April 15, 2024 • 28 mins
The Hornets capped off the 2023-24 season by spoiling Cleveland's chances at a top three playoff seed, thanks to a 120-110 win in the final game of the campaign. Rob Longo and Sam Perley break down the game and highlight their stars of the game, and also discuss if we've seen a potential glimpse of the future for the Hornets with the top performances from some of the younger players on the roster.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Hornets Hoodcast, presented by Charlotte I ear
nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Rob Longo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi friends, and welcome to today's edition of the Hornets Hoodcast,
the official podcast of the Charlotte Hornets, brought to you
by Santa Charlotte ire Nos and Thrown Associates, the official
I ear nose and throw care provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
Rob Longe with you on a final regular season recap
edition of the AHHC. And it's a winning edition of
the Hornets Podcast. As Charlotte picks up a one twenty
(00:34):
to one to ten win in Cleveland yesterday afternoon, second
consecutive year that the Hornets have ended the season in
Cleveland and then for the second time and as many
times they pick up a win in the final game
as well. We'll break this one down for you and
we'll provide our stars of the day of course, afternoon
game yesterday here for the Hornets. And did we get
a little bit of a glimpse of the future. We'll
(00:55):
talk about that here a little bit later on as
well as the Hornets pick up that one ten win
and did it with a lot of the reserves, No Davias, Breton, Smiles, Bridges,
Brandon Miller, Nick Richards or Grant Williams, on top of
all the other injuries that the Hornets had, on top
of the previous ones, the status quo ones that I
like to call them here that were kind of the
season enders based off of the time that they happen.
(01:17):
But we will break all of these nuances down on
this episode of the Hornet Timecast with the lead writer
of Hornets dot Com, the one and only Sam Prelli.
And Sam, thank you for joining me for game number
eighty two recap wise here on the Hornets Podcast. It's
been a long season, but nobody else I'd rather recap
some of these games with you here, and I'm glad
we're able to do it on a winning addition to
get us both out the door here at the end
of this season.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Absolutely, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure
and yeah, obviously a tough season for the Hornets, but
always good to go out on a win. So plenty
of to talk about in this one, which was a
very entertaining game all things considered, so excited to dive
into it with.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You, and of course a win to take Steve Clifford
out for one final game here as eight hundred and
first game coach. Of course, he'll be stepping down at
the end of season's end, which of course would be today.
He'll have some exit interviews here a little bit later on,
and I'm sure we'll recap some of that stuff here
on Hornets Podcast episodes later on, but let's go ahead
and recap the game yesterday as well. Again, a lot
of injuries in this One's a lot of people sitting
(02:12):
out with some bumps and bruises for Game eighty two.
As let's be honest, the Hornets aren't playing for anything
else other than maybe some flattened lottery odds, which weren't
really in the play going into this one. Anyways, Cleveland
had something to play for. They had the ability to
move all the way up to the two seed if
things were able to fall their way with a couple
of other games, so they sat Darius Garland in Donovan Mitchell. Still,
(02:33):
even though they had the ability to move up to two,
and the way the game shook out, things could have
gotten better for the Cavs, So a little bit of
an interesting twist in that one. But let's just go
ahead and look at this one from a whole. Hornets
trailed at thirty three to twenty four after the first
quarter of play. They got back into it. They trailed
it by one going into the locker room at halftime,
fifty eight to fifty seven, as they went six of
(02:55):
eleven from beyond the yark there in the second quarter alone,
horn It's had nineteen assists on twenty two made field
goals at halftime. They were doing a really good job
sharing the ball. We go to the third frame and
the Hornets found themselves in a little bit of a
deeper hole. They were down eight going into the fourth quarter.
After Cleveland put up thirty eight points in that third
quarter shooting fifty six percent from the field. The Hornet
shot sixty three percent from the field, but Cleveland got
(03:16):
hot from three point land. They were six to seven
beyond the York in the third quarter alone. George the
Ain had sixteen points through three quarters of play for
the Calves, four of the players already in double figures,
but the Hornets were holding strong in their own rate
as well. JT. Thor had a career high seventeen points
already through three quarters of play. Bryce Mcallen's Marquise bolden
Heach had fourteen nicksmth Junior was in double figure, so
was Trey Man, so both teams doing a really good
(03:38):
job shooting the basketball in that game. Yesterday, Max Drews
got a triple double midway through the fourth quarter, but
the Hornets closed the game strong. They outscored the Cavs
thirty two to fourteen in the final frame. The Hornets
closed the game on a thirty to seven run in
the final nine minutes and fifty three seconds of the contest.
Nick Smith Junior a monster fourth quarter. He finished this
with a career high twenty four points, fourteen of the
(03:59):
twenty four coming in that fourth quarter. JT. Thor finished
with twenty points and ten rebounds, his first career double
double as Charlotte plays a little bit of spoiler for
the Calves in the win. Hornets by the way twenty
one and sixty one to finish the season, fewest wins
since the twenty twelve twenty thirteen season, back when the
Bobcats finished the year twenty one and sixty one as well.
The good news though. The following season, the Bobcats went
(04:21):
forty three to thirty nine and made the playoffs. That
was Steve Clifford's first year in his first in here
as head coach of the Hornets franchise Bobcats at the time,
of course, but going back to present day here, this
was an interesting choice by the Calves to rest some
of their guys here, Sam, I know that there were
maybe some rumblings or some murmurs that maybe they didn't
want the two seed because they wanted to avoid a
(04:41):
team like Philadelphia or Miami in the first round, But
doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me personally,
because at some point you have to play some of
the best teams in the NBA, and if you're on
that side of the bracket as the two seed, then
you avoid playing a team like Oh Boston for as
long as you possibly can, and you have home court
all the way until the Eastern Conference Finals. But I digress.
If the Calves would have ended up playing their starters
(05:03):
and ended up winning that game yesterday, then they would
have moved into the three seed and they would be
playing Indiana in the playoffs at the end of next
week as they get a couple of days off, but
instead they lose the game last night and they end
up being the four seed and they end up playing
Orlando in the first round. So again, a little bit
of a cat and mouse game there. I thought it
(05:23):
was interesting that they rested some of their guys. I
know that Donovan Mitchell has been in and out of
the line up here towards the end of the season.
Darius Garland has had some bumps and bruises as well,
so I guess airing on the side of caution is
the best thing. But the Hornets went out there and
despite not having several starters and playing a lot of
the young guys, they end up playing spoiler last night.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, and one real quick book keeping note. Unfortunately, it
looks like postgame they actually pulled a rebound away from
JT four, so no double double, but still finishes with
a career high nine rebounds.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very interesting game considering what was at stake for Cleveland.
And you're kind of keeping an eye on the Orlando
Milwaukee game. In the New York Chicago game, we saw
Cleveland lost Craig Porter Junior, who's a little bit more
of a reserve, but look to really have a painful
sprained ankle there in the first quarter, and sometimes that
kind of just scares you a little bit. And it
felt like Cleveland was really kind of trying to toe
(06:13):
the line between giving this the best effort they can
and keeping their foot on the gas just enough as
long as they could and then try and hand it
off to the very very end. I don't know if
they're looking at matchups that they're looking at, you know,
we want to play Orlando, we want to play Indiana,
or you know me personally, I wouldn't want to look
too far ahead to say, oh, we would get Boston
in the second round or this team in the second round,
(06:34):
because you just you got to focus on the first round,
especially for a team like Cleveland in this current construction.
I don't think they've gotten out of the first round yet,
So it is a little bit of you know, jockeying,
I guess you could say, but could be some thought
to wanting to avoid the Philadelphia Miami groups in the
seven to eight, who are probably better than that seed indicates.
But to the hornet's eye, ultimately really impressive performs. He
(06:57):
had a lot of guys playing heavy minutes for the
first time play well at all in Boston. The thing
that really impressed me the most was the ball movement,
especially in that second quarter. The interior scoring and the
half court scoring really just wasn't happening, particularly when Allen
and Mobley in the game, Hornets turned on the transition stuff.
They kept pushing the pace, they were moving the ball,
(07:17):
knocking down open threes. I thought that was really really
got them going there in the second quarter, and it
was also kind of what fueled that run there at
the end of the fourth too. So fourteen fourth quarter
points is actually the fewest they've given up since December
of twenty twenty one, So really good finish and this one,
I like the way a lot of these guys played,
and I loved it they took advantage of opportunities that
(07:38):
might not have been there earlier in the season. So overall,
if you just look at this game in a vacuum,
really impressive with some of the guys and the way
they were able to finish what was a tough season
on a positive note, and especially sending Steve Clifford out
with a victory as well, I thought was really cool.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, first off, thank you for the note on JT.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Thor.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Now that I'm looking at the box score, I'm feel
like I'm gonna have to go to Cleveland and give
a piece of my mind to some of the stack
keepers there. Again, I don't know how that all that
works at the end of the game, but yeah, JT
did have officially at double double. When we were signing
off the era on Hornets Radio networking out, they changed it,
so he finishes with twenty points and nine rebounds. A
little bit disappointing considering that would have been his first
career double double. Max Drews, by the way, I mentioned
(08:13):
that trouble double his first career triple double. Maybe they
should take a rebound away from him. I don't know,
but I digress. At any rate, Hornets won at one
twenty to one to ten in the land last night.
Just to give you an idea of all the players
that were out in this one for the Hornets, and
starting five was Vassilia Michitch Trey Man, JT. Thorp, Bryce
Mcallen's and Marquise Bolden and Vassilia Mitchich ended up only
playing nine games in the contest. Alexi Pokazewski came off
(08:36):
the bench. He played nineteen minutes. So, like Sam mentioned,
there were a lot of guys playing some heavy minutes. JT.
Thor was one of them. He finished with forty one minutes.
That was by far the game high. Bryce Mcallan's Marquise
Bolden each played thirty tray Man played twenty four, Nick
Smith Junior thirty three minutes off the bench, League Black
twenty two minutes or thirty two minutes, i should say
off the bench, and Mary Bailey had twenty two minutes
off the bench. And all of those guys had some
(08:58):
really good performances basically career highs across the board for minutes, points, rebounds,
basically anything you can think of. Because they had so
much more time out there on the floor in a
one twenty to one to ten win in Game eighty
two yesterday afternoon in Cleveland. That sets the stage for
a lot of stars of the Afternoon. We're gonna pick
our personal favorites next here on a Hornet Tive cast
brought to you by Senta, rob Longo and Sam Purley
(09:24):
with a winning edition of the Hornetsive Cast. The final
game recap edition of the Hornets Time Cast this season
It's funny how time flies by. I feel like yesterday
we were in October getting ready for the season to start,
and here we are in the middle of April as
the season comes to a close. Hornets winners one twenty
to one ten in Cleveland last night, led by Nick
Smid Junior, the rookie out of Arkansas a career high
(09:45):
twenty four points, a game high twenty four points as well.
JT Thor also reaching a twenty point plateau with twenty
of his own. Brice Mcallen's had eighteen points in a
starting role. Or Quise Bolden had fourteen points. That's a
career high. Tray Man had eleven points. Leaky Blackamary Bailey
each had eleven coming off the bench. A lots of
like in this one yesterday from an individual standpoint of course,
as well as a team standpoint, like we touched on
(10:06):
in the previous segment. Sam one of those things that
I forgot to mention thirty six total assists off forty
six made buckets. That's a pretty good job sharing a basketball.
But all things considered, who is your top performer from
yesterday's game? Number eighty two?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with Nick Smith Junior. I thought
he was really really good obviously, you know, indicative of
his you know, his final line career high twenty four
points after scoring fifteen in Boston the other night as
one of kind of the main offensive bright spots in
that game, also at a career high six of eleven
from three point range, six rebounds, three assists, played about
(10:38):
thirty two and a half minutes, with nine of twenty
overall fourteen points in the fourth quarter, if I'm not mistaken,
So really really turned on the scoring there, you know,
moving back in transition, did a good job of not
settling for shots, you know, got opened, was moving without
the ball, and was really big at you know, had
the rebounds, and I thought he was a big part
of kind of getting those live ball rebounds and pushing
(11:00):
pace not only in the fourth quarter but also the
second quarter there. So that's exactly the kind of game
you want to see from somebody like Nick Smith that
you know, really hasn't been in the rotation a lot
the last several weeks. But to end his rookie season,
which was a little up and down with a really
good game in Boston, in a really really good game
in Cleveland, It's certainly the kind of finish you want
(11:20):
to see for somebody in his position.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Amari Bailey to Nick Smith Junior wing three.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, sir, Nick Smith.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Junior, a fourteen point quarter. He's made six threes and
Charlotte leads it one twenty.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
To one, ten and probably the dagger right there is
the Hornet's got that big bucket laid from Nick Smith Junior.
But he was fantastic in yesterday's game. He would have
been my top performer if you didn't take him, So
I'm glad you did. Nick Smith Junior, the rookie out
of Arkansas having a career day yesterday in Cleveland, very
similar to Bryce mcgallan's last year a little bit when
you come to think about it, because Bryce had a
(11:56):
career day in Cleveland in the final game of the
season last year as well. Another Hornet trookie having a
very big game. Eighty two. After the game, Nick mcjunior
said that now I'll just let him tell you he
was very excited to pick up the win.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Man a lot.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
I'm happy as hell because on a silver effect that
you know, I just get to play more. And yeah, man,
I mean we came out, we played hard. You know,
even though it was the last game, people say, we're
not playing for anything, but you know, with NBA players,
so you know, we're gonna go out and you know,
play hard every day, and coach wanted us to go
out there and play hard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So we had to day.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Definitely been an interesting up and down season for Nick
Smith Junior. Think there were a lot of high aspirations
for him personally to have a lot of playing time
this year just didn't work out that way. Went to
the g League, got a lot of run in the
Greensboro team, and was able to get some minutes in there.
But the fact that he's able to have a shining
moment here at the end of the season really good
to see and definitely sets up a very big summer
for him because again there's gotta be a lot of
(12:47):
decisions made about the roster, and Nick Smith Junior could
be one of the benefactors of that, having more playing
time going into next season as well. But for me,
in terms of my top performer from last night's game,
I'm gonna go with the guy that had another career day.
That's JT Thor.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
JT Thor answering attempts from the wing. Yes, serge at
Thor yet another lows drilling three point shot, and it's
a career day for JT. Thor four with a new
career high fifteen points.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
He was able to finish with twenty in the game yesterday.
He goes eight of eleven from the field, three for
six pon York, one for two at the free throw line.
Did have that rebound get taken away from him. Has
nine officially now in a box score four assists, three blocks,
two steals. I mean, he literally did everything in that
game yesterday. He was anywhere and everywhere. He finishes as
a plus eleven in the plus minus, which is not
(13:34):
the best for any hornet. That would be leaky black.
He was a plus twenty two and a plus minus
and Mary Bailey was also a plus seventeen in the
plus minus as well. But JT Thor a very big game,
career high in minutes two I'm sure with those forty
one without looking it up, just based off of what
we've seen from him over the last couple of seasons,
I thought he was excellent in a game last night
that everybody got an opportunity to play. I know that
(13:55):
was kind of the rallying cry going into the Boston game,
and that's what Steve Clifford mentioned. Obviously, Vasa Michiz didn't
play a whole lot of minutes. Poku didn't play a
whole lot either, So I mean that really shrinks the
bench and that gives a lot of opportunity here for
these younger guys, and they were able to ball out
and do so in a pretty important way, picking up
that one twenty to one ten win. A couple of
other cap tips Bryce mcgawan's eighteen points three rebounds for sists.
(14:17):
I thought Markquise Bolden played an excellent game, especially defensively.
He had four blocks there and a Steel had a
really big block at the end of the third quarter,
which I thought kind of set the tone going into
the fourth frame because the Hornets were able to get
out in transition and run and get a lot of
points off of turnovers on fast break points. They end
up scoring seventeen fast break points in the game. They
end up turning Cleveland over fourteen times. That resulted in
(14:39):
nineteen Hornets points because of those turnovers. But Markquise Bolden,
I thought, did a really good job on that back line,
doing a good job playing defense without fouling, only had
one personal foul, and he didn't have a whole lot
of Goldtown. I don't even think he had a goaltending
violation either, So he just played perfect back line defense.
I don't know SAMs A too late to change by
saw performer from last night's game, because I'm talking myself
(14:59):
into markquis Bowl now that I mention it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I think there were a lot of guys to highlight
in this one, and that's exactly what you wanted to see.
You know, there was kind of the you know, the
sentiment after the game, as you know, there wasn't anything
to play for but from a playoff positioning and a
standings positioning, certainly that's the case. But this is exactly
what you want to see from the guys that really
played heavy minutes in this one. This is what you
wanted to see, Like you know, Nick Smith said, the
(15:21):
NBA players, this has a lot of them been waiting
for this kind of opportunity. Go up there, compete, do
it is, do what you do, get some stuff on tape,
Use this for momentum, motivation, confidence, whatever you need to
do to kind of use this performance in a positive
construction manner I think is really good, and yeah I was.
I was impressed with Markus Bolden as well. A lot
of lefty hooks too, something you don't really see in
(15:43):
the NBA too often, but in the good little paint game.
And back to the basket stuff. And to circle back
on JT. Thor, Yes, absolutely a career high minutes for him.
His previous was about thirty six twenty five, so blew
right past that and was eight of eleven shooting very efficient.
So top to bottom, I think you've got contributions from everybody,
(16:04):
and again a good way to end the season with
everybody kind of chipping in to end this one on
a positive note.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And again keep in mind too, Marquise was doing this
out there while the Twins tours for Cleveland. We're out
there as well. Jared Allen played twenty three minutes and
the Mobiley played twenty five minutes as well, so he
was going up against some pretty stiff competition. He was
able to hold his own. More of a throwback big
Marquise Bolden Hiss did attempt a three point shot, it
did not go out. He obviously did make it, but
again ends up being seven to nine around a ram,
(16:30):
inside the arc, whatever you want to call it. In
the game last night, Hornets went at once twenty to
one ten. So again we saw a lot of good
from a lot of young players, and maybe did we
see a little bit of a glimpse of the future
for the Hornets. We'll talk about that next here as
we wrap up this edition of the Hornets. I've cast.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
This last twenty five to thirty games where you know
we're out of it. We had a very difficult schedule
and that's why I told me in the locker, I'm
really proud of all of them, the way they hung
in there, the attitude they had. Maybe we kept getting better.
They practiced well and replay some good games.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's head coach Steve Clifford evaluating his team after a
one twenty to one to ten win in Cleveland yesterday afternoon,
finishing the season twenty one and sixty one on the campaign,
his final game as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets.
Rob Logo and lead rider of Hornets dot Com Sam
Perley with you putting a button on this episode of
the hornetsive cast quite frankly putting a button on the
season as well. I'm sure we'll have some season recap
(17:25):
episodes coming up here in the next couple of days
here on the Hornets haveive Cast, but recapping Game eighty
two here. I believe this is officially episode one to
eighty of the season. So the grind kind of coming
to the end a little bit here, but not gonna
go quite every day on the Hornetsive Cast in the offseason,
because we're not that crazy. But we will have a
couple of days off in between here and there. We'll
(17:45):
have some player interviews and you'll hear from some of
those guys, and of course we've got a coach re
search that we have to cover as well. So plenty
to come here this offseason on the Hornets haveive Cast.
But as we take one final segment here on these
game recap episodes of the A. E. C. Wanted to
just kind of generalize here and take a look at Obviously,
there's got to be a lot of questions and there's
(18:06):
gotta be a lot of decisions made on players on
this roster, because if we're being honest, in the NBA,
basically a third of the roster is turning over from
a year by year basis, So some decisions have to
be made by new GM Jeff Peterson, but we saw
a glimpse of what potentially the future could be here
for the Hornets. Of course, all of the rookies having
some pretty stellar games last night, maybe outside of Vasa
(18:27):
Miechitz only because he played nine minutes and technically he's
a rookie, but at the same time he's really not
since he's thirty years old. But guys like Marquise Bolden,
who has played a couple of games in the NBA
not quite a rookie, but signed that two way contract,
they'll have to be some decisions made there. Of course,
Leaky Black is on a two way deal and so
is Amari Bailey, and those guys were able to ball
out with some eleven points off the bench and playing
(18:49):
some heavy minutes as well. Bryce mcgallan's a second year guy,
played a lot of minutes in the contest yesterday, and
we touched on Trey Mann in his future with the
Hornets here and a couple of other podcasts as well.
Nickson Junior a rookie that seemed like he shown really
brightly there six of eleven from Beyond the York in
the game yesterday with those twenty four points, a career
high at game high as well. So the future seems
(19:10):
very very bright in Charlotte. I know we obviously have
had a lot of glimpses of that this season with
the number two overall pick and Brandon Miller, but these
are some other guys that one you have to decide
what's going to happen with them moving forward with the
two way deals and maybe converting them to NBA contracts
and all that stuff. Don't want to speculate because there's
a lot of decisions to be made and that will
take a lot of time here in the offseason, of course.
(19:30):
But we saw glimpses of some young potential talent here
in that game yesterday against Cleveland. And I know that
the Caves didn't play all of their heavy hitters in
that game yesterday, but you still have guys that saw
the floor out there for the Calves that are going
to be in the rotation and be starting in a
playoff series here next weekend, with guys like Evan Mobi,
Jared Allen, Max Drews is going to come off the bench,
(19:52):
Isaacacorro could potentially start for them, George Niang Marcus Morris Senior.
All of those guys have the potential to play in
a playoff series this upcoming we an against the Orlando Magic,
So it's not like they were playing against obviously Donovan
Mitchell and Darius Garland and those kind of guys, But
they were still playing some pretty stiff competition and they
ended up pulling out the win.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
If Cleveland didn't have maybe some seating at stake, and
you know, the Orlando Milwaukee game didn't kind of transpire
the way it was, And I would love to know
sort of the process of how information from other games
is relayed to coaches or things like that. I think
that would be really interesting because it has to play
into the rotations and things like that. So it's a
(20:32):
good way to end the season. And I think you
saw the potential of a lot of guys and what
they can do when given the opportunity. But so much
of this league, and Steve Clibberts said this a lot,
and so much of the NBA is okay, going out
and scoring fourteen points, Can you do it the next game?
Can you do it the next game? Can you do
it the next game after that? And not having you know,
(20:53):
a fourteen point game, a two point game, a six
point game, a twenty five point game. It's about kind
of making it consistent. So again it is a very
very small sample size. And you know, if you want
to take the last handful of games two when more
guys were getting into the rotation, that's you can also
use that. But this is good stuff for the summer.
You look at it, you look what you can do
if it gives you confidence, it gives new front office,
coaching staff, whatever, it is something to kind of look
(21:15):
at to make them think. And you know, if this
is the difference between getting an invite to Summer League
or another team sees its summer league and then you
play well there, I mean, it's all about kind of
staying consistent, and you know, making teams think about you,
I guess is one way to go, whether it's the Hornets,
whether it's another team too. So you'd rather obviously end
the season this way with guys playing well and going
(21:36):
out on the high note than the opposite. So and
just overall these last couple of weeks, and Steve Clifford
said this after the game, I mean, this is not
at all how I thought or we thought the season
was going to go, or certainly wanted it to go.
But you look at just about every game, and I
would say of the last like thirty maybe since the
trade deadline, you could probably count on one hand a
couple of games that the Hornets just didn't have the
(21:59):
energy or effort in there. But you felt like they
were competing in just about every single game up until
maybe when you know the rotation and the you know,
health and talent stuff kind of really factored in at
the end against some really really good caliber teams. You know,
they had a few comeback wins and they held their
own down the stretch. So I know it's a little
bit of a mass over lining there, but given the circumstances,
(22:20):
this is a good finish to the season for the Hornets,
and I think there are you saw some glimpses here
in this Cleveland game of the potential of what they
have on the roster. Now it's about kind of sorting
through all of it, making the right decisions moving forward
and hopefully getting healthy and taking that next step next season.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There's a lot of decisions that have to be made,
but they're going to be tough ones, and that's what
you want you want to have those tough decisions because
that means you got a lot of young potential talent
there on the roster as well. And before we go
here on this episode of the Hornets Podcast, wanted to
give one more cap tip to head coach Steve Clifford
his final game of his coaching career here in the
Queens City, which Charlotte goes out a winner. And here's
(22:59):
a quote that League Black had with Sam Farber after
the game, And I think this just kind of speaks
volumes to the kind of guy that Steve Clifford is.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I means everything, man. You know, I'm not a man
of many words, but Coach cliff Man, I honestly, man,
I think about him a lot. Bro's He's really like
one of my favorite coaches I've ever played for. And
it's not even that we talk a lot, you know,
it's just the way he approaches the game and the
way he approaches, you know, his task every single day. Man,
he really cares about his craft. So that's just something
I really really value and I really appreciate, and I
try to do the best I can to make sure
(23:25):
he goes out smiles.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So I think that quote just carries and summarizes Steve
Clifford in such a great way for a guy like
Leaky Black, who is a rookie who didn't spend a
whole lot of time in Charlotte this season, spent a
lot of it in Greensboro with the Swarm and working
his way up to this NBA roster on the final
couple of days playing for guys like in his collegiate
career like Hubert Davis, and going to a blue blood
(23:47):
like North Carolina, and he's saying it's Steve Clifford's one
of the best coaches that he's ever been with. I
think that just kind of speaks volumes to the kind
of guy that Coach cliff is. And I know he'll
be around. I know he'll be hanging out and working
it with the front office and Jeff Peterson. I'm doing
a couple of different things there in that role, But
going to miss seeing him every day, going to miss
hearing from him every day after postgame or pregame or
(24:09):
practices or anything like that, because every time that he talked,
I just learned something new about the game of basketball.
I'm sure you can share the same sentiment, Sam, but
wanted to play that clip one final time to send
out Steve Clifford, who was able to ride off into
the sunset yesterday picking up that w in Cleveland. Thanks
the guys like Leaky Black.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, He's one of the most brilliant, if not
the most brilliant basketball minds I've ever been around. And
like you, I always feel like I come out of
those availabilities, whether it's pregame, post game or practice availability,
like I've learned something new. And sometimes I'll go in
after the games and think that the you know, the
reason the Hornet's won or lost was one of these
(24:46):
things or won these reasons, and I'm completely, way way off,
and it's something that I hadn't even noticed. And it's
amazing the way he's able to dissect games and recall
certain moments, and he's super excited for this next chapter
in the front office and in whatever capacity ends up being.
And I'm really happy that he's excited about that. You know,
obviously I wish these these last two years had gone
(25:08):
better from a you know, health and luck standpoint, and
that's a that's a tough thing to you know, he
never really got kind of that full chance or opportunity
because you know, the team just was dealing with so
many injuries and absences. But the way the team responded
down the stretch, like Leaky Black said, these last twenty
or thirty games, a lot of that was because of coaching,
and they kept pushing, they kept grinding, they kept practicing hard,
(25:30):
having a good attitude hanging in there, and a lot
of that is reflective on the way, you know, Steve
Clifford carried himself every day in the energy and you know,
attention to detail and basketball IQ and smarts that he
brought every single day. And you could even feel it
down these last final few games, even when you know
cliff was talking about he'd already made the decision that
he was going to step down to the end of
(25:53):
the season. He would never ever let himself get ahead
and talk about what was next or you know, how
he's feeling, or the last home game or the last games.
So he never ever once let up. So I really
respect that. And there's a lot of stuff that I
have learned from being round Steve Clifford, both in his
first tenure in and the second one that I really
really admire and I'm excited that he's going to be
(26:15):
a part of the organization moving forward, and just a
great guy, great basketball mind, and a better guy off
the court too. So I'm glad they could finished it
with a win form and looking forward to see what's
next for him.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Very well said. Couldn't have said it any better myself.
Sad to see Cliff not be around every day, but
excited to keep him on and seek. I'm super excited
to see what the future holds, because again, even though
the day he ended in a win yesterday, work starts
now here. For the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty
five season, A lot of decisions have to be made
on a roster, a new coach will be coming in,
a new lottery pick we'll be in here as well.
(26:47):
A lot going on this offseason. Of course, we'll have
you covered every step of the way here on the
Hornets Ivecast and from a majority of these road postgame recaps,
keeping us posted and keeping us abreast of situations. The
one and only lead writer of Hornets dot Com, Sam Pearley,
wrapping up this edition of the Hornets Iodcast. Sam, thank
you all season long. I know you won't be too
far away. We'll talk to you in the off season
(27:09):
and looking forward to the twenty twenty four twenty twenty
five season with you already here after this edition of
the horn pod Cast.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Appreciate you for having me. Thank you so much, and
thank you to all our listeners, supporters, fans, everybody that
tuned in for all these previews and features. I think
I speak on behalf of all of us that you know,
we're excited about the future of this team. It's been
awesome to follow it and cover it, even if we
had more Silver Linings editions than we wanted. But brighter
days to come, hopefully in the future.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Brighter days to come for sure here in the Queen's City.
Big thank you to Sam for joining me on this
episode of the Horns Podcast bank, thank you to all
of you for listening all season long here on the AJC.
Of course we'll take a couple of days off, but
we'll have more content for you here on a Hornets
Podcast throughout the whole off season. So for Sam Pearley,
I'm Rob Longo saying so long. We'll talk to you
in a couple of days once again here on a
Hornets iodcast.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Thank you for listening to the Hornets Podcast. Brought to
you by Senta, the official i ear nozen throad care
provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit hornets
dot com.
Welcome to the Hornets Hoodcast, presented by Charlotte I ear
nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Rob Longo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi friends, and welcome to today's edition of the Hornets Hoodcast,
the official podcast of the Charlotte Hornets, brought to you
by Santa Charlotte ire Nos and Thrown Associates, the official
I ear nose and throw care provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
Rob Longe with you on a final regular season recap
edition of the AHHC. And it's a winning edition of
the Hornets Podcast. As Charlotte picks up a one twenty
(00:34):
to one to ten win in Cleveland yesterday afternoon, second
consecutive year that the Hornets have ended the season in
Cleveland and then for the second time and as many
times they pick up a win in the final game
as well. We'll break this one down for you and
we'll provide our stars of the day of course, afternoon
game yesterday here for the Hornets. And did we get
a little bit of a glimpse of the future. We'll
(00:55):
talk about that here a little bit later on as
well as the Hornets pick up that one ten win
and did it with a lot of the reserves, No Davias, Breton, Smiles, Bridges,
Brandon Miller, Nick Richards or Grant Williams, on top of
all the other injuries that the Hornets had, on top
of the previous ones, the status quo ones that I
like to call them here that were kind of the
season enders based off of the time that they happen.
(01:17):
But we will break all of these nuances down on
this episode of the Hornet Timecast with the lead writer
of Hornets dot Com, the one and only Sam Prelli.
And Sam, thank you for joining me for game number
eighty two recap wise here on the Hornets Podcast. It's
been a long season, but nobody else I'd rather recap
some of these games with you here, and I'm glad
we're able to do it on a winning addition to
get us both out the door here at the end
of this season.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Absolutely, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure
and yeah, obviously a tough season for the Hornets, but
always good to go out on a win. So plenty
of to talk about in this one, which was a
very entertaining game all things considered, so excited to dive
into it with.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You, and of course a win to take Steve Clifford
out for one final game here as eight hundred and
first game coach. Of course, he'll be stepping down at
the end of season's end, which of course would be today.
He'll have some exit interviews here a little bit later on,
and I'm sure we'll recap some of that stuff here
on Hornets Podcast episodes later on, but let's go ahead
and recap the game yesterday as well. Again, a lot
of injuries in this One's a lot of people sitting
(02:12):
out with some bumps and bruises for Game eighty two.
As let's be honest, the Hornets aren't playing for anything
else other than maybe some flattened lottery odds, which weren't
really in the play going into this one. Anyways, Cleveland
had something to play for. They had the ability to
move all the way up to the two seed if
things were able to fall their way with a couple
of other games, so they sat Darius Garland in Donovan Mitchell. Still,
(02:33):
even though they had the ability to move up to two,
and the way the game shook out, things could have
gotten better for the Cavs, So a little bit of
an interesting twist in that one. But let's just go
ahead and look at this one from a whole. Hornets
trailed at thirty three to twenty four after the first
quarter of play. They got back into it. They trailed
it by one going into the locker room at halftime,
fifty eight to fifty seven, as they went six of
(02:55):
eleven from beyond the yark there in the second quarter alone,
horn It's had nineteen assists on twenty two made field
goals at halftime. They were doing a really good job
sharing the ball. We go to the third frame and
the Hornets found themselves in a little bit of a
deeper hole. They were down eight going into the fourth quarter.
After Cleveland put up thirty eight points in that third
quarter shooting fifty six percent from the field. The Hornet
shot sixty three percent from the field, but Cleveland got
(03:16):
hot from three point land. They were six to seven
beyond the York in the third quarter alone. George the
Ain had sixteen points through three quarters of play for
the Calves, four of the players already in double figures,
but the Hornets were holding strong in their own rate
as well. JT. Thor had a career high seventeen points
already through three quarters of play. Bryce Mcallen's Marquise bolden
Heach had fourteen nicksmth Junior was in double figure, so
was Trey Man, so both teams doing a really good
(03:38):
job shooting the basketball in that game. Yesterday, Max Drews
got a triple double midway through the fourth quarter, but
the Hornets closed the game strong. They outscored the Cavs
thirty two to fourteen in the final frame. The Hornets
closed the game on a thirty to seven run in
the final nine minutes and fifty three seconds of the contest.
Nick Smith Junior a monster fourth quarter. He finished this
with a career high twenty four points, fourteen of the
(03:59):
twenty four coming in that fourth quarter. JT. Thor finished
with twenty points and ten rebounds, his first career double
double as Charlotte plays a little bit of spoiler for
the Calves in the win. Hornets by the way twenty
one and sixty one to finish the season, fewest wins
since the twenty twelve twenty thirteen season, back when the
Bobcats finished the year twenty one and sixty one as well.
The good news though. The following season, the Bobcats went
(04:21):
forty three to thirty nine and made the playoffs. That
was Steve Clifford's first year in his first in here
as head coach of the Hornets franchise Bobcats at the time,
of course, but going back to present day here, this
was an interesting choice by the Calves to rest some
of their guys here, Sam, I know that there were
maybe some rumblings or some murmurs that maybe they didn't
want the two seed because they wanted to avoid a
(04:41):
team like Philadelphia or Miami in the first round, But
doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me personally,
because at some point you have to play some of
the best teams in the NBA, and if you're on
that side of the bracket as the two seed, then
you avoid playing a team like Oh Boston for as
long as you possibly can, and you have home court
all the way until the Eastern Conference Finals. But I digress.
If the Calves would have ended up playing their starters
(05:03):
and ended up winning that game yesterday, then they would
have moved into the three seed and they would be
playing Indiana in the playoffs at the end of next
week as they get a couple of days off, but
instead they lose the game last night and they end
up being the four seed and they end up playing
Orlando in the first round. So again, a little bit
of a cat and mouse game there. I thought it
(05:23):
was interesting that they rested some of their guys. I
know that Donovan Mitchell has been in and out of
the line up here towards the end of the season.
Darius Garland has had some bumps and bruises as well,
so I guess airing on the side of caution is
the best thing. But the Hornets went out there and
despite not having several starters and playing a lot of
the young guys, they end up playing spoiler last night.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, and one real quick book keeping note. Unfortunately, it
looks like postgame they actually pulled a rebound away from
JT four, so no double double, but still finishes with
a career high nine rebounds.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very interesting game considering what was at stake for Cleveland.
And you're kind of keeping an eye on the Orlando
Milwaukee game. In the New York Chicago game, we saw
Cleveland lost Craig Porter Junior, who's a little bit more
of a reserve, but look to really have a painful
sprained ankle there in the first quarter, and sometimes that
kind of just scares you a little bit. And it
felt like Cleveland was really kind of trying to toe
(06:13):
the line between giving this the best effort they can
and keeping their foot on the gas just enough as
long as they could and then try and hand it
off to the very very end. I don't know if
they're looking at matchups that they're looking at, you know,
we want to play Orlando, we want to play Indiana,
or you know me personally, I wouldn't want to look
too far ahead to say, oh, we would get Boston
in the second round or this team in the second round,
(06:34):
because you just you got to focus on the first round,
especially for a team like Cleveland in this current construction.
I don't think they've gotten out of the first round yet,
So it is a little bit of you know, jockeying,
I guess you could say, but could be some thought
to wanting to avoid the Philadelphia Miami groups in the
seven to eight, who are probably better than that seed indicates.
But to the hornet's eye, ultimately really impressive performs. He
(06:57):
had a lot of guys playing heavy minutes for the
first time play well at all in Boston. The thing
that really impressed me the most was the ball movement,
especially in that second quarter. The interior scoring and the
half court scoring really just wasn't happening, particularly when Allen
and Mobley in the game, Hornets turned on the transition stuff.
They kept pushing the pace, they were moving the ball,
(07:17):
knocking down open threes. I thought that was really really
got them going there in the second quarter, and it
was also kind of what fueled that run there at
the end of the fourth too. So fourteen fourth quarter
points is actually the fewest they've given up since December
of twenty twenty one, So really good finish and this one,
I like the way a lot of these guys played,
and I loved it they took advantage of opportunities that
(07:38):
might not have been there earlier in the season. So overall,
if you just look at this game in a vacuum,
really impressive with some of the guys and the way
they were able to finish what was a tough season
on a positive note, and especially sending Steve Clifford out
with a victory as well, I thought was really cool.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, first off, thank you for the note on JT.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Thor.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Now that I'm looking at the box score, I'm feel
like I'm gonna have to go to Cleveland and give
a piece of my mind to some of the stack
keepers there. Again, I don't know how that all that
works at the end of the game, but yeah, JT
did have officially at double double. When we were signing
off the era on Hornets Radio networking out, they changed it,
so he finishes with twenty points and nine rebounds. A
little bit disappointing considering that would have been his first
career double double. Max Drews, by the way, I mentioned
(08:13):
that trouble double his first career triple double. Maybe they
should take a rebound away from him. I don't know,
but I digress. At any rate, Hornets won at one
twenty to one to ten in the land last night.
Just to give you an idea of all the players
that were out in this one for the Hornets, and
starting five was Vassilia Michitch Trey Man, JT. Thorp, Bryce
Mcallen's and Marquise Bolden and Vassilia Mitchich ended up only
playing nine games in the contest. Alexi Pokazewski came off
(08:36):
the bench. He played nineteen minutes. So, like Sam mentioned,
there were a lot of guys playing some heavy minutes. JT.
Thor was one of them. He finished with forty one minutes.
That was by far the game high. Bryce Mcallan's Marquise
Bolden each played thirty tray Man played twenty four, Nick
Smith Junior thirty three minutes off the bench, League Black
twenty two minutes or thirty two minutes, i should say
off the bench, and Mary Bailey had twenty two minutes
off the bench. And all of those guys had some
(08:58):
really good performances basically career highs across the board for minutes, points, rebounds,
basically anything you can think of. Because they had so
much more time out there on the floor in a
one twenty to one to ten win in Game eighty
two yesterday afternoon in Cleveland. That sets the stage for
a lot of stars of the Afternoon. We're gonna pick
our personal favorites next here on a Hornet Tive cast
brought to you by Senta, rob Longo and Sam Purley
(09:24):
with a winning edition of the Hornetsive Cast. The final
game recap edition of the Hornets Time Cast this season
It's funny how time flies by. I feel like yesterday
we were in October getting ready for the season to start,
and here we are in the middle of April as
the season comes to a close. Hornets winners one twenty
to one ten in Cleveland last night, led by Nick
Smid Junior, the rookie out of Arkansas a career high
(09:45):
twenty four points, a game high twenty four points as well.
JT Thor also reaching a twenty point plateau with twenty
of his own. Brice Mcallen's had eighteen points in a
starting role. Or Quise Bolden had fourteen points. That's a
career high. Tray Man had eleven points. Leaky Blackamary Bailey
each had eleven coming off the bench. A lots of
like in this one yesterday from an individual standpoint of course,
as well as a team standpoint, like we touched on
(10:06):
in the previous segment. Sam one of those things that
I forgot to mention thirty six total assists off forty
six made buckets. That's a pretty good job sharing a basketball.
But all things considered, who is your top performer from
yesterday's game? Number eighty two?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with Nick Smith Junior. I thought
he was really really good obviously, you know, indicative of
his you know, his final line career high twenty four
points after scoring fifteen in Boston the other night as
one of kind of the main offensive bright spots in
that game, also at a career high six of eleven
from three point range, six rebounds, three assists, played about
(10:38):
thirty two and a half minutes, with nine of twenty
overall fourteen points in the fourth quarter, if I'm not mistaken,
So really really turned on the scoring there, you know,
moving back in transition, did a good job of not
settling for shots, you know, got opened, was moving without
the ball, and was really big at you know, had
the rebounds, and I thought he was a big part
of kind of getting those live ball rebounds and pushing
(11:00):
pace not only in the fourth quarter but also the
second quarter there. So that's exactly the kind of game
you want to see from somebody like Nick Smith that
you know, really hasn't been in the rotation a lot
the last several weeks. But to end his rookie season,
which was a little up and down with a really
good game in Boston, in a really really good game
in Cleveland, It's certainly the kind of finish you want
(11:20):
to see for somebody in his position.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Amari Bailey to Nick Smith Junior wing three.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, sir, Nick Smith.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Junior, a fourteen point quarter. He's made six threes and
Charlotte leads it one twenty.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
To one, ten and probably the dagger right there is
the Hornet's got that big bucket laid from Nick Smith Junior.
But he was fantastic in yesterday's game. He would have
been my top performer if you didn't take him, So
I'm glad you did. Nick Smith Junior, the rookie out
of Arkansas having a career day yesterday in Cleveland, very
similar to Bryce mcgallan's last year a little bit when
you come to think about it, because Bryce had a
(11:56):
career day in Cleveland in the final game of the
season last year as well. Another Hornet trookie having a
very big game. Eighty two. After the game, Nick mcjunior
said that now I'll just let him tell you he
was very excited to pick up the win.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Man a lot.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
I'm happy as hell because on a silver effect that
you know, I just get to play more. And yeah, man,
I mean we came out, we played hard. You know,
even though it was the last game, people say, we're
not playing for anything, but you know, with NBA players,
so you know, we're gonna go out and you know,
play hard every day, and coach wanted us to go
out there and play hard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So we had to day.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Definitely been an interesting up and down season for Nick
Smith Junior. Think there were a lot of high aspirations
for him personally to have a lot of playing time
this year just didn't work out that way. Went to
the g League, got a lot of run in the
Greensboro team, and was able to get some minutes in there.
But the fact that he's able to have a shining
moment here at the end of the season really good
to see and definitely sets up a very big summer
for him because again there's gotta be a lot of
(12:47):
decisions made about the roster, and Nick Smith Junior could
be one of the benefactors of that, having more playing
time going into next season as well. But for me,
in terms of my top performer from last night's game,
I'm gonna go with the guy that had another career day.
That's JT Thor.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
JT Thor answering attempts from the wing. Yes, serge at
Thor yet another lows drilling three point shot, and it's
a career day for JT. Thor four with a new
career high fifteen points.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
He was able to finish with twenty in the game yesterday.
He goes eight of eleven from the field, three for
six pon York, one for two at the free throw line.
Did have that rebound get taken away from him. Has
nine officially now in a box score four assists, three blocks,
two steals. I mean, he literally did everything in that
game yesterday. He was anywhere and everywhere. He finishes as
a plus eleven in the plus minus, which is not
(13:34):
the best for any hornet. That would be leaky black.
He was a plus twenty two and a plus minus
and Mary Bailey was also a plus seventeen in the
plus minus as well. But JT Thor a very big game,
career high in minutes two I'm sure with those forty
one without looking it up, just based off of what
we've seen from him over the last couple of seasons,
I thought he was excellent in a game last night
that everybody got an opportunity to play. I know that
(13:55):
was kind of the rallying cry going into the Boston game,
and that's what Steve Clifford mentioned. Obviously, Vasa Michiz didn't
play a whole lot of minutes. Poku didn't play a
whole lot either, So I mean that really shrinks the
bench and that gives a lot of opportunity here for
these younger guys, and they were able to ball out
and do so in a pretty important way, picking up
that one twenty to one ten win. A couple of
other cap tips Bryce mcgawan's eighteen points three rebounds for sists.
(14:17):
I thought Markquise Bolden played an excellent game, especially defensively.
He had four blocks there and a Steel had a
really big block at the end of the third quarter,
which I thought kind of set the tone going into
the fourth frame because the Hornets were able to get
out in transition and run and get a lot of
points off of turnovers on fast break points. They end
up scoring seventeen fast break points in the game. They
end up turning Cleveland over fourteen times. That resulted in
(14:39):
nineteen Hornets points because of those turnovers. But Markquise Bolden,
I thought, did a really good job on that back line,
doing a good job playing defense without fouling, only had
one personal foul, and he didn't have a whole lot
of Goldtown. I don't even think he had a goaltending
violation either, So he just played perfect back line defense.
I don't know SAMs A too late to change by
saw performer from last night's game, because I'm talking myself
(14:59):
into markquis Bowl now that I mention it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I think there were a lot of guys to highlight
in this one, and that's exactly what you wanted to see.
You know, there was kind of the you know, the
sentiment after the game, as you know, there wasn't anything
to play for but from a playoff positioning and a
standings positioning, certainly that's the case. But this is exactly
what you want to see from the guys that really
played heavy minutes in this one. This is what you
wanted to see, Like you know, Nick Smith said, the
(15:21):
NBA players, this has a lot of them been waiting
for this kind of opportunity. Go up there, compete, do
it is, do what you do, get some stuff on tape,
Use this for momentum, motivation, confidence, whatever you need to
do to kind of use this performance in a positive
construction manner I think is really good, and yeah I was.
I was impressed with Markus Bolden as well. A lot
of lefty hooks too, something you don't really see in
(15:43):
the NBA too often, but in the good little paint game.
And back to the basket stuff. And to circle back
on JT. Thor, Yes, absolutely a career high minutes for him.
His previous was about thirty six twenty five, so blew
right past that and was eight of eleven shooting very efficient.
So top to bottom, I think you've got contributions from everybody,
(16:04):
and again a good way to end the season with
everybody kind of chipping in to end this one on
a positive note.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
And again keep in mind too, Marquise was doing this
out there while the Twins tours for Cleveland. We're out
there as well. Jared Allen played twenty three minutes and
the Mobiley played twenty five minutes as well, so he
was going up against some pretty stiff competition. He was
able to hold his own. More of a throwback big
Marquise Bolden Hiss did attempt a three point shot, it
did not go out. He obviously did make it, but
again ends up being seven to nine around a ram,
(16:30):
inside the arc, whatever you want to call it. In
the game last night, Hornets went at once twenty to
one ten. So again we saw a lot of good
from a lot of young players, and maybe did we
see a little bit of a glimpse of the future
for the Hornets. We'll talk about that next here as
we wrap up this edition of the Hornets. I've cast.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
This last twenty five to thirty games where you know
we're out of it. We had a very difficult schedule
and that's why I told me in the locker, I'm
really proud of all of them, the way they hung
in there, the attitude they had. Maybe we kept getting better.
They practiced well and replay some good games.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's head coach Steve Clifford evaluating his team after a
one twenty to one to ten win in Cleveland yesterday afternoon,
finishing the season twenty one and sixty one on the campaign,
his final game as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets.
Rob Logo and lead rider of Hornets dot Com Sam
Perley with you putting a button on this episode of
the hornetsive cast quite frankly putting a button on the
season as well. I'm sure we'll have some season recap
(17:25):
episodes coming up here in the next couple of days
here on the Hornets haveive Cast, but recapping Game eighty
two here. I believe this is officially episode one to
eighty of the season. So the grind kind of coming
to the end a little bit here, but not gonna
go quite every day on the Hornetsive Cast in the offseason,
because we're not that crazy. But we will have a
couple of days off in between here and there. We'll
(17:45):
have some player interviews and you'll hear from some of
those guys, and of course we've got a coach re
search that we have to cover as well. So plenty
to come here this offseason on the Hornets haveive Cast.
But as we take one final segment here on these
game recap episodes of the A. E. C. Wanted to
just kind of generalize here and take a look at Obviously,
there's got to be a lot of questions and there's
(18:06):
gotta be a lot of decisions made on players on
this roster, because if we're being honest, in the NBA,
basically a third of the roster is turning over from
a year by year basis, So some decisions have to
be made by new GM Jeff Peterson, but we saw
a glimpse of what potentially the future could be here
for the Hornets. Of course, all of the rookies having
some pretty stellar games last night, maybe outside of Vasa
(18:27):
Miechitz only because he played nine minutes and technically he's
a rookie, but at the same time he's really not
since he's thirty years old. But guys like Marquise Bolden,
who has played a couple of games in the NBA
not quite a rookie, but signed that two way contract,
they'll have to be some decisions made there. Of course,
Leaky Black is on a two way deal and so
is Amari Bailey, and those guys were able to ball
out with some eleven points off the bench and playing
(18:49):
some heavy minutes as well. Bryce mcgallan's a second year guy,
played a lot of minutes in the contest yesterday, and
we touched on Trey Mann in his future with the
Hornets here and a couple of other podcasts as well.
Nickson Junior a rookie that seemed like he shown really
brightly there six of eleven from Beyond the York in
the game yesterday with those twenty four points, a career
high at game high as well. So the future seems
(19:10):
very very bright in Charlotte. I know we obviously have
had a lot of glimpses of that this season with
the number two overall pick and Brandon Miller, but these
are some other guys that one you have to decide
what's going to happen with them moving forward with the
two way deals and maybe converting them to NBA contracts
and all that stuff. Don't want to speculate because there's
a lot of decisions to be made and that will
take a lot of time here in the offseason, of course.
(19:30):
But we saw glimpses of some young potential talent here
in that game yesterday against Cleveland. And I know that
the Caves didn't play all of their heavy hitters in
that game yesterday, but you still have guys that saw
the floor out there for the Calves that are going
to be in the rotation and be starting in a
playoff series here next weekend, with guys like Evan Mobi,
Jared Allen, Max Drews is going to come off the bench,
(19:52):
Isaacacorro could potentially start for them, George Niang Marcus Morris Senior.
All of those guys have the potential to play in
a playoff series this upcoming we an against the Orlando Magic,
So it's not like they were playing against obviously Donovan
Mitchell and Darius Garland and those kind of guys, But
they were still playing some pretty stiff competition and they
ended up pulling out the win.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
If Cleveland didn't have maybe some seating at stake, and
you know, the Orlando Milwaukee game didn't kind of transpire
the way it was, And I would love to know
sort of the process of how information from other games
is relayed to coaches or things like that. I think
that would be really interesting because it has to play
into the rotations and things like that. So it's a
(20:32):
good way to end the season. And I think you
saw the potential of a lot of guys and what
they can do when given the opportunity. But so much
of this league, and Steve Clibberts said this a lot,
and so much of the NBA is okay, going out
and scoring fourteen points, Can you do it the next game?
Can you do it the next game? Can you do
it the next game after that? And not having you know,
(20:53):
a fourteen point game, a two point game, a six
point game, a twenty five point game. It's about kind
of making it consistent. So again it is a very
very small sample size. And you know, if you want
to take the last handful of games two when more
guys were getting into the rotation, that's you can also
use that. But this is good stuff for the summer.
You look at it, you look what you can do
if it gives you confidence, it gives new front office,
coaching staff, whatever, it is something to kind of look
(21:15):
at to make them think. And you know, if this
is the difference between getting an invite to Summer League
or another team sees its summer league and then you
play well there, I mean, it's all about kind of
staying consistent, and you know, making teams think about you,
I guess is one way to go, whether it's the Hornets,
whether it's another team too. So you'd rather obviously end
the season this way with guys playing well and going
(21:36):
out on the high note than the opposite. So and
just overall these last couple of weeks, and Steve Clifford
said this after the game, I mean, this is not
at all how I thought or we thought the season
was going to go, or certainly wanted it to go.
But you look at just about every game, and I
would say of the last like thirty maybe since the
trade deadline, you could probably count on one hand a
couple of games that the Hornets just didn't have the
(21:59):
energy or effort in there. But you felt like they
were competing in just about every single game up until
maybe when you know the rotation and the you know,
health and talent stuff kind of really factored in at
the end against some really really good caliber teams. You know,
they had a few comeback wins and they held their
own down the stretch. So I know it's a little
bit of a mass over lining there, but given the circumstances,
(22:20):
this is a good finish to the season for the Hornets,
and I think there are you saw some glimpses here
in this Cleveland game of the potential of what they
have on the roster. Now it's about kind of sorting
through all of it, making the right decisions moving forward
and hopefully getting healthy and taking that next step next season.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There's a lot of decisions that have to be made,
but they're going to be tough ones, and that's what
you want you want to have those tough decisions because
that means you got a lot of young potential talent
there on the roster as well. And before we go
here on this episode of the Hornets Podcast, wanted to
give one more cap tip to head coach Steve Clifford
his final game of his coaching career here in the
Queens City, which Charlotte goes out a winner. And here's
(22:59):
a quote that League Black had with Sam Farber after
the game, And I think this just kind of speaks
volumes to the kind of guy that Steve Clifford is.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I means everything, man. You know, I'm not a man
of many words, but Coach cliff Man, I honestly, man,
I think about him a lot. Bro's He's really like
one of my favorite coaches I've ever played for. And
it's not even that we talk a lot, you know,
it's just the way he approaches the game and the
way he approaches, you know, his task every single day. Man,
he really cares about his craft. So that's just something
I really really value and I really appreciate, and I
try to do the best I can to make sure
(23:25):
he goes out smiles.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So I think that quote just carries and summarizes Steve
Clifford in such a great way for a guy like
Leaky Black, who is a rookie who didn't spend a
whole lot of time in Charlotte this season, spent a
lot of it in Greensboro with the Swarm and working
his way up to this NBA roster on the final
couple of days playing for guys like in his collegiate
career like Hubert Davis, and going to a blue blood
(23:47):
like North Carolina, and he's saying it's Steve Clifford's one
of the best coaches that he's ever been with. I
think that just kind of speaks volumes to the kind
of guy that Coach cliff is. And I know he'll
be around. I know he'll be hanging out and working
it with the front office and Jeff Peterson. I'm doing
a couple of different things there in that role, But
going to miss seeing him every day, going to miss
hearing from him every day after postgame or pregame or
(24:09):
practices or anything like that, because every time that he talked,
I just learned something new about the game of basketball.
I'm sure you can share the same sentiment, Sam, but
wanted to play that clip one final time to send
out Steve Clifford, who was able to ride off into
the sunset yesterday picking up that w in Cleveland. Thanks
the guys like Leaky Black.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, He's one of the most brilliant, if not
the most brilliant basketball minds I've ever been around. And
like you, I always feel like I come out of
those availabilities, whether it's pregame, post game or practice availability,
like I've learned something new. And sometimes I'll go in
after the games and think that the you know, the
reason the Hornet's won or lost was one of these
(24:46):
things or won these reasons, and I'm completely, way way off,
and it's something that I hadn't even noticed. And it's
amazing the way he's able to dissect games and recall
certain moments, and he's super excited for this next chapter
in the front office and in whatever capacity ends up being.
And I'm really happy that he's excited about that. You know,
obviously I wish these these last two years had gone
(25:08):
better from a you know, health and luck standpoint, and
that's a that's a tough thing to you know, he
never really got kind of that full chance or opportunity
because you know, the team just was dealing with so
many injuries and absences. But the way the team responded
down the stretch, like Leaky Black said, these last twenty
or thirty games, a lot of that was because of coaching,
and they kept pushing, they kept grinding, they kept practicing hard,
(25:30):
having a good attitude hanging in there, and a lot
of that is reflective on the way, you know, Steve
Clifford carried himself every day in the energy and you know,
attention to detail and basketball IQ and smarts that he
brought every single day. And you could even feel it
down these last final few games, even when you know
cliff was talking about he'd already made the decision that
he was going to step down to the end of
(25:53):
the season. He would never ever let himself get ahead
and talk about what was next or you know, how
he's feeling, or the last home game or the last games.
So he never ever once let up. So I really
respect that. And there's a lot of stuff that I
have learned from being round Steve Clifford, both in his
first tenure in and the second one that I really
really admire and I'm excited that he's going to be
(26:15):
a part of the organization moving forward, and just a
great guy, great basketball mind, and a better guy off
the court too. So I'm glad they could finished it
with a win form and looking forward to see what's
next for him.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Very well said. Couldn't have said it any better myself.
Sad to see Cliff not be around every day, but
excited to keep him on and seek. I'm super excited
to see what the future holds, because again, even though
the day he ended in a win yesterday, work starts
now here. For the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty
five season, A lot of decisions have to be made
on a roster, a new coach will be coming in,
a new lottery pick we'll be in here as well.
(26:47):
A lot going on this offseason. Of course, we'll have
you covered every step of the way here on the
Hornets Ivecast and from a majority of these road postgame recaps,
keeping us posted and keeping us abreast of situations. The
one and only lead writer of Hornets dot Com, Sam Pearley,
wrapping up this edition of the Hornets Iodcast. Sam, thank
you all season long. I know you won't be too
far away. We'll talk to you in the off season
(27:09):
and looking forward to the twenty twenty four twenty twenty
five season with you already here after this edition of
the horn pod Cast.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Appreciate you for having me. Thank you so much, and
thank you to all our listeners, supporters, fans, everybody that
tuned in for all these previews and features. I think
I speak on behalf of all of us that you know,
we're excited about the future of this team. It's been
awesome to follow it and cover it, even if we
had more Silver Linings editions than we wanted. But brighter
days to come, hopefully in the future.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Brighter days to come for sure here in the Queen's City.
Big thank you to Sam for joining me on this
episode of the Horns Podcast bank, thank you to all
of you for listening all season long here on the AJC.
Of course we'll take a couple of days off, but
we'll have more content for you here on a Hornets
Podcast throughout the whole off season. So for Sam Pearley,
I'm Rob Longo saying so long. We'll talk to you
in a couple of days once again here on a
Hornets iodcast.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Thank you for listening to the Hornets Podcast. Brought to
you by Senta, the official i ear nozen throad care
provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit hornets
dot com.
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