RECAP: What is a Tidjane Salaun and how can he help the Charlotte Hornets?

RECAP: What is a Tidjane Salaun and how can he help the Charlotte Hornets?

okay that was weird draft night didn’t go quite as planned ton Salon you are a Charlotte Hornet we try to make sense of all of it today on lock on Hornets plus this what’s up honet fan I’m ready to play with you and uh magnifying the crowd 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 [Music] what a wild night NBA draft night woo buddy okay welcome to Jean Salon 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 and available anywhere you get your podcast and that does include YouTube I will say today’s episode is brought to you by game time game Time download the game time app create an account use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply Doug let me take you back to I don’t know about 400 pm. okay June 26th M Kristen peak of Yahoo sports tweeted out hey Charlotte Hornets could be targeting 69 to Jean Salon later on tonight the first time we had ever heard any link between the two we had seen some links between the Hornets and quite a few prospects this go around Reed Shepard Stefan Stefan Castle was there the whole time Reed Shepard got some play once we figured out the Hornets might be trading up at number three with Houston that was pretty solidly so that was believable Ron Holland then works out with the Hornets that was revealed later in the process what he worked out okay this is weird you know we had some clinging Links at the very beginning how comfortable are they with Mark Williams and they quickly dispel that MH every single I won’t say every single but lots of Lottery projected picks had their moment in the sun with the Charlotte Hornets except for tajon Salon until 400m yesterday according to Kristen Peak and then what do you know Doug that’s the pick number six Adam Silva announces not so well with the French name had a little trouble with that despite there being multiple Frenchmen in this draft well all the Time in the World to prepare like what are we what are we doing how do we get this I mean even us this little tiny podcast we knew that it was ton Salon he announces that ton Salon is the sixth overall pick for the Charlotte Hornets I I did not get a chance to see the live reaction from Doug Branson NADA Edwards David Walker doing the live show last night what was the live reaction for you guys and then Doug after not even 24 hours what’s the reaction after the pick is made just 12 hours later yeah I I think it’s a mixture of confusion who is this player what is this player how soon can this player actually make an impact mixed with a little bit of anger because I think that you know people want this team to win and I think that’s fair because they haven’t they have the longest active NBA playoff drought they haven’t won a playoff series in over 20 years you know I I think it’s it’s fair for people to want this team to win and win as soon as they can they’re ready they’re hungry they’re thirsty they’re dying out there okay so I I think we have to make some space both for this idea that the ownership group and Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee have been saying a lot of things we like and they seem to be aligned on a vision and we have to give them a little bit of space to make some decisions and see how those decisions pan out but I also think that we shouldn’t react so negatively to people who react negatively to this pck because there is a lot of hunger for win now and ton Salon is a lot of things but he’s not win now now he’s not going to contribute mightily immediately um so I think that’s sort of the this reactions that I’m getting around the around the the live pick and and even today where do you want to start do you want to go with a little bit of an eval that moves on you want to talk about how we got here with the way the draft unfolded so let’s do in the next segment let’s talk about what a tjan salon is and isn’t what I I think would be good and informative and educational for people is to talk about how we got here because I think the big question on a lot of people’s minds is was ton Salon plan a or was he plan b or was he plan question mark question mark question mark we don’t we don’t know you know was this a Oakland Raiders go completely off the board of everyone and take a crazy player in the first round or was this look at that’s a great NFL poll yes you got that totally right nice job yeah or or was this a situation where okay they were evaluating a lot of things because this you people have to remember this is a process and every team has a board and that board is going to be different from Team to team and and things happen and so when you see you know a reed Shepard go off the board at three they weren’t able to make the the move up and I think Jeff Peterson correct me if I’m wrong Walker but after the pick Jeff Peterson confirmed that they were talking about moving up to three and they were talking about moving back uh maybe not specifically to I don’t know if he specifically said nine or or Portland but they were talking about moving back and up yeah that that’s correct he didn’t specify what pick he was going to move up for or back to but he did he did confirm that there were calls to move up they called about trading up in the draft they made calls about trading back I asked him about getting back into the first round again he said yep they made call there calls there too but ultimately decided to take tojon salon at number six I think the process that leads here Doug is you go to number three and that’s when it felt like after a while the draft was going to get crazy it felt like you know 48 hours out Zachary Rees Alex SAR those were going to be the first two picks that was scratch what was Houston going to do at three right if we were to guess maybe we would have bet on Reed Shepard based off of everything we were seeing but we also know Houston was making a lot of calls to move out because they wanted to win now type player and maybe wanted to skip the whole growing process in the end they take Reed Shepard so you cross him off your list and then we get to four this was the Stef Castle destination this was going to be the team that messed everything up for Charlotte if Reed Shepard was already gone to where maybe they would just go ahead and make us live out that worst case scenario and that’s exactly what happened Stefan Castle was selected at four Doug greed Shepard Stefan Castle I have to imagine those guys were in front of salon and I think it was Sam Farber in the press conference yesterday after the selection and Sam asked Jeff Peterson you guys said that you had organizational alignment you said that he was very high on your board can we go all the way to say that he was number one on your board and of course Jeff said yeah he was very high on our board which means was number confirm right he wasn’t number one which is fine I mean yeah he I think both things are absolutely true let me give you some advice Jeff just lie like no one’s going to ever know you’re Bor just lie just say he was number one yeah he he wasn’t number one but but he was very high on their board and that’s when they decided to take him the question here that I’ll throw back to you that’s the process right no Reed Shepard no Stefan Castle rumors were starting to pick up too that Stefan Castle was their guy and then once he fell off then that’s when it became Salon the real question is kingan was there at six the Pistons make a surprising move too they take Ron Holland they were interested in the g-league it was just with a different player compared to mates bues they go Ron Holland the scenario happens a perfect tradeback scenario happens with Donovan kingan there at 6 Portland reportedly very interested in kingan and so were the Memphis Grizzlies so it felt like the Hornets were in a very good opportunity to pin these two teams against one another because Portland could move up just one spot because they were scared of of the Grizzlies Lea frogging Portland OR Grizzlies could just go ahead and do the Lea frog thing and give up enough assets to move up to six and go get them why do you think none of those trades happened with Charlotte and they decided to just stay put well I think the hu I think Houston wanted too much for the pick uh and and my one of my nightmare scenarios was was that the Hornets would give up a first round pick to move up to three and so they they didn’t do that I’m glad they didn’t do that and I think that moving back they probably wanted a first round pick I don’t have any kind of Intel I’m just speculating that they wanted something significant to move back uh to nine to allow Memphis to jump up there and Memphis wasn’t willing to do that and so you know they they and they took Edy and the fact that nobody else got a deal done with Houston I think to me indicates that Houston really want because I think Houston did like Reed Shepard and so they thought to themselves look we’ll move off this pick sure but it’s got to be a monster offer because if that if that had been LA or Boston in that position with more pressure in the market to win and win now and win significantly I think you could have gotten a deal done I think with Houston they want to win but they don’t want to win that bad and they liked Reed Shepard I think that’s that’s what happened question is cuz I think you’re right ton Salon was not plan a but was he plan b or plan C or plan question mark question mark question mark because I say that because I think and I said this on the live show that Ron Holland going five to Detroit I think sent this whole thing into a little bit of craziness because I think if Ron Holland were there and available to the Hornets I think Ron Holland might have been a hornet I think the other thing that threw a wrench into this too was that remember Walker when we were in the leadup to this thing when it was all not like maybe like three or four weeks prior to the draft everything said castle castle castle to the Hornets and everything said topic topic topic to the Spurs at four because we knew that the Spurs needed guard play to pair alongside wimby but Stefan Castle didn’t make as much sense to the Spurs because he he had the shooting struggles and the Spurs struggled to shoot all last season and so then tobic gets hurt and so I think there are just like multiple and that sent him down the board I think there are just like multiple wrenches that got thrown into The Hornet’s way and I think they looked at their board and said you know what plan a fell Plan B fell plan C fell let’s swing for the fences and that’s exactly what tjon Salon is it is an absolute swing for the fence it’s funny to see what we can take away from the early NBA mock drafts the early NFL mock drafts then you see everything change then you see everybody’s official last Mock Draft before the actual draft day how much can we take away from the early goings of this entire process because we can go back to topich being there at four bazis being there at number five we didn’t really know it was going to happen at three it was always trade back so that was always a wild card before reach sheeper eventually became that dude and it’s always going to be tough to trade but once now we can go back and say okay well maybe maybe the Spurs did want topic maybe P Pistons clearly didn’t want buis over Ron Holland but like you even have another thing that’s interesting where what’s what was the grid Le what was the gap between kingan and Edy for them and the Charlotte Hornets probably were asking for you’re right a first round pick and I guess they viewed all right we’ll just settle forward not an unprecedented player but there’s not many of that form that have worked out like kingan is the much much safer bet which is why I’m glad that the Hornets were trying to squeeze them for everything they were worth and then eventually the Grizzlies just had to decide that it was too much and they’ll just settle for ed0 at number nine you have something I have a question for you but I want to get your take in too before I ask you this next question well I I think the problem for the Hornets trading back to nine is that the Spurs were sitting at eight and I know they eventually traded out of the pick but I bet if you’re the Hornets and you did like to Jean Salon you were thinking you would have thought had the Spurs not been there you would have thought oh I can trade back to n nobody’s nobody’s really thinking Tan Salon top 10 anyway so I can trade back to nine and and and pick him up and some assets but that would have been a significant risk because I think the Spurs did want to take Shan Salon they may have traded out anyway but you didn’t know you weren’t confident and then you’re talking about going to your plan D EF or G and so you know I think they wanted to Jean salon and a monster offer didn’t come in for the sixth pick and so they just said all right we’re just we’d rather I and and maybe I don’t know how you feel about this but I think the the organization probably said we’d rather be on the front foot with this and take a guy that we can lean into and be confident about the pick rather than have to sell something that we weren’t like sure about at all this becomes my question why wasn’t there a deal done with Portland at seven who was also reportedly interested in kinging and I guess those are confirmed with their selection of kinging at number seven W had this that Portland was looking to move up to six because again just this is the assuming part of the report that they didn’t want the Grizzlies to Leap Frog them so my thing would be I guess it wasn’t really the Hornets where trade broke where trades broke down maybe it was just on Portland side maybe the Trailblazers just called the Hornets Bluff the Grizzlies Bluff and said we don’t think a deal is going to get done between you two we don’t think you want to move back three spots because there might be somebody that you’re interested in and I’ll finish this thought and then you had Portland just saying we’ll back out because that’s the idea all you have to do is move back one spot and then you can still take Salon with Trailblazers taking clinging in front of you now you don’t have to worry about the Spurs behind you but I did want to mention one other thing that I saw on the athletic I was looking up S Vini and John hollinger’s breakdown of every single pick and Hollinger did have something interesting Doug Hollinger said that Salon to Charlotte there had been rumors of this starting to pick up right before the draft so if that’s the case teams started to get privy to it and if Portland thinks that and they also think San Antonio likes him they’re just like all right trade back if you want to we’re not going to give you assets to move up one spot and I think that’s probably right because otherwise you just trade back one spot yeah I mean if you’re Portland you’re like we’re going to get the guy we want anyway because we know you’re not going to take kingan so just take them and then and for port and for Portland’s sake I don’t know what the difference between six and seven are but you save a little money if you draft cling it at seven you got to pay him 7even and a half million if you draft him at or six you got to pay him seven and a half million if you draft him at seven you pay him a little less so from Portland’s perspective there was just no reason yeah it’s a good that the only thing is like it’s still risky if you desperately wanted clinging because I I mean I’m sure it got close between the Hornets and The Grizzlies last night I mean it look well if you let Jake fiser tell it oh boy coming up Jake fishy oh my new nickname I don’t know if we’ve ever called him that before Jake fish he was he was dying out there he was like a fish out of water um man we we’ve gone fishing a lot I I think you know we took our tackle boxes home hold on let’s let’s we got a lot to get to we got to talk about J Salon I’ve got a fire beat that I’ve got a Premiere because he had a great quote make the fire in the crowd there’s so much to get to in this show but I do I let’s come back to that let’s put a pin in that and come back to it later in the show I know you got a lot on it coming up next lock on Hornets don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet making Kevin ‘on man look like a saint yeah yeah yeah it really was I mean honestly OK Conor from what I saw did a pretty nice job all right we’ll give you the eval on tojan Salon what are we getting in the Frenchman at that number six spot still coming up lockdown [Music] Hornets this episode is brought to you by game time game time game time is an authorized ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game game time app actually go down the closer it gets to first pitch so it’s great for procrastinators like me with killer last minute deals all in prices views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets and if you like deals game time is the app for you priority last minute deals Flash Deals Zone deals Allin pricing seat views and the lowest price guarantee game time ticket coverage as well your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in in the ticketing industry take the guest work out of buying MLB tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem code l o c k d o n NBA locked on NBA for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed more locked on Hornets Ahad what’s up honest fan I’m ready to play out with you and uh and uh [Music] the the I’m ready to with you you make the fire in the crowd you what’s up h oh yeah nice a sinker at the end fire in the crowd from Mr uml ton Salon is a Charlotte Hornet and I like some of those highlights see that’s the thing that’s so tantalizing man lots of skill you saw some of the three-point shooting and we see the defensive intensity there’s a lot to like so let’s dig uh a little bit deeper into why the Hornets decided to select him Doug what kind of notes do you have I know you’ve been going hard on the research looking up all the draft guides out there what did you come to find on the newest member of the Hornets he’s the youngest player in the draft he doesn’t turn 19 years old until August he is 610 uh somewhere around 210 215 big body people when they see this guy July 6th at Summer League against the Spurs by the way it’s going to be uh Castle the the guy that may have been play a for them against uh Salon uh they’re going to get to see him July 6 and I think when people see this guy they’re going to be surprised at how big he is I mean he is strong up top long wingspan 7 foot one wingspan on a guy that’s 610 and uh most importantly I think there is so much talk about his motor high motor intense player wants to be great wants to work and I think that this is a bet on tojan Salon his body type which projects out to be like you know super Wing uh you know there’s been some talk about like if he has a super growth like Giannis Anto TMO I mean he does look strong up top but more than that it’s it’s a bet on his character in The Drive of tjon salon and even more than that it’s a huge bet on this new staff’s ability to develop a player because as NADA said on the podcast last night he’s not raw he’s moo raw like I mean he is they barely put this thing on the grill okay and they served it to you that’s very good no I was about to say when you for about two seconds is like nah man he’s raw like straight through and through on the definition especially offensively so a couple of things one I’ll address this um the ghost of Steve Clifford and Mitch cup are still in the house Kevin you saw you saw them uh you saw them open you saw a door open up and you didn’t know who exactly did it I mean you see you’re seeing these ghosts well yeah we’re we’re we’re getting reports on the ghost we are seeing the ghost remember Mitch CB is still a part of this organization he did not get fired Steve Clifford reportedly from your boy Kevin oon man loved himself some ton salon and then we confirmed it with Jeff Peterson last night I asked him about Steve Clifford and his influence on this election Jeff smiled and said yeah he was a huge fan we put him in the role he was internationally scouting and he absolutely loves this guy the thing about that while you don’t exactly love the old regime having an influence on what they’re going to do in a new era we can go back to Clifford loving Devin Booker we can go back to the most famous adamant stance that he carried on the draft in loving Donovan Mitchell over Malik Monk and we even know Steve Clifford love Brandon Miller over scoot look if Steve Clifford likes a guy I think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt here defensive intensity this feels like such a cliff pick too size versatility and crazy high motor yeah man it feels like a cliff pick and same thing with Mitch cup Che too Doug because there is another raw project that they’ve taken in the last five years didn’t work out but Kai Jones was very much of this ilk when Mitch cup Che traded back into the first round to select Kai Jones crazy athlete lots of size I guess different parts of their game for sure but Mitch cup Steve Clifford still in the building feel like they have some influence it’s not the reason took him I’m not trying to overblow this thing but clearly they have an opinion that was aligning with the rest of the organization yeah huge difference between tajon salon and a lot of the guys that Clifford has liked in the past is that Devin Booker was ready to go Brandon Miller was ready to go uh Donovan Mitchell was ready to go and Donovan like yeah you’re right he was but yeah yeah fair enough not as much as those other two though you’re right about that yeah so you’re depending on I mean we we wanted we did want to be fair we did want Steve Clifford to be in the role of Zar of the right kind of guy who is the right kind of guy and when you’re betting on an international prospect that is probably two years away from significantly contributing to your team one thing you probably want to be sure about is a guy’s character does he have his head on straight because look over the next couple of off Seasons they are going to hand to Jean Salon a lot of film and a lot of scouting and a lot of stuff to say hey here’s what you’re good at here’s what you’re not good at we need you to play to your strengths we need you to improve the things that you’re not good at and some players will take that and go B and throw it in the trash that’s what Kai Jones did I mean you know there’s a lot there’s a lot to the kai Jones story but part of the story is they were like dude you’ve got to work on this stuff if you want to contribute and he wanted to work on his jump shot and the jump shot never never came along and so that is the big thing can’t will Tan Salon be the kind of guy that takes that all of that Player Development that they are going to throw at him will he accept it because you know we can talk about the skills of Player Development from the staff perspective but if the player’s not receptive then none of that matters it seems like everyone is confident that dejon Salon is the kind of guy that’s going to eat that up and want to be great so another thing I wanted to mention too this is going to sound like ultimate Spin Zone but the more I see the shooting stats the more I’m okay with them and by the way they’re not good let me explain s bassini and his draft guide s bini and his draft guide says he made 75 three-pointers in 54 games that’s 31.6% of his attempts overall he made 33.9% of his catch and shoot threes per Synergy his jumper has good Rhythm throughout he takes them well off the Hop typically ready to shoot when stationary though its motion has some minor mechanical flaws salon’s jumper looks to have solid touch Ark and aoft release he seems to have no fear firing from NBA range we even saw some of those clips in your pretty cool beat what I’ll say is over 30% very pretty cool the review the review of the beat is pretty cool yeah that was a that was not a fire review I apologize it was awesome but I think if you look at the shooting stats if he’s moo raw and you have 32% overall and 34% on catch and shoot with that kind of body it’s it’s not a crazy terrible percentage Doug if he’s the youngest player in the draft and he’s got great size and great athleticism he’s not even posting a worse percentage than mates buis who people liked the percentage is better than Ron Holland who people liked like this it’s not a good percentage it’s also something that I could see as a nice enough base for him to work hard on it especially with shooting coaches on the staff the right kind of guys then you add in the work ethic it’s not like he’s going to be lazy with it he clearly likes shooting so the fear isn’t there if you give me high motor no fear and touch I can see why Jeff Peterson confirmed last night that specifically offensively they feel like he can be a floor spacer okay no fear I want to put a pin on that because I want to come back to that because I think that’s a key point and one of the takeaways that I had uh from last night but let me let me talk about the shooting so I I think you’re a dead on uh he has like a rainbow shot like it’s a he’s got a high arcing it’s really it’s really interesting when and they said you know he had good shooting for a stretch I consumed way too I stayed up way too late last night consuming a lot of tape on salon and not just the Highlight variety I mean I was watching some games yeah and when he gets stationary when he gets open when there’s like a drive and a kick to him the shot looks good the problem is going to be and you’re going to see this early on and you’re either going to have to accept it as part of his development or you can just be angry about it he’s going to take some step back jump shots he’s going to take some odd shots off the dribble that are going to they’re not going to miss they are going to miss terribly and there’s going to have to be a process of working him into the right shot summer league is going to be very interesting you know I think it’s going to be easier to work him out of that with within the context of an NBA game where there are going to be a lot better players handling the basketball and doing a lot of the stuff and he’s going to be probably doing a little bit of uh similar stuff to Miles Bridges early on of just kind of standing in the corner waiting on a shot and then getting back on defense so you know if it’s all going to be about again can you get this guy to play to his strengths and limit the things it’s a lot of what we saw with Kai right I mean with Kai he would handle the basketball so much like a point guard and by the way similarity between Kai Jones and ton Salon is is this thing that you see all the time now with these like freak athletes they started out as point guards and they were one size and then they hit a huge growth spurt same thing happened with Salon in 21 he was uh you know he was a point guard and then hit this huge growth spurt and now all of a sudden can you work some of that out of him early on and then as he’s improving his ball handling can you implant all of that back in it’s it’s a tall task for the Player Development staff but on the on the no fear thing French players have a reputation some warranted some not of being passive and in fact the Hornets fans that are listening to this right now are all too familiar in investing a lot of capital into a player that had that reputation that’s Nick Batum but from what I see Salon has sort of the opposite problem his fuel for the game hasn’t caught up with his aggression with his desire to put the ball on the floor and make something happen and of the two types of problems when you’re talking about taking a swing in the draft I’ll take the tajon problem every time and and hope it works out the no fear is a big deal we’ve gone to Chad Ford a couple of times when it’s the biggest thing that he learned from the very early days of him being the NBA draft guy on espn.com that’s where you went and then he spent some time with locked on and I remember him saying you know the biggest thing I’ve learned over the years something I wish I could have applied at the very beginning stages of Val valuating prospects if a guy has a high motor and he’s going to work really hard that actually does matter a ton and you can’t just brush it off of your shoulder the personality the work ethic it actually does come through on a lot of these prospects and if that’s here with salon and you have a nice enough touch you’re not going to be scared to take those shots which fear is a big thing as we’ve mentioned I’m glad that he doesn’t have it it’s pretty clear in the tape that you watch so with that size too yeah there’s there’s reason to think that this is going to work it’s a monster risk six is a high pick I don’t care if it’s a weak draft s and a half million dollar he will be if they don’t resign Bridges and they move bretton’s he’s going to be the sixth highest paid player on the roster yeah um yeah it’s a it’s a massive risk What in in this draft specifically it’s a big swing but maybe even in this draft this is the draft to do it because there’s not another Shore High floor high ceiling type of guy out there there was just maybe some safer prospects that fit what the Hornets want to do as well and you know there’s so many other things to talk about here um let’s move on let’s go to the last segment give you our finishing thoughts on ton Salon coming up next on the lockdown Hornets podcast don’t go to sleep on the Hornets just yet let’s dabble into what this means for some decisions upcoming in free agency because there’s a quick turnaround maybe we give some very quick second round preview thoughts for tonight still lots to cover lots to cover here one more segment to go lockdown horens [Music] one thing we talked about on the draft show last night with cardi B Paul B and cardi um who likes this pick a lot by the way um we were talking about whether this actually States what direction the Hornets are going in and I talked about how this showed the Hornets are just fine playing the long game if they were ready to compete now to give this fan base as close to a winning product as possible getting their getting there soon right because this is the thing man like Kai Jones it might take a couple of years like I hate going to the kai Jones example because it flamed out so fantastically so I hope that’s not the case but like Kai in that same reign of discourse it might take three years before you start seeing the dividends and we know from the kai Jones experiment that at least in the first two people aren’t going to be all that patient I I just hope that we see progress but with all of that being said it goes to show that the Hornets can’t they can’t be impatient because this is the bed that you made for yourself once you made this selection and decided not to trade back you decided not to go with kingan to just do the safe thing as far as a good Prospect goes even if he doesn’t fit great with Mark Williams and you can’t play him on the floor at the same time yeah it does look like the long game they’re fine playing here and I’m fine with them playing that duck yeah it would be extremely weird for them to make this particular pick and then go and sign you know some free agents whether it be miles Bridges or whoever to Big contracts it wouldn’t those two things in my mind and it’s not because Salon is the a power for a power forward or whatever and miles is a power forward and that doesn’t make that the positionality of it doesn’t make is not what makes it not make sense miles feels like a win now type of move in that neighborhood and and Salon does not feel like that no because you’re going to have to invest and I don’t even I don’t I don’t know I don’t know how you can pay a guy 7 half ion doll and send them to Greensboro maybe they do maybe they don’t but I mean I I you know I keep holding on to this like balal kabali hope of like a guy from France who gets drafted way higher than people thought he was going to get drafted in the lottery and then comes out in a on a bad team and and is able to contribute I I think they’re going to have to give him many NBA minutes to develop and not to interrupt but I did ask him that last night just the anticipation on Greensboro NBA roster split time and he said he wasn’t short like he didn’t he didn’t know what was going to happen with Salon he might spend some minutes up here might not just really and I think genuinely so it’s not like he was hiding anything just really doesn’t know which is fair because we all have to see how it plays out in practice and leading up to the regular season well I was going to say summer league might yeah you know because look it’s one thing to bring a guy in for a workout it’s one thing to look a tape but in another League that plays way differently different minutes different whatever so that’s one thing the other thing is let’s get him against some NBA you know Fringe NBA level Talent see what he can do so I think yeah that’s going to answer a lot of questions and look would they have taken this kind of Swing if the franchise didn’t have lamelo ball and Brandon Miller still developing still capable of winning games look this could be a you know I thought a lot of people had this comment of like well they’re they’re making sure that they stay in the Cooper flag sweep Stakes yeah I’m not sure I mean look if everyone stays healthy you I don’t think they’re the worst team in the league but they will be certainly I think they don’t have enough talent to compete for a play in spot right it’s not a great area the lottery rules allow you to have a shot at flag but it’s not it’s not the way you would tank if you’re going all in on Cooper flag you would just go ahead and take kingan Trade Mark Williams trade lamelo for all the assets definitively not sign miles Bridges like I guess that’s how that would look rather than if everybody’s healthy you’re not going to be a playing team but you’re also not going to have the best odds second maybe even third best odds to go get Cooper flag next year we have I think we do have to remember I bring this up a lot but I do believe that like the fact that schlotkin that there is some thread of like Finance hedge fund bro and you know even even their new coach Charles Lee comes from as a finance background before he got back into uh into the NBA and so I think they are looking at this as an opportunity when some of their other plans fell through they decided hey let’s take the big risk here let’s take the Giannis level risk of because the rewards on the other end are significant I mean this I will say this like this kind of pick hitting is the kind of thing that sends a midlevel you know mid-tier franchise in a small Market Y into the stratosphere if you hit now if you don’t you’re going to look a little bit foolish particular if you don’t back it up with any kind of development with any of the other players and wins in the future then people they’re going to you know hang this on the organization if it if it falls through but you’re not going to be able to make that judgment for another couple of years which buys them time to make some other moves and perhaps deliver some wins that fans desperately want by the way as we talk about summer league you thought Brandon Miller was affected by not having a point guard in summer league yikes please please God give this man a point guard in summer league that is what I beg of you and to Parlay that into the NBA conversation Doug we actually have some backcourt depth now in a way that we haven’t in like 10 15 years that’s so big for him being a lob threat being just a high level garbage man the fact that yeah if he does find himself on the court with lamelo that’s fantastic we know about that but you also have meich and man and even specifically just with the facilitating meic Moore that that’s going to work itself out well the fact that you have those ball handlers unlike maybe two years ago where what I mean as much as we love Dennis Smith Jr it was more so defensively right like I yeah we’re not talking Brian Roberts Pargo Bronte Weber anymore like we actually have some offense offensive uh Centric backcourt depth to really help a salon and I think that’s going to be a big deal to just see him get involved right because nobody wants to give him the basketball and then let him cook no we don’t we don’t want to see that we want to see him set up we want to see him spot up and I think these point guards this depth that they have is going to help him do that a lot more and we’ve made a lot of Kai Jones comparisons I mean I I think some of them are fair some of them aren’t one of the ways they aren’t is that I think he’s a much more physical player much more than than kai Jones and so you’re going to see him drift around the three-point line and want to take a shot but you’re also going to see him Dart from the three-point line down into the paint to grab a an offensive rebound um so you know and and I think he moves his feet well for a guy his size there is a lot to be excited about but we have to Tamper some of those expectations but we we’ll we’ll talk about this a ton we are going to really unfold this pick and they’ve got a they’ve got a second round pick tonight I think they continue to swing keep swinging for the fences I like this take bronny get crazy if we’re already getting crazy for Salon I say you take bronny you just make you just really just ruin your reputation across the league you ruin it for La you ruin it for Phoenix and you say we’re taking bronnie and dare LeBron James to come play in Charlotte um you want to get your boy Jake fishy oh man yeah we’re already long but why not um yeah it was I if you didn’t see this on Twitter Jake Fisher uh he called the Hornets Memphis trade he tricked us I thought we were tricked by like Jake fiser but the Jay was an i no it’s Jake fiser like reporting that the Hornets and Memphis had a deal and they didn’t have a deal and then he had the wrong pick to Miami it ended up being we and um it was it was a disaster for Jake fiser who for some reason got into the shape W game and got into the arena and and got eaten by a lion last night weird and you asked the question why he even decides to enter the arena no the the the question for me well not even the question but what I was going to say earlier is just a story in four tweets about the Hornets according to Jake fiser author Jake fiser the story is he goes Charlotte is trading back from number six to number nine with Memphis per Source he quote tweets it apologies Charlotte is working on a trade back to number nine then he tweets out the Grizzlies have long one to Donovan kingan and Memphis appears to be closing in on a move for the Yukon Center Portland has wanted clinging as well holding number seven next tweet last one the Hornets are now staying at six sources tell Yahoo sports the Hornets were just as much at the Forefront and this is the second time that we’ve seen NBA journalists battling with themselves we saw it from Jake fiser multiple times last night we saw it with W after the male Bridges trade and then the Nets traded with Houston he said Houston is trying to stockpile assets to go after Kevin Durant and then shortly after uh never mind Phoenix says they’re not going to trade Kevin Durant you know that they said they’re holding on to him now these guys are internally battling with one another well I no I think what’s happened is as this has evolved over the years it’s gone from Source reporting to being manipulated I think all of these guys oh yes all of these guys are getting manipulated and Ag and agendas are being filtered through all of this and they have become part of the smoke they are the smoke they are not PE so typically reporters are supposed to you know remove the fog and and and provide Clarity to people I mean that’s how this has generally been done you know for the for the you know hundreds of years that that journalism has been a thing and so but but now with NBA journalism it’s it’s become an entirely different thing and yeah I think uh I don’t know why you would jump into this space because if you’re Jake fiser you could have just been comfortable being a source reporter that people respected and you know and even if you reported something that didn’t end up happening you would have sort of weeks and months of buffer and say yeah you know things change but when you report stuff on the draft in real time you’re going to be proven right or wrong in minutes in seconds and once you get stuff wrong people are going to murder you for it and I just yeah it is it was amazing to watch um and and you know respect official for leaving the tweets up and and admitting that he was wrong but I just like I don’t know how you could ever do that again and and and expect people to believe when you have to correct yourself four times on one particular scenario that’s that’s incredible yeah there was a lot all right okay let’s let’s stop here and then we’ll have plenty more episodes on ton Salon uh did you want to give just real quick second round preview thoughts before we dabble in tonight um I I’m not entirely serious about the bronnie James thing because to do that and I I should explain this because I I think people should know like a as a general manager or anyone in a front office you have to develop relationships with other front offices you are competing with them but you also like have to form relationships with them to get deals done in the future so if there is cabal consensus around a particular player in a second round going especially when it’s connected with one of the most influential players in the league if there is consensus around that player wanting to go to a particular destination maybe Phoenix maybe LA and you jump in there and jump in the front of the line and take that player you’re going to have a difficult job getting deals done in the future okay so I I I haven’t I’ve been thinking about that and I haven’t expressed it on the show but but I so I’m kind of half joking that they should um they should explore the bronny James thing I think some more realistic options um I like I like this uh Jaylen Bridges guy I mean I think if you’re you know going to continue uh to to bring some defense and size to the wing that that would be a name that I like uh and Harrison Ingram kind of same sort of deal I know you like him a lot so you know I just say Keep sizing up the wing why not yeah well that we we were worried about all the small guys because they were all the good Shooters in this draft they did not go with a small guy and now you’ve got some real size on this roster man like lamelo Brandon with the idea of it working out in three years right lamelo Brandon Salon Mark Williams that’s that’s crazy I mean that’s as long a team not named Minnesota although now in the back court you’re probably longer than some of those guys that’s crazy size all over the place I’m with you Harrison Ingram beefy strong he’s just been my guy all year long even before he played a single a single game for Carolina I really like the tape coming out of Stanford the athleticism scares you a little bit we’re in the second round though I’ll take feel physicality good shooting I’ll bet on that in the second round and be fine with it point of attack defense shed out of Houston would make sense last thing Kyle filipowski I I know people are so scared about the physicality I get it I didn’t want him to be loty pick I didn’t want him to be top 20 but Kyle filipowski a big who can shoot and is skilled cool I’ll take that at 40 if he’s there I don’t think he will be but if he’s there I would take that too so now you have a little bit of safety baked in to a draft that already is full of risk with that selection of tajon salon and here we are uh trying to make sense of all the confusion last take Doug what you got uh Jaylen Bridges 41% uh last year from three on five attempts uh 69 225 senior provides you with some experience I just size up at the wing let’s there you go all right let’s continue to bring all of the length all of the wingspan into the Charlotte Hornets organization that’ll do it for lock on Hornets thanks for making this your first listen we’ll be back with you tomorrow on YouTube wherever you get your podcast Apple Spotify we really mean wherever plus make sure you follow us on Twitter Walker mail Doug Branson looh and then follow Doug on his sub stack every Hornet spox score.com oh man I did want to say one other thing here I am going crazy thing Doug I really I I really do appreciate all of our listeners who came up last night at the draft party at suffk punch Doug it was like yeah we’re going to sound like dags but it is exteme we’re extremely appreciative of it there I these are our people these are the sickos the type of person that would go to a Hornets draft party a Hornets hosted draft party lots of locked listeners and trying to shout them all out Jeremy so nice thank you so much gunar we had uh Jonathan um on Twitter Jonathan Kyle Floyd been listening for a long time thank you very much for coming up and saying what’s up that was awesome to see Jalil got to see him at first there was James there’s lots of people that came up uh we had somebody from Virginia who took a selfie and then sent it to his friends because they listen to the podcast it’s as much support as I’ve seen in like certainly only the 40 minutes that I was there where we need to go back to the studio because of technical difficulties and I couldn’t get out like it was so many people that support this and let me tell you lock on Hornets it’s grown so much since 2018 when I first started and it’s because of that and it’s because of how cool our listeners are like I mean they’re they’re the best like they’re true sios through and through and it’s been so much fun to hang out with them at these events and YouTube comment section whether it be them listening like it was it was one of the better interactions that I’ve had with people who consume our product in fact I would call it the best whether it be Weston Walker whether it be my days at ESPN 730 it was very cool to hang out with all the people that support us as much as they do and so I just wanted to try to shout out as much people as I could cuz it was weird Doug like it was it was weird and it was a good weird that so many people consume it the way they do yeah I love the sickos love the hope uh and and I think that’s my my big thing with the salon pick is like I’m I’m just going to buy into the hope you know I mean what because the other alternative is to lean into the trauma of the previous regimes and the many years of losing and that doesn’t sound fun to me I mean there’s going to be plenty of time if this pick doesn’t work out if some of the other decisions that they make don’t work out there’s going to be plenty of time to look back and critique and say well they could have done X Y and Z but for now I’m going to wash the tape I’m going to buy into the vision I’m going to buy into the hope and and sort of evaluate it from there um because you know I’m a sicko and I and I wanted and I wanted just as much for those fans that were coming up to you I wanted just I want them to win just as much for them as I do for myself in this show so I sure hope they know what they’re doing that’s true all right thanks again for making us your first list and we’ll be back with you tomorrow play you youing theow you [Music] what’s up [Music] H and make

Walker and Doug make sense of NBA Draft night and the Charlotte Hornets’ decision to select Tidjane Salaun with the 6th overall pick. Was he Charlotte’s first choice? second? What are some of the skills Salaun can bring to the table and is this a direction defining pick? Lots to chew on for Walker and Doug during this post-draft episode.

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