uh but no I’ve got another I’ve got another take it has nothing to do with PJ Washington so it’s a brand new new fresh T it’s all about s ma Kyo just get ready for that uh no so um where was I and here here’s where I I knew here’s where I here’s where I was I think the franchise should already have that decided and if they get a chance to negotiate with Bridges early don’t fool around either make the big time offer and move forward with this whatever you envision as the core and let’s let’s figure it out from there or part ways and give yourself plenty of options to either get bad and go after a Cooper flag or add some other Talent around this roster and see what you got you know I just think I I don’t want this thing to drag on like it has so often with I mean you just look back to PJ Wasington and how long those negotiations took I’m just saying they need to get this figured out and the person that should be in control of the franchise should be schlotkin and Jeff Peterson and not miles bridges yeah 100% I understand that that’s the first Domino that has to fall before you make other decisions but it doesn’t have to be miles Bridges driving the vehicle what has he done what has he done to earn that you know what I’m saying he’s he’s never even made an All-Star game he didn’t lead this team you know he had the ball in his hands along with Brandon Miller a majority of the time yes there were yes there were extenuating circumstances with the injury but then I miles Bridges is not a guy who is going to lift an entire franchise on his back and take him to Glory so I just don’t know what he’s done to control an entire team’s offseason it’s it’s honestly the idea of that it’s been absurd that they’ve wasted this much time figuring this out and and it would be even more absurd if it all results in him going to Detroit uh but at the same time like I just think that the franchise needs to have a clear vision and and at some point tell us all what that vision is but have a clear vision and execute on it quickly and not waste time this off season because there’s too much to do we’ve got more to discuss on that let’s do it coming up next in the lock on Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet more miles Bridges thoughts Charles Lee coaching summer league and Doug has an NBA Finals take that’s still to come lockon Hornets this episode is brought to you by game time we appreciate game time as always they are your spot to go get last minute tickets they can get uh they make and be a finals tickets even easier and faster to get yeah get you better get them fast I mean right now right now prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to tip off with killer last minute deals Allin prices is views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets and speaking of all those deals you have priority last minute deals Flash Deals Zone deals all-in pricing seat views and the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase take the guesswork out of buying NBA Finals tickets with a game time again create an account and then redeem code l c k d o n NBA locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed more lock down hornets ahead few more miles thoughts real quickly one Doug you said hijack we just can’t get away from the Con Air references it’s not within our realm of possibility two we go with Miles Bridges and how he has control the offseason the last three off Seasons it feels like they have been trying to figure out what they’re going to do there I will say that was with the previous regime yeah they have a new regime here we’ll see how different that is but the other thing is we can go back to the deadline when the scuttlebutt not any official reporting but it certainly felt like miles was the guy that was going to be out the door more than PJ remember PJ Washington was not really in a lot of these trade rumors unlike maybe previous off Seasons or previous deadlines it was Miles he was going to go to Phoenix they like that 7 million 8 million dollar deal where clearly the talent is better than that on a Pere basis but then clutch agency they come in and say hell no we’re staying right here in Charlotte we’re not going to accept any trade because we have that veto because of the qualifying offer so we’re staying right here and then once that happened they had to shift to PJ maybe he would have been traded all along who knows but it was PJ that was traded and Miles finished out the season racking up higher raw numbers at least with the Hornets then maybe he would have with Phoenix right you have to imagine with KD Bradley Beal and Devon Booker over there so I’m not entirely sure that they have operated at the level of trying to keep miles Bridges here the whole time they did the first two off Seasons but it does seem like maybe they were shifting in a different direction once they wanted to trade him and then it took Rich Paul and Miles Bridges to say nope we’re not going anywhere we’re staying right here so maybe everything that we’re hearing why Nat is so sure that he’s not going to make it to Media day the comments that make us believe that the Hornets do have a very clear Direction which is what Grant Williams described it on the uh podcast that he appeared on in the last two days that the Hornets actually have a clear Direction now I think there’s been evidence of that especially since schlotkin took over like yeah maybe the writing is on the wall that miles will not be back and they really do value that $30 million in cap space I I think we’ve seen some of those signs what do you think David yeah I mean I would agree with you we just don’t know how much of the conversations were had you know in the coach hiring process like how much of this core did he like right I mean I think you guys talking about the lamelo trade stuff um earlier this week and and I’ll you know I won’t admonish you guys for that today I won’t bash you anymore for those for those discussions uh but but like that’s something that you certainly want to give him a run at so like it’ll be interesting to see maybe how much uh lee was in on you know any conversation saying hey you know you’ve got a nice little setup there if we can keep miles in the fold for another couple years and let me have a run of that thing we’ll see how it goes but certainly more than the last two years they’ve hinted at being more willing to to move on my only question is what are they feeling let’s say milb is not returned we’ve been over the you know the free agent crop that that’s coming up this offseason I don’t know they’re not going to get any of the main guys the top guys you wouldn’t think it’s going to be hard to fill 20 points per game no matter who you get I don’t think you’re getting in the draft uh so that’s the tricky part about this whole thing I I just don’t know if how committed they are to to running this thing back as it were with Charles Lee and give him a shot no for sure to be clear if they don’t go after miles Bridges you’re in for another Player Development rebuilding year for sure I mean unless how often can you do that I mean how how many more lamel seasons can you do that you know uh yeah I mean well if he would play that would help them not to do that for sure uh but I think the lamelo piece of this is interesting I think the trade deadline and the veto move is super interesting because I think for Miles that was a and his team that was a shrewd move because if you go to Phoenix and you take a reduced role or even if you go to Phoenix and you have a big role but some of those inefficiencies that we saw from Miles Bridges and his scoring ability that showed up in Charlotte if those showed up and ruined you know the chances of of Phoenix moving on in the playoffs although you know they they did a great enough job of ruining that that themselves but if if that had shown up that would have severely damaged but but his his whole I think the what is going to make him money this offseason is the unknown because you can look at this situation in Charlotte lamelo not playing actually helped I think Miles Bridges because people are going to look at that situation and trick themselves into thinking well Lamela wasn’t there they had a lot of injuries you know we can look past some of the inefficiencies look how much he scored he can do that for our team and we’ve got more Talent blah blah blah blah blah on down the line you know and for Charlotte on the lamelo piece if lamelo had played a full season and gotten back to All-Star form and then went to the front office and said hey miles Bridges is my guy and and I gotta play with my guy and I know I just signed the contract but I can make a stink I can I can easily make a stink if that’s not my if you don’t don’t bring my guy back but he has no leverage like that you he’s the no leverage with this front office right now you’ve got to actually play some games to have some leverage so that is not go I don’t think that the whole Aela factor is going to be a thing at all in these negotiations much to your Delight I agree with everything you said yes show over miles bridg is going to Phoenix podcast over yeah that’s it we’re done actually the whole series we’re done go back to we can start to do the before and after picture right now we are after as will ever be because this is the end of the show miles Bridges deciding not to go to Phoenix along with his agency that reduced role probably would take money out of his pocket because you much would rather talk yourself into that 20 point per game score being able to un they could have yeah it RIS he could have advanced it was a risk like if he was on the Mavs right you would think that that maybe could have gone up but I think what we were thinking the whole time to your point Walker was that stay here pump up those scoring numbers 20 points a game uh you know versus maybe a run in the playoffs it’s probably going to be better think about what your role is with Phoenix it’s not exactly the stuff that Miles has done well so okay you go with this three-headed monster and Beal what is supposed to be the monster with Booker Beal and Kevin Durant okay what’s your role defense attack Closeouts but a lot of three-point shooting well we have one outlier season of three-point shooting for Miles statistically that’s not been the strongest suit saw a lot of mid-range jumpers it’s not like they’re wanting to go to miles for that they got KD and Devin Booker they’re not trying to go with more mid-range shooting his role becomes something that he’s not been great at in defense and three-point shots so it’s not okay so now you start to figure out let’s just stay in Charlotte we got some health concerns he’s going to get the ball a lot let him cook see if he can get those raw numbers up and then let him make more money out there after that and then last thing for me with the lamelo stuff I will say this Mitch cup was very consistent at the podium and behind closed doors he didn’t give a damn what lamelo had to say he was going to do what he wanted to do lamelo could have gone into that locker room or G gone into the office and said I want this and Mitch would have said we don’t have any Allstars on this team and then he can go call whoever he wants to to trade for whoever he wants to that was something consistent I actually don’t know how much Gabe Plotkin Rick schn schlotkin if you will and Jeff Peterson value the opinion of the young Stars I don’t know if they’re going to Value it more than Mitch which it’s not until they win some games yeah right and and and Mitch was like pretty close to the bottom with the young Stars this was not Kobe and Shaq in the Lakers days and Mitch made that very clear so that’s something interesting to ask if Brandon Miller takes a big step up maybe he makes an All-Star Game his second season but he’s still very young does the front office start to care about the opinion of Brandon Miller or are they going to go Mitch cup Che and say nah we still have a lot of work to do before we’re contending it’s an interesting question question to see how it all plays out yeah I I should Brandon has his own podcast that he waxes poetic about basketball and the state of the team and then he can say you know he has nothing to do with what’s going on it’s it’s out of his hands he has no control over anything he’s just talking about it with a buddy I’ll tell you something though Brandon Miller part of my NBA Finals take coming up all right let’s get to it coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet still need to get to Charles Lee an interesting comment he had on andscape decom with Mark Spears reporting on some of the stuff Charles Lee is going through and then Doug Branson will get to his NBA Finals take all today lock on Hornets before we do that let’s get to prize picks this episode is brought to you by prize piics it’s America’s number one fantasy sports app with more than five million members and it’s the 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NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 more lockdown Hornets ahead during break I don’t even want to get into chaos anymore but uh we somehow found ourselves in Jurassic Park 3 and the S franch know I mean unbelievable Doug where are you on Jurassic Park 2 and three and how bad they are compared to Spider-Man two and three I I I pretend that all Jurassic Parks after the first were just a dream like I just I want the I take the first I rewatch first yeah the rest can just go away that’s fair it’s a it’s a fair take um before before we get off the road just like we did yesterday I do want to get to this quote of Charles Lee saying he wants to coach the summer league Squad this year as soon as he comes over to become the head coach of the Hornets man you’re going to be talking about like what weeks not even a month at that point maybe right at a month before he coaches his first game in summer league you know what being a Hornets fan means that this is not a small thing I love this I love that Charles Lee is going to take over because we’ve seen a lot of bad basketball we’ve seen a lot of bad bad summer league basketball and we just want something positive here with Charles Lee your head organizer doing the best he possibly can to put out something worth watching in summer league Doug does this does this get you excited as much as it does me that Charles Lee is going to be the summer league head coach uh yeah for sure because I want to see him in action as a head coach of something as quickly as possible you just don’t I mean you see him on the sidelines for the for these Celtics games uh but you just don’t get a sense of of what he’s going to be like as a head coach until he actually does it so I am super excited also it’s going to mean that he’ll get plenty of time with this draft pick and if it’s a high draft pick that’s going to be super important that there’s bonding there because it might be a guy from Yukon and Stefan castle and historically uh Hornets coaches and rookies from Yukon haven’t exactly seen eye to eye they haven’t the well one almost hit the other in the eye and so uh it would be good if they do draft castle for those two guys to just Bond quickly in summer league so that they can get started off on the regular season on the right foot hey he would he would historically be the best summer league point guard maybe in summer league history I don’t I haven’t seen Char Lee no yes Charles Charles Lee would and Stefan Castle would you’re right that would be amazing man as soon as you can get Lee in the purple and teal they have to dude Trot him out for all the interviews ask him about the ring ask him about the Celtics ask him about what he’s bringing to the table and yeah get him into the fold as soon as possible hopefully we’ll see you know Brandon Miller uh some other guys out there in Vegas right you’ve seen uh you’ve seen that in the past where they kind of go out there and have some meetings or just get used to each other maybe play and whatever so yeah man I think it’s cool for Charles Lee to get out there and do some do some uh do some coaching in summer league and you’re right it’d be fun if they have you know a high draft pick out there uh running show too yeah I mean David makes a good point here it’s not just going to be about coaching that team it’s going to be about meeting with players who are there and and you know starting to do that preliminary work of deciding what kind of team this is going to be what they’re going to be working on what they’re going to be focusing on and he had a little bit to say about that I mean he said that in this article with Mark Spears for andscape he talked about uh you know I think he had lunch with lamelo ball U so there’s been just a few little things that have happened but because he had to you know keep the Celtics hat on he hasn’t had a chance but another thing that we will get for from him being at summer league is just more indication of what the direction of this franchise is what Lee’s Direction what his focuses are going to be on because we’ve we’ve had scant information from Jeff Peterson and from the uh from schlotkin on on what exactly is going to happen and but we did get a little bit from Lee here and I might be reading uh some some tea leaves some Lee leaves if you will uh but here’s the quote I’m just going to let you be the judge okay Lee Lee says quote I’m up for the job I’m up for the task I have energy for the task and the people I’m going to surround myself with are going to help me with that task with what Jeff and his group are building along with ownership I have the I think we have the right people in place to kind of push us through some of these lean years oh Bo oh yeah put that on the marketing campaign huh lean years that’s plural that’s multiple years of lean I need to know what he means by that although I think I kind of have an idea that that sounds more rebuilding you don’t say lean I mean this team needs to bulk up they don’t need to get lean so I mean this this is a whole I I won’t perhaps we can do this question for a later episode because I know Doug you want to get to your NBA Finals take it’s juicy it is Juicy what does that mean as far as a rebuild because do what do you mean lean years I feel like C I feel like C and uh and Anthony Edwards at the podium what do you mean we’ve lost for like 20 years what are you talking about lean years the the lean years it’s all we know are the lean years so are we going to get like are we trading Big Time Players now are we moving up to the is the lamal lamal is the lamelo ball conversation really that prevalent like are they going to be shopping him I yeah okay all right that’s a different episode we already did that one and we’ll do another one let’s get to your finals take here Doug what how does it uh how does it pertain to Brandon Miller yeah doesn’t have anything to do with PJ I’ve just been watching with a lot of interest uh the analysis that is happening the takes that are forming around LCA donic because it hasn’t just been about his lack of defense and in this NBA Finals series it’s also fin it finally feels like that National pundits are saying the thing that a lot of fans have have noticed and a lot of uh I think podcasters and people who pay close attention to the NBA in that local way that we do here on the locked on podcast Network have noticed and that is Luca complains a lot to the officials and not in the not even in the normal way that players complain a lot to the officials but it’s gone to this extreme level that seems to be hurting him psychologically that’s hurting the team that’s hurting their ability to win finals you had windhorse go on ESPN and say the performance was unacceptable the defense was unacceptable the The Barking at the refs and barking at his own team is unacceptable and so my take on this is lamelo ball and Brandon Miller please take notes that you you know complaining with the officials is a part of the NBA you know getting them to respect you there’s a whole back and forth that happens so this idea that you should never complain to the officials is absolutely absurd you should obviously Advocate if you feel like things are but you can take that to an extreme level and I really Point more to to Brandon Miller here because I saw him barking a lot at the refs last year and certain refs were telling him like you could hear it on the open mic they were telling him dude back off stop I just I I want I hope that someone can get in his ear at some point unlike they don’t seem to have been able to get through to Luca that like that doesn’t end that doesn’t necessarily end well for lamelo my take would be you know the the frustration that Luca had that that really that took him out of the game four minutes to go and in a close game he fouls out that was a frustration foul we’ve seen lamelo do that a lot where he gets upset with his own game or something that happen commits a frustration foul I would just say those are all cute and fine and we can get go gosh darn it maybe don’t do that when the Hornets are winning 19 games but what happens if the Hornets actually do build a winning culture and they do start to win series these things actually matter and that’s my take what do you think wow yeah you know it’s funny how fast things can change like a week ago Luca was maybe the best player in in the world oh and a big Reon and and up front MVP and now he’s like the reason they’re losing uh the reason they’re down a three but I mean you know to that point he quieted down a lot of that during that playoff run and a lot of people credited it I tend to credit like the monster games he had and maybe those are hand inand right I mean maybe those go back and forth but I think with luuka fires him up a little bit it gets him going he obviously talks too much he’s not just talking when you see him talking he’s talking like at every stoppage of play that’s his thing and I guess you know as Windor said they haven’t been able to get through to him there um I think this particular instance is a tad overblown just because it is in the finals they’re obviously fighting a pill against a really good Boston Celtics team and he’s doing all he can but yeah I mean for him to take the next step if feels like he’s going to have to either massage it a little bit differently or or or or just you know uh tamper it down a little bit but but the defensive thing is an issue I I think he was trying to do the right thing but you just can’t foul out in that situation uh in that game no matter what you’re trying to do that’s the time to actually just get out of the way and he was trying to make a play so David I would absolutely agree with you that it’s that it would that it’s overblown if they were getting blown out in these games but they’re not getting blown out these are close games and they they they margins of error that are resulting in in what the final score ends up being and so that’s what I’m that’s what I’m saying that that controlling your emotions when things get close that defines teams that defines Championship level players and I’m not saying that it’s a gigantic problem for lamelo ball the frustration fouls or for Brandon Miller talking to the officials I’m saying it’s something to Monitor and as this that’s why it would be great as these players get better to at the same time establish a a culture and identity a way that these teams play cuz Boston’s not playing like that again they might complain to the officials about one thing or another but they’re not doing that not even not not even close no but that’s from that’s coming all the way down Boston that’s that’s top down that’s top down yeah well and probably some personality stuff too but you’re right no I actually like the whole overblown stuff I found it really really bleeping difficult to watch Luca despite how special he is like last night I thought from the moment the ball was in the air Des it was so desperation and he completely lost his mind and that was at the very beginning and remember he was actually pretty efficient in the first quarter and then the inefficiency started happening even offensively where he was missing a lot of shots on top of being the worst defender on the floor on top of complaining to the ref every single stoppage it was every single time that there was dead ball so now you’re I I even heard Kyle Bailey say a stat today there’s an actual stat on this where he got blown by 13 times which is the most that we’ve seen there there’s too much evidence for terrible defense and just continuing continuously complaining to the refs like I know LeBron gets criticized for this I never felt about LeBron the way I did watching Luca last night I was disgusted man like I just it was so bad I couldn’t stand watching it Doug to your point lamelo has actually had the opposite problem so many fans have asked him to complain more to the officials and you’re asking to not overcorrect which is the correct take there I’ll give you more uh credit to you on this yeah no you’re right I’m up three in this podcast right now prediction time bold prediction I’m gonna win the podcast no I think you’re asking lamelo to not overcorrect if that ever becomes a problem which I highly doubt that that would be manufactured because it it’s just been a nonissue for him with Brandon the only reason it might not be an issue with him is because they play completely different styles of offense it’s so much of having the basketball in Your Hands Brandon is more a secondary ball handler he’s not seeking the type of contact being this foul Merchant that Luca is and so when you don’t get the fouls as a foul Merchant that leads you more to complain to the official and so I hope that kind of salvages the brand and stuff but totally agree with some of the stuff that you’re mentioning here can you build those winning moments that winning culture even if you only win 25 games do you still have all of the right Stu in place for when you’re ready to go win 50 and compete in the post and honestly I hope Luca keeps it up I hope he goes I hope he just comes out in game four in a diaper and a rattle like I really hope he just keeps it up because it’s embarrassing and it’s being called out and I think it would if if Brandon Miller is paying attention to the the way he’s acting at all and and lamelo looks at the frustration fouls and pays any attention to that then then hopefully something could be learned from this thing being on the highest of high stages in the NBA because look obviously if the Hornets if they lost in NBA Finals because of that it would be the greatest nightmare of all time because we’re so we’re thirsty for a playoff series yeah Victory uh even a playoff win uh that that would be an amazing problem to have but it would be sad if we took this journey with the Hornets and watched lamelo and Brandon become all NBA level players that took the Hornets to the biggest stage only to have it all come crashing down like it’s coming down for Dallas right now because no one was able either the star couldn’t get through to himself or no one was able to get through the star and say hey there’s a way that Championship players conduct themselves and play and they do that for a reason it’s not just because you know it’s it it’s the right thing to do it’s because it’s it actually results in helping your team uh the win so yeah on on the good side Luca’s 25 so he’s he’s he’s he feels like he’s been in the league for 10 years uh but you know this is his first step on the biggest stage he knows his shortcomings the only part I was really really disppointed in was after the game where he was like come on ref you can’t fou me out you can’t do that in the finals which I kind of liked but they could but uh I think today he went on to say you know there’s holes in my game I gotta fixed d I know this isn’t locked on Luca or locked on Dallas but um but but but yeah I mean you guys are right everybody’s calling it out now because it is on a big stage if you’ve been watching it up until this point it’s not that much different than what he does basically on a Tuesday night in Charlotte right like he does this all the time it’s just super heightened right now he’s scratching a clawing they’re scratching and clawing and and it has not helped them that that is the bottom line because look people I think they hear the word heat culture and they go whatever you know roll their eyes uh you know get out of here with that stuff look what Lowry low is the biggest complainer you’ll find out there too so they don’t like him in Miami for those reasons um I think or part and that and he can’t you know he can’t shoot um anymore so you know look I think people hear that like winning habit stuff and you know play the right way and they they roll their eyes a little bit and when when it’s put when the magnifying glass is put on this kind of situation on the biggest stage um I think it is a reminder because look often times these Finals series come down to ah there was one team that just had that was supremely talented there was just you were not getting it doesn’t matter you could have not complained to the refs or you could have done X Y and Z there was no way you’re going to be on that team but that’s not what this F they they look Boston might win this thing 40 but the the margin of of error was much smaller than the series you know result is going to look like and those things matter and building a culture matters and the reason I bring this up now is because Charles Lee is about to come to Charlotte and his biggest challenge won’t be you know lamelo lamelo ball pick and rolls Brandon Miller coming off screens uh what do you do with Miles Bridges his biggest challenge is going to be how do we get these guys you know to to want it and to do the hard things to break the habits that have resulted in the Hornets not having the longest NBA playoff drought by the way we’ve seen a star here start to complain about calls as his career went on in Kimo Walker we can remember that at the very end of his tenure here in Charlotte I got to a point where I got tired of seeing him in clutch Big Time gamewinner moments look for fouls rather than hit the shot remember Jeremy Lamb became Our Savior at the end of games because Kima when he would make the right pass Jeremy Lamb would be there for the open shot and Kima would just look to get fouled every time like I so when I say you can’t manufacture problem and and create something that doesn’t exist right now I that’s not entirely true like Kima you want that happy medium we wanted to see him get some of those star calls because he wasn’t getting them and then he started to complain a lot more like it was weird it was out of his character who’s considered the all-time good guy top five good guy in the NBA at that time so we’ll see what happens with some of this stuff winning habits mayy hopefully Charles Lee can bring him over here to the Queen City that’s David Walker looking Fresh So Clean find him on Twitter at davidb Walker Doug Branson substack every Hornet boox score.com listen to me Walker mail every weekday from 12:00 to 3 on WFNZ Via West and Walker have a great rest of your day have a great weekend we’ll be back with you on Monday byebye [Music] no

Who’s in control of the Charlotte Hornets offseason? David Walker joins the show to discuss Rod Boone’s latest column from the Charlotte Observer that has Miles Bridges at the top of that list. Does a different regime mean different free agency habits? The guys close it out discussing Charles Lee’s desire to coach the Summer League team and Doug has a LaMelo Ball/Brandon Miller NBA Finals take you won’t want to miss.

Boone column: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article289116904.html

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