Hitting A Lull

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1:23Welcome in, BuzzVee listeners. This is your host, Matt Alkiza, and I am running solo this morning. A one-man fast break talking about all things in Hornets land. Was a tough week scheduling wise. So Brian, Richie, James, and Daryen have the week off. And I'm gonna go solo here for 15, 20, 25 minutes, depending on how much I like the sound of my own voice to talk about recent happenings in Hornets World and give just a quick preview of what's to come this week. Before we get in, make sure that you give us a five-star rating on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen. Check out the sub-stack, look into a BuzzVee Plus subscription. Shout out to Keith, Matt, Yoshi, and the rest of the gang that was hanging out in the chat with me for the game late on Sunday night when Charlotte fell in Phoenix. A lot of perks to join BuzzVee Plus. There is the running document that has Charlotte's salary cab sheet, a rotation breakdown for agent rankings,

2:23draft rankings, and all of that will continue to take up. As the season hits the home stretch and we get into the draft season soon after that. So again, five-star rating, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen, check out the sub-stack where you will get all of our exclusive perks and our subscriber-only benefits. So to start, some news drop today this afternoon around lunchtime, Sham Sharanya, VSPN, tweeted out a notification that the ongoing dispute between the heat and the hornets over the Terry Rogier trade has been closed. Charlotte is sending a 2026 second-round pick to Miami in order to, again, close the loop on the transaction that has been disputed because of what Charlotte allegedly knew or didn't know about Terry's involvement in the gambling scandal that has now being investigated by the FBI and the NBA.

3:23There's, I've seen a lot of differing opinions online about this one, whether or not it was fair for Charlotte to send something to Miami to make up for, again, what they allegedly knew, didn't knew. To me, it makes sense that Charlotte is sending the second-round pick to Miami, especially in a draft for Charlotte already has a pair of first-round picks. There is an impending roster crunch coming with a number of guys that have signed the two first-round picks they have this year. It's clear that they want to resign Kobe White this summer. So Charlotte was probably not going to make this pick in this draft anyways. So it's a small price to pay to mend a relationship in case Charlotte wants to make a deal with Miami going forward. In my opinion, you send a second-round pick that you probably weren't going to make in order to skip out on a long, drawn out legal process that potentially could have led to Charlotte needing to send more to Miami. If the NBA really dug into all of the machinations between what Charlotte knew about Terry Rogier

4:26and his involvement in that scandal before they sent him off to Miami. So that's something that can put in the rear-view mirror. I'm sure he fans, I haven't seen a lot of their reactions. I'm sure they're upset that they aren't getting more. But for me, this feels fair. This makes sense that this has is going to end. And at the end of the day, if you look at that second-round pick as a part of the transaction, it turns into Terry Rogier and a mid-second-round pick in 2026. I think it's the best of Phoenix, or not Phoenix, the best of Golden State and Denver, which is going to be Golden State. They're kind of toiling in the Western Conference Play and I call it the 44th overall pick in Terry Rogier for Kyle Lowry who never sued up as a Hornet and that 2027 protected first-round pick from Miami. It's a deal that Charlotte makes again. If you include that in there, it is a deal that Charlotte would make probably 10 times out of 10 in order to get off of the Terry Rogier contract and have another building block in their burgeoning war chest of assets that Jeff Peterson has built up over the past couple of years.

5:26So you mend their relationship with Miami, everyone gets to move on. You send out a second-round pick that you're probably, again, never going to make. So good, good, good deal for Charlotte in order to just get this out of the way. Big thanks to our sponsor, BetterHelp, for partnering with us. Well, this important conversation about mental health. This Steve Smith here, former NFL Y receiver and host of the 89 show on YouTube. So having a counselor and working with BetterHelp, that gives you an opportunity to really start to unpack but people don't understand when you unpack things. You also open up a box. You're not always sure what's inside. And so I think that's why seeing a professional is extremely important. If you need someone to open up to, visit BetterHelp. That's better, H-E-L-P dot com slash 89 to get started. For a limited time, get one of these Jimmy John sandwiches. Jimmy Chipson are during for only $8.99. Choose the fan favorite turkey tom with all natural turkey or the Pepe with smoked ham and provolone. The $8.99 meal deal at Jimmy John's.

6:28Oh, that's good. Limited time at participating locations, valid on turkey tom and the Pepe eight inch homie, foods, chips, and regular fountain beds, up charges apply on bottle beves, premium sides, and desserts, not valid with other offers. Tax add-ons extra. OK, we're going to dive into the sun's game from Sunday night. Charlotte's second straight loss, 111.99 to Fedix after dropping a Friday night home game against Miami, 128, 120. So Charlotte has followed up the sixth game win streak with back-to-back losses. And I've seen a lot of folks feeling like this guy is falling on the hornets right now. And I would tell everybody to, in the vein of Aaron Rogers, R-E-L-A-X relax. I think this is just what happens to an NBA team. There weren't going to win every single game the rest of the year. They just had a two game losing streak out of the All-Star break against Houston and Cleveland. And although those two games felt a little bit different

7:30because Charlotte was missing some key rotation players in both due to suspensions and injury management, they just went through this. They just went through a two game losing streak, bounce back with a six game win streak, not saying Charlotte is going to bounce back with a six game win streak again, but they can rebound from this. Although after the episode that I think is Richie James and Brian put out last week about some of the weaknesses that this Charlotte team has that could get exposed in some of these bigger games that have a playoff feel like the Miami game did, like the Phoenix game did, that episode feels fresh in retrospect because some of the things that they brought up really shined with in these two losses, specifically against the Suns, it was a lack of rim pressure that really stuck out to me. And that is something that Buzzbeat has talked about going on for well over a year now when you look at the construction of this roster. Charlotte's three main players, Lamella Ball, Brandon Miller, Conkin and Bull, the three guys that had the wheel for this league-best offense in 2026

8:35are all perimeter-heavy players. Miller and Ball are both on the skinnier side, they struggle to get to the rim and finish with efficiency. Con has proven that he is more adept at that, better at it than a lot of people probably thought he was coming out of Duke, but that's not really his game. I mean, he leads the league in three winners, he doesn't lead the league in paint attempts and although he's again an efficient player in the paint, that's not really where he wants to operate, that's not where Charlotte wants him to operate. They like to get him to ball on the move to make decisions, to find open teammates. And if that leads to him, if the right decision is for him to get to the rim and finish and score, then yeah, that's great, but again, not where he wants to operate first and foremost. So the lack of rim pressure really stuck out. Phoenix was playing very aggressive off-ball defense. I noticed Devon Booker specifically was playing with really good physicality when Charlotte put him into screening actions.

9:35He was trying his best to really blow up the actions before they started and he kind of set the tone for what Phoenix was doing all night. Charlotte couldn't free up their shooters off the ball. The screening actions weren't working because Phoenix was switching a lot on the perimeter, which led to Charlotte really needing to rely on somebody to create offense in one-on-one scenarios. And they were struggling to do that. I think Lamella had a stretch in the third quarter where he was doing that well. He was getting downhill. He was touching the paint. He was finishing with those weird one-legged off-balance floaters. And he was kind of the, the Charlotte's best option for the majority of the game getting downhill and beating Phoenix's pressure, but he didn't really have anybody, you know, running with him doing that. Kobe White had a stretch in the second half where he was doing a good job getting downhill, getting to the basket, but I think Charlotte's lack of rim pressure don't want its inability to free their shooters

10:36on the perimeter due to Phoenix's physical, switch heavy, really aggressive off-ball defense was not necessarily a playbook that other teams can follow. I think we'll see that again in Portland tomorrow night because Portland has done that to Charlotte a couple of times in the last calendar year. If you remember when Charlotte lost by 40 or 50 in Portland last year, I consider that the worst game, Lamella Ball has played as a professional. He really struggled with Portland's physicality. And although Charlotte beat the trailblazers in the Spectrum Center a few weeks ago, that's one of the worst offensive games in the hornets of play it all year. You'll get effective fieldable percentage. Charlotte shot 50%, that's in the 24th percentile. They average, it was their points for 100 possessions. 111.6, 38th percentile. So that's a team that Charlotte has struggled with another team that played really aggressive defense on the perimeter that Phoenix kind of matched that style last night in the loss for the hornets. A couple of other notes from the Suns game.

11:36I mean, as always, I thought Musa's energy was really impactful. He had a stretch in the third quarter where he was blocking shots. He was diving out of bounds, a save loose balls, knocking balls away on the perimeter. Some of those led to possessions for the hornets. But I mean, Richie texted me right before I sat down and he was watching the game now. He said those two third quarter broken plays and lost balls in the back court that still led to threes for the Suns were killer. So to me, it felt like the energy was there for Charlotte. They were doing what they do on defense. They were, you know, causing some havoc, Musa, getting the passing lanes, knocking balls away. But it felt to me like every 50, 50 ball, every loose ball went the way of the Suns in that game. And that's kind of exacerbated some of the problems that Charlotte had on offense. They couldn't hold Phoenix to one shot or no shot because again, every loose ball was going the way of the Suns. But really loved Musa's impact in that third quarter. That's the kind of guy that he is.

12:36You know what he's going to bring. Energy wise every night. He's always going to set the tone with his effort on both ends. And that really shined for me in the third quarter. Brandon Miller, really good first half. My nose from the game are just full of moments praising Miller for his decisiveness in, I think it was a second quarter, Charlotte ran one of their double drag actions with the shallow cut, where Miller had the ball, had a very decisive drive, drew a foul, got to the line. I noticed at least two times where Phoenix put two on the ball and Brandon Miller made the right play, getting out of it. I think he's struggled when opposing teams switch. But when they put two on the ball and they force Miller to be a passer, he's done a good job at that. He has the physical tools to beat those situations with his long wingspan. He's able to pass over the top, find one of his bigs, call trainer, or Diabate, who have both improved as passers on the move of passers in the short role.

13:38And Miller did that last night. Five minutes to go and the second quarter is my favorite possession of the first half. Miller ran like a chase, get action with call trainer. Call trainer was on the left side of the floor by himself, Miller at the top, three hornets on the right side of the floor. Miller throws the ball to call trainer, chases his pass, gets it back from call trainer on a little dribble handoff. Miller gets to the baseline and throws a really great left-handed, live dribble pass to Grant Williams in the corner on the right corner, opposite side of the floor, who swings its adjust green for a three. So Miller was all over the first half. I think he had 11 points at half time, just kind of exactly what you expect from him. But just like the heat game on Friday night, he just totally disappeared in the second half. Charlotte just started to run their offense through non-branded Miller players. Miles Bridges had a couple of shots early in the third quarter that actually

14:40offended, ended up getting him bench for Grant Williams, which we'll talk about here in a second. Lamella Ball was getting to the rim a lot in the third quarter. Khan had a couple of three-point attempts in the third Kobe White started to drive Charlotte's offense. And there wasn't really a ton of brand and Miller featured. I think the next step for him, and this is something we've talked about all season if what we wanted to see from him, is to be a guy that can consistently drive offense for the hornets as a primary ball handler. Miller is a deadly catching shoot, three-point shooter. We've seen that this calendar year specifically with him just nailing three-pointer after three-pointer. I think about that stretch against At Washington, at Cleveland, at Indiana, home for Portland, home for Dallas, where Miller, and even at the beginning of the Boston game, he was just an absolute flamethrower. I called him the best shooter in the world for a couple of weeks there. Yes, even better than his teammate, Khan Knipple, because he's been so good at getting

15:40to his three-point shot off the catch, or even in pull-up situations, when teams are playing drop coverage, or going under screens where Miller is the ball handler. But I think he needs to take a step as a guy that can consistently drive, Charlotte's offense off the bounce. Can he be a guy that really takes advantage of switches? Can he bury little guys on a switch and score on them in the post? Can he get past a big man on the perimeter if teams switch? Can he just be a go-to crater in crunch time of big games? He's talked forever about being this elite two-way wing, and you see shades of it, especially on defense. He has a really good block rate for wings. He's consistently getting his hand in passing lanes. He's taking some of the harder matchups of the opposing teams throughout out, but he's kind of disappear in the second half of these two recent losses for the Hornets. And some of that is just, you know, teams are playing good defense. You tip your cap. The heat zone, both Miller and Charles Lee after the heat game, commented that the heat zone is very well executed,

16:43and it took away a part of the floor. Miller likes to operate. Charles Lee called it the high quadrant, and you can picture Brandon Miller getting a ball on the way and getting a ball screen and going to work, hitting one of those pull-up threes or making the live dribble passes that we've complimented him for for the majority of the season, but he's struggled in the second half of these couple of games, and you want to see him become a guy that can drive the offense for Hornets at times, especially in those lineups, without Lamella Ball, especially these lineups where Kobe White is still kind of getting his feet wet. He's another one that, you know, Charlotte needs to rely on for rim pressure in some of these games, and I thought he was much better in the second half last night than he was in the first. Thought Kant jumper looked off last night, he missed a couple of attempts, like left or right of the rim, and that's, you know, not normally where you see him miss his shots. If his shots miss, they're normally, you know, like a little short or a little long, like all great shooters, but I had a couple of like wild attempts last night that were, you know, out of pretty set situations for him.

17:47Something to monitor, he's missed a bunch of free throws here recently too, so I don't know if it's just, you know, tired legs for a rookie who has played the longest, the most basketball in the last calendar year that he's probably played in his entire life, playing these high effort, high intensity, playoff style games, night after night, could be weighing on him. And even the rest of the rookies, I think Karl Brenner struggled a little bit last night as well. He's not finishing around the rim as good as he was at the beginning of the season. So just something to monitor. As Charlotte plays down the stretch of these games, they're relying on rookies more than any team in the NBA. I think the stat was Charlotte has had their rookies, has had a higher percentage of their minutes played by rookies than any team in the league. That's including Brooklyn who drafted five rookies in the first round. So these guys aren't used to playing this much basketball, this much high intensity, meaningful basketball. So it's gonna take them, there's gonna be nights where, you know, they're off where their legs look tired

18:48because this is not normal for them. It's gonna take them a year or two to really understand the cadence and the rhythm and the stamina that it takes to play a full 82 game season. So again, something to watch. It could just be a one off. I think every time Connist had a bad game, he comes out in the next one and scores 25 points with the 60% true shooting percentage, that I think the real app tweets out pretty much after every good game, Conn has. I think that most recent one is that he passed to Michael Jordan for the most games ever as a rookie scoring 20, 25 plus points with a 60% true shooting. The last thing I wanna talk about, talk about from the sun's game is Miles Bridges versus Grant Williams. And the idea of who plays more. I think there are very clear pros to both of these guys' games. Miles as the switch hunter. I saw it last night, third quarter, Charlotte goes to, you know, they're starting five

19:49is in the game and they're running actions to get Colin Gillespie switched onto Miles Bridges so he can get downhill, post up, finished with his like patented, ready hook shot. And score over a smaller defender. I mean, that is something that is a real feature of Charlotte's offense, something that Charles Lee is trying to do to get Miles activated when he's playing a role, where he doesn't have the ball at the time, like he is used to. He's a good isolation score. He's another guy that can put pressure on the rim, although it's a little bit inefficient, shooting 62% at the rim this year, second worst number in his career. He's probably a better creator than Grant Williams. I think some of the moments where Miles operates as a passer, as a guy looking to set up his teammates have been pretty good. Recently, he's a good passer with both hands. When he's getting downhill, I'm looking to kick the ball out. He's another guy that, you know, the live dribble passing is probably better than he gets credit for. Quick aside, Josh Dream continues to be awesome in that area.

20:53He had two interior passes to Ryan Culkbrenner in the sun's game, where he's just like throwing these off-handed passes through traffic and tight spaces right into the hands of his big men. I've really appreciated Josh Green in his scaled down role, but you can see that some of the stuff that he had to do as Charlotte's second or third best starter last year, I've kind of stuck, and Charles Lee has really praised him recently. I've been quick to ask Charles questions about Josh Green and post-game pressers because he just feels like the kind of guy that is the heartbeat of a good team, a veteran you can bring off the bench that you know that you're getting 20 solid minutes of two-way play from. Anyways, that's the side. I have an affinity for Josh Green and what he's doing on the Hornets this year. Back to the original conversation, Miles versus Grant. And Grant, well, the pros for Grant Williams are clear too. He's very much a connector. That is a word that Charles Lee has used to describe his ideal role players a lot since he took over

21:54as the head coach in Charlotte in the summer of 2024. And after the heat game where Grant closed, he played the last few minutes alongside the other four starters. And I asked Charles Lee, so hey, why did Grant Williams close this game? What went the decision to play him over Miles Bridges down the stretch here? And I thought Charles' answer was great and kind of gives a clue as to what he's looking for from the power forward spot in tight moments. He said this. He said, I thought Grant was giving us a level of physicality defensively. Some of the stuff versus out of bio, some of the communication, the ability to kind of finish some of those possessions. And I thought offensively when he was in the corners, he was either knocking it down or making that extra pass for us and also making a difference on the offensive glass. So a ton of really good things from Grant. That's what Charlotte needs out of the power forward position. When the starting lineup is together,

22:55the Lamello, Brandon Conn, most of the Abats, I think operating as a connector, is exactly what they need from the power forward position. Grant, physical defender matches a better with bigger players. He had some really nice moments guarding out of bio where, you know, BAM still hit the 15 foot fade away, jumper out of the post, a shot that you just kind of have to live with. And, you know, you tip your cap and if it goes in, it goes in. I think Grant's probably a better shooter than Miles right now, at least as a, you know, stand still catching shoot guy. Miles was probably still a little bit better if he needs to get one up off the dribble. But I think I trust Grant. If he's going to be stationed in the corner, I think Grant, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I, it just anecdotally I trust Grant as the corner three point shooter a little more than I trust Miles. I think he's a better decision maker right now than Miles is too. The ball isn't stick with Grant. He knows that he's out there to set up to Charlotte's three star players. So I trust him on the perimeter as a trailer in transition,

23:56the ball's not going to stick in Grant's hands. It's either going to get up with a quick three pointer if he has a look or he's going to kick it to one of his guards for a better look. I suggested a starting line up switch in the Buzzbeat chat. I said that I, I'm curious to see what would happen if Charlotte started Grant Williams over Miles Bridges. But I think I'm going to walk that back. I don't think Charlotte needs to make a switch in their starting lineup. I think the lineup data is just, it's so good with that starting five. I mean, I've tweeted out a hundred times. You've all seen it that the five man unit of ball, Miller, Kenniple, Bridges, Diabate is the best lineup in basketball. It's the best high usage lineup that the NBA has seen in a really long time. James tweeted it out a few a week or two ago that it's the best five man unit in terms of net rating differential. Since 2004, I'm pretty sure is when clean the glass starts tracking that. The data is so good.

24:57It would be a rash move to change it. But I wouldn't be surprised if Charlotte closed with Grant more depending on the matchup. I think just the versatility that he offers kind of, for me, from what I think Charlotte wants out of the power forward position, I think we're going to see Grant close games a little more often. But that's not, and it's not even so much to say that Miles has been a problem because while the turnovers last night were a problem, the miss shots last night were a problem. Miles spent a lot of time complaining to the officials last night when he thought that he could have gotten a whistle or two last night in Phoenix. I guess two nights ago when you're listening to this, I think he's been really good for the most part. In this stretch where Charlotte has been one of the better teams in the league in terms of net rating the last two and a half months, Bridges has done a really nice job at scaling down his role and doing more of the role player things that you want him to do. The things that you weren't sure if you could do

25:59because he's been Charlotte's best second best player for the majority of his time on the team because of injuries, because of the unavailability of the players around him. I just think that again, the things that Grant brings you, the dependability that you have with a guy like Grant Williams kind of lends itself to closing games more for Charlotte. And I think Miles is the guy that you want to be on the floor with those bench units as someone who can drive often, somebody who can pressure the rim when Lamello isn't on the floor, somebody who can, you know that if you get a switch on Miles that he's going to at least be a 60% proposition to beat it. So he has a role on the team. I think Charlotte is going to lean on him a lot to great offense down the stretch. I just wonder if at the end of games we'll maybe see more Grant than Miles. Maybe not more. We'll see as much Grant as we'll see Miles depending on the matchups. And that's kind of something that is really nice about this Hornets 10 man rotation

26:59as that there is a lot of versatility in it. You could play Miles and Grant together play small ball with Grant at the five if Charlotte wants to space the floor and I have more shooting out there. You can play either one of them depending on the matchup. You can play both of them with Calkbrenner or Diabate. So Charles Lee has options and that's more than really any coach could say about, you know, a healthy team in Charlotte in recent memory. Upcoming games for Charlotte, they play at Portland on Wednesday nights. I kind of talked about them a little bit earlier. They ended up winning the game on February 28th by 16 but it was much closer than that. Charlotte kind of pulled away late but they struggled again with Portland's physicality, the trailblazers. As much as any team in the league, you have just a host of wing defenders that play with good physicality that's at shoot gaps that are physical on and off the ball that Charlotte could has struggled with in the past

28:00and will likely struggle with again. I'm not gonna offer a prediction for the game but I wouldn't be shocked if Charlotte's losing streak runs up to three because Portland is a tough matchup for them and it's a tough place to play. The trailblazers are the only show in town in Portland so that place is always packed out. I'm always really foggy too. Portland loves like a smoke machine pregame. So every time I watch a trailblazer game from tip feels like the court is foggy for the first couple of minutes until that clears up. So look out for that tomorrow. And Denny Obdiah is back. I'm pretty sure he missed the game in Charlotte with a back injury that has kind of an ailing him all season. So he's a guy in all star fighting for all NBA positioning until this recent back injury. And the archetype of player, the big downhill forward going to get to the rim is another type of player that Charlotte has struggled with. You think back to Jalen Johnson and the scoring output he's put up against the Hornets this year. Backed second out of a back-to-back, they go straight from Portland to play at Sacramento.

29:04Kings are the worst team in the league. I mean, that has to be a win, whether it's a 20 plus point blowout or episode two of the miracle after midnight. That is one that, you know, if you're the Hornets your kind of that one is one that you have to take care of your business and stack and get another win on the ledger especially with how good the bottom of the Eastern Conference has been playing recently. The teams who were in the play-in race or Lando, Miami, Atlanta, they don't lose anymore, apparently. So Charlotte needs to, needs to win the Winnable Games and add Sacramento as one. And then last game of the week is at San Antonio. They've been arguably the best team in the league for a couple of weeks now. We've seen what they've done to the Thunder this season. Charlotte upset them at the Spectrum Center in the midst of the 10-game or 9-game win streak in January and February, but not going to be an easy game. I mean, Victor Wembenyama is making a real push for NBA MVP right now.

30:04And he's the kind of guy that will take the loss in Charlotte seriously and use it to kind of spurn his effort going forward against the Hornets. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see like a pretty generational Victor Wembenyama stat line to get his lick back for what happened in Charlotte a few weeks ago. And then from there, it's Charlotte has a long, long homestand, two-game, a game against Miami, a game against Orlando. Those are Charlotte's first two games back at the Spectrum Center after this four-game road trip. And we will talk to you again before those two games. So thank you for listening here. Like I said at the beginning, five-star review, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Check out the Buzzbeat Plus sub-stack. We're doing great work over there. The game chats, the chat has been great during games with love to hear your opinions. I think it's arguably the best group of people on the internet to chat with during Hornets games. I'm going to send it over to a little snippet of one of our recent interviews over at Buzzbeat Plus.

31:08For you to kind of get an idea of what you were getting if you subscribe to Buzzbeat Plus, we are consistently rotating in guests who cover the league at large, who cover the Hornets, who cover the drafts to give you some fresh perspectives on the team from some folks that are maybe a little bit more zoomed out than the Buzzbeat crew are who are watching and analyzing every possession of every game. So I'm going to kick it over to that. Thank you again for listening. Take care and go Hornets. And obviously, Lamello is just, this is why I think he's misunderstood. He's a very unselfish player on the court. I think his vision is his best asset. You mentioned that in the video as a player, as a passer. He is constantly like scanning the floor. He sees plays happen three steps before anyone else. I think there are times when he leaves his feet where you're like, oh gosh, like he doesn't have a plan, but I do think he has a plan. He's just trying to hold off that defense a little bit longer.

32:10And you've mentioned something in the video that I really hadn't thought about before. You were talking about how teams that run drop coverage might be more inclined to come up closer to the level one for his shooting, but number two, maybe his ability to hit that floater. And because of that, he might have the ability to hit the lob pass over the top for an all youpe. We've seen ball hit like half court, like all youpe's all seasoned, but his vision within the half court where spacing is typically a little bit more cramped. He can, he just needs a little bit of space to find that lob to Moosa or to Cockburner. If you were a coach, XJ, telling a center to either drop back and allow the floater or come closer, like how are you game planning for Lamello on pick and rolls? Man, that's, you put me in a tough spot, Richie. How do I'm like game planning to stop Lamello on pick and rolls? Uh, honestly, I think in those situations, so like first and foremost, if you're guarding Lamello, you have to chase so hard over the screens. Like anybody I'm guarding Lamello with

33:10is not really about putting size necessarily on him. It's having somebody who's willing to physically fight over the top of screens to rear contest and side contest and keep him off with those pull up threes that he's so great at. And then once I'm running him inside the line, I'm definitely just playing a deeper drop. I would end up living with Lamello's floater and just testing his efficiency on that as opposed to living with like his lob ability. He's like, if, you know, aside from maybe tray, I think he's the best lob passer in the league. There's nothing more fun than, you know, the Charlotte Horn is getting a turnover and going to Lamello and he's running up the court with miles on one side and branded on the other. And you already know what's going to happen. So, um, and even in those situations where it's Lobs to moose moose and to, to caulk burner, I think it's just, I would just test him on the floater if I had to. Yeah, that's probably the way that I would lean as well. And that's a good point about having a guy that has a lot of activity defensively because you're going to have to chase Lamello over the screens, force him inside the arc. The Hornets have had this place,

34:11I've been too frequent. It's been something that I've like, I think I've, it's pinned to my ex account right now, but they've been stashing moosa or caulk burner in the corner. And if Lamello can turn the corner a lot of times, he can kind of engage that low man. And you're probably thinking, okay, caulk burner or moosa in the weak side corner, not a threat, obviously, for a shot. But because Lamello can engage that guy and draw in, that's where they have the law plays come into effect. I think the biggest thing that we've seen from defenses is to your point, maybe a guy that can chase over the top, but they've been throwing two at Lamello a lot. And Lamello has to make the pass over the top and allow the four on three situation to happen. So it's almost as if you're taking Lamello out of the play completely and throwing two at him that way. When you were researching for this video, was there anything specific, a statistic that really caught your eye that was just like jarring to you about Lamello and how he's impacted the Hornets? Yeah, that's a great question.

35:12Is there anything, there was just a ton of stuff. I think really his shooting talent was the biggest thing that stood out to me. So in terms of some people index.com has a lot of really cool metrics that I think are very useful to elucidate guys' impacts on the game that don't necessarily show up in box-core stats. And shooting talent is one of the key ones. And you look at his percentages and they don't necessarily map onto a shooting talent. And that's because of his shot difficulty of a shot diet. But this is a guy who is basically anywhere 95th percentile up in terms of three point shooting talent, pull up three point shooting talent, deep three point shooting talent. He's 99th percentile basically every year of his career. So this is a guy who is basically when people index is trying to create these metrics is trying to isolate for shot diet, difficulty of these shots and all these things and then say, what's his actual ability? Because if we think about it, if Curry, if Steph Curry took even more difficult shots

36:13than he already does and he shot 35% from three instead of 40%, would that mean he was a worse shooter? Would that mean he's actually not a great shooter? No, of course, the underlying talent is the same. He's still the same guy. His percentages just reflect something different based on the types of shots that he takes. And so people think of Lamello as like a good shooter because she shoots like 38, 35, 36, 37, 38%. But he's actually an elite shooter in the game, it just takes really difficult shots and that's where all the leverage comes from. So the two key things I think for Lamello are that shooting talent that players and teams know about and respect and then his playmaking ability, his vision, his willingness to pass all those things. He has those two things, he's able to leverage them and that's the most interesting thing about him to me. I thought you were gonna reference the on-off splits that Lamello has because I feel like those numbers load around online so much. Those are insane. I'll say on the on-off, real quick, just like obviously they got Kobe White for this reason, but like on-off's are basically just like,

37:14when Lamello's on in the court, the offense just completely craters. And even if the on-off's change, let's say they get narrower, let's say Kobe White's awesome and is able to create offense for the second unit. And those on-off start to shrink. Again, that doesn't mean Lamello's less impactful. That just means that the guy who's playing behind him is not, I don't want to not call him sexted or anybody like that. Guys who aren't gonna create at the level that he can. Right, the on-off numbers talk a little bit about, I mean, not a little bit. A lot of it about the player itself but also the difference between the backup and the starter. So let's wrap with this. A couple of questions about the Hornets as a whole. I know you cover the nicks, but you still host a podcast that covers the league as a whole, someone from the outside looking in. What did you liked about Khan Knipple and how he's fit into this offense beside Lamello? Man, Khan is scary for the league. I got 20 years old, man. Like it's, honestly, the whole big three is with Brandon Miller, but Khan specifically, I love all of the ghosting that they do.

38:16I love Charles Lee's just like, let's just run this offense where we're like ghosting screen and rolls constantly. It's constant movement and action and just putting these guys in the spots where they can take advantage of their, all three of their elite movement shooting that they have and it's just like incredibly, they work incredibly well together as a trio, but Khan and Lamello in particular especially. And then as far as like what he's able to do beside shooting is the most shocking thing about Khan Knipple and I don't watch a ton of college basketball honestly, so I don't have a great scout on these guys before they get into the league. They get into the league, I watch them in pre-season and start to learn about them. Khan Knipple is so good at like every aspect of basketball and that's the coolest thing about him, not just the shooting, he can create a little bit, he's a good passer, he can get into a defensive stand and get stops, he has really good quick hands, obviously elite hand-eye coordination so he can strip the ball and create turnovers, he's always making the right play obviously, he'll box out, he'll literally do everything on the court.

39:18I love his mid-range game that he's able to get to, he's finishing off the glass. I think he's just like such a good player, it's reflected in the impact data, offensive impact according to estimated plus minus which is dunks and threes, one number impact metric, one of the most reputable stats, suggests that he's having the most impactful offensive season in the last 25 years, and that is including Zion Williamson, that is including any number of guys, Luca Doncic, that you could think of who was great, Kyrie Irving, who was great right away, right now it's suggesting that he's having a stronger impact offensively than any of those guys, which is crazy at 20 years old. Yeah, I didn't watch, I didn't scout him out of Duke that much, I don't watch college basketball, so I'm kind of like in the same boat as you, so in some places I'm kind of like pleasantly surprised, like I did not know that he was that great of a rebounder for his size, really the only blemish I feel as that's kind of jumping off the screen to me for Khan, is the turnovers, sometimes he tries to split guys

40:20and he just loses the ball, but I just think that's gonna come with time. Do you have a prediction on the rookie of the year debate, do you think Khan has a chance or do you think Cooper Flag's name just is just too much? I think you guys are gonna be frustrated with the result of the season. I think Flag probably wins, I think Khan deserves it very clearly over Flag. I don't think it's actually close personally. Oh wow. Yeah, I don't think it's a close call. Just in terms of everything that Khan is doing from the standpoint of an impact standpoint, helping his team win standpoint, all of that stuff, I just think it's clear, and he's been even better of late, he's just like getting better somehow throughout the season. What he just did against Indiana was incredible. So I think he deserves it, but I do think it's gonna go to Flag just in name reputation and then just like the counting stats. Yeah, I think that's what voters might lean on. Final question, let's say you were to do another video on the Hornets, not saying that you have to, but if you were to choose something other than Lamella,

41:21a specific player or a storyline for the Hornets again, where would you look next? Honestly, I would probably, it's a great question. I love this question because I am thinking about it. Thanks for not forcing me to do another Hornets video if I decided to do one. It would be about the Hornets future because my co-host Jeff, kind of we were texting a little bit and he was like, who are the top teams like in terms of like the next five to 10 years you would take moving forward? And basically he was leading me towards like, the Hornets are in the top five of those teams. They have every one of their picks moving forward over the night until 2032. I think they have potentially up to three additional first round picks. They have Conconip on a rookie deal. So he's gonna be on a rookie deal for three more seasons. Brandon's gonna get extended soon, but Lamella obviously has elite in my opinion, low end upside. And this is a guy who's under 25, people don't realize he's not even 25 years old yet. He's played less than 300 games in his NBA career.

42:22He's only going to get a lot better. And so when you're starting with those three who are highly synergistic with one another, they make each other better and more effective. And then you add in the picks, you add in potential upside from guys like Salon who when he first came into the NBA, I thought this guy was gonna be terrible. I thought he was a complete bus. I'm like he doesn't, he looks like he's a chicken with his head cut off. The distance that he's improved so much in terms of just like his coordination and awareness and then obviously his shooting has really gone through the roof. So you have some upside with guys like that. I think that this is a team that could be in the next five years be like an elite team contending every single season for a five year stretch. So that's kind of what I would want to talk about. Yeah, fingers crossed, but we appreciate your time, XJ. Let our listeners know where they can find you and your work online because you've been very gracious with your time, but also very informative. Yeah, I appreciate that Richie. Definitely appreciate you having me on.

43:23Shout out to all the listeners to BuzzBee. You can find me at hot hand theory anywhere on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube is our main channel is hot hand theory and we do video essays on all teams across the league, podcasts on all teams across the league and kind of like breaking things down from a non-conventional lens and taking a different perspective on the league. So that's kind of our goal and hopefully we're doing a good job at that and look for you to check us out. Very good. Thank you for XJ. I am Richie. We'll talk to you guys next time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not to brag or anything, but our B's new 799 meet in three boxes kind of a big deal. The other guys give you just one side. We give you three sides, not to brag. You get a meaty sandwich, curly fries, Mott sticks a sweet treat and a drink, all for just $7.99.

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