April 16, 2025 • 48 mins
On the heels of exit interview day officially concluding the 2024-25 season, Sam Farber, Sam Perley and Rob Longo recap all the notes and quotes from several players, and also reflect on the year as a whole for Buzz City.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Hornets Havevecast, presented by Charlotte I ear
nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets haveve Cast, your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, san daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privilege have you with us
here once again on the Hornets I've cast brought to
you by Santa Charlotte I ear Nose and Throat Associates,
the official I ear nosen Throacare provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
It's a season recap edition. We just had Exit Interview
(00:36):
Day for the Charlotte Hornets. We wrapped up a nineteen
and sixty three season for your Charlotte Hornets, and we're
ready to put a bow on it and start to
look towards the future, hopefully a much much brighter one
and a healthier one for your Charlotte Hornets. So we'll
break down all the best notes and quotes of Exit
Interview Day from Hornets President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson,
(00:58):
You'll hear from LaMelo Ball, You'll hear from Brandon Miller
and all the other leaders of the organization on and
off the floor. He'll also get a chance to hear
to two of our favorites here on the Hornets podcast.
He's my producer on the Hornets Radio Network as well.
The producer of this fine podcast, Rob Longo, Ready for
a little bit of a hiatus here from podcasting.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It was a long grind, but excited to recap this
one with everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He stretched to the very end of the leash, the
real whatever it is, to try and escape, and we
pulled him back in for one last season recap podcast.
Also joining us senior writer from Hornets dot Com, Sam Purley. Sam,
thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Of course, I can't remember the last time it was
all three of us in studio. It's usually just been
paired off, So this is a very good way to
end the season with everybody in house.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Probably the last time, too, is I hear you know
forklifts backing up in the distance outside of our room,
because this is probably the last time we're allowed in
our Spectrum Center centralized podcast studio for the foreseeable futures,
the reimagining will begin. But let's get in to the
season that just wrapped up. Nineteen and sixty three clearly
(02:09):
not the season the team wanted, but it was one
that did have a lot of steps in a positive direction.
But overall it can't necessarily be seen as a huge
positive because it's the third worst record in the NBA
for this last season. It's the worst record that the
Charlotte Hornets have had for non twenty win season since
the twenty eleven twenty twelve season, which is a little
(02:29):
bit of cheating because that was a truncated season, but
if you want to go to a full eighty two,
it's the worst record since the four to five season
twenty years ago where the Charlotte Bobcats finished eighteen and
sixty four. That in mind, we heard after the season
had wrapped up on Exit Interview Day from Jeff Peterson,
and he spoke about the reality that the team did
(02:52):
not win as much as it expected or wanted to,
and even if there are reasons behind that, which we'll
get into mormentarily, it's still a tough pill to swallow,
which the president of Basketball Operations spoke about at Exit
interview day.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
The goal is always to be a consistent winner. We
want to you know, put a sustainable product on the floor.
That's been my goal since I interviewed with the job,
and fortunately it's in line with ownership and Charles's vision
as well. Again, look, no one's happy that we won
nineteen games this year, no one in the locker room,
no one in the front office, the coaching staff, medical performance.
That's not fun quite frankly so. In terms of timeline,
(03:28):
obviously the season just ended, Charles and I are gonna
have some long conversations and really reevaluate and reflect on
exactly what this team needs. But the goal next year
is to win, to compete for the playoffs, and we're
gonna do everything in our in our power to do it. Again,
I will double down on we we're not going to
expedite anything. We're not gonna skip steps. I think there's
(03:49):
plenty of examples that we've seen around the league and
other sports teams and franchises that when you try to
try to skip steps and go too fast, that's when
big mistakes end happening. Once that really really hard to
you know, crawl out of that hole. So we're gonna
be patient, diligent, opportunistic, very strategic in terms of how
we build it because, as I've said before, like I
(04:11):
don't have any interest in coming here for a year
making the playoffs and then you know, we jeopardized our future,
compromised our flexibility moving forward, and then we're out of
the playoffs for another three or four years.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
There you have a Jeff Peterson talking about the disappointment
of this season, and quite frankly, guys, I think it's
a good thing to hear there are other organizations, not
just in the NBA but elsewhere where when the season
goes this far wrong record wise. You get the impression
that the front office might be celebrating, because that was
kind of the intent. And while Charlotte, you know, kind
(04:43):
of read the room at a certain point in the
season with all the injuries, particularly season ending ones to
Brandon Miller, it's not as if this was the goal
coming in. Clearly it was not. Based off what we
heard there from Jeff Peterson, I think.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
If you go back and you look at this, I mean,
the situation is that you don't have the ability to
foresee the future basically and see that hey, Brandon Miller
is going to be out for an extended period time.
Grant Williams is going to tear his aco early into
the season, trade Man is going to be out for
basically almost the entirety of the season outside of the
first couple of weeks. You don't expect LaMelo bal to
miss a lot of time either. So it's really difficult
(05:18):
in that sense just to navigate everything and say, Okay,
like you know, we just kind of threw our hands
up and the injuries happened. I mean, nobody's making that excuse.
It's the reason why the record was the way that
it was. But Jeff Peterson right there as you heard,
I mean, it's still not fun. Obviously, it's still not
fun to win nineteen games. That's still not the goal.
There is a standard there that even though you have
(05:38):
all these guys and all these starters are missing a
lot of time in a lot of minutes, at the
same time, there's still a standard to be upheld. And
obviously that didn't happen here this season. And there's a
couple of reasons why. But when you go back and
you look to the reality situation, a lot of it is
the injuries, but even Because of that, there is still
an expectation that you need to kind of grow on.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
A smart person once told me. Steve Clifford, former head
coach of the Hornets and also still a member of
the front office, once told me, it's not enough to say, Okay,
we're losing. You have to understand why. And there is
a very clear why. And we have been beating the
drum NonStop throughout the season. But now the years come
to a close, so we can kind of put it
in perspective. Sixty five games played is the standard the
(06:21):
NBA is set to say you have qualified to be
eligible for end of year awards, six Man of the Year,
MVP All NBA, so on and so forth. This season,
there are only six players who played in sixty games,
only three who played in sixty five. The ones who
played in sixty or more include Musa Diabat, the leader
(06:44):
in the clubhouse seventy one games. Clearly was not intended
for him to be playing that many games originally because
it was on a two way contract where that was restricted.
Very much earned the full deal, but still at the
start of the season we would not have projected him
to lead the team in games played. Josh Green, Seth Kurrie,
Miles Bridges. These are all solid players who you would
expect to be out there for the team to have
(07:05):
a lot of success. Then you've got Nick Smith Junior
and t Jon Salon. Nick Smith Junior took a big
step this year, but I don't think we went into
the season expecting him to be top five in games played,
And I think we went in saying if t Jon
Salon is one of the leaders in games played or
minutes played, something might have gone wrong for the team
record wise, that or t Jon Salon is winning Rookie
(07:26):
of the Year. And so I think while t Jon
is definitely going to benefit from this time, it is
a clear reason why the team has struggled, something Josha
Kogi talked about not just in the context of the
Hornets and what's gone wrong here, but for the league
as a whole.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
Based on what I know from the team, you know
they have a solid team, and you know to start
the season, you know Tricky goes down, Grant goes down, Mellow,
you know it's in and out, and you know Marcus
in and out and Brandon halfway Mark is out for
this season for real, Like the only only guys that
I've seen really play consistently that are like, you know, starters,
(08:00):
you know, Josh and Miles, you know. So I feel
like in order to be good, you know, your starters
have to play. You know, you know your starters have
to play, and they have to you know, play as
many games possible. I mean, last year's MVP was Joel
Embiid and he didn't play this season, and see how
his team did. You know what I'm saying, Because you know,
you rely and your start is to play, and you
(08:21):
rely and you starts to play well. So I feel
like health like is a factor that plays into it.
I don't think it's anything X and O's. I don't
think it's anything chemistry wise, like stated before. I think
it's just healthy. And I feel like this is an
important summer and you know we're able to come into
the season healthy. I feel like it's going to be
you know, we're going to have a successful season next
year if we know we're able to stay healthy.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, and I think so much of it too. Was
the thing that really stuck out to me the most
with the guys that were not available was how much
of a toll it took on the offense. I think
when you lose, I think there were like four guys
that are really kind of the primary on ball creators
for this team. And you know, Miles Bridges also got
hurt for about three or four weeks and really wasn't
(09:04):
entirely the same decemberish. He got back into form kind
of around the New Year's and played really some of
his best basketball of his career during that stretch. But
losing tray Man and not having a LaMelo for you know,
you know, come in and then go out and come
in and go out and U you know, obviously, I
think the one with Brandon Miller obviously being the season
ending injury in mid January, I think really really was
(09:26):
kind of the uh one that kind of burst open
the floodgates because the offense just really really struggled. And
so it's not even so much the amount of games
or who's missing games, it's what's being taken away from
on the court that you don't have. And I think
the on ball creation, the offensive creation, I mean, we
you know, Charles Lee talked about it during exit interviews.
The amount of double teams that LaMelo started to see.
(09:48):
Brandon was seeing them when LaMelo and Miles weren't playing,
I mean, very very rarely did you have two of
those four guys on the court together, because either they
weren't healthy or you had to stagger them. So there
was at least one on the court. And I think
the offensive struggles just at some point with the team's
inability to score on a consistent basis, it trickled over
to the defense, and I thought the defense actually, you know,
(10:09):
held its own given the circumstances. You know, some nights
when Mark Williams wasn't playing Brandon like we talked about
Grant as well, I thought was a huge, huge loss
from an intangible's perspective. But you know, that's obviously when
you're not scoring, it's going to have a ripple effect
on the defense if you're constantly having to get back
in transition and turning the ball over and things like that.
So I think it was less so who was missing
(10:29):
and more so like what was missing on the court
that really really just made night in and night out
process difficult for the warrants.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Definitely put the team behind the eight ball and now
has left us with a new reality, but it's one
with a lot of positives like, first off, the silver
lining to a nineteen and sixty three season where you
finished with the third worst record in the NBA, is
you have the best chance of any team in the NBA,
or at least tied for the best chance of any
team in the NBA of getting the number one overall pick.
You have a better than fifty to fifty chance of
(10:59):
landing a top four pick, and the worst you can
do is a top seven pick in a draft that's
supposed to be, according to the experts out there, one
of the deeper ones in recent history. So there's a
very high probability based off the experts opinions and the
lottery odds, that Charlotte's going to be a quote unquote
winner here in this upcoming draft cycle. There's also the
(11:19):
development piece of it. You've added young talents like t
Jan Salon and Nick Smith Junior in the last couple
of drafts who have gotten a lot of time on
the floor, and they're going to be benefactors of it.
I think, even though they were in truncated seasons for
all their different injuries or absences, we saw incredible growth.
Brandon Miller a significant jump in production. He has clearly
(11:42):
put himself in that upper tier of three point shooters
in the NBA. Mark Williams is now easily averaging a
double double and seems poised for a full off season
to continue to work on his body, improve and hit
the ground running for twenty five twenty six. Miles Bridges
continues to build on his game. LaMelo All statistically had
the best season of his career, all while facing those
(12:04):
double teams you mentioned. And I do think that the
front office deserves a lot of credit because in the
last fifteen months or so, the bench has seen a
real influx, or you know, the non superstar players have
seen a real influx, and not just talent but NBA
playoff quality death pieces that can really have an impact
if the team's able to get over the hump next year.
(12:26):
Guys like Grant Williams and Josh Green and Yusuf Nurkic
who have been in postseason games and performed very well
in recent memory. Those are huge additions here for this
franchise that rewind the clock two years ago. They didn't
have players like that with that kind of experience around
ready to contribute. And obviously the injuries to Grant Williams.
That hurt quite a bit, but now those guys are
(12:48):
here on the roster. There is one thing I wanted
to highlight here before we roll on to maybe one
of our bigger silver linings of the last season, and
that is, you know, we hear from President Basketball Operations
Jeff Peterson about we're not going to skip steps, and
I don't think everyone always realizes what that means. One
of the better answers I think are better nuggets we
(13:08):
were to pull out of Exit Interview day was Jeff
Peterson speaking on what exactly that looks like when you're
saying we're not going to skip steps here in Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
It was your one, and a lot of it was
just the evaluation process. I hate to sound like a
broken record, but I can't emphasize enough when you try
to skip steps and you go overpay a free agent,
or you know, you make a trade that completely jeopardizes
your future, it can handicap you and you'll be stuck
for a long time. So I would say we're certainly
still in the premature stages or the emphasy stages or
(13:40):
whatever or whatever you want to call it, to build
this thing the right way.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And guys that I think is the clearest vision of
what Jeff Peterson and his front office team are trying
to do here. When they say we're not going to
skip steps, it doesn't mean we're not going to go
be active in trades, because clearly they have been guys
like Grant Williams, like Josh Green and getting picks on
(14:04):
top of it as well. That's being strategic but also
improving the talent base of the team. Saying that we're
not going to break the bank necessarily signing a free
agent doesn't mean they're not going to sign free agents
to this team, but it means they're going to be
strategic about it. And there are clear examples, some who
have been quite prominently in the news in the last
couple of days here, of teams that went all in
(14:28):
or went away from their draft picks and find themselves
not in the position they thought they would be, and
maybe those picks they traded away have become extremely valuable
to the other franchise that maybe at this point in time,
is in a better spot in the standings than the
team that traded them away were.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
The first example of that that comes to mind, I
think might be the one you point up to on
the wall of this is why you don't skip steps
was the Boston Brooklyn trade in I think the draft
time twenty thirty fourteen range where the Nets under new ownership,
they tried to I guess in hindsight they were looking
for a quick path to a championship maybe you know,
(15:09):
and they traded three future first maybe a pick swap
in there, something for an aging Kevin Garnett and aging
Paul Pierce. There's some other guys involved in there too.
Two of those picks became Jason Tatum Jalen Brown. Well,
obviously our superstar caliber players that just won an NBA
championship last year. Jalen Brown was the Finals MVP, and
that was a move that absolutely crushed Brooklyn for at
(15:31):
least a decade really until they got Kevin Durant and
Kyrie Irving and kind of got back above water. But
everybody wants to win now, I think, you know, if
every team wants to win as fast as possible. But there's,
like you said, there's just been too many examples of
teams trying to do it too quickly, and they become
case examples of why you don't do this. So you
(15:52):
got to be calculated, you got to be smart. And
I think another thing with Jeff is saying in this,
you know, his availability of the day was, you know,
you're not pushing all your chips to the table when
you have coming off a nineteen win season. There's what
you have in terms of assets. They have a lot
of you know, a couple first round picks. Next year,
they've got I think it's eight second round picks in
their control. You're not pushing all of that to the
(16:12):
table when you have nineteen or coming off a nineteen
win season. It's just it doesn't make any sense. You
need to do things organically, strategically, like you said, and
be smart because sometimes you can do these moves and
you can do them really quick, and it takes X
amount of time to do them, and then it takes
years to undo them. And that's what you saw in Brooklyn.
It's possibly what is going to, you know, start to
(16:33):
unfold in Phoenix relatively soon. It's just and you get stuck,
and that's not something anybody wants, particularly you know, Jeff
in the front office and Rob.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
There's also the fact that this team is talented. It
just wasn't available you know, we've heard the core four thing,
and some people like it, some people don't. But that
group of four players only started and finished four games,
and so it's too small of a sample size to
extrapolate anything. But we do know that LaMelo ball statistically improved,
(17:02):
Mark Williams had a huge jump, Brandon Miller had a
huge jump. You know, at this stage in all of
those players' time in the NBA, if you're going to
compare them to other draft classes, we would know if
there was a giant miss in that draft class. You know,
five years in in the case of LaMelo, three years
in in the case of Mark, two years in in
the case of Brandon Miller, even if there are injuries
(17:25):
or extenuating circumstances, you would know if there was a
gigantic miss in terms of player evaluation, and there isn't one.
Lamello isn't all star, Brandon Miller is an all star
level talent. Mark Williams is averaging a double double. So
clearly these guys are skilled enough to get this team
where it wants to go. They just need to play
more together. So adding in the right pieces without, as
(17:48):
sam eloquently put it, pushing all your chips into the
table is a good strategy and has the potential to
be an immediate, winning turnaround strategy the way that Detroit
did it last season.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And other good example of that, as you're seeing in
the Western Conference now is Oklahoma City. I mean, they
went way down to the bottom to get there, to
get back up to the top, and now, I mean,
look at all the draft picks that they've been able
to accumulate. Even still, I mean there's a chance that
they have a couple of picks on a lottery this year,
and they are a number one seed in the Western Conference.
So that's another great example. But the thing I like
to remind people too is that success is not linear,
(18:20):
and that's something I think that we can kind of,
you know, lose in a hindsight too. I think a
really good example of that is Atlanta from a couple
of seasons ago. I mean, the Hawks make it all
the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They have a
really good season, Trey Young has a great playoff run,
really carried them to that conference finals appearance, and then
all of a sudden, the bottom kind of fell out
and Nate McMillan gets fired. They make a trade for
de Jontey Murray. That really put a lot of assets
(18:43):
over the San Antonio and then it got to the
point where the Hawks were trying to recoup some of
those assets by training the Jenttey Murray away. Now that
has certainly helped them in case a little bit too,
because I think Dyson Daniels had a really good breakout
here for the Hawks this season. But all things considered,
it's a long way of saying, even though you got
to make sure you do it the right way, you
got to make sure that you don't lose hindsight in
things where you make one big jump after a year
(19:05):
like Detroit this season. I'm not gonna say that Detroit's
gonna bottom out next year or anything like that. Time will
tell and see how sustainable it is. I think it's
sustainable based on what they are able to have. But again,
success is not linear, and I think that you got
to keep that in mind as well when you take
a look at the thirty thousand foot view of everything
going on in the.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
NBA, no doubt about it, And just for reference, because
those are good examples that you brought up Oklahoma City
before they started this trend of making the playoffs consistently,
not just that, but leading the Western Conference come the
end of the regular season. They had back to back
twenty wins seasons. Detroit, we know quite well they had
back to back seasons in the teams before having this
(19:42):
breakthrough and getting to forty four wins, and Charlotte now
back to back years where the combined win total is forty.
Hopefully they will be the next team to take that
big jump. All right, So that's some of the best
sound from Exit Interview Day. We'll let you hear more
of it. I want to talk about one of the
bigger wins of the twenty four to one five season
because we've been talking about silver linings a lot, and
(20:03):
there always are them in each and every game. We
found them sixty three different times over the course of
the season, the three of us in this room, and
there was one really big one from last season. We'll
give our biggest We'll let you hear the players favorite
moments from the twenty four to twenty five campaign after this.
Here on the Hornets, I've cast Sam Farbar, rob Longo
(20:25):
and Sam Purley here with you on the HHC the
Hornets side cast putting a bow on the twenty four
to twenty five season, a nineteen and sixty three campaign,
a lot of silver linings, episodes of the Hornets iive cast.
We will be taking a somewhat brief hiatus here will
be of course covering any major news and press releases
that come out from the Charlotte Hornets, But barring anything
(20:47):
like that, we'll be back talking you come the draft
lottery time, giving the details on the numbers on the
ping pong balls and what we're looking as the potential
odds here for the Charlotte Horns. But did want to
talk about some of the bigger silver of the last season,
and to me, the biggest one of them all is
Seth Curry leading the league in three point percentage. It's
(21:08):
something that only one person can do every season that
typically comes to a team that has a bevy of shooters,
someone that you can deflect a lot of attention off
of certain guys and give certain players a lot of
wide open threes. You have to obviously be elite to
get there, and case in point for that, Seth Curry
is the first Curry ever to lead Charlotte in three
(21:30):
point percentage. Obviously, Dad Dell was one of the best
ever to shoot it in his era, and did lead
the league in three point percentage, although not in an
eighty two game season and not with the Charlotte Hornets
and of this era. While Steph is clearly the greatest
three point shooter of all time, he has never led
the league in three point percentage for a single season.
That's something an honor that Seth has. During Exit media
(21:53):
interview day, got a chance to hear from a couple
of players, including LaMelo Ball, who gave his perspective on
what the accomplishment meant play another teammate chiming in on
what it took to get Seth across the finish line.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
This says a lot for Seth. For Shore, I mean,
we all knew he could shoot. I mean, your last name,
carry that whole that whole family, get it up, put
it in like they do it. So for Seth is
just amazing. And then as a team, like when one
individual gets some we all just feel like we all
getting it, like we're a family for real. So we
was all happy for him and everything, asking him what
(22:25):
he needed to get it? How many more shots?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
What's this?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
What's that?
Speaker 7 (22:29):
So yeah, we was all intrigued.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, we were telling them. I was asking him,
how many you need today? All right?
Speaker 6 (22:34):
If I get the ball, I'm coming straight t you
know what I'm saying, because I sometimes I think that way,
But I'm like, man, when you when you have a chance,
like you have to own it. Man, ain't no, it's
no running away from it because you can't obtain something
you're running away from. You know what I'm saying, You
gotta own it. I talked to him brief about it.
He's like he tried to not think about it, but
he was like he actually just owned it one day
(22:55):
and that's the day he broke it. I was like, man,
that's that's that's that's dope. I was letting him know
every day how many you need today? And that kind
of helps you break the ice too, because like you're
kind of unsure. Shit, I talked about it. I just
but when somebody comes up and just starts talking about
it and yells it out, it kind of gives you
no choice but to be like, Okay, I gotta I
gotta knock these shots now. And you know he did
a good job of still doing it the right way,
because you know, you see guys that need two threes
(23:17):
or three threes and they start jacking them shots, messing
up the offense. And he did everything and the flow
of the offense. He didn't step outside himself. He didn't
he didn't put him first before the team. You know,
he still put the team first and got his shots
within the frame of the offense. So man, that's just
the kind of guy.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Set this like last week and see a lot of
people coming up to me telling me what I needed,
and I, oh, congrat you need, You're gonna do it.
I'm like, I don't want to think about it. Come
it's kind of I don't want to be on the
floor thinking about I need to make this shots. Just
think about the process, go out and play free. But
so it kind of messed me up a little bit.
And the last second, last game in Boston, I kind
of just embraced it out. So everybody, I'm going out there,
(23:54):
I'm letting it fly. And my teammates were a big
part of it. They were leaving the injured guys a
mellow brand, and I was all those guys on the bench,
we were into the game and just support me and something
they could be. They could be invested in as well,
and on the floor, guys were trying to get me
shots as well. So there was a whole team effort
the last the last game for sure, just trying to
get it done. And it was fun to leave walking
(24:14):
out the season with some type of accomplishment, even though
we didn't win nearly the amount of games he wanted
to as a team.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Definitely something that can be viewed as a team win. There.
Seth put it very well, and uh, Sam Perley, I
know you are now knee deep into baseball season. You're
only ankle deep as we were winding down, but now
that we post exit interview day, you're now knee deep
into baseball. You're soon to be having the water way
over your head. But you know the superstition around not
talking to a picture when he's got a no hitter
(24:40):
it going clearly Josha Kogi would not be a great catcher,
and that's a short maybe he would be. Maybe he's
got to figure it out, like, hey, did you know
you gotta no hitter going right now? I think you
need nine more outs. You're gonna get him. We're gonna
do him now. We're gonna get him to right here.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah. I was actually watching spring training while I was
on paternity leave in mid February, so I've been watching
for a while.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It it's interesting because I was I'm writing something on
Seth and just looking at some of the numbers and
elite company he's been in, and you know, I think
it's I think he had a game maybe in early
March against Minnesota. I looked up where he went like
four of seven and it kind of really got him
back into sort of the running of this thing with
a month ago, and he spoke about it before a
shoot around against Cleveland, and I think just in my
(25:20):
mind that perfect game kind of or no hitter mentality
came in and you're like, okay, he said his piece
about it. You don't want to say anything to the
coaches and just you just have to let it happen organically.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
But I was the same way. I was like, I
can't talk to Seth. I had the same thing on Taj,
Like I was going to talk to Taj during you know,
pregame for Game nine ninety and I'm like, I can't
do it. What if he breaks his leg today and
then it's on me that he'd never made it to
a thousand, but clearly Josh yapping away like, hey, you know,
I got no hitter going.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, we could talk about it, like, but just once
it got up to like in public, like asking Charles
Lee about it, other players like you, there was like
a superstitious vibe to it because you're like, well, I
really want it to happen because we think it'd be
really cool. It's something he's never done before. And Deld
it as well, even though it wasn't necessarily with the Hornets,
but it did reach a point after I think that
like Cleveland game, and I think was early March, like
(26:06):
March seventh, March ninth, I was like, okay, got his
peace got quotes. If he does it, I'll be ready
to go to write something. But you know, the thing
that really stood out too about it as well, and
I think this is something that's kind of gone under
the radars. You know, he's thirty four years old. I
mean then he just had a career year shooting from
three point range. And again I know he didn't have
necessarily the volume of threes that he's had earlier in
his career. I think he was two hundred and where
(26:29):
it was in attempts this year was it was pretty high.
It was two hundred and fifteenth in the NBA in
total attempts. But he's had seasons where, you know, he
shot over two hundred threes, you know, two hundred fifty
threes and been in the forties pretty much just about
every full season of his career. So I think it's
a great example of even a guy that is in
his eleventh season, he's thirty four years old, he's still
(26:50):
finding ways to get better. And the challenging part, too,
is he doesn't have the luxury of going out there
and having a one of eight night and still finding
himself in contention for this award. He might get two
or three shots a game, and you got to go
two of three or three of three or better. And
because the margin of air just isn't as big as
you know, Anthony Edwards looked up took eight hundred and
(27:10):
eleven three pointers this year. He can afford to have
an zero eight night or a cold week or a
cold few games. But something like Seth Curry, when he's
coming off the bench every night, he's not necessarily able
to warm up and have three or four threes just
to kind of get loose, he's gonna get a couple
of shots. He gotta make them. So there's a lot
of elements that while Seth didn't have the super super
high volume, what he did was challenging in its own
(27:34):
unique set of circumstances.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, Seth actually got into that a little bit in
our conversation on Exit Interview day, talking about what the
title the accomplishment means to him and as an expert
in the art of the three put it into perspective
what it means doing it from his vantage point versus
the kinds of seasons his brother Steph has put together.
Here's what Seth had to say about winning the three
(27:56):
point title.
Speaker 8 (27:56):
That means a lot, I mean to me personally, especially
I've been in these death been in the top five
a lot of times throughout a career. Throughout our career,
we're never able to grab that number one spot for
a season. And I feel like either my dad or
Steph has every three point record or accomplishment you can
have as as a player in this league, and it's
(28:17):
fun for me to go out and grab one myself.
So like it's not something you come into thinking about.
You just testament to a consistency, your work throughout the season,
playing the right way. It's me personally just being ready
because it's not like Steph. You know, he's gonna play
thirty plus minutes a night getting a rhythm. Eventually. For me,
I just got to stay ready. I might play six minutes,
(28:39):
I might play more, might not play at all. So
it's just about being ready. And I think it's some
say might be even harder to keep that rhythm and
shoot that percentage while why not knowing what's going to
get on a nightly basis.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
If anyone would know that, it would be Seth Curry
or any member of the Curry family. In terms of
extrapolating this forward. Guys right to have something in addition
to just daily improvement, to have as a target and
to help the team rally around something through the finish line.
Clearly this accomplishment ended up being that, but you also
want to have it rub off on the young players
(29:14):
in the franchise, see them learn something about the art
of shooting threes, about how to go about your daily work,
about what you can achieve later in your career. And
clearly Seth has a lot more meat left on the
bone having just led the league in three point percentage.
But several players we asked during exit interview day what
they learned from this season that Seth had. Here's what
(29:36):
they had to say.
Speaker 9 (29:37):
Just his attention to his footwork. He always has the
same footwork, same shot, is always consistent. He never changes
and he doesn't take bad shots. You know, if he's hot,
he'll take a heat check. But it's rare that you
see Seth take a bad shot.
Speaker 10 (29:50):
I think with him as a mindset thing, you know,
every shot he lets go, he knows what's going in.
So I think just having that mindset of just you know,
every shot you shoot is going in. I think that
it can help a lot of players in today's game,
because you know something, you're gonna have games where you
know you're not making shots. But I mean that don't
mean just stop shooting. I think that just you know.
I think if you're a Charlot Hunt, we're gonna encourage
(30:11):
you to shoot more. So I think just always having
that mindset of just don't shy away from open shots,
take the open ones, and you know, I always believe
that they're going in. I learned that mindset game from him.
Speaker 11 (30:21):
Just shooting the open ones and shooting the correct ones.
And during the game, you know, because you know, once
you got the ball moving, you know, from here to there,
from A to Z, then about time you know the
defense breakdown. You know you gotta catch and shoot three,
or you know you got a pocket three, or you
might have somebody else for three. So really just learning that,
playing playing with playing with guys, you know, opening up
a lot of your game as well. So definitely just shooting,
(30:42):
shooting the correct ones, to be honest with you, and
just seeing how, you know, how he manipulate the defense.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
So honestly, I just love playing alongside Seth and I'll
be telling him just the way he played basketball. I
love how every mood count If it's a heasy, he
can shoot right out of it or he gonna drive
by you. Like everything he do is like it matters,
you know what I'm saying. So yeah, I love how
you played basketball.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I learned a lot just listening to the players saying
what they learned from Seth Curry about how he shoots
threes and how he goes about his business. So if
I learned something, I can't imagine what they learned being
with him every day and A couple of the other
things too that some people talked about I think was Miles.
Miles went up to Seth and asked him, Hey, can
I shoot with you after practice, just to see what
your routine is, what your rhythm looks like, what your
mechanics are, what your footwork is like. You heard Miles
(31:25):
talk about it a little bit there at the beginning
of that sound, But at the same time too, I mean,
it's one thing to talk about it's another to be
about it. And that was another cool thing that I
think that you know, Seth has done here in his
year and a half. I guess now in Charlotte after
coming over at the trade deadline of season ago, is
just being that veteran leader and making sure that the
younger generation and the younger players understand what it takes
(31:46):
to be in this league in your mid thirties as
the league continues to get younger and younger, And of
course Todd Gibson has been a wonderful example of that
this season as well. So those are a couple of
the things that I picked up here, and the fact
that you know, Seth is able to do something that
his brother hasn't been able to do when it comes
to a three point shooting record or season leader or
anything like that. I mean that really says something so
(32:06):
really cool to see Seth getting this well into his
thirties and not something that happened, you know, well right
before his prime or into his prime or anything like that.
I mean, heck, his prime might be another three four
years at this point the way he's shooting the three.
So don't want to limit anybody in that sense, but
really cool to see all of that kind of transpire
and see what all those players learned here over the
course of this season.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, he is definitely a weapon that is still going
to have a big role in the NBA moving forward.
Hopefully he'll continue to keep that legacy of number thirty
Curry here in the Queens City going. Great year, great
accomplishment and something to celebrate certainly here in this twenty
four to twenty five season. There were other great moments
from the season, some of our players picks will give
(32:47):
them to the next and put a bow on the
twenty four to twenty five campaign. After this quick break,
our last one of the season. Guys here on the
Hornets Podcast, Sam Farber, Sam Purley, robl Go here with
you putting a bow on the twenty four to twenty
five Charlotte Hornets regular season a disappointing one in the
sense of the record, finishing with a nineteen and sixty
(33:10):
three final tally. However, there is a lot of opportunity ahead.
The core group, the young core for the Charlotte Hornets
all showed some really strong individual progress. Hopefully they will
have much better overall health next year, play many more
than just four games together, start to finish in the
(33:30):
twenty five to twenty six campaign, and there is a
very strong chance, best of any team in the NBA,
that the Hornets either a win the lottery and have
the number one pick, b win the lottery in some
sense fifty to fifty or slightly better than fifty to
fifty chants mathematically speaking, that Charlotte ends up with a
top four pick. And even if they did not, even
if it was a quote unquote worst case scenario and
(33:52):
Charlotte finished at the lowest point that they could which
would be picking seventh, this is supposed to be one
of the deepest drafts based off the expert a peace
out there in recent memory, and we know all too
well there are so many All Stars, so many game
altering players that come seventh pick or later in every draft.
So wherever Charlotte lands, it's a big opportunity to add
(34:13):
to the already robust bulk of talent here for Charlotte.
We talked to all the players on Exit Interview Day
and asked them all for their favorite moment, their favorite play,
favorite game. Many of them talked about their first We
heard players talk about their first NBA bucket, including a
lot of great stories. Guys like Damian Baugh who toiled
in the G League, worked hard for this opportunity and
(34:34):
finally got that moment. The time that they have their
first bucket something that they'll never forget. But there were
two games in particular that got more votes than most
and interesting for different reasons. First one was the opening
game and opening win of the season against the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 8 (34:52):
That first game of the season in Houston. I mean,
someone the optimism throughout the year and we going to
Houston and get a good win.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
Probably be that first.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
One against Houston where we we were down by like
twenty and we came back in Houston, you know, and
they're number two team in the West. So that just
shows how good we could be when we're healthy.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I really like the way that these guys frame it,
because they're not looking at the scene like, oh, that
was just a cool moment. It's when we were as
close to the hole as we could have been, and
by the way, they weren't. Brandon Miller got hurt in
the first half of that game, and Mark Williams didn't
play in it, but still, I guess somewhat healthier at
that stage of the game. And they get a big
win against a team that had an enormous jump in
(35:30):
terms of win total and spot in the standings at
the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
And the thing that kind of stinks about it is
you hear the optimism and how everybody enjoyed that win,
and then it just kind of maybe the pessimist in
you in the back of your mind goes, well, what
could have been this season here for the Hornets if
everybody was able to stay healthy, if the corps was
able to stay intact, what would this look like and
what would this team have been able to accomplish here
even though, like you said, there was no Mark Williams
and Brandon Miller I think only played like ten or
(35:54):
fifteen minutes in that first half before he went out
with a glut strain or a glut injury. So again,
it's one of those things where even though it's a
great memorable game and it's a first one of the season,
the Hornets still weren't fully healthy unfortunately. So you know,
that's what's gonna happen. I guess whenever you look back
and you see that the projected starting five in training
camp plays a whole four games together throughout the course
(36:15):
of an eighty two games slate, and then you see
some of the injuries down to stretch, and what the
finishing five of this season ended up being in terms
of the starting five compared to where it was where
you know, you have I think it was ended up
being what forty five different starting lineups in eighty two
different games. That's not a recipe for success, obviously. So again,
as cool as it is to hear them talk about
that first game against a very good opponent in Houston,
at the same time, it kind of makes you cringe
(36:35):
a little bit just in the fact that what could
have been for this Hornets team this season.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
The other top vote getter for Game of the Year
moment of the year was a home game at Spectrum Center,
a game winning shot sequence and game winning stand defensively
sequence to take the w over the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 12 (36:55):
We beat the Spurs and Miles hit that game winner.
Just like it was just a great game. You know,
everybody contributed and you know, to we were all so
connected and like we have been all year through the
ups and downs and wins and losses, but that one,
you know, win and then when we all celebrated after, like,
it just was special.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
Just seeing the resiliency of that group, you know what
I'm saying that that was huge, man, and for it
to end like that. But for me, I remember, and
I wasn't even playing, but the togettingness of the group,
and for me, it's just the togetherness of the group
throughout the duration of the time that I've been here,
especially you know you you you know, out of playoff
(37:34):
contentions and to still see everybody fight each and every day.
I mean, that's that's special. That's something that you can't teach,
but something that you need in order to be a
really good team. And I think that you know, the
team is heading in the duration.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Definitely one of the most fun environments and conclusions to
a contest. The assist from LaMelo to Miles for the
game winner, the last second, potential game winner from San
Anto that could have been, it wasn't because Nick Smith
Junior was there to the final tenth of the second
that he needed to be. It was a great environment.
It's also a great tribute to the spectacular fans who
(38:10):
were lauded throughout exit interview day by Jeff Peterson, by
the players, by the coaching staff for their love and
dedication to this franchise and sticking with them through thick
and thin.
Speaker 10 (38:21):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
It was a great moment, a great game, and one
clearly that rubbed off on the players.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, I was not That was the one game I
remember watching it on TV. I was like, Wow, I
really wish I was there because you could definitely feel it.
And going back and looking at that play by play
of the Spurs game, it's so so back and forth
through those final minutes and I totally forgot the darn
Fox had hit a jumper on the previous possession to
give Way two point lead, and this was after the
(38:48):
Hornets had a couple of chances to score on their
previous two possessions. Uh that had misshot. Misshot got blocked
at the rim by Victor wimb Minyama and then Fox
made the shot. Uh, and then obviously Miles and then
so just to in a I kind of vaguely remember
it capping off the long home stand. There was a
couple close games in there, maybe that Denver game where
you had it and just a couple of plays kind
(39:08):
of got away from you, and that just turn the
turn the tides. But yeah, there's nothing better. And and
I know the Hornets had a game winner against Detroit
earlier this year with Brandon Miller, but obviously very exciting
as well and sort of the sequence of that, But
there's nothing better when you when you hit a shot.
Or one of the games that came to my mind
was that the Brooklyn game too at the beginning of
(39:28):
March where Miles made the block. I think it was
Cam Thomas kind of at the end when he had
the mid range floater. And Uh, anytime you can win
a game on the last play or make a shot
or defensive stop, which I think is personally even cooler.
Sometimes the feeling that the crowd gets it gives you
a sense of wow. If you know you can do this,
you know, more consistently every single night. You can really
(39:50):
really have something special here because those were the games
that you you get the feel of, Like I always
try and stop and try and soak those kind of
games in because like just from remember, this is feeling
that passion, that energy, fans cheering making a play, seeing
the players so excited, so pumped up. It doesn't matter
what the record is. They were better that night and
they came out on top. It's a special feeling and
(40:14):
that's why it's contagious. You want to feel it more
and more, as I'm sure both of you guys do
as well.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And it was also a game that gave us a
glimpse of what's possible because san Antonio, I mean really,
when you look at the record that they've had the
last three years, they're not in a very different spot
than Charlotte is. San Antonio the last three seasons combined
has won a grand total of seventy eight games, and
the Charlotte Hornets in the last three seasons combined, while
(40:42):
you know this one obviously things gone awry, they've won
sixty seven games, So the difference is not all that much.
In terms of total wins in the last three campaigns,
and when you look up the building up of the team,
while Charlotte's taken more of an organic path, a lot
of the guys coming in and being built through the draft.
When you're looking at those primary pieces LaMelo, Ball, Brandon Miller,
(41:05):
Miles Bridges, San Antonio. Yes, they got Victor wembin Yama.
But the other big name guys on the team they
acquired through trader or free agency or something like that,
Chris Paul, Harrison, Barnes and now dearon Fox. And yet
on that day Charlotte got the w even though they
didn't have Brandon Miller available. And it gives us, It
leads me into the thing I want to close on here,
(41:26):
and that is when we're looking to the future, when
you're looking for hope, listen to the players. They are
fully committed and bought in on Jeff Peterson's vision from
the front office, on ownership's vision from Rick Snall and
Gate Plotkin, on the coaching staffs vision from Charles Lee.
They know what it takes to win, and they fully
recognize that while health was a major impediment to getting
(41:48):
there this year, they believe that it's going to turn.
And Brandon Miller had this to say when asked about
just how big is the gap right now between the
nineteen wins, all the team we've got now and the
potential playoff team that might be just a season away.
Speaker 10 (42:06):
We're not far. We're not far. As you see Detroit,
you know, turn around that fast, you know when some
years of just learning like we're doing. And that's all
we can do now is just pick up New Tennessee's
and just learn, learn each other, learn the organization, learn
learn the game, and just keep getting better as as
the game comes to us.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
I mean, not having Brandon Miller beyond twenty seven games
was a major impediment, but still he gained so much
listening to the coaching staff talk about him, hearing that
quote from him, and how much it mirrors with Jeff
Peterson's talking about not skipping steps, keep committing to the process,
keep getting better. I want this break right now, but
I'm firing up for twenty five twenty six.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I totally agree, and I'm feeling the same way. It's like, Okay, now,
I wish were there was more games to play right now,
but I think I kind of speak on behalf of
us and being kind of on the internal side. We
all want to win. This was this was you know,
obviously tough nineteen games and a winning nineteen games and
covering so many losses. And you know it wasn't never
for a lack of effort, lack of trying anything like that.
(43:07):
It's just more I would say, it's got to be
ninety ninety five percent. It's sometimes you just go out
there and you're outmanned, or it comes down to one
or one or two plays that go the other way,
a call, a shot to stop again. You are what
your record says you are not. We're not obviously trying
to make excuses for anything. And you know, as we
talked about in the first segment, but you see the positivity,
You see the optimism, You see the sort of relentless
(43:30):
belief and togetherness behind sort of the closed doors and
behind the scenes. And it was I think sometimes I
don't know about you guys, in say a bit it
rubbed off on me because you know, you're obviously down
sometimes when you when you lose, the teams on a
losing streak, and the way Charles was able to maintain
positivity night in and night out. Particularly coming from winning
an NBA championship ring and being with the Milwaukee team
(43:51):
that was fifty sixty wins every year and also winning
an NBA championship there, it really makes you believe in
the process, the culture, and the standards that are being
put in place right now. That you know, even though
that you see the record and you see some of
the really tough losses and just being kind of outmanned
in a lot of games in the second half of
(44:13):
the season, that there is a foundation, there is a
building block, and if you can just kind of get
over that hump of being healthy, that something special. There's
the real potential to have something special here.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
The biggest thing, and I think we say this every year,
is that this is a very important offseason for the Hornets.
This is a very important offseason for the team as
a whole, simply for the fact that, well, one, you're
going to get a very good draft pick knocking on
one and hopefully the ping pong balls fall the way
to Charlotte, but you're basically guaranteed a top ten pick.
I know that the odds are a little bit different,
but just general's sake of the conversation. Top ten pick
(44:44):
coming in, you're going to have the ability to reshape
the roster a little bit more. You have roster flexibility.
It's not you're stuck on bad contracts or hefty contracts
or anything like that. And everybody's got to get healthy.
That's the biggest thing here is the health is wealth situation,
where if you can get everybody back full time, ready
to go for training camp, everybody can gel there for
those first couple weeks of preseason, get the preseason games
(45:05):
under your belt, and then get rolling and ready to
go for the regular season. Get off to a good start,
because I think so much of the League two is
just getting off to that good start and setting the
tone for a very good season. I think Cleveland was
a great example of this season. I mean they wonder
first what fourteen games or so or whatever it was,
and look where they are now. They're a top seed
in the Eastern Conference. So again, I think that getting
off to a very good start is very important, but
(45:27):
a lot of that goes to a healthy offseason, a
better offseason, and making sure that everybody is ready to go.
Because as much as you guys are fired up and
ready to go, and wanting to have some more games here.
There's gonna be a need. There needs to be an
offseason just for these guys to reset, get healthy, and
get the bodies right to get going for next year.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
No question about it. Tipping off twenty five to twenty
six right now would not be advisable. Brandon Miller, Grant
Williams others still have some rehabilitation to do. But we
look forward to the fall. We look forward to a
reimagined Spectrum Center. We look forward to seeing our fantastic
fans back at the Hive again for the twenty five
twenty six campaign. In many respects, October can't come soon enough,
(46:03):
but we will enjoy the break while we have it.
This is going to be our last time altogether, certainly
in this studio for quite some time. Gentlemen, thank you
so much for all of your hard work and dedication
to the Hornets I've cast, and thanks to our great
fans out there for tuning in weekly, daily, monthly, whenever
you feel like it. We're here for you each and
every Hornets game for a game, preview, game review, interviews
(46:26):
in between. During the summer, please continue to check out
the Hornets YouTube page. You can go back see our
in depth one on one interviews, including with rich Naal
gay Plockin, the co chairman of Hornet Sports and Entertainment.
You can see our recent sit down conversation with Miles
Bridges talking about his relationship with the fans, with LaMelo Ball,
the game winners that he had this season. There's a
lot of great moments that he was able to go
(46:47):
into detail on and we hope you enjoy all that
content and we look forward to bring in it all
to you again next season.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, and thank you everybody for listening this season,
and thank you to both of you for filling in
for the or making it work, I should say for
the two months that I was gone really three months
because I wasn't here for the preseason as well.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
So rus is worth it. Yeah, we're all on team
Brooks here.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, it was worth it, definitely. But I really appreciate it.
Kind of it was strange for me kind of not
you know, or being so away from the team and
sort of the day to day keeping the pulse on
everything during the season, but it was I appreciate you
guys kind of figuring it out without me. I'm sure
it wasn't easy. Rob.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Have you ever had so many Mets Hot Stove updates
in your life as this past winter.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I'm gonna keep my comments on myself. I will keep
the piece in the studio for these final couple of
moments and we'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Rob, thank you. You're a part of every single episode
of the AHHC and thank you. Couldn't do this without you,
wouldn't want to try. Everyone enjoy your summer. All our
fans out there, enjoy your summer. For Rob Blongo and
Sam Purley. I'm Sam Farber saying it's been a pleasure
of privilege having you along. We will talk to you
later on this summer. Whatever news breaks, we'll have you
covered right here. I'm a Hornets podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
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Welcome to the Hornets Havevecast, presented by Charlotte I ear
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of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets haveve Cast, your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, san daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privilege have you with us
here once again on the Hornets I've cast brought to
you by Santa Charlotte I ear Nose and Throat Associates,
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It's a season recap edition. We just had Exit Interview
(00:36):
Day for the Charlotte Hornets. We wrapped up a nineteen
and sixty three season for your Charlotte Hornets, and we're
ready to put a bow on it and start to
look towards the future, hopefully a much much brighter one
and a healthier one for your Charlotte Hornets. So we'll
break down all the best notes and quotes of Exit
Interview Day from Hornets President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson,
(00:58):
You'll hear from LaMelo Ball, You'll hear from Brandon Miller
and all the other leaders of the organization on and
off the floor. He'll also get a chance to hear
to two of our favorites here on the Hornets podcast.
He's my producer on the Hornets Radio Network as well.
The producer of this fine podcast, Rob Longo, Ready for
a little bit of a hiatus here from podcasting.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It was a long grind, but excited to recap this
one with everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He stretched to the very end of the leash, the
real whatever it is, to try and escape, and we
pulled him back in for one last season recap podcast.
Also joining us senior writer from Hornets dot Com, Sam Purley. Sam,
thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Of course, I can't remember the last time it was
all three of us in studio. It's usually just been
paired off, So this is a very good way to
end the season with everybody in house.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Probably the last time, too, is I hear you know
forklifts backing up in the distance outside of our room,
because this is probably the last time we're allowed in
our Spectrum Center centralized podcast studio for the foreseeable futures,
the reimagining will begin. But let's get in to the
season that just wrapped up. Nineteen and sixty three clearly
(02:09):
not the season the team wanted, but it was one
that did have a lot of steps in a positive direction.
But overall it can't necessarily be seen as a huge
positive because it's the third worst record in the NBA
for this last season. It's the worst record that the
Charlotte Hornets have had for non twenty win season since
the twenty eleven twenty twelve season, which is a little
(02:29):
bit of cheating because that was a truncated season, but
if you want to go to a full eighty two,
it's the worst record since the four to five season
twenty years ago where the Charlotte Bobcats finished eighteen and
sixty four. That in mind, we heard after the season
had wrapped up on Exit Interview Day from Jeff Peterson,
and he spoke about the reality that the team did
(02:52):
not win as much as it expected or wanted to,
and even if there are reasons behind that, which we'll
get into mormentarily, it's still a tough pill to swallow,
which the president of Basketball Operations spoke about at Exit
interview day.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
The goal is always to be a consistent winner. We
want to you know, put a sustainable product on the floor.
That's been my goal since I interviewed with the job,
and fortunately it's in line with ownership and Charles's vision
as well. Again, look, no one's happy that we won
nineteen games this year, no one in the locker room,
no one in the front office, the coaching staff, medical performance.
That's not fun quite frankly so. In terms of timeline,
(03:28):
obviously the season just ended, Charles and I are gonna
have some long conversations and really reevaluate and reflect on
exactly what this team needs. But the goal next year
is to win, to compete for the playoffs, and we're
gonna do everything in our in our power to do it. Again,
I will double down on we we're not going to
expedite anything. We're not gonna skip steps. I think there's
(03:49):
plenty of examples that we've seen around the league and
other sports teams and franchises that when you try to
try to skip steps and go too fast, that's when
big mistakes end happening. Once that really really hard to
you know, crawl out of that hole. So we're gonna
be patient, diligent, opportunistic, very strategic in terms of how
we build it because, as I've said before, like I
(04:11):
don't have any interest in coming here for a year
making the playoffs and then you know, we jeopardized our future,
compromised our flexibility moving forward, and then we're out of
the playoffs for another three or four years.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
There you have a Jeff Peterson talking about the disappointment
of this season, and quite frankly, guys, I think it's
a good thing to hear there are other organizations, not
just in the NBA but elsewhere where when the season
goes this far wrong record wise. You get the impression
that the front office might be celebrating, because that was
kind of the intent. And while Charlotte, you know, kind
(04:43):
of read the room at a certain point in the
season with all the injuries, particularly season ending ones to
Brandon Miller, it's not as if this was the goal
coming in. Clearly it was not. Based off what we
heard there from Jeff Peterson, I think.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
If you go back and you look at this, I mean,
the situation is that you don't have the ability to
foresee the future basically and see that hey, Brandon Miller
is going to be out for an extended period time.
Grant Williams is going to tear his aco early into
the season, trade Man is going to be out for
basically almost the entirety of the season outside of the
first couple of weeks. You don't expect LaMelo bal to
miss a lot of time either. So it's really difficult
(05:18):
in that sense just to navigate everything and say, Okay,
like you know, we just kind of threw our hands
up and the injuries happened. I mean, nobody's making that excuse.
It's the reason why the record was the way that
it was. But Jeff Peterson right there as you heard,
I mean, it's still not fun. Obviously, it's still not
fun to win nineteen games. That's still not the goal.
There is a standard there that even though you have
(05:38):
all these guys and all these starters are missing a
lot of time in a lot of minutes, at the
same time, there's still a standard to be upheld. And
obviously that didn't happen here this season. And there's a
couple of reasons why. But when you go back and
you look to the reality situation, a lot of it is
the injuries, but even Because of that, there is still
an expectation that you need to kind of grow on.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
A smart person once told me. Steve Clifford, former head
coach of the Hornets and also still a member of
the front office, once told me, it's not enough to say, Okay,
we're losing. You have to understand why. And there is
a very clear why. And we have been beating the
drum NonStop throughout the season. But now the years come
to a close, so we can kind of put it
in perspective. Sixty five games played is the standard the
(06:21):
NBA is set to say you have qualified to be
eligible for end of year awards, six Man of the Year,
MVP All NBA, so on and so forth. This season,
there are only six players who played in sixty games,
only three who played in sixty five. The ones who
played in sixty or more include Musa Diabat, the leader
(06:44):
in the clubhouse seventy one games. Clearly was not intended
for him to be playing that many games originally because
it was on a two way contract where that was restricted.
Very much earned the full deal, but still at the
start of the season we would not have projected him
to lead the team in games played. Josh Green, Seth Kurrie,
Miles Bridges. These are all solid players who you would
expect to be out there for the team to have
(07:05):
a lot of success. Then you've got Nick Smith Junior
and t Jon Salon. Nick Smith Junior took a big
step this year, but I don't think we went into
the season expecting him to be top five in games played,
And I think we went in saying if t Jon
Salon is one of the leaders in games played or
minutes played, something might have gone wrong for the team
record wise, that or t Jon Salon is winning Rookie
(07:26):
of the Year. And so I think while t Jon
is definitely going to benefit from this time, it is
a clear reason why the team has struggled, something Josha
Kogi talked about not just in the context of the
Hornets and what's gone wrong here, but for the league
as a whole.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
Based on what I know from the team, you know
they have a solid team, and you know to start
the season, you know Tricky goes down, Grant goes down, Mellow,
you know it's in and out, and you know Marcus
in and out and Brandon halfway Mark is out for
this season for real, Like the only only guys that
I've seen really play consistently that are like, you know, starters,
(08:00):
you know, Josh and Miles, you know. So I feel
like in order to be good, you know, your starters
have to play. You know, you know your starters have
to play, and they have to you know, play as
many games possible. I mean, last year's MVP was Joel
Embiid and he didn't play this season, and see how
his team did. You know what I'm saying, Because you know,
you rely and your start is to play, and you
(08:21):
rely and you starts to play well. So I feel
like health like is a factor that plays into it.
I don't think it's anything X and O's. I don't
think it's anything chemistry wise, like stated before. I think
it's just healthy. And I feel like this is an
important summer and you know we're able to come into
the season healthy. I feel like it's going to be
you know, we're going to have a successful season next
year if we know we're able to stay healthy.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, and I think so much of it too. Was
the thing that really stuck out to me the most
with the guys that were not available was how much
of a toll it took on the offense. I think
when you lose, I think there were like four guys
that are really kind of the primary on ball creators
for this team. And you know, Miles Bridges also got
hurt for about three or four weeks and really wasn't
(09:04):
entirely the same decemberish. He got back into form kind
of around the New Year's and played really some of
his best basketball of his career during that stretch. But
losing tray Man and not having a LaMelo for you know,
you know, come in and then go out and come
in and go out and U you know, obviously, I
think the one with Brandon Miller obviously being the season
ending injury in mid January, I think really really was
(09:26):
kind of the uh one that kind of burst open
the floodgates because the offense just really really struggled. And
so it's not even so much the amount of games
or who's missing games, it's what's being taken away from
on the court that you don't have. And I think
the on ball creation, the offensive creation, I mean, we
you know, Charles Lee talked about it during exit interviews.
The amount of double teams that LaMelo started to see.
(09:48):
Brandon was seeing them when LaMelo and Miles weren't playing,
I mean, very very rarely did you have two of
those four guys on the court together, because either they
weren't healthy or you had to stagger them. So there
was at least one on the court. And I think
the offensive struggles just at some point with the team's
inability to score on a consistent basis, it trickled over
to the defense, and I thought the defense actually, you know,
(10:09):
held its own given the circumstances. You know, some nights
when Mark Williams wasn't playing Brandon like we talked about
Grant as well, I thought was a huge, huge loss
from an intangible's perspective. But you know, that's obviously when
you're not scoring, it's going to have a ripple effect
on the defense if you're constantly having to get back
in transition and turning the ball over and things like that.
So I think it was less so who was missing
(10:29):
and more so like what was missing on the court
that really really just made night in and night out
process difficult for the warrants.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Definitely put the team behind the eight ball and now
has left us with a new reality, but it's one
with a lot of positives like, first off, the silver
lining to a nineteen and sixty three season where you
finished with the third worst record in the NBA, is
you have the best chance of any team in the NBA,
or at least tied for the best chance of any
team in the NBA of getting the number one overall pick.
You have a better than fifty to fifty chance of
(10:59):
landing a top four pick, and the worst you can
do is a top seven pick in a draft that's
supposed to be, according to the experts out there, one
of the deeper ones in recent history. So there's a
very high probability based off the experts opinions and the
lottery odds, that Charlotte's going to be a quote unquote
winner here in this upcoming draft cycle. There's also the
(11:19):
development piece of it. You've added young talents like t
Jan Salon and Nick Smith Junior in the last couple
of drafts who have gotten a lot of time on
the floor, and they're going to be benefactors of it.
I think, even though they were in truncated seasons for
all their different injuries or absences, we saw incredible growth.
Brandon Miller a significant jump in production. He has clearly
(11:42):
put himself in that upper tier of three point shooters
in the NBA. Mark Williams is now easily averaging a
double double and seems poised for a full off season
to continue to work on his body, improve and hit
the ground running for twenty five twenty six. Miles Bridges
continues to build on his game. LaMelo All statistically had
the best season of his career, all while facing those
(12:04):
double teams you mentioned. And I do think that the
front office deserves a lot of credit because in the
last fifteen months or so, the bench has seen a
real influx, or you know, the non superstar players have
seen a real influx, and not just talent but NBA
playoff quality death pieces that can really have an impact
if the team's able to get over the hump next year.
(12:26):
Guys like Grant Williams and Josh Green and Yusuf Nurkic
who have been in postseason games and performed very well
in recent memory. Those are huge additions here for this
franchise that rewind the clock two years ago. They didn't
have players like that with that kind of experience around
ready to contribute. And obviously the injuries to Grant Williams.
That hurt quite a bit, but now those guys are
(12:48):
here on the roster. There is one thing I wanted
to highlight here before we roll on to maybe one
of our bigger silver linings of the last season, and
that is, you know, we hear from President Basketball Operations
Jeff Peterson about we're not going to skip steps, and
I don't think everyone always realizes what that means. One
of the better answers I think are better nuggets we
(13:08):
were to pull out of Exit Interview day was Jeff
Peterson speaking on what exactly that looks like when you're
saying we're not going to skip steps here in Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
It was your one, and a lot of it was
just the evaluation process. I hate to sound like a
broken record, but I can't emphasize enough when you try
to skip steps and you go overpay a free agent,
or you know, you make a trade that completely jeopardizes
your future, it can handicap you and you'll be stuck
for a long time. So I would say we're certainly
still in the premature stages or the emphasy stages or
(13:40):
whatever or whatever you want to call it, to build
this thing the right way.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And guys that I think is the clearest vision of
what Jeff Peterson and his front office team are trying
to do here. When they say we're not going to
skip steps, it doesn't mean we're not going to go
be active in trades, because clearly they have been guys
like Grant Williams, like Josh Green and getting picks on
(14:04):
top of it as well. That's being strategic but also
improving the talent base of the team. Saying that we're
not going to break the bank necessarily signing a free
agent doesn't mean they're not going to sign free agents
to this team, but it means they're going to be
strategic about it. And there are clear examples, some who
have been quite prominently in the news in the last
couple of days here, of teams that went all in
(14:28):
or went away from their draft picks and find themselves
not in the position they thought they would be, and
maybe those picks they traded away have become extremely valuable
to the other franchise that maybe at this point in time,
is in a better spot in the standings than the
team that traded them away were.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
The first example of that that comes to mind, I
think might be the one you point up to on
the wall of this is why you don't skip steps
was the Boston Brooklyn trade in I think the draft
time twenty thirty fourteen range where the Nets under new ownership,
they tried to I guess in hindsight they were looking
for a quick path to a championship maybe you know,
(15:09):
and they traded three future first maybe a pick swap
in there, something for an aging Kevin Garnett and aging
Paul Pierce. There's some other guys involved in there too.
Two of those picks became Jason Tatum Jalen Brown. Well,
obviously our superstar caliber players that just won an NBA
championship last year. Jalen Brown was the Finals MVP, and
that was a move that absolutely crushed Brooklyn for at
(15:31):
least a decade really until they got Kevin Durant and
Kyrie Irving and kind of got back above water. But
everybody wants to win now, I think, you know, if
every team wants to win as fast as possible. But there's,
like you said, there's just been too many examples of
teams trying to do it too quickly, and they become
case examples of why you don't do this. So you
(15:52):
got to be calculated, you got to be smart. And
I think another thing with Jeff is saying in this,
you know, his availability of the day was, you know,
you're not pushing all your chips to the table when
you have coming off a nineteen win season. There's what
you have in terms of assets. They have a lot
of you know, a couple first round picks. Next year,
they've got I think it's eight second round picks in
their control. You're not pushing all of that to the
(16:12):
table when you have nineteen or coming off a nineteen
win season. It's just it doesn't make any sense. You
need to do things organically, strategically, like you said, and
be smart because sometimes you can do these moves and
you can do them really quick, and it takes X
amount of time to do them, and then it takes
years to undo them. And that's what you saw in Brooklyn.
It's possibly what is going to, you know, start to
(16:33):
unfold in Phoenix relatively soon. It's just and you get stuck,
and that's not something anybody wants, particularly you know, Jeff
in the front office and Rob.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
There's also the fact that this team is talented. It
just wasn't available you know, we've heard the core four thing,
and some people like it, some people don't. But that
group of four players only started and finished four games,
and so it's too small of a sample size to
extrapolate anything. But we do know that LaMelo ball statistically improved,
(17:02):
Mark Williams had a huge jump, Brandon Miller had a
huge jump. You know, at this stage in all of
those players' time in the NBA, if you're going to
compare them to other draft classes, we would know if
there was a giant miss in that draft class. You know,
five years in in the case of LaMelo, three years
in in the case of Mark, two years in in
the case of Brandon Miller, even if there are injuries
(17:25):
or extenuating circumstances, you would know if there was a
gigantic miss in terms of player evaluation, and there isn't one.
Lamello isn't all star, Brandon Miller is an all star
level talent. Mark Williams is averaging a double double. So
clearly these guys are skilled enough to get this team
where it wants to go. They just need to play
more together. So adding in the right pieces without, as
(17:48):
sam eloquently put it, pushing all your chips into the
table is a good strategy and has the potential to
be an immediate, winning turnaround strategy the way that Detroit
did it last season.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And other good example of that, as you're seeing in
the Western Conference now is Oklahoma City. I mean, they
went way down to the bottom to get there, to
get back up to the top, and now, I mean,
look at all the draft picks that they've been able
to accumulate. Even still, I mean there's a chance that
they have a couple of picks on a lottery this year,
and they are a number one seed in the Western Conference.
So that's another great example. But the thing I like
to remind people too is that success is not linear,
(18:20):
and that's something I think that we can kind of,
you know, lose in a hindsight too. I think a
really good example of that is Atlanta from a couple
of seasons ago. I mean, the Hawks make it all
the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They have a
really good season, Trey Young has a great playoff run,
really carried them to that conference finals appearance, and then
all of a sudden, the bottom kind of fell out
and Nate McMillan gets fired. They make a trade for
de Jontey Murray. That really put a lot of assets
(18:43):
over the San Antonio and then it got to the
point where the Hawks were trying to recoup some of
those assets by training the Jenttey Murray away. Now that
has certainly helped them in case a little bit too,
because I think Dyson Daniels had a really good breakout
here for the Hawks this season. But all things considered,
it's a long way of saying, even though you got
to make sure you do it the right way, you
got to make sure that you don't lose hindsight in
things where you make one big jump after a year
(19:05):
like Detroit this season. I'm not gonna say that Detroit's
gonna bottom out next year or anything like that. Time will
tell and see how sustainable it is. I think it's
sustainable based on what they are able to have. But again,
success is not linear, and I think that you got
to keep that in mind as well when you take
a look at the thirty thousand foot view of everything
going on in the.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
NBA, no doubt about it, And just for reference, because
those are good examples that you brought up Oklahoma City
before they started this trend of making the playoffs consistently,
not just that, but leading the Western Conference come the
end of the regular season. They had back to back
twenty wins seasons. Detroit, we know quite well they had
back to back seasons in the teams before having this
(19:42):
breakthrough and getting to forty four wins, and Charlotte now
back to back years where the combined win total is forty.
Hopefully they will be the next team to take that
big jump. All right, So that's some of the best
sound from Exit Interview Day. We'll let you hear more
of it. I want to talk about one of the
bigger wins of the twenty four to one five season
because we've been talking about silver linings a lot, and
(20:03):
there always are them in each and every game. We
found them sixty three different times over the course of
the season, the three of us in this room, and
there was one really big one from last season. We'll
give our biggest We'll let you hear the players favorite
moments from the twenty four to twenty five campaign after this.
Here on the Hornets, I've cast Sam Farbar, rob Longo
(20:25):
and Sam Purley here with you on the HHC the
Hornets side cast putting a bow on the twenty four
to twenty five season, a nineteen and sixty three campaign,
a lot of silver linings, episodes of the Hornets iive cast.
We will be taking a somewhat brief hiatus here will
be of course covering any major news and press releases
that come out from the Charlotte Hornets, But barring anything
(20:47):
like that, we'll be back talking you come the draft
lottery time, giving the details on the numbers on the
ping pong balls and what we're looking as the potential
odds here for the Charlotte Horns. But did want to
talk about some of the bigger silver of the last season,
and to me, the biggest one of them all is
Seth Curry leading the league in three point percentage. It's
(21:08):
something that only one person can do every season that
typically comes to a team that has a bevy of shooters,
someone that you can deflect a lot of attention off
of certain guys and give certain players a lot of
wide open threes. You have to obviously be elite to
get there, and case in point for that, Seth Curry
is the first Curry ever to lead Charlotte in three
(21:30):
point percentage. Obviously, Dad Dell was one of the best
ever to shoot it in his era, and did lead
the league in three point percentage, although not in an
eighty two game season and not with the Charlotte Hornets
and of this era. While Steph is clearly the greatest
three point shooter of all time, he has never led
the league in three point percentage for a single season.
That's something an honor that Seth has. During Exit media
(21:53):
interview day, got a chance to hear from a couple
of players, including LaMelo Ball, who gave his perspective on
what the accomplishment meant play another teammate chiming in on
what it took to get Seth across the finish line.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
This says a lot for Seth. For Shore, I mean,
we all knew he could shoot. I mean, your last name,
carry that whole that whole family, get it up, put
it in like they do it. So for Seth is
just amazing. And then as a team, like when one
individual gets some we all just feel like we all
getting it, like we're a family for real. So we
was all happy for him and everything, asking him what
(22:25):
he needed to get it? How many more shots?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
What's this?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
What's that?
Speaker 7 (22:29):
So yeah, we was all intrigued.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, we were telling them. I was asking him,
how many you need today? All right?
Speaker 6 (22:34):
If I get the ball, I'm coming straight t you
know what I'm saying, because I sometimes I think that way,
But I'm like, man, when you when you have a chance,
like you have to own it. Man, ain't no, it's
no running away from it because you can't obtain something
you're running away from. You know what I'm saying, You
gotta own it. I talked to him brief about it.
He's like he tried to not think about it, but
he was like he actually just owned it one day
(22:55):
and that's the day he broke it. I was like, man,
that's that's that's that's dope. I was letting him know
every day how many you need today? And that kind
of helps you break the ice too, because like you're
kind of unsure. Shit, I talked about it. I just
but when somebody comes up and just starts talking about
it and yells it out, it kind of gives you
no choice but to be like, Okay, I gotta I
gotta knock these shots now. And you know he did
a good job of still doing it the right way,
because you know, you see guys that need two threes
(23:17):
or three threes and they start jacking them shots, messing
up the offense. And he did everything and the flow
of the offense. He didn't step outside himself. He didn't
he didn't put him first before the team. You know,
he still put the team first and got his shots
within the frame of the offense. So man, that's just
the kind of guy.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Set this like last week and see a lot of
people coming up to me telling me what I needed,
and I, oh, congrat you need, You're gonna do it.
I'm like, I don't want to think about it. Come
it's kind of I don't want to be on the
floor thinking about I need to make this shots. Just
think about the process, go out and play free. But
so it kind of messed me up a little bit.
And the last second, last game in Boston, I kind
of just embraced it out. So everybody, I'm going out there,
(23:54):
I'm letting it fly. And my teammates were a big
part of it. They were leaving the injured guys a
mellow brand, and I was all those guys on the bench,
we were into the game and just support me and something
they could be. They could be invested in as well,
and on the floor, guys were trying to get me
shots as well. So there was a whole team effort
the last the last game for sure, just trying to
get it done. And it was fun to leave walking
(24:14):
out the season with some type of accomplishment, even though
we didn't win nearly the amount of games he wanted
to as a team.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Definitely something that can be viewed as a team win. There.
Seth put it very well, and uh, Sam Perley, I
know you are now knee deep into baseball season. You're
only ankle deep as we were winding down, but now
that we post exit interview day, you're now knee deep
into baseball. You're soon to be having the water way
over your head. But you know the superstition around not
talking to a picture when he's got a no hitter
(24:40):
it going clearly Josha Kogi would not be a great catcher,
and that's a short maybe he would be. Maybe he's
got to figure it out, like, hey, did you know
you gotta no hitter going right now? I think you
need nine more outs. You're gonna get him. We're gonna
do him now. We're gonna get him to right here.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah. I was actually watching spring training while I was
on paternity leave in mid February, so I've been watching
for a while.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It it's interesting because I was I'm writing something on
Seth and just looking at some of the numbers and
elite company he's been in, and you know, I think
it's I think he had a game maybe in early
March against Minnesota. I looked up where he went like
four of seven and it kind of really got him
back into sort of the running of this thing with
a month ago, and he spoke about it before a
shoot around against Cleveland, and I think just in my
(25:20):
mind that perfect game kind of or no hitter mentality
came in and you're like, okay, he said his piece
about it. You don't want to say anything to the
coaches and just you just have to let it happen organically.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
But I was the same way. I was like, I
can't talk to Seth. I had the same thing on Taj,
Like I was going to talk to Taj during you know,
pregame for Game nine ninety and I'm like, I can't
do it. What if he breaks his leg today and
then it's on me that he'd never made it to
a thousand, but clearly Josh yapping away like, hey, you know,
I got no hitter going.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Yeah, we could talk about it, like, but just once
it got up to like in public, like asking Charles
Lee about it, other players like you, there was like
a superstitious vibe to it because you're like, well, I
really want it to happen because we think it'd be
really cool. It's something he's never done before. And Deld
it as well, even though it wasn't necessarily with the Hornets,
but it did reach a point after I think that
like Cleveland game, and I think was early March, like
(26:06):
March seventh, March ninth, I was like, okay, got his
peace got quotes. If he does it, I'll be ready
to go to write something. But you know, the thing
that really stood out too about it as well, and
I think this is something that's kind of gone under
the radars. You know, he's thirty four years old. I
mean then he just had a career year shooting from
three point range. And again I know he didn't have
necessarily the volume of threes that he's had earlier in
his career. I think he was two hundred and where
(26:29):
it was in attempts this year was it was pretty high.
It was two hundred and fifteenth in the NBA in
total attempts. But he's had seasons where, you know, he
shot over two hundred threes, you know, two hundred fifty
threes and been in the forties pretty much just about
every full season of his career. So I think it's
a great example of even a guy that is in
his eleventh season, he's thirty four years old, he's still
(26:50):
finding ways to get better. And the challenging part, too,
is he doesn't have the luxury of going out there
and having a one of eight night and still finding
himself in contention for this award. He might get two
or three shots a game, and you got to go
two of three or three of three or better. And
because the margin of air just isn't as big as
you know, Anthony Edwards looked up took eight hundred and
(27:10):
eleven three pointers this year. He can afford to have
an zero eight night or a cold week or a
cold few games. But something like Seth Curry, when he's
coming off the bench every night, he's not necessarily able
to warm up and have three or four threes just
to kind of get loose, he's gonna get a couple
of shots. He gotta make them. So there's a lot
of elements that while Seth didn't have the super super
high volume, what he did was challenging in its own
(27:34):
unique set of circumstances.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, Seth actually got into that a little bit in
our conversation on Exit Interview day, talking about what the
title the accomplishment means to him and as an expert
in the art of the three put it into perspective
what it means doing it from his vantage point versus
the kinds of seasons his brother Steph has put together.
Here's what Seth had to say about winning the three
(27:56):
point title.
Speaker 8 (27:56):
That means a lot, I mean to me personally, especially
I've been in these death been in the top five
a lot of times throughout a career. Throughout our career,
we're never able to grab that number one spot for
a season. And I feel like either my dad or
Steph has every three point record or accomplishment you can
have as as a player in this league, and it's
(28:17):
fun for me to go out and grab one myself.
So like it's not something you come into thinking about.
You just testament to a consistency, your work throughout the season,
playing the right way. It's me personally just being ready
because it's not like Steph. You know, he's gonna play
thirty plus minutes a night getting a rhythm. Eventually. For me,
I just got to stay ready. I might play six minutes,
(28:39):
I might play more, might not play at all. So
it's just about being ready. And I think it's some
say might be even harder to keep that rhythm and
shoot that percentage while why not knowing what's going to
get on a nightly basis.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
If anyone would know that, it would be Seth Curry
or any member of the Curry family. In terms of
extrapolating this forward. Guys right to have something in addition
to just daily improvement, to have as a target and
to help the team rally around something through the finish line.
Clearly this accomplishment ended up being that, but you also
want to have it rub off on the young players
(29:14):
in the franchise, see them learn something about the art
of shooting threes, about how to go about your daily work,
about what you can achieve later in your career. And
clearly Seth has a lot more meat left on the
bone having just led the league in three point percentage.
But several players we asked during exit interview day what
they learned from this season that Seth had. Here's what
(29:36):
they had to say.
Speaker 9 (29:37):
Just his attention to his footwork. He always has the
same footwork, same shot, is always consistent. He never changes
and he doesn't take bad shots. You know, if he's hot,
he'll take a heat check. But it's rare that you
see Seth take a bad shot.
Speaker 10 (29:50):
I think with him as a mindset thing, you know,
every shot he lets go, he knows what's going in.
So I think just having that mindset of just you know,
every shot you shoot is going in. I think that
it can help a lot of players in today's game,
because you know something, you're gonna have games where you
know you're not making shots. But I mean that don't
mean just stop shooting. I think that just you know.
I think if you're a Charlot Hunt, we're gonna encourage
(30:11):
you to shoot more. So I think just always having
that mindset of just don't shy away from open shots,
take the open ones, and you know, I always believe
that they're going in. I learned that mindset game from him.
Speaker 11 (30:21):
Just shooting the open ones and shooting the correct ones.
And during the game, you know, because you know, once
you got the ball moving, you know, from here to there,
from A to Z, then about time you know the
defense breakdown. You know you gotta catch and shoot three,
or you know you got a pocket three, or you
might have somebody else for three. So really just learning that,
playing playing with playing with guys, you know, opening up
a lot of your game as well. So definitely just shooting,
(30:42):
shooting the correct ones, to be honest with you, and
just seeing how, you know, how he manipulate the defense.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
So honestly, I just love playing alongside Seth and I'll
be telling him just the way he played basketball. I
love how every mood count If it's a heasy, he
can shoot right out of it or he gonna drive
by you. Like everything he do is like it matters,
you know what I'm saying. So yeah, I love how
you played basketball.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I learned a lot just listening to the players saying
what they learned from Seth Curry about how he shoots
threes and how he goes about his business. So if
I learned something, I can't imagine what they learned being
with him every day and A couple of the other
things too that some people talked about I think was Miles.
Miles went up to Seth and asked him, Hey, can
I shoot with you after practice, just to see what
your routine is, what your rhythm looks like, what your
mechanics are, what your footwork is like. You heard Miles
(31:25):
talk about it a little bit there at the beginning
of that sound, But at the same time too, I mean,
it's one thing to talk about it's another to be
about it. And that was another cool thing that I
think that you know, Seth has done here in his
year and a half. I guess now in Charlotte after
coming over at the trade deadline of season ago, is
just being that veteran leader and making sure that the
younger generation and the younger players understand what it takes
(31:46):
to be in this league in your mid thirties as
the league continues to get younger and younger, And of
course Todd Gibson has been a wonderful example of that
this season as well. So those are a couple of
the things that I picked up here, and the fact
that you know, Seth is able to do something that
his brother hasn't been able to do when it comes
to a three point shooting record or season leader or
anything like that. I mean that really says something so
(32:06):
really cool to see Seth getting this well into his
thirties and not something that happened, you know, well right
before his prime or into his prime or anything like that.
I mean, heck, his prime might be another three four
years at this point the way he's shooting the three.
So don't want to limit anybody in that sense, but
really cool to see all of that kind of transpire
and see what all those players learned here over the
course of this season.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, he is definitely a weapon that is still going
to have a big role in the NBA moving forward.
Hopefully he'll continue to keep that legacy of number thirty
Curry here in the Queens City going. Great year, great
accomplishment and something to celebrate certainly here in this twenty
four to twenty five season. There were other great moments
from the season, some of our players picks will give
(32:47):
them to the next and put a bow on the
twenty four to twenty five campaign. After this quick break,
our last one of the season. Guys here on the
Hornets Podcast, Sam Farber, Sam Purley, robl Go here with
you putting a bow on the twenty four to twenty
five Charlotte Hornets regular season a disappointing one in the
sense of the record, finishing with a nineteen and sixty
(33:10):
three final tally. However, there is a lot of opportunity ahead.
The core group, the young core for the Charlotte Hornets
all showed some really strong individual progress. Hopefully they will
have much better overall health next year, play many more
than just four games together, start to finish in the
(33:30):
twenty five to twenty six campaign, and there is a
very strong chance, best of any team in the NBA,
that the Hornets either a win the lottery and have
the number one pick, b win the lottery in some
sense fifty to fifty or slightly better than fifty to
fifty chants mathematically speaking, that Charlotte ends up with a
top four pick. And even if they did not, even
if it was a quote unquote worst case scenario and
(33:52):
Charlotte finished at the lowest point that they could which
would be picking seventh, this is supposed to be one
of the deepest drafts based off the expert a peace
out there in recent memory, and we know all too
well there are so many All Stars, so many game
altering players that come seventh pick or later in every draft.
So wherever Charlotte lands, it's a big opportunity to add
(34:13):
to the already robust bulk of talent here for Charlotte.
We talked to all the players on Exit Interview Day
and asked them all for their favorite moment, their favorite play,
favorite game. Many of them talked about their first We
heard players talk about their first NBA bucket, including a
lot of great stories. Guys like Damian Baugh who toiled
in the G League, worked hard for this opportunity and
(34:34):
finally got that moment. The time that they have their
first bucket something that they'll never forget. But there were
two games in particular that got more votes than most
and interesting for different reasons. First one was the opening
game and opening win of the season against the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 8 (34:52):
That first game of the season in Houston. I mean,
someone the optimism throughout the year and we going to
Houston and get a good win.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
Probably be that first.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
One against Houston where we we were down by like
twenty and we came back in Houston, you know, and
they're number two team in the West. So that just
shows how good we could be when we're healthy.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Rob.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I really like the way that these guys frame it,
because they're not looking at the scene like, oh, that
was just a cool moment. It's when we were as
close to the hole as we could have been, and
by the way, they weren't. Brandon Miller got hurt in
the first half of that game, and Mark Williams didn't
play in it, but still, I guess somewhat healthier at
that stage of the game. And they get a big
win against a team that had an enormous jump in
(35:30):
terms of win total and spot in the standings at
the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
And the thing that kind of stinks about it is
you hear the optimism and how everybody enjoyed that win,
and then it just kind of maybe the pessimist in
you in the back of your mind goes, well, what
could have been this season here for the Hornets if
everybody was able to stay healthy, if the corps was
able to stay intact, what would this look like and
what would this team have been able to accomplish here
even though, like you said, there was no Mark Williams
and Brandon Miller I think only played like ten or
(35:54):
fifteen minutes in that first half before he went out
with a glut strain or a glut injury. So again,
it's one of those things where even though it's a
great memorable game and it's a first one of the season,
the Hornets still weren't fully healthy unfortunately. So you know,
that's what's gonna happen. I guess whenever you look back
and you see that the projected starting five in training
camp plays a whole four games together throughout the course
(36:15):
of an eighty two games slate, and then you see
some of the injuries down to stretch, and what the
finishing five of this season ended up being in terms
of the starting five compared to where it was where
you know, you have I think it was ended up
being what forty five different starting lineups in eighty two
different games. That's not a recipe for success, obviously. So again,
as cool as it is to hear them talk about
that first game against a very good opponent in Houston,
at the same time, it kind of makes you cringe
(36:35):
a little bit just in the fact that what could
have been for this Hornets team this season.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
The other top vote getter for Game of the Year
moment of the year was a home game at Spectrum Center,
a game winning shot sequence and game winning stand defensively
sequence to take the w over the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 12 (36:55):
We beat the Spurs and Miles hit that game winner.
Just like it was just a great game. You know,
everybody contributed and you know, to we were all so
connected and like we have been all year through the
ups and downs and wins and losses, but that one,
you know, win and then when we all celebrated after, like,
it just was special.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
Just seeing the resiliency of that group, you know what
I'm saying that that was huge, man, and for it
to end like that. But for me, I remember, and
I wasn't even playing, but the togettingness of the group,
and for me, it's just the togetherness of the group
throughout the duration of the time that I've been here,
especially you know you you you know, out of playoff
(37:34):
contentions and to still see everybody fight each and every day.
I mean, that's that's special. That's something that you can't teach,
but something that you need in order to be a
really good team. And I think that you know, the
team is heading in the duration.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Definitely one of the most fun environments and conclusions to
a contest. The assist from LaMelo to Miles for the
game winner, the last second, potential game winner from San
Anto that could have been, it wasn't because Nick Smith
Junior was there to the final tenth of the second
that he needed to be. It was a great environment.
It's also a great tribute to the spectacular fans who
(38:10):
were lauded throughout exit interview day by Jeff Peterson, by
the players, by the coaching staff for their love and
dedication to this franchise and sticking with them through thick
and thin.
Speaker 10 (38:21):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
It was a great moment, a great game, and one
clearly that rubbed off on the players.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, I was not That was the one game I
remember watching it on TV. I was like, Wow, I
really wish I was there because you could definitely feel it.
And going back and looking at that play by play
of the Spurs game, it's so so back and forth
through those final minutes and I totally forgot the darn
Fox had hit a jumper on the previous possession to
give Way two point lead, and this was after the
(38:48):
Hornets had a couple of chances to score on their
previous two possessions. Uh that had misshot. Misshot got blocked
at the rim by Victor wimb Minyama and then Fox
made the shot. Uh, and then obviously Miles and then
so just to in a I kind of vaguely remember
it capping off the long home stand. There was a
couple close games in there, maybe that Denver game where
you had it and just a couple of plays kind
(39:08):
of got away from you, and that just turn the
turn the tides. But yeah, there's nothing better. And and
I know the Hornets had a game winner against Detroit
earlier this year with Brandon Miller, but obviously very exciting
as well and sort of the sequence of that, But
there's nothing better when you when you hit a shot.
Or one of the games that came to my mind
was that the Brooklyn game too at the beginning of
(39:28):
March where Miles made the block. I think it was
Cam Thomas kind of at the end when he had
the mid range floater. And Uh, anytime you can win
a game on the last play or make a shot
or defensive stop, which I think is personally even cooler.
Sometimes the feeling that the crowd gets it gives you
a sense of wow. If you know you can do this,
you know, more consistently every single night. You can really
(39:50):
really have something special here because those were the games
that you you get the feel of, Like I always
try and stop and try and soak those kind of
games in because like just from remember, this is feeling
that passion, that energy, fans cheering making a play, seeing
the players so excited, so pumped up. It doesn't matter
what the record is. They were better that night and
they came out on top. It's a special feeling and
(40:14):
that's why it's contagious. You want to feel it more
and more, as I'm sure both of you guys do
as well.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And it was also a game that gave us a
glimpse of what's possible because san Antonio, I mean really,
when you look at the record that they've had the
last three years, they're not in a very different spot
than Charlotte is. San Antonio the last three seasons combined
has won a grand total of seventy eight games, and
the Charlotte Hornets in the last three seasons combined, while
(40:42):
you know this one obviously things gone awry, they've won
sixty seven games, So the difference is not all that much.
In terms of total wins in the last three campaigns,
and when you look up the building up of the team,
while Charlotte's taken more of an organic path, a lot
of the guys coming in and being built through the draft.
When you're looking at those primary pieces LaMelo, Ball, Brandon Miller,
(41:05):
Miles Bridges, San Antonio. Yes, they got Victor wembin Yama.
But the other big name guys on the team they
acquired through trader or free agency or something like that,
Chris Paul, Harrison, Barnes and now dearon Fox. And yet
on that day Charlotte got the w even though they
didn't have Brandon Miller available. And it gives us, It
leads me into the thing I want to close on here,
(41:26):
and that is when we're looking to the future, when
you're looking for hope, listen to the players. They are
fully committed and bought in on Jeff Peterson's vision from
the front office, on ownership's vision from Rick Snall and
Gate Plotkin, on the coaching staffs vision from Charles Lee.
They know what it takes to win, and they fully
recognize that while health was a major impediment to getting
(41:48):
there this year, they believe that it's going to turn.
And Brandon Miller had this to say when asked about
just how big is the gap right now between the
nineteen wins, all the team we've got now and the
potential playoff team that might be just a season away.
Speaker 10 (42:06):
We're not far. We're not far. As you see Detroit,
you know, turn around that fast, you know when some
years of just learning like we're doing. And that's all
we can do now is just pick up New Tennessee's
and just learn, learn each other, learn the organization, learn
learn the game, and just keep getting better as as
the game comes to us.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
I mean, not having Brandon Miller beyond twenty seven games
was a major impediment, but still he gained so much
listening to the coaching staff talk about him, hearing that
quote from him, and how much it mirrors with Jeff
Peterson's talking about not skipping steps, keep committing to the process,
keep getting better. I want this break right now, but
I'm firing up for twenty five twenty six.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I totally agree, and I'm feeling the same way. It's like, Okay, now,
I wish were there was more games to play right now,
but I think I kind of speak on behalf of
us and being kind of on the internal side. We
all want to win. This was this was you know,
obviously tough nineteen games and a winning nineteen games and
covering so many losses. And you know it wasn't never
for a lack of effort, lack of trying anything like that.
(43:07):
It's just more I would say, it's got to be
ninety ninety five percent. It's sometimes you just go out
there and you're outmanned, or it comes down to one
or one or two plays that go the other way,
a call, a shot to stop again. You are what
your record says you are not. We're not obviously trying
to make excuses for anything. And you know, as we
talked about in the first segment, but you see the positivity,
You see the optimism, You see the sort of relentless
(43:30):
belief and togetherness behind sort of the closed doors and
behind the scenes. And it was I think sometimes I
don't know about you guys, in say a bit it
rubbed off on me because you know, you're obviously down
sometimes when you when you lose, the teams on a
losing streak, and the way Charles was able to maintain
positivity night in and night out. Particularly coming from winning
an NBA championship ring and being with the Milwaukee team
(43:51):
that was fifty sixty wins every year and also winning
an NBA championship there, it really makes you believe in
the process, the culture, and the standards that are being
put in place right now. That you know, even though
that you see the record and you see some of
the really tough losses and just being kind of outmanned
in a lot of games in the second half of
(44:13):
the season, that there is a foundation, there is a
building block, and if you can just kind of get
over that hump of being healthy, that something special. There's
the real potential to have something special here.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
The biggest thing, and I think we say this every year,
is that this is a very important offseason for the Hornets.
This is a very important offseason for the team as
a whole, simply for the fact that, well, one, you're
going to get a very good draft pick knocking on
one and hopefully the ping pong balls fall the way
to Charlotte, but you're basically guaranteed a top ten pick.
I know that the odds are a little bit different,
but just general's sake of the conversation. Top ten pick
(44:44):
coming in, you're going to have the ability to reshape
the roster a little bit more. You have roster flexibility.
It's not you're stuck on bad contracts or hefty contracts
or anything like that. And everybody's got to get healthy.
That's the biggest thing here is the health is wealth situation,
where if you can get everybody back full time, ready
to go for training camp, everybody can gel there for
those first couple weeks of preseason, get the preseason games
(45:05):
under your belt, and then get rolling and ready to
go for the regular season. Get off to a good start,
because I think so much of the League two is
just getting off to that good start and setting the
tone for a very good season. I think Cleveland was
a great example of this season. I mean they wonder
first what fourteen games or so or whatever it was,
and look where they are now. They're a top seed
in the Eastern Conference. So again, I think that getting
off to a very good start is very important, but
(45:27):
a lot of that goes to a healthy offseason, a
better offseason, and making sure that everybody is ready to go.
Because as much as you guys are fired up and
ready to go, and wanting to have some more games here.
There's gonna be a need. There needs to be an
offseason just for these guys to reset, get healthy, and
get the bodies right to get going for next year.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
No question about it. Tipping off twenty five to twenty
six right now would not be advisable. Brandon Miller, Grant
Williams others still have some rehabilitation to do. But we
look forward to the fall. We look forward to a
reimagined Spectrum Center. We look forward to seeing our fantastic
fans back at the Hive again for the twenty five
twenty six campaign. In many respects, October can't come soon enough,
(46:03):
but we will enjoy the break while we have it.
This is going to be our last time altogether, certainly
in this studio for quite some time. Gentlemen, thank you
so much for all of your hard work and dedication
to the Hornets I've cast, and thanks to our great
fans out there for tuning in weekly, daily, monthly, whenever
you feel like it. We're here for you each and
every Hornets game for a game, preview, game review, interviews
(46:26):
in between. During the summer, please continue to check out
the Hornets YouTube page. You can go back see our
in depth one on one interviews, including with rich Naal
gay Plockin, the co chairman of Hornet Sports and Entertainment.
You can see our recent sit down conversation with Miles
Bridges talking about his relationship with the fans, with LaMelo Ball,
the game winners that he had this season. There's a
lot of great moments that he was able to go
(46:47):
into detail on and we hope you enjoy all that
content and we look forward to bring in it all
to you again next season.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, and thank you everybody for listening this season,
and thank you to both of you for filling in
for the or making it work, I should say for
the two months that I was gone really three months
because I wasn't here for the preseason as well.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
So rus is worth it. Yeah, we're all on team
Brooks here.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, it was worth it, definitely. But I really appreciate it.
Kind of it was strange for me kind of not
you know, or being so away from the team and
sort of the day to day keeping the pulse on
everything during the season, but it was I appreciate you
guys kind of figuring it out without me. I'm sure
it wasn't easy. Rob.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Have you ever had so many Mets Hot Stove updates
in your life as this past winter.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I'm gonna keep my comments on myself. I will keep
the piece in the studio for these final couple of
moments and we'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Rob, thank you. You're a part of every single episode
of the AHHC and thank you. Couldn't do this without you,
wouldn't want to try. Everyone enjoy your summer. All our
fans out there, enjoy your summer. For Rob Blongo and
Sam Purley. I'm Sam Farber saying it's been a pleasure
of privilege having you along. We will talk to you
later on this summer. Whatever news breaks, we'll have you
covered right here. I'm a Hornets podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
you by Sense, the official i ear nosen throad Care
provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit Hornets
dot com.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com