October 22, 2025 • 45 mins
In the first hour of the show, the guys tell you what they expect from the Hornets this year, discuss how things could look different with Andy Dalton under center this weekend and rank the impact of the Charlotte rookies for this year.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Only Sports Radio ninety two point seven half m. We
got a ufn Z. Fine, this is the West and
Walker Show. Even a crowd knows what's coming there. Happy
horn It's opening Day. It's a war crime Wednesday too
on Western Walker Sports Radio ninety two seven wfn Z.
(00:31):
I know everybody's hype. Okay, gonna go not only to
the play in but the playoffs this year. At least,
that's the energy I'm trying to speaking to existence. I'm
really hoping hoping it happens this season. We had a
great season preview yesterday. Shout out to Smoke for helping
me out. We had some conversations about the good vibes,
the good feelings everybody is experiencing going into the twenty
(00:53):
twenty five twenty twenty six season, and I do think
it's real. I think so. Anyway, I haven't felt like this, yes,
at least I don't think so. The last couple of years.
It feels like everybody is starting to say nice things
about the Hornets. I'm having I did tweet it out today,
but I'm having to tweet out the Hornets stray counter
less and less when national podcasts are talking about Charlotte
(01:15):
they actually speak about them somewhat glowingly. Yeah, this is
a surprise. This is not what I'm used to. So
I'm hoping that we can get off on the right foot.
Got to capitalize against the Nets at home. They're five
and a half point favorite. When's the last time they
were a favorite on Opening night? That's a great point
to bring up. I can't because I heard Smoke talking
about this with Kyle yesterday that this game is winnable.
(01:37):
Vegas would have you believe that they are the favorites,
this is one they should win. I kind of agree
with that sentiment. So I'm hoping that they can use
this as a launching pad for the rest of the sea.
I me too.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I mean, and Nets have like forty rookies, and you
know they don't have anybody on that roster that's starting five.
That makes you go, oh my god, how are we
going to be able to beat this team? So, yes,
I'm excited. This team is healthy in as not two
or three guys missing like it has been the last
few years with not missing key guys. Mello gonna be
out the first five or six games, Miles going to
(02:08):
be out the first three games, so that's the part
that you can't wait to see. It's just this team
as a whole, get out there together healthy.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You saw the injury report, I mean it was beautiful.
It wasn't a list, it was almost almost. It was
one of those where I had to try to be
a man. I'm not gonna cry over this. I'm a man.
Everybody ready to go, but I wanted to. There were
only two injuries listed on that injury report, and they
were the injuries that we knew we were going to
get right before the season started anyway. In fact, I
(02:38):
would argue Grant Williams, the injury prognosis on him is
way better than what we had after the initial diagnosis
of what was a devastating knee injury. It wasn't just
a torn acl I forget all the stuff that was
going on in there, but it was bad. And so
now the fact that he actually has somewhat of a
promising prognosis to come back maybe sooner rather than later,
(02:59):
because Grant works so hard and rehab It's just the
right kind of guy to have around this organization. Same
thing with Josh Green, who could be coming back sooner
rather than later. We don't know but those are the
only two names on the injury report, and.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Those are two guys that you feel like, Hey, once
you get those two guys back, that's going to make
this team even deeper. So that makes you even more excited,
even though you hate that they're hurt right now. Iutely
you know Josh Green is a defensive guard, but still
when it comes back, he can make a few threes.
And and we know what Grant Williams brings to the team,
some toughness, some veteran maturity.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So yeah, Bagel guy says Walker sounds like a kid
on Christmas. English. Paul says Walker wakes up realizing its
Hornet's opening night, and that he sends the Jack Nicholson
nodding Jeff as well because of my excitement. I know
I'm going to be accused of being extremely excited today.
I want you guys to know your accusations are correct. Yeah,
I'm very excited. Had to wrap ready to go. I
(03:54):
put on a different hoodie, not thinking I feel like
you should get a new, a fresh one for every year.
Opening day. I'm going to I'm going to I'm gonna
get some more Hornet stuff, you know. Surprisingly I don't
have a lot of Hornets winter stuff, so fanatic what
you should.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
When you did the Hornets game on I guess had
they changed over by nond with they FanDuel Sports, they were, yesh,
you should have taken advantage that night at at thirty
percent off and then like, hey, I work for FanDuel.
Let me get there. I don't think I like you did.
I don't think I got But see, they don't know.
You have to play on the ignorance. If you go
in there and they know that you're out there doing
the game, they're gonna automatically assume that you work for them,
(04:29):
and you could have gotten at thirty percent because why
I used to act.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
A fool up in there. Yeah maybe one day, Maybe
one day I'll get thirty percent of my homegirl in
that still hooks me up when I come in there.
She's like, hey, I still throw you to thirty. Introduce
me to homegirl, then I will please if you don't mind. Okay, Wednesday,
it's opening war cry. We all also have Fiddy in
the Chandler Volta studio Flowers barely Flower like that, there
(04:55):
you go. Flowder is going to give us a normal
war cry. Fiddy is going to just legitimately cry because man,
I chastised him this morning on Mac and Bone. If
you haven't heard it, go to WFNZ dot com after
everything is done with on wfn Z today because there
is a debate about whether Fiddy should be allowed to
be a Hornets fan, And so they called me, asked
(05:16):
me what I thought, and I told him what I.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thought, And I already know which way to win, because
I'm just sitting there right now saying no, he does
not he can absolutely not, no, hell no, all that
week except I screamed that.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I screamed it, and I did so for about eight
minutes that I was on with Mac and Bone. So
he's in. That's fine, but he's gonna cry. He's not
really gonna win.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm surprised he didn't wait until, you know, like if
the Hornets do end up having a good season, going
to the plan winning and then he's just jump in.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
But that's what I thought. But well, this this team
is objectively better than what they've been since Fitty has
been here front running Fitty. So guess what do you
think it's a coincidence that now he wants to hop
on when they're like top five in bands.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Pantha's getting half naked because they over five hundred, right,
you know what I'm saying this.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, Now he's like, hey, guys, I'll wear the Hornets
bikini top. If no, you just trashed him last week,
don't act like I'm revealing a secret to anybody. It's
on w every time we every time we bring them up. Anyways,
we're gonna war cry. He's gonna cry. That's right. Flounder
is gonna war cry that he's gonna cry at the
count of three. I want you guys to get excited
for the Hornets. It's okay to be excited. It's okay.
(06:26):
They have not hurt you yet. I hope they don't
hurt you at all, So it's okay to be excited
going into this season. You guys know the drill. At
the count of three, let loose baby one, two, three.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I'm like, we gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Let's go, let us off the bus flow. He didn't
you ever cry so hard that your face is a
little flushed. That's what I just did. I saw it. Yeah,
I was into it. The hundly d was it for me.
I don't know how Collins does it. Yeah, a little lightheaded,
(07:10):
to be honest, I know now.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It used to be one of my favorite things is
to watch him during a broadcast.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I used to like to watch it because this is
one thing to hear it.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
But when you watch him and see all the emotions
and everything that goes into it, like that video they
put out what was it last year?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So pretty cool? It's so good. I mean, we know
he's the go. Yes, it just is, and Dell being
super smooth. They compliment each other as well as you
possibly could. Yes, all right, I want your hornets bold
predictions this year. Let us know how you feeling seven
oh four or five, seven oh ninety six to ten.
That's the fandual text line. I want your Hornet's bold predictions.
I want them to be somewhat realistic. But I'll accept
(07:44):
wrong answers too. There are no wrong answers before we
play a single game, so quote unquote wrong answers those
will be accepted. Also, Can we get to NBA on
NBC real quickly? We can? Did you watch all of
it last night? I only watched the first game.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I watched because I came in I rewinded back the
pregame so I watched a decent amount of the pregame
and aught that stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So yeah, I watched a Good Bitch, which I think,
for this specific moment is almost as important as the game. Oh,
no question, You want to see how it's packaged? Yes?
Can I just say, I know this is not going
to be a I know this is not going to
be a unique take, but just a huge round of
applause for the job that NBC did last I'll tell
(08:28):
you this. I'm really excited about how this product was
packaged by NBC. I thought they did a great job
wes of tapping into nostalgia as a vehicle to introduce
NBA on NBC to a new era. I thought what
they did asking SGA, asking wimby Anthony Edwards, the video
that's circulating on social media, asking them, when you think
(08:48):
of NBA on NBC, you think of what? And they
had no clue what to say because it's been so long.
We're talking about the nineties. We're talking about Michael Jordan
hitting the shot against the jazz. We're talking BB costas.
That doesn't exist in the NBA anymore, except now it does.
And we took a more than twenty year break from
it and to ask all the younger guys that are
(09:11):
the faces of the league that have no clue what
that's all about. I thought it was a perfect way
to introduce NBA on NBC with them saying I don't
have any thoughts. I wasn't born yet, I was in diapers,
and Anthony Edwards the only thing he could muster up
as far as the memory goes for NBC was Michael
Jordan and then boom, you see the goat start to
(09:32):
sit down. And I think Bill Simmons is one hundred
percent correct in that it doesn't really matter what he says.
It just doesn't to me. Bomani described this talking about
DiAngelo because I watched the thirteen minute clip dedicated to
DiAngelo's career, and I thought he really did a nice
job describing his aura, saying some people might have felt
(09:52):
they were as talented as DiAngelo, except there's one real
simple problem. He's not that mother bleeper. Sometimes you just
can't be that guy. You're not him. That's the issue.
You're not him. I feel that way talking about Michael.
When we discuss who the greatest of all time is,
is it Lebron? Do we need to give more love
for Kareem. You're not that dude. Yeah, it doesn't matter
(10:14):
what MJ says. It really doesn't to me. I want
to hear what he has to say, and I don't
care about the substance of it. And I thought the
NBA on NBC just knocked it out of the park
with their coverage last night.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
One thing I will say, if I was to have
any gripe, I did want because the old school intro
it got me fired up thinking I was going to
get a little more. I wish they would have done it,
you know, like the mind times that they would show
after the music hit, where you're getting highlight here or
there there all over the screen. I wish they would
have done that, perhaps with the new guys. I think
that that would have been a nice touch because I
(10:46):
was looking forward to that when the game started, because
like I said, I watched the decent amount of the
pregame and I rewound it back to see what you
were just talking about. Then when I saw them coming
through the lines for the starting lineups, I said, wait
a minute, hold on, I didn't see the intro. I
stopped this. Wished it because at first I had it
on my smaller TV. I said, no, no, no, I
want to see this on the big TV. And then
(11:06):
I rewind it back and I said, oh, I did
want the full intro with a montage of new players
with the music going in the same style that they
did at the nineties. In the nineties, maybe I'm asking
too much, but that's what I wanted for my nostalgia
because that's what I was looking forward to the much.
And I love that they brought back the old voice
guy as well to just say the matchouts that I
(11:27):
did like.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Well, this is It's a tough needle to thread because
I think a lot of times when you embrace nostalgia
to the nth degree, you get caught up in not
being able to embrace the new. And so now you
just can't allow these guys to gravitate towards anything else. Yeah, Now,
what the appeal is for NBA on NBC all happened
in the nineties. You do have to give us something new.
(11:49):
And so while I would love Roundball Rock, I would
love Bob Costas calling the games, I would love the
exact score bug that happened, then it is the twenty
twenties and you do have to acknowledg that, and so
it's why I give them a ton of credit because
they did such a great job of using that again
as a vehicle to bring on new consumers. And if
you can tap into what the love of the game is, man,
(12:11):
that is a huge deal as an investment. Just understanding
this is going to be a win ten to fifteen
years from now. When people are watching the NBA on NBC,
they get to experience all of the stuff that the
adults did in the nineties, And so that's what I
love about it. I thought the score Bug was great. Yeah,
did you like the panel for the pre game? I
(12:33):
thought the panel was very good. I know people don't
like Reggie Miller. I get it, But here's this. They're online,
they're listening, which I think is key. NBC listened to
what we wanted as NBA fans for our coverage. We
didn't want anybody crapping on the product anymore. Yeah, it's
okay to embrace basketball. It's okay to love the game.
(12:53):
Where now what you do is My sister, I'll go
to an analogy described this one time where she had
a friend that always talked about how much she was
gaining weight, it's like, man, do you think I'm gaining weight? No, No,
You're fine, You're not. Man, I just feel like I'm
gaining weight. I feel like I'm oh my god, I'm
so I'm so chubby all this stuff. And she really wasn't.
(13:13):
But then after a few weeks my sister looked at it.
He's like, man, honestly, maybe you have a little bit
you start to cut because you keep selling me on it.
Why do you keep selling me on it? So when
we listen to Charles Barkley and Shack and all of
these people were going to see them tonight and they
say the NBA isn't as good as it was in
the nineties, the NBA isn't as good as well as
(13:34):
it was in the nineties, Well, that starts to seep
into viewership. Just embrace it. Basketball players are more skilled
than ever. We have incredible athletes that are doing wow
type of stuff every single night. It's okay to embrace it.
And I think NBC listened, especially with the player introductions. Also,
I feel like they checked a lot of boxes.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, and I was gonna say too, because yeah, I
like the pedal to the on thing. I hated a
Kamelo with the shades, I'm like, comella, can you take
the shades off?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Do you have to be up there with the shades?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
But other than that, yeah, I thought they did a
good job, Archer, greater than I have. Yeah, I was
sitting there, I was like, especially on the inside, I
was like, come on, man. But other than that, the
man rock Other than that, though, I thought it was
pretty good. The fashion segment that they did with them
showing the old stuff that they used to wear, I
thought that was pretty cool too. So all in all,
like I said, I did think that they did a
(14:22):
good job. And you know, I had the Rockets game
on passively because I was watching something else, but I
was still looking at a decent amount of the game.
And then before when I got into bed, I left
the Lakers game on for a few minutes as well
to check in some of that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I like tapping into the fun of the three point
hand gesture. I like that, Yeah, it's great, it's not overdone.
You get a little flash of fun and make it fun.
Make it fun, package the product in a nice way,
have all of the popping circumstance, and also don't take
the story away from the actual game. I just really thought,
(14:57):
that's a hard job. Twitter and social media they liked
to hate on things. Yeah, you have you have to
just blow everybody out of the water to really get
this kind of universal acceptance. And they did that and
monster tip of the cap to NBS.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And I will say too, man I was, I was
thinking about how homies over there at WCSC Danielle Stein
and the crew, and I said, man, I said, they
gotta be hate in life right now because they don't
come on until late, late now when they have these
NBA games.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yes, you know, look, Nick Carboni, it's going to be
rude awaken when you come back from paternity leave. Yeah,
you come on at one o'clock in the morning once
you get back from paternity leave. Yeah, when's my hours?
What a hell? Yeah, what's beyond about one? I gotta
go back, all right. I do want to read all
of your Hornet's Bold predictions going into the next segment.
(15:42):
You still have time seven oh four or five, seven
oh ninety six to ten. Let us know how you're
feeling about the Hornet's upcoming season, and then we'll dabble,
of course, and some Andy Dalton getting the start against
the bills. It's not official, but it's kind of official.
How can the Panthers win? With Andy Dalton under center
at Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ, I think the
(16:13):
blood is rushing back to my head, rushing back to
my face after screaming humdidly D a little too hard.
I need to leave the hum didly D's to Eric Collins,
I mean, he really is like.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Mount Rushmore's status for me though, like not just because
I know him, but like, yeah, no, he Look, he's
so good. We can be biased, and I get that,
but remove the high energy calls, remove the big game calls,
which I know is a lot of what he does.
But my whole thing has been he's so good and
so fluid from one play to the other without the
(16:47):
high energy stuff. That's what separates him. It's the high
energy is here. It's great. He calls every game like
he's at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I love it. I want to be excited watching this product.
But also it's the normal transition every single place by
play by play.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
He's great at that. Yeah, and I'm not even gonna
take that away. I'm going to add that and keep
it right there. But not only that, I mean just
the facts and stats that he gives in the game.
And then obviously some of the personal bidies comes in
working alongside him and seeing his process and just how
meticulous he is with everything, and that's why it comes
out in the broadcast where he hits you with all
these random facts that just sitting there like, oh my god,
(17:24):
like that is that for real? And then the high
energy calls are just the best. That's why I'm glad
that this team is going to be whole, you know,
even though we know how we feel with Miles, but
you know, he's talking about he's jumping like it's twenty
twenty two again. So I'm looking forward to crazy LaMelo
highlights with the calls to come with it, because that
adds to it for the Horn.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Anytime you hear Eric Collins talk about his craft, one
thing he discusses and mentions is that he doesn't want
anybody in the building to know more about that game
and the two opponents than he does. And I think
Mission accomplished every single game you've ever called. Yeah, it's
just and didn't know it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Multiple games in a week, if you take that type
of mentality, they're doing multiple games in a week.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Forget about it.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, I mean he knows everything that you need to
know about these guys statistically, He's got the nicknames down
and all that, and then he's got moments like this,
which I mean like nobody else has these moments.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
The Monte Graham is tougher than Woodpecker, lit Like, what
does that even mean?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I don't know what it means, but I love it. Yeah,
A country analogy's up fire too. He's great at everything,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Eric Collins, he makes his hornet's debut for the regular
season tonight. We get to see him on the call,
alongside also the great Del Curry. Bold predictions, lots of
people writing a ton of stuff in Let's get to
those text messages. Myron Goodman more so. Asking a question
about a bold prediction, he says, how realistic is forty
three wins? If LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and Brandon Miller
(18:45):
play sixty five games together. I imagine the forty three
win mark is because of what they accomplished a few
years ago. They were forty three and thirty nine when
they made the play in got bounced by thirty. But
that was the last time they were above five hundred.
Do you think three wins is realistic if all those
guys play sixty five or more. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Like I said, I the optimism that you feel today
kind of I've felt that way the last couple of seasons.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I just felt like, if they could just stay healthy.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean, when they lost that playing game the last
time that they were there, I was like, this team
is on its way. And then it just felt like
they were just plagued with injuries each year after that.
And so now again I still have that optimism that
if this team can stay healthy. And I think one
thing that's good about it is that sometimes you just
never know that the irony of things, and it's like,
(19:32):
you know, if they're able to stay healthy and with
everything they've been through. Now, these guys are veterans now,
they're not the young guys that they were three four
years ago. They've learned more, they've been through these injuries,
they've been through those hardened experiences that could help them,
you know, to be able to pull through tough times
down Because I feel like that that's where this team
is at at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I think they have the right type of rookies.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
When you talk about the Canipples and you talk about
some of those guys that come in with the mind
said that they're all business from the jump, older veteran
guys too, like a carp Brenner coming in mature from college.
But I think that these Hornets guys, they've been through
the criticisms, They've been through a lot of things, and
so that's another thing that I would bank on that
you feel like that they should be at this point
(20:17):
in their careers now to where they've been through kind
of the fire, so to speak, and now they're ready
to use those experiences to help them get through some
adverse times and get to a greater goal.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Forty three seems a little high. I'm all for the
Hornet's optimism. Oh is it from a talent standpoint? You
don't feel like that they necessarily have the requisite pieces
to be able to get to that point. I think
that they're an odd team and I love it, and
I think this is how you win. If the free
agent pool wasn't all that deep, you just go ahead
and go after players that might not fit extremely well
(20:49):
with you. Where you have all these backcourt players, remember
they signed all the guards. They don't have a lenksy
center rotation that you can depend on. But you know,
I also love Musa and I'm really encouraged by what
Ryank Hawkbrenner has done. I think this team's going to
give up a lot of points. So defensively, I think
they're going to be in terms of points allowed per game,
points per one hundred possessions, I would venture a guest
(21:11):
to say that they're going to be at least bottom seven.
I think they're going to give up a lot of points.
I also think that they have the potential to be
one of the best offenses in the league pretty consistently.
How do you win if you don't hit shots? We
know how these other great teams do it. I don't
know if the Hornets are going to be able to
win if they don't shoot a great percentage from three.
(21:31):
And I still need to see the rim pressure. Colin
Sexton helps a lot with that. I think LaMelo feeding
guys on cuts because now he has better talent around him.
But at forty three seams a little high. If ultimate
ceiling of ceilings, I feel like thirty eight to forty
and I'm talking about that's the high end for me,
(21:53):
which means you're probably finishing with like some seven or
eight seed, and now it's time to be competitive in
the play in and try to parlay this thing into
a playoff series. If you do that, I think that
is the best case scenario that you can get this year.
I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I feel like,
That's how I feel. Let's move on for some more
bold predictions about the Hornets going into this year. Cacilacs
as bold, somewhat realistic, forty wins and two All Star nods.
(22:17):
I think that's pretty perfect in the Venn diagram of
realistic and bold. Forty wins or two All starnds would
have to be Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball, which I
think is the number one storyline heading into this season,
And if you wanted to focus on an individual player,
it pretty much is.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Specifically, if they get to that point you're talking about
when you talk things that would need to happen, they
would certainly have to become one of the best duos
in the NBA. Like I'm talking top five, well maybe
top ten, somewhere in that range. Tennis maybe a little
bit on the outside, but you're talking I would need
(22:52):
to see at least forty five points between those two
on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Well at a minimum. Yeah, well we have somebody with
a bold addiction where three guys are going to score
twenty or more. A banana boat, he says, Mellow averages
twenty five, Miller averages twenty two, and Bridges averages twenty. See,
I think who do? I think it's the closest to
that Mello has the ability to average that. I just
(23:18):
don't think he does because he has better talent around
him now and we don't need him to score every
single time down in the court. We needed him to
do that last year. In fact, I would love for
it to come down the counting stats, the points per game.
If that came down because everybody else was scoring and
you had better efficiency. I think that's probably what they're
(23:39):
angling for, and it's what I would angle for if
I was their head coach, because the efficiency wasn't great
last year. But I don't hold that against him because
who else were we going to allow to shoot the basketball?
And Brandon was out, Trey Man was out. Yeah, LaMelo,
go shine. But it's hard for you to shine because yeah,
it's a lot of g leaguers out there. We don't
have anybody else to throw at you. Now we do,
(24:00):
so let's see mellow score twenty. Give me eight and
a half nine assists per game and lets you forty
three forty four percent from the field. Can we get
back up to thirty eight from three? I think that's
on the table. And if you give me that stat line,
he's an All star.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, And I think you're talking about a season kind
of like what you had in twenty two where they
had seven guys at average ten points of more and
they almost had the triple twenty stat. I remember saying
that several times that year. But Miles average twenty, Melo
averaged twenty, and Terry Rozier averaged nineteen, and they shot
forty seven percent as a team from two point or
(24:37):
just regular field goals, and then they shot thirty seven
percent from three. I think that's kind of more in
line with what you would be talking about what you
need this year.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Brian in Mississippi says, Vegas says twenty seven and a half.
I one hundred percent took the over. I like the over. Now,
I've guessed the over every season. I was gonna say
that you put a little chudu on the over. I
have not I haven't done a lot of futures bets
in my betting history. It's really a lot of props
same day. I think that's a lockdown horness holds it's
(25:04):
only right. Well, well, you know we do partner with
FanDuel unlockdown hornets as well. Yeah, and we tried to
bet the Buzz was the segment we called, and we
lost a lot. Okay, we put a dollar bet down
and it got to a point where we just kept
losing every single time, and then the injury started to happen,
and you know what, we abandoned that bit pretty quickly. Okay,
(25:25):
you gotta bet the Buzz, except we weren't saying it
with that kind of enthusiasm all that long after our
initial bets. Uh UFC pillow fight. Con Kinnipple gets Rookie
of the Year. Who it's gonna be tough. I don't
think that's I don't think that's kind of just.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Because of his circumstance, Like he's got a lot of
scores around him that's gonna keephim from putting up the
type of numbers to get that.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
If you think that's the case, that might that might
be worth you know, going over to FanDuel putting like
five dollars especially.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, and Cooper fig is gonna be hard to beat.
He would have to have a really mid season well
to not get it. You know, it's gonna compete with
them at your Boy. It's as Bailey. Yes, Ace Bailey's
gonna get all the opportunity in the world. It's why
they traded Colin Sexton. He looked good, man, He looked
good in the first two third not as much.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Then he got hurt, which, look, I know that I
wasn't a fan of Ace Bailey being here in Charlotte
given the circumstances. I really don't want him to have
tendonitis in both knees. That's a red flag immediately. Yeah,
both of them, both of them. Yeah, I don't like that.
But he was very good in the first two days.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
The thing is, I think that Coop will have you know,
let's just say he have just something like sixteen five
and six. But the Mavericks are top three team in
the West. He's going to get the nod because his
team is going to be so good. I think I'm
with you on that.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
CP in Mount Holly says, the Hornets will be a
top five team in the East at the All Star Break. Okay,
so you know I'll get you too all Star.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I had a similar take last year and it did
not go well. But injuries injuries, you can put it
on that same Yeah, yeah, yeah you could. But I
like that framing of it because that's exactly what happens.
The forty three and thirty nine year they were I
think they were a top five seed at All Star
Break and then they fell down a little bit, a lot,
a bit to the play in But okay, the framing,
(27:11):
the last twenty percent of that text message doing a
lot of the heavy lifting there. Yeah, oh okay, they're
gonna be a top five seed, but only at the
All Star Break.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I still like it. Final text message is to read
because a lot of people writing in their Hornets bold predictions,
Buffet and forcer. No I'm not gonna I'm not reading it.
No bad juju for the Lamello injury stuff, No bad juju.
Josh from Fort Mill says, I think Sexton is going
to give you at least twelve to fifteen points per game. Yeah,
I think that's probably a good sweet spot for him real.
(27:41):
Tar Heel says, the Hornets have the six Man of
the Year winner now that I love as a future's bet.
We did this episode on Lockdown Hornets two. Is it
going to be Colin Sex the Man or Trey Sex
the Man that's true Man or Colin Sexton? I think
either one of those guys could be in play. I
(28:02):
think Sexton starts, though Wes and maybe Trey Man because
he's going to be coming off of the bench a
lot more. Maybe it's going to go to him. But
I do think Colin Sexton, if he does come off
of the bench, kon K Nipple starts a lot because
of the connectivity that he provides Between Lamelloway and Brandon Miller,
I think you have two candidates that could win that bet.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Just thick about what you're saying right there, you know
what I'm saying. The fact that you feel like did
they can have two possible guys for six man at
a year? That speaks to depth, That speaks to absolutely,
you know, having some guys man. So that has to
feel good to say because this time last year, we
weren't talking that kind of talk.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
You know, last thing on the parallels between this team
and the forty three and thirty nine team. There were
two players they had that were top ten and six
Man of the Year award. It was Kelly you Bray
and it was Montrez Harrel. So could we have two
guys again like Trey Man and Colin Sexton. That would
be awesome. So it's possible, It's possible. All right, we'll
get back to some Horne's conversation a little bit later on.
(28:56):
I wanted to focus also on the Panthers game against
the Bills this weekend. We all expect Andy Dalton to start.
It's not a thing grand rifle man. Who is that?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That would be your favorite traffic man here at the studio.
That would be Boom or von Canne, your rand rifle man.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Sound like boom? Does this sound like boom? You a
little bit right now? That's his on air voice. Okay,
so he switches to ran rifle man. Yeah, I agree
with you. It doesn't sound like him like that Boom.
I like it. I'm here for all the boom sound
that we can play. Anyway. It's not official yet. They're
still holding out hope for Bryce Young to start against
the Bills, but we all expected to be Andy Dalton.
(29:37):
I was exploring on Pro Football Focus, everybody's favorite football
website west just to look at the schematics of what
Andy Dalton was playing well with the last year and
what he wasn't. I'll tell you what he was pretty
bad at. They ran play action quite a bit with him.
Thirty percent of the dropbacks that he had were in
play action. And guess where he finished in terms of
PFF grades in play action sets? Bad? Dead last? Yeah,
(30:03):
interesting stuff. I did not. I was just surfing. I
was just seeing, Hey, what Easter eggs am I going
to find? And that was a bad one. That was
a smelly Easter egg. It was rotten, it was nasty.
No thank you. I'll leave that for some other kid
to find. Andy Dalton graded dead last among quarterbacks that
had twenty percent of dropbacks in that set, dead last
with a forty four grade. Now, again, grades aren't everything,
(30:25):
but I think there was enough sample size here to
say you probably weren't very good if you had that
low of a grade. And then in the first two
games that he played, specifically, he got a ninety two
on every other concept outside of play action. So I
don't know what to take from that because while it's
enough of a sample size for us to certainly think
of something about this, like, I don't know how much
(30:46):
we say, all right, well, now we just can't go
play action at all. It didn't seem to get better
in the next three games that he struggled with. Also,
no big time throws out of that set, and we
had seen Bryce Young actually flourishing as play actions to
pick up the last couple of games, do you just
almost abandon it, like you can't be predictable? But buddy,
(31:06):
I don't know if I want to run thirty percent
of the drop backs. If he was that bad, maybe
we just go down to like something twenty or eight.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Well, you also got to think about too, If we're
gonna give Bryce the grace of the supporting cast he
was playing with, we also have to think of what
he was playing with at that time as well. That
offensive line was very, very bad. He didn't have a
ton of weapons out there. So when you talk about
a bad offensive line, play action is not going to
be very conducive to that, because, especially if you're not
running the ball very well, you're gonna have guys in
(31:34):
your face when you turn back around to the defense.
So I'll give him that type of grace because I
think that, yeah, man, you're gonna have to be able
to have that in your game, especially if you fancy
yourself a run first football team.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well, the thing is the offensive line pass protecting wasn't bad.
They were bad against the Bears and Andy Dalton really
struggled against them. They were pretty good against the Falcons.
Andy Dalton wasn't good against the Falcons when the Falcons had,
along with the Panthers, the worst pash and so I
did think about that. There were a couple games. I
think that's a legitimate excuse. Here's a legitimate excuse that
(32:06):
furthers your point in terms of the weapons and the
lack thereof six drops when Andy Dalton played last year,
that was the most amount of drops that any quarterback
suffered from in that span that he started. So that's
the thing. What is Andy Dalton's fault? What isn't his fault?
There was certainly one game against Chicago where he didn't
(32:27):
have any time to work with, and really the entire
stretch there were a lot of drops that he was
dealing with. Even in the game that he was awesome Cincinnati,
he was very good four drops in that game. M hmm,
maybe could have won against the Bengals, and the Bengals
at that point would have gone like ZH to five.
There wasn't a chance in hell for them to get
back to the postseason. I think all of this to say, Wes,
there are a lot of reasons that you can believe
(32:48):
in a realistic victory against Buffalo, which is clearly the
better team. I don't want Andy Dalton to start over
Bryce Young, but I think this is exactly why you
have them. It's fourth spot starts. You can feel good
about your chances of beating even decent opponents on the
other side because of his experience, and he's not some
oh my god, don't throw the football past five yards
(33:11):
the line of scrimmage like you can go ahead and
air it out a little bit and I feel decent
about it. Got to keep the turnovers low. But there
are ways to win, and it's why I'm encouraged by
having a backup quarterback of Andy Dalton's stature.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, and he's certainly helped there, and you hope that,
like I said, he's at the beginning part of the
cycle for backups. When the backups always come in catch
teams a little by surprise, that's right, and they're able
to play well because this is definitely going to be
a defense that when they get into obvious past situations
that they're gonna becoming man second best pressure rate in
the league for the Buffalo Bills. So when they're getting
(33:43):
those passing downs, they're going to have to have a
plan because these guys are gonna be coming.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Can your strength be a strength against this team where
you just run the football all over Buffalo? That's ultimately
what it comes down to. It's the key to every
game you've ever watched in your entire life. Running the football,
stopping the run, limiting turnovers. It is the blanket statement
over every single NFL game. It feels more important here
(34:09):
for a backup quarterback against that defense that struggles mightily
against the run, and you want to keep the football
out of Josh Allen's hands. Like all the cliches, this
is the cliche game wes right here against the Bills.
Hopefully Andy Dalton can get it done. We'll move on.
We'll talk a little more about the Panthers coming up next.
Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ West and Walker
(34:41):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven. WFNZ feel free to
continue letting us know your hornet's bold predictions on the
FANDUL text line. We'll be reading them all throughout the show.
Seven oh four, five, seven ninety six ten. Again shout
out to the fandual text line. Not a text in me.
He had a couple of them. Here are his bold predictions.
LaMelo plays six games. Getna knock on wood anytime we
(35:02):
talk injuries. It's just something I got, Do you hear it?
Nobody's knocking on your door. It's me knocking on wood
here in the studio. That's some solid wood over there phrasing.
The next one is two rookies make all rookie teams.
Oh why I like this one. Thank you very much,
mister producer, sir for introducing a piece of content that
(35:23):
plays with my next segment grouping all the Charlotte rookies
together via the Panthers and the Hornets, because I think
there's a shot with the way that the Hornets have
kind of attached themselves at the hip to Ryan Kalkbrenner
in a very weird way. Because this entire offseason we've
heard Zach Lowe on his national podcast discuss how much
the Hornets love Kaulkbrenner. Okay, I believe it. I do.
(35:47):
He also was the last pick of the four rookies
that they selected. They selected Conkinpple fourth, which you're not
going to select call fourth. But then I thought they
might take them twenty ninth, but instead they draped to
Liam McNeely. I thought they might take him with the
thirty third pick, but instead they drafted Seon James, which, yeah,
I mean, you could say that's not a big deal.
You knew you had back to back picks, so what
(36:09):
does it matter. Yeah, except you got to get somebody
locked in because you don't know about somebody else swooping
in and giving you some kind of offer that blows
your socks off. And now you're like, okay, well that
is a great offer. Well, man, I wish we would
have drafted Kawkbrener at thirty three, so you still order
it the right way, even if you have back to
back picks and you have control of your destiny. Even
(36:30):
all that being said, they drafted Kawkbrenner. He was the
last of the four picks. He didn't look great in
Summer League. In my opinion, there were some moments. I
didn't think he looked great in the first two preseason games,
but I thought the last two he did. I thought
those were minutes warrant that warranted regular season run. What
do you think about that prediction from NADA that two
guys make all rookie teams.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I think that, yeah, because because I was trying to think,
I thought he was saying that McNeely would be the
second rookie, but caught Renner. Yeah, let us know whatich
two rookies are you talking about? But yeah, for Cochburnder,
I think a lot of times these guys on a
team like this with so many players, I think they
may end up getting cannibalized where they're gonna have a
(37:10):
hard time making some of these teams. Like we talked
about with the Nipple for Rookie of the Year, he's
gonna play with so many guys that need to eat
first that it's gonna make it a little tough for
him to put up the requids at number So I
especially don't know that Kalkbrenner will be able to do so.
But if he's the starter in getting starters minutes, then
he's got a shot as well.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I would go out on a limb.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I would say, I think only one, but I wouldn't
be completely surprised to make it, especially if Kalkbrenner is
getting starter's minute.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
It's bold prediction. Yeah, it's not one that is the favorite.
You got plus odds on this, But I don't think
it's a bad bat. I think Kalkbrenner. Here's just what's
interesting in a battle that Kalkbrenner won alone, is it
was supposed to be a three headed I'll put I'll
say monster. I don't know if we're describing this as
a three headed monster at the center rotation, but it
(38:00):
was supposed to be three guys competing for that spot.
It was Kawkbrenner, it was Mason Plumley, and it was Musa.
It's really just a two man job now in my opinion.
Now this issa still and he's the VET. He's the
emergency break glass guy. I wasn't so sure about that
when they signed him, but that seems to be the
case now. So Yeah, I mean that's already a lot
of the battle, you know, beating a vet that knows
where to be, knows what to do. Yeah, I think
(38:21):
that's a decent amount of the battle. So anyways, both
of those guys should contribute kind of king of the hill. Whatever.
We can just kind of work it out here on
this segment grouping all of the Charlotte athlete Charlotte rookies together. Okay,
so I got team at kon K Nipple, Nick Gorton,
Ryan Kalkbrener, Prince Ummuel, and Mitchell Levins. Really the question
is who are the rookies that provide the biggest impact
(38:44):
for their team? Because we have four for Charlotte, it's
a lot of rookies in an NBA game, and they
all signed real deals. They're not I mean, I'm sure
some of them will spend some time in the G League,
but they're not on two way contracts. They're on legitimate
NBA contracts. And then, of course we had a whole
bunch of rookies that drafted by the Carolina Panthers. If
we were to list the biggest impacts provided by each
(39:05):
of these players, do we have to start at team AC. Yes,
I think he's pretty clearly number one. Yes, I just
called him the most valuable offensive player. And even if
he hasn't had as much production lately, he had the
two touchdowns against Dallas, but he hasn't been targeted nearly
as much. I think a lot of that is because
they're leaning on the run game. Script two probably dictates
to move away from McMillan a few times. I still
(39:28):
think TMAC is number one flounder. If you want to
join in on this, do you agree that Tamak has
to be number one on the rookies that will contribute
the most of their team team Ac number one? Yes,
I would say, so who's number two? I'll let you
go first on this one because this one's a little
tougher for me. Yeah. The order that you have him
on this sheet, I would probably go.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
I think I will go Conker Nipple, and I think
that's fair to put him there because of the fanfare
that he comes in with. He will more than likely
be a starter at the two guard for the Hornets.
He's gonna get shots, He's going to be able to
make impact here. And I think the way that he plays,
if he's able to stay on the court defensively, which
it seems like he's doing good enough in that area,
(40:09):
I would think that the way passes and the way
he plays that he's going to be able to make
an impact, So I would go with caniple number two.
I think so too.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
It's tough that the guy I have below him is
Nick Gorton, And really this was just a rough draft
of the list, but it felt right to put those
guys there. Nick Gordon's getting a lot more snaps than
what Princeville Manmuelan is, who seems to be a third
down pass rush specialist. S Gordon is playing a lot
more downs. They do need a lot of edge rush
help over there, man, especially with Pat Jones being out.
(40:39):
Do you think the injury to Pat Jones actually propels
Gorton passed Canipple or you still think we should go
with cakniple number two.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
I would still go with caknnimple, just because as a team,
the Panthers still even with him in the lineup. Now,
he did have a sack and a half last week.
We'll see if that continues, because that projection could change
based off how he does this week. If he comes
out again and gets another sack, and when we start
to maybe look at him and say, okay, this guy
might be on his way. But I just think as
a whole, the Panthers don't get a ton of pass
(41:08):
rush as a team or sacks. Yeah, so I would
say Nipple will have a little bit more tangible impact.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I think I'm gonna go Scorton, Car Nipple. I think
I changed my mind a little bit. I think I'm
gonna go Scorton. I just it's the thing that I'm
worried about the most with this Panthers team, despite playing
well and having a three game win streak, it's I
don't think that pass rush is for real that they
showed against the Jets. I think Derek Brown's is. I
think Scorton has a lot of almost sacks, but princely
just not playing a ton of downs. Even though I
(41:36):
like him, I do view him more as the he'll
contribute down the line more so, Scrton, we need you
now because of your run stopping ability because we don't
have Pat Jones, and it's exactly WHOEVERO is calling on.
As soon as Pat Jones gets injured, I'm gonna go
Scorton to Ca Nipple three. I think it's really close.
I do think Car Nipple, being this guy that has
(41:56):
all the gravity, you gotta account for him as a shooter.
I love having him in the corner rather than Josh
Green offensively, so he can one be a dead eye sniper.
But also, man, if you don't come correct on a closeout,
he's going to drive by you. I con is not athletic.
We get all that, but how many times did he
drive by guys in the preseason because they weren't chopping
(42:17):
their feet? He makes you pay for not practicing your
fundamentals and then once you recover because you might be
athletic enough to get back in position, now he's finding
the open man because you got beat. It's done. Sorry bye.
You can't recover fast enough and fast enough to beat
kN Kinipple with the smart decision making. So I do
like him. Man, that's tough for me. So Gordon Knippall
(42:38):
goes Gordon to canipple three. Who's uh, who's fourth? If
you think Gordon's number three?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
All right, So now we get down to Prince League
called Brenna Mitchell Evans territory.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I'm surprised to you.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So you don't see Leam McNeely as a guy that's
going to play enough to be able to warrant being
on this list.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I do not. Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No, I will go with Kalchmaner because he's going to
be a starter, and if he's started getting starters minutes,
as I said, I think he's going to contribute in
some way even if he's not a guy a's averaging
ten plus points a game, rebounding, a shot blocking, those
were his mos coming out of college, especially the shot blocking.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
So I would say Cockbrenner, Yeah, Uh, I think this
one's tough too. That's why I introduced the comment here.
I am creating the segment and I'm having a hard
time answering the questions. This is not great formatting, this
is not great planning. But no, I think I'm with you.
I'm gonna go with Kalkbrenner. Also, I just think they're
gonna play him more. If you would have asked me
(43:35):
this three weeks ago, four weeks ago, I think I
probably would have had Prince Lee up here. But I
think Klkbrenner now you're depending on him more so than
you're depending on Mason plumb Lee. This has become a
two man job at center. So I'm gonna go with Kaalkbrenner.
And I think this is the type of center Charles
Lee wants to deploy. If you go back to his
time in Milwaukee and Boston, he had the big rim
(43:58):
protector smart that was just a monster down low that
could also stretch the floor just a little bit. Haven't
seen that consistently at all from Kaalkbrenner, but we know
that's a part of his game, just an eens teensy
bit so Brook Lopez with Milwaukee, Kristaps Porzingis and Boston.
I think Charles wanted Mark Williams to be that and
it never materialized. So kaukrender fits the idea of what
(44:22):
Lee wants, and I think that's going to play quite
a bit this rookie season. So I'll put Kalkbrenner there
as well.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
All right up for grabs, just the rest on the list.
So last two, I would put Mental Evans over Princely.
I would go with that because Mental Evans to me,
like I said, he surprised me. He's got nine catches
for ninety yards. But he's got two touchdowns on the season,
and even coming into the year, if you had asked
me if I thought he would have two, I probably
wouldn't has thought that, and I think that he will
(44:49):
have a couple more before the season's over.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
With I'll go Princely Mitchell, but I think it's close
there as well. I just I think there's desperate need
for pass rush and anybody that can get some sacks,
anybody that can rush the passer. I think we've seen
some moments where Princely has gotten in on the run
action too, where it just made outright good plays stopping
the run, some solo tackles in the backfield. I do
like Princelely. I think it's a slower burn than what
(45:11):
you're getting from Scorton, but I'm still here for it.
And yeah, just shout out to Mitchell Evins. I think
maybe the other reason I would put Mitchell Evans a
little further down is because they're going to use JT. Sanders,
even if Mitchell Evans has been better and Tommy Trimble
has been a monster blocking. So anyways, that's the list
as I would see it. Coming up. NeXT's the Campus
(45:31):
Koda Tom Powell rankings. On a Wednesday, Ready Sports Sports
rate of ninety two seven WFZ.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Listen to the West and Walker Show Whee teas from
noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two point
seven FM UFNZ, the
Speaker 4 (45:46):
Official home of the Charlotte sports fan
Only Sports Radio ninety two point seven half m. We
got a ufn Z. Fine, this is the West and
Walker Show. Even a crowd knows what's coming there. Happy
horn It's opening Day. It's a war crime Wednesday too
on Western Walker Sports Radio ninety two seven wfn Z.
(00:31):
I know everybody's hype. Okay, gonna go not only to
the play in but the playoffs this year. At least,
that's the energy I'm trying to speaking to existence. I'm
really hoping hoping it happens this season. We had a
great season preview yesterday. Shout out to Smoke for helping
me out. We had some conversations about the good vibes,
the good feelings everybody is experiencing going into the twenty
(00:53):
twenty five twenty twenty six season, and I do think
it's real. I think so. Anyway, I haven't felt like this, yes,
at least I don't think so. The last couple of years.
It feels like everybody is starting to say nice things
about the Hornets. I'm having I did tweet it out today,
but I'm having to tweet out the Hornets stray counter
less and less when national podcasts are talking about Charlotte
(01:15):
they actually speak about them somewhat glowingly. Yeah, this is
a surprise. This is not what I'm used to. So
I'm hoping that we can get off on the right foot.
Got to capitalize against the Nets at home. They're five
and a half point favorite. When's the last time they
were a favorite on Opening night? That's a great point
to bring up. I can't because I heard Smoke talking
about this with Kyle yesterday that this game is winnable.
(01:37):
Vegas would have you believe that they are the favorites,
this is one they should win. I kind of agree
with that sentiment. So I'm hoping that they can use
this as a launching pad for the rest of the sea.
I me too.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I mean, and Nets have like forty rookies, and you
know they don't have anybody on that roster that's starting five.
That makes you go, oh my god, how are we
going to be able to beat this team? So, yes,
I'm excited. This team is healthy in as not two
or three guys missing like it has been the last
few years with not missing key guys. Mello gonna be
out the first five or six games, Miles going to
(02:08):
be out the first three games, so that's the part
that you can't wait to see. It's just this team
as a whole, get out there together healthy.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You saw the injury report, I mean it was beautiful.
It wasn't a list, it was almost almost. It was
one of those where I had to try to be
a man. I'm not gonna cry over this. I'm a man.
Everybody ready to go, but I wanted to. There were
only two injuries listed on that injury report, and they
were the injuries that we knew we were going to
get right before the season started anyway. In fact, I
(02:38):
would argue Grant Williams, the injury prognosis on him is
way better than what we had after the initial diagnosis
of what was a devastating knee injury. It wasn't just
a torn acl I forget all the stuff that was
going on in there, but it was bad. And so
now the fact that he actually has somewhat of a
promising prognosis to come back maybe sooner rather than later,
(02:59):
because Grant works so hard and rehab It's just the
right kind of guy to have around this organization. Same
thing with Josh Green, who could be coming back sooner
rather than later. We don't know but those are the
only two names on the injury report, and.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Those are two guys that you feel like, Hey, once
you get those two guys back, that's going to make
this team even deeper. So that makes you even more excited,
even though you hate that they're hurt right now. Iutely
you know Josh Green is a defensive guard, but still
when it comes back, he can make a few threes.
And and we know what Grant Williams brings to the team,
some toughness, some veteran maturity.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So yeah, Bagel guy says Walker sounds like a kid
on Christmas. English. Paul says Walker wakes up realizing its
Hornet's opening night, and that he sends the Jack Nicholson
nodding Jeff as well because of my excitement. I know
I'm going to be accused of being extremely excited today.
I want you guys to know your accusations are correct. Yeah,
I'm very excited. Had to wrap ready to go. I
(03:54):
put on a different hoodie, not thinking I feel like
you should get a new, a fresh one for every year.
Opening day. I'm going to I'm going to I'm gonna
get some more Hornet stuff, you know. Surprisingly I don't
have a lot of Hornets winter stuff, so fanatic what
you should.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
When you did the Hornets game on I guess had
they changed over by nond with they FanDuel Sports, they were, yesh,
you should have taken advantage that night at at thirty
percent off and then like, hey, I work for FanDuel.
Let me get there. I don't think I like you did.
I don't think I got But see, they don't know.
You have to play on the ignorance. If you go
in there and they know that you're out there doing
the game, they're gonna automatically assume that you work for them,
(04:29):
and you could have gotten at thirty percent because why
I used to act.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
A fool up in there. Yeah maybe one day, Maybe
one day I'll get thirty percent of my homegirl in
that still hooks me up when I come in there.
She's like, hey, I still throw you to thirty. Introduce
me to homegirl, then I will please if you don't mind. Okay, Wednesday,
it's opening war cry. We all also have Fiddy in
the Chandler Volta studio Flowers barely Flower like that, there
(04:55):
you go. Flowder is going to give us a normal
war cry. Fiddy is going to just legitimately cry because man,
I chastised him this morning on Mac and Bone. If
you haven't heard it, go to WFNZ dot com after
everything is done with on wfn Z today because there
is a debate about whether Fiddy should be allowed to
be a Hornets fan, And so they called me, asked
(05:16):
me what I thought, and I told him what I.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thought, And I already know which way to win, because
I'm just sitting there right now saying no, he does
not he can absolutely not, no, hell no, all that
week except I screamed that.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I screamed it, and I did so for about eight
minutes that I was on with Mac and Bone. So
he's in. That's fine, but he's gonna cry. He's not
really gonna win.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm surprised he didn't wait until, you know, like if
the Hornets do end up having a good season, going
to the plan winning and then he's just jump in.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
But that's what I thought. But well, this this team
is objectively better than what they've been since Fitty has
been here front running Fitty. So guess what do you
think it's a coincidence that now he wants to hop
on when they're like top five in bands.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Pantha's getting half naked because they over five hundred, right,
you know what I'm saying this.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, Now he's like, hey, guys, I'll wear the Hornets
bikini top. If no, you just trashed him last week,
don't act like I'm revealing a secret to anybody. It's
on w every time we every time we bring them up. Anyways,
we're gonna war cry. He's gonna cry. That's right. Flounder
is gonna war cry that he's gonna cry at the
count of three. I want you guys to get excited
for the Hornets. It's okay to be excited. It's okay.
(06:26):
They have not hurt you yet. I hope they don't
hurt you at all, So it's okay to be excited
going into this season. You guys know the drill. At
the count of three, let loose baby one, two, three.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I'm like, we gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Let's go, let us off the bus flow. He didn't
you ever cry so hard that your face is a
little flushed. That's what I just did. I saw it. Yeah,
I was into it. The hundly d was it for me.
I don't know how Collins does it. Yeah, a little lightheaded,
(07:10):
to be honest, I know now.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It used to be one of my favorite things is
to watch him during a broadcast.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I used to like to watch it because this is
one thing to hear it.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
But when you watch him and see all the emotions
and everything that goes into it, like that video they
put out what was it last year?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
So pretty cool? It's so good. I mean, we know
he's the go. Yes, it just is, and Dell being
super smooth. They compliment each other as well as you
possibly could. Yes, all right, I want your hornets bold
predictions this year. Let us know how you feeling seven
oh four or five, seven oh ninety six to ten.
That's the fandual text line. I want your Hornet's bold predictions.
I want them to be somewhat realistic. But I'll accept
(07:44):
wrong answers too. There are no wrong answers before we
play a single game, so quote unquote wrong answers those
will be accepted. Also, Can we get to NBA on
NBC real quickly? We can? Did you watch all of
it last night? I only watched the first game.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I watched because I came in I rewinded back the
pregame so I watched a decent amount of the pregame
and aught that stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So yeah, I watched a Good Bitch, which I think,
for this specific moment is almost as important as the game. Oh,
no question, You want to see how it's packaged? Yes?
Can I just say, I know this is not going
to be a I know this is not going to
be a unique take, but just a huge round of
applause for the job that NBC did last I'll tell
(08:28):
you this. I'm really excited about how this product was
packaged by NBC. I thought they did a great job
wes of tapping into nostalgia as a vehicle to introduce
NBA on NBC to a new era. I thought what
they did asking SGA, asking wimby Anthony Edwards, the video
that's circulating on social media, asking them, when you think
(08:48):
of NBA on NBC, you think of what? And they
had no clue what to say because it's been so long.
We're talking about the nineties. We're talking about Michael Jordan
hitting the shot against the jazz. We're talking BB costas.
That doesn't exist in the NBA anymore, except now it does.
And we took a more than twenty year break from
it and to ask all the younger guys that are
(09:11):
the faces of the league that have no clue what
that's all about. I thought it was a perfect way
to introduce NBA on NBC with them saying I don't
have any thoughts. I wasn't born yet, I was in diapers,
and Anthony Edwards the only thing he could muster up
as far as the memory goes for NBC was Michael
Jordan and then boom, you see the goat start to
(09:32):
sit down. And I think Bill Simmons is one hundred
percent correct in that it doesn't really matter what he says.
It just doesn't to me. Bomani described this talking about
DiAngelo because I watched the thirteen minute clip dedicated to
DiAngelo's career, and I thought he really did a nice
job describing his aura, saying some people might have felt
(09:52):
they were as talented as DiAngelo, except there's one real
simple problem. He's not that mother bleeper. Sometimes you just
can't be that guy. You're not him. That's the issue.
You're not him. I feel that way talking about Michael.
When we discuss who the greatest of all time is,
is it Lebron? Do we need to give more love
for Kareem. You're not that dude. Yeah, it doesn't matter
(10:14):
what MJ says. It really doesn't to me. I want
to hear what he has to say, and I don't
care about the substance of it. And I thought the
NBA on NBC just knocked it out of the park
with their coverage last night.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
One thing I will say, if I was to have
any gripe, I did want because the old school intro
it got me fired up thinking I was going to
get a little more. I wish they would have done it,
you know, like the mind times that they would show
after the music hit, where you're getting highlight here or
there there all over the screen. I wish they would
have done that, perhaps with the new guys. I think
that that would have been a nice touch because I
(10:46):
was looking forward to that when the game started, because
like I said, I watched the decent amount of the
pregame and I rewound it back to see what you
were just talking about. Then when I saw them coming
through the lines for the starting lineups, I said, wait
a minute, hold on, I didn't see the intro. I
stopped this. Wished it because at first I had it
on my smaller TV. I said, no, no, no, I
want to see this on the big TV. And then
(11:06):
I rewind it back and I said, oh, I did
want the full intro with a montage of new players
with the music going in the same style that they
did at the nineties. In the nineties, maybe I'm asking
too much, but that's what I wanted for my nostalgia
because that's what I was looking forward to the much.
And I love that they brought back the old voice
guy as well to just say the matchouts that I
(11:27):
did like.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Well, this is It's a tough needle to thread because
I think a lot of times when you embrace nostalgia
to the nth degree, you get caught up in not
being able to embrace the new. And so now you
just can't allow these guys to gravitate towards anything else. Yeah, Now,
what the appeal is for NBA on NBC all happened
in the nineties. You do have to give us something new.
(11:49):
And so while I would love Roundball Rock, I would
love Bob Costas calling the games, I would love the
exact score bug that happened, then it is the twenty
twenties and you do have to acknowledg that, and so
it's why I give them a ton of credit because
they did such a great job of using that again
as a vehicle to bring on new consumers. And if
you can tap into what the love of the game is, man,
(12:11):
that is a huge deal as an investment. Just understanding
this is going to be a win ten to fifteen
years from now. When people are watching the NBA on NBC,
they get to experience all of the stuff that the
adults did in the nineties, And so that's what I
love about it. I thought the score Bug was great. Yeah,
did you like the panel for the pre game? I
(12:33):
thought the panel was very good. I know people don't
like Reggie Miller. I get it, But here's this. They're online,
they're listening, which I think is key. NBC listened to
what we wanted as NBA fans for our coverage. We
didn't want anybody crapping on the product anymore. Yeah, it's
okay to embrace basketball. It's okay to love the game.
(12:53):
Where now what you do is My sister, I'll go
to an analogy described this one time where she had
a friend that always talked about how much she was
gaining weight, it's like, man, do you think I'm gaining weight? No, No,
You're fine, You're not. Man, I just feel like I'm
gaining weight. I feel like I'm oh my god, I'm
so I'm so chubby all this stuff. And she really wasn't.
(13:13):
But then after a few weeks my sister looked at it.
He's like, man, honestly, maybe you have a little bit
you start to cut because you keep selling me on it.
Why do you keep selling me on it? So when
we listen to Charles Barkley and Shack and all of
these people were going to see them tonight and they
say the NBA isn't as good as it was in
the nineties, the NBA isn't as good as well as
(13:34):
it was in the nineties, Well, that starts to seep
into viewership. Just embrace it. Basketball players are more skilled
than ever. We have incredible athletes that are doing wow
type of stuff every single night. It's okay to embrace it.
And I think NBC listened, especially with the player introductions. Also,
I feel like they checked a lot of boxes.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeah, and I was gonna say too, because yeah, I
like the pedal to the on thing. I hated a
Kamelo with the shades, I'm like, comella, can you take
the shades off?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Do you have to be up there with the shades?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
But other than that, yeah, I thought they did a
good job, Archer, greater than I have. Yeah, I was
sitting there, I was like, especially on the inside, I
was like, come on, man. But other than that, the
man rock Other than that, though, I thought it was
pretty good. The fashion segment that they did with them
showing the old stuff that they used to wear, I
thought that was pretty cool too. So all in all,
like I said, I did think that they did a
(14:22):
good job. And you know, I had the Rockets game
on passively because I was watching something else, but I
was still looking at a decent amount of the game.
And then before when I got into bed, I left
the Lakers game on for a few minutes as well
to check in some of that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I like tapping into the fun of the three point
hand gesture. I like that, Yeah, it's great, it's not overdone.
You get a little flash of fun and make it fun.
Make it fun, package the product in a nice way,
have all of the popping circumstance, and also don't take
the story away from the actual game. I just really thought,
(14:57):
that's a hard job. Twitter and social media they liked
to hate on things. Yeah, you have you have to
just blow everybody out of the water to really get
this kind of universal acceptance. And they did that and
monster tip of the cap to NBS.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And I will say too, man I was, I was
thinking about how homies over there at WCSC Danielle Stein
and the crew, and I said, man, I said, they
gotta be hate in life right now because they don't
come on until late, late now when they have these
NBA games.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yes, you know, look, Nick Carboni, it's going to be
rude awaken when you come back from paternity leave. Yeah,
you come on at one o'clock in the morning once
you get back from paternity leave. Yeah, when's my hours?
What a hell? Yeah, what's beyond about one? I gotta
go back, all right. I do want to read all
of your Hornet's Bold predictions going into the next segment.
(15:42):
You still have time seven oh four or five, seven
oh ninety six to ten. Let us know how you're
feeling about the Hornet's upcoming season, and then we'll dabble,
of course, and some Andy Dalton getting the start against
the bills. It's not official, but it's kind of official.
How can the Panthers win? With Andy Dalton under center
at Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ, I think the
(16:13):
blood is rushing back to my head, rushing back to
my face after screaming humdidly D a little too hard.
I need to leave the hum didly D's to Eric Collins,
I mean, he really is like.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Mount Rushmore's status for me though, like not just because
I know him, but like, yeah, no, he Look, he's
so good. We can be biased, and I get that,
but remove the high energy calls, remove the big game calls,
which I know is a lot of what he does.
But my whole thing has been he's so good and
so fluid from one play to the other without the
(16:47):
high energy stuff. That's what separates him. It's the high
energy is here. It's great. He calls every game like
he's at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I love it. I want to be excited watching this product.
But also it's the normal transition every single place by
play by play.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
He's great at that. Yeah, and I'm not even gonna
take that away. I'm going to add that and keep
it right there. But not only that, I mean just
the facts and stats that he gives in the game.
And then obviously some of the personal bidies comes in
working alongside him and seeing his process and just how
meticulous he is with everything, and that's why it comes
out in the broadcast where he hits you with all
these random facts that just sitting there like, oh my god,
(17:24):
like that is that for real? And then the high
energy calls are just the best. That's why I'm glad
that this team is going to be whole, you know,
even though we know how we feel with Miles, but
you know, he's talking about he's jumping like it's twenty
twenty two again. So I'm looking forward to crazy LaMelo
highlights with the calls to come with it, because that
adds to it for the Horn.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Anytime you hear Eric Collins talk about his craft, one
thing he discusses and mentions is that he doesn't want
anybody in the building to know more about that game
and the two opponents than he does. And I think
Mission accomplished every single game you've ever called. Yeah, it's
just and didn't know it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Multiple games in a week, if you take that type
of mentality, they're doing multiple games in a week.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Forget about it.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, I mean he knows everything that you need to
know about these guys statistically, He's got the nicknames down
and all that, and then he's got moments like this,
which I mean like nobody else has these moments.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
The Monte Graham is tougher than Woodpecker, lit Like, what
does that even mean?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I don't know what it means, but I love it. Yeah,
A country analogy's up fire too. He's great at everything,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Eric Collins, he makes his hornet's debut for the regular
season tonight. We get to see him on the call,
alongside also the great Del Curry. Bold predictions, lots of
people writing a ton of stuff in Let's get to
those text messages. Myron Goodman more so. Asking a question
about a bold prediction, he says, how realistic is forty
three wins? If LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and Brandon Miller
(18:45):
play sixty five games together. I imagine the forty three
win mark is because of what they accomplished a few
years ago. They were forty three and thirty nine when
they made the play in got bounced by thirty. But
that was the last time they were above five hundred.
Do you think three wins is realistic if all those
guys play sixty five or more. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Like I said, I the optimism that you feel today
kind of I've felt that way the last couple of seasons.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I just felt like, if they could just stay healthy.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean, when they lost that playing game the last
time that they were there, I was like, this team
is on its way. And then it just felt like
they were just plagued with injuries each year after that.
And so now again I still have that optimism that
if this team can stay healthy. And I think one
thing that's good about it is that sometimes you just
never know that the irony of things, and it's like,
(19:32):
you know, if they're able to stay healthy and with
everything they've been through. Now, these guys are veterans now,
they're not the young guys that they were three four
years ago. They've learned more, they've been through these injuries,
they've been through those hardened experiences that could help them,
you know, to be able to pull through tough times
down Because I feel like that that's where this team
is at at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I think they have the right type of rookies.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
When you talk about the Canipples and you talk about
some of those guys that come in with the mind
said that they're all business from the jump, older veteran
guys too, like a carp Brenner coming in mature from college.
But I think that these Hornets guys, they've been through
the criticisms, They've been through a lot of things, and
so that's another thing that I would bank on that
you feel like that they should be at this point
(20:17):
in their careers now to where they've been through kind
of the fire, so to speak, and now they're ready
to use those experiences to help them get through some
adverse times and get to a greater goal.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Forty three seems a little high. I'm all for the
Hornet's optimism. Oh is it from a talent standpoint? You
don't feel like that they necessarily have the requisite pieces
to be able to get to that point. I think
that they're an odd team and I love it, and
I think this is how you win. If the free
agent pool wasn't all that deep, you just go ahead
and go after players that might not fit extremely well
(20:49):
with you. Where you have all these backcourt players, remember
they signed all the guards. They don't have a lenksy
center rotation that you can depend on. But you know,
I also love Musa and I'm really encouraged by what
Ryank Hawkbrenner has done. I think this team's going to
give up a lot of points. So defensively, I think
they're going to be in terms of points allowed per game,
points per one hundred possessions, I would venture a guest
(21:11):
to say that they're going to be at least bottom seven.
I think they're going to give up a lot of points.
I also think that they have the potential to be
one of the best offenses in the league pretty consistently.
How do you win if you don't hit shots? We
know how these other great teams do it. I don't
know if the Hornets are going to be able to
win if they don't shoot a great percentage from three.
(21:31):
And I still need to see the rim pressure. Colin
Sexton helps a lot with that. I think LaMelo feeding
guys on cuts because now he has better talent around him.
But at forty three seams a little high. If ultimate
ceiling of ceilings, I feel like thirty eight to forty
and I'm talking about that's the high end for me,
(21:53):
which means you're probably finishing with like some seven or
eight seed, and now it's time to be competitive in
the play in and try to parlay this thing into
a playoff series. If you do that, I think that
is the best case scenario that you can get this year.
I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I feel like,
That's how I feel. Let's move on for some more
bold predictions about the Hornets going into this year. Cacilacs
as bold, somewhat realistic, forty wins and two All Star nods.
(22:17):
I think that's pretty perfect in the Venn diagram of
realistic and bold. Forty wins or two All starnds would
have to be Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball, which I
think is the number one storyline heading into this season,
And if you wanted to focus on an individual player,
it pretty much is.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Specifically, if they get to that point you're talking about
when you talk things that would need to happen, they
would certainly have to become one of the best duos
in the NBA. Like I'm talking top five, well maybe
top ten, somewhere in that range. Tennis maybe a little
bit on the outside, but you're talking I would need
(22:52):
to see at least forty five points between those two
on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Well at a minimum. Yeah, well we have somebody with
a bold addiction where three guys are going to score
twenty or more. A banana boat, he says, Mellow averages
twenty five, Miller averages twenty two, and Bridges averages twenty. See,
I think who do? I think it's the closest to
that Mello has the ability to average that. I just
(23:18):
don't think he does because he has better talent around
him now and we don't need him to score every
single time down in the court. We needed him to
do that last year. In fact, I would love for
it to come down the counting stats, the points per game.
If that came down because everybody else was scoring and
you had better efficiency. I think that's probably what they're
(23:39):
angling for, and it's what I would angle for if
I was their head coach, because the efficiency wasn't great
last year. But I don't hold that against him because
who else were we going to allow to shoot the basketball?
And Brandon was out, Trey Man was out. Yeah, LaMelo,
go shine. But it's hard for you to shine because yeah,
it's a lot of g leaguers out there. We don't
have anybody else to throw at you. Now we do,
(24:00):
so let's see mellow score twenty. Give me eight and
a half nine assists per game and lets you forty
three forty four percent from the field. Can we get
back up to thirty eight from three? I think that's
on the table. And if you give me that stat line,
he's an All star.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, And I think you're talking about a season kind
of like what you had in twenty two where they
had seven guys at average ten points of more and
they almost had the triple twenty stat. I remember saying
that several times that year. But Miles average twenty, Melo
averaged twenty, and Terry Rozier averaged nineteen, and they shot
forty seven percent as a team from two point or
(24:37):
just regular field goals, and then they shot thirty seven
percent from three. I think that's kind of more in
line with what you would be talking about what you
need this year.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Brian in Mississippi says, Vegas says twenty seven and a half.
I one hundred percent took the over. I like the over. Now,
I've guessed the over every season. I was gonna say
that you put a little chudu on the over. I
have not I haven't done a lot of futures bets
in my betting history. It's really a lot of props
same day. I think that's a lockdown horness holds it's
(25:04):
only right. Well, well, you know we do partner with
FanDuel unlockdown hornets as well. Yeah, and we tried to
bet the Buzz was the segment we called, and we
lost a lot. Okay, we put a dollar bet down
and it got to a point where we just kept
losing every single time, and then the injury started to happen,
and you know what, we abandoned that bit pretty quickly. Okay,
(25:25):
you gotta bet the Buzz, except we weren't saying it
with that kind of enthusiasm all that long after our
initial bets. Uh UFC pillow fight. Con Kinnipple gets Rookie
of the Year. Who it's gonna be tough. I don't
think that's I don't think that's kind of just.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Because of his circumstance, Like he's got a lot of
scores around him that's gonna keephim from putting up the
type of numbers to get that.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
If you think that's the case, that might that might
be worth you know, going over to FanDuel putting like
five dollars especially.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, and Cooper fig is gonna be hard to beat.
He would have to have a really mid season well
to not get it. You know, it's gonna compete with
them at your Boy. It's as Bailey. Yes, Ace Bailey's
gonna get all the opportunity in the world. It's why
they traded Colin Sexton. He looked good, man, He looked
good in the first two third not as much.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Then he got hurt, which, look, I know that I
wasn't a fan of Ace Bailey being here in Charlotte
given the circumstances. I really don't want him to have
tendonitis in both knees. That's a red flag immediately. Yeah,
both of them, both of them. Yeah, I don't like that.
But he was very good in the first two days.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
The thing is, I think that Coop will have you know,
let's just say he have just something like sixteen five
and six. But the Mavericks are top three team in
the West. He's going to get the nod because his
team is going to be so good. I think I'm
with you on that.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
CP in Mount Holly says, the Hornets will be a
top five team in the East at the All Star Break. Okay,
so you know I'll get you too all Star.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I had a similar take last year and it did
not go well. But injuries injuries, you can put it
on that same Yeah, yeah, yeah you could. But I
like that framing of it because that's exactly what happens.
The forty three and thirty nine year they were I
think they were a top five seed at All Star
Break and then they fell down a little bit, a lot,
a bit to the play in But okay, the framing,
(27:11):
the last twenty percent of that text message doing a
lot of the heavy lifting there. Yeah, oh okay, they're
gonna be a top five seed, but only at the
All Star Break.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I still like it. Final text message is to read
because a lot of people writing in their Hornets bold predictions,
Buffet and forcer. No I'm not gonna I'm not reading it.
No bad juju for the Lamello injury stuff, No bad juju.
Josh from Fort Mill says, I think Sexton is going
to give you at least twelve to fifteen points per game. Yeah,
I think that's probably a good sweet spot for him real.
(27:41):
Tar Heel says, the Hornets have the six Man of
the Year winner now that I love as a future's bet.
We did this episode on Lockdown Hornets two. Is it
going to be Colin Sex the Man or Trey Sex
the Man that's true Man or Colin Sexton? I think
either one of those guys could be in play. I
(28:02):
think Sexton starts, though Wes and maybe Trey Man because
he's going to be coming off of the bench a
lot more. Maybe it's going to go to him. But
I do think Colin Sexton, if he does come off
of the bench, kon K Nipple starts a lot because
of the connectivity that he provides Between Lamelloway and Brandon Miller,
I think you have two candidates that could win that bet.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Just thick about what you're saying right there, you know
what I'm saying. The fact that you feel like did
they can have two possible guys for six man at
a year? That speaks to depth, That speaks to absolutely,
you know, having some guys man. So that has to
feel good to say because this time last year, we
weren't talking that kind of talk.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
You know, last thing on the parallels between this team
and the forty three and thirty nine team. There were
two players they had that were top ten and six
Man of the Year award. It was Kelly you Bray
and it was Montrez Harrel. So could we have two
guys again like Trey Man and Colin Sexton. That would
be awesome. So it's possible, It's possible. All right, we'll
get back to some Horne's conversation a little bit later on.
(28:56):
I wanted to focus also on the Panthers game against
the Bills this weekend. We all expect Andy Dalton to start.
It's not a thing grand rifle man. Who is that?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
That would be your favorite traffic man here at the studio.
That would be Boom or von Canne, your rand rifle man.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Sound like boom? Does this sound like boom? You a
little bit right now? That's his on air voice. Okay,
so he switches to ran rifle man. Yeah, I agree
with you. It doesn't sound like him like that Boom.
I like it. I'm here for all the boom sound
that we can play. Anyway. It's not official yet. They're
still holding out hope for Bryce Young to start against
the Bills, but we all expected to be Andy Dalton.
(29:37):
I was exploring on Pro Football Focus, everybody's favorite football
website west just to look at the schematics of what
Andy Dalton was playing well with the last year and
what he wasn't. I'll tell you what he was pretty
bad at. They ran play action quite a bit with him.
Thirty percent of the dropbacks that he had were in
play action. And guess where he finished in terms of
PFF grades in play action sets? Bad? Dead last? Yeah,
(30:03):
interesting stuff. I did not. I was just surfing. I
was just seeing, Hey, what Easter eggs am I going
to find? And that was a bad one. That was
a smelly Easter egg. It was rotten, it was nasty.
No thank you. I'll leave that for some other kid
to find. Andy Dalton graded dead last among quarterbacks that
had twenty percent of dropbacks in that set, dead last
with a forty four grade. Now, again, grades aren't everything,
(30:25):
but I think there was enough sample size here to
say you probably weren't very good if you had that
low of a grade. And then in the first two
games that he played, specifically, he got a ninety two
on every other concept outside of play action. So I
don't know what to take from that because while it's
enough of a sample size for us to certainly think
of something about this, like, I don't know how much
(30:46):
we say, all right, well, now we just can't go
play action at all. It didn't seem to get better
in the next three games that he struggled with. Also,
no big time throws out of that set, and we
had seen Bryce Young actually flourishing as play actions to
pick up the last couple of games, do you just
almost abandon it, like you can't be predictable? But buddy,
(31:06):
I don't know if I want to run thirty percent
of the drop backs. If he was that bad, maybe
we just go down to like something twenty or eight.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Well, you also got to think about too, If we're
gonna give Bryce the grace of the supporting cast he
was playing with, we also have to think of what
he was playing with at that time as well. That
offensive line was very, very bad. He didn't have a
ton of weapons out there. So when you talk about
a bad offensive line, play action is not going to
be very conducive to that, because, especially if you're not
running the ball very well, you're gonna have guys in
(31:34):
your face when you turn back around to the defense.
So I'll give him that type of grace because I
think that, yeah, man, you're gonna have to be able
to have that in your game, especially if you fancy
yourself a run first football team.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well, the thing is the offensive line pass protecting wasn't bad.
They were bad against the Bears and Andy Dalton really
struggled against them. They were pretty good against the Falcons.
Andy Dalton wasn't good against the Falcons when the Falcons had,
along with the Panthers, the worst pash and so I
did think about that. There were a couple games. I
think that's a legitimate excuse. Here's a legitimate excuse that
(32:06):
furthers your point in terms of the weapons and the
lack thereof six drops when Andy Dalton played last year,
that was the most amount of drops that any quarterback
suffered from in that span that he started. So that's
the thing. What is Andy Dalton's fault? What isn't his fault?
There was certainly one game against Chicago where he didn't
(32:27):
have any time to work with, and really the entire
stretch there were a lot of drops that he was
dealing with. Even in the game that he was awesome Cincinnati,
he was very good four drops in that game. M hmm,
maybe could have won against the Bengals, and the Bengals
at that point would have gone like ZH to five.
There wasn't a chance in hell for them to get
back to the postseason. I think all of this to say, Wes,
there are a lot of reasons that you can believe
(32:48):
in a realistic victory against Buffalo, which is clearly the
better team. I don't want Andy Dalton to start over
Bryce Young, but I think this is exactly why you
have them. It's fourth spot starts. You can feel good
about your chances of beating even decent opponents on the
other side because of his experience, and he's not some
oh my god, don't throw the football past five yards
(33:11):
the line of scrimmage like you can go ahead and
air it out a little bit and I feel decent
about it. Got to keep the turnovers low. But there
are ways to win, and it's why I'm encouraged by
having a backup quarterback of Andy Dalton's stature.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, and he's certainly helped there, and you hope that,
like I said, he's at the beginning part of the
cycle for backups. When the backups always come in catch
teams a little by surprise, that's right, and they're able
to play well because this is definitely going to be
a defense that when they get into obvious past situations
that they're gonna becoming man second best pressure rate in
the league for the Buffalo Bills. So when they're getting
(33:43):
those passing downs, they're going to have to have a
plan because these guys are gonna be coming.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Can your strength be a strength against this team where
you just run the football all over Buffalo? That's ultimately
what it comes down to. It's the key to every
game you've ever watched in your entire life. Running the football,
stopping the run, limiting turnovers. It is the blanket statement
over every single NFL game. It feels more important here
(34:09):
for a backup quarterback against that defense that struggles mightily
against the run, and you want to keep the football
out of Josh Allen's hands. Like all the cliches, this
is the cliche game wes right here against the Bills.
Hopefully Andy Dalton can get it done. We'll move on.
We'll talk a little more about the Panthers coming up next.
Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ West and Walker
(34:41):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven. WFNZ feel free to
continue letting us know your hornet's bold predictions on the
FANDUL text line. We'll be reading them all throughout the show.
Seven oh four, five, seven ninety six ten. Again shout
out to the fandual text line. Not a text in me.
He had a couple of them. Here are his bold predictions.
LaMelo plays six games. Getna knock on wood anytime we
(35:02):
talk injuries. It's just something I got, Do you hear it?
Nobody's knocking on your door. It's me knocking on wood
here in the studio. That's some solid wood over there phrasing.
The next one is two rookies make all rookie teams.
Oh why I like this one. Thank you very much,
mister producer, sir for introducing a piece of content that
(35:23):
plays with my next segment grouping all the Charlotte rookies
together via the Panthers and the Hornets, because I think
there's a shot with the way that the Hornets have
kind of attached themselves at the hip to Ryan Kalkbrenner
in a very weird way. Because this entire offseason we've
heard Zach Lowe on his national podcast discuss how much
the Hornets love Kaulkbrenner. Okay, I believe it. I do.
(35:47):
He also was the last pick of the four rookies
that they selected. They selected Conkinpple fourth, which you're not
going to select call fourth. But then I thought they
might take them twenty ninth, but instead they draped to
Liam McNeely. I thought they might take him with the
thirty third pick, but instead they drafted Seon James, which, yeah,
I mean, you could say that's not a big deal.
You knew you had back to back picks, so what
(36:09):
does it matter. Yeah, except you got to get somebody
locked in because you don't know about somebody else swooping
in and giving you some kind of offer that blows
your socks off. And now you're like, okay, well that
is a great offer. Well, man, I wish we would
have drafted Kawkbrener at thirty three, so you still order
it the right way, even if you have back to
back picks and you have control of your destiny. Even
(36:30):
all that being said, they drafted Kawkbrenner. He was the
last of the four picks. He didn't look great in
Summer League. In my opinion, there were some moments. I
didn't think he looked great in the first two preseason games,
but I thought the last two he did. I thought
those were minutes warrant that warranted regular season run. What
do you think about that prediction from NADA that two
guys make all rookie teams.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I think that, yeah, because because I was trying to think,
I thought he was saying that McNeely would be the
second rookie, but caught Renner. Yeah, let us know whatich
two rookies are you talking about? But yeah, for Cochburnder,
I think a lot of times these guys on a
team like this with so many players, I think they
may end up getting cannibalized where they're gonna have a
(37:10):
hard time making some of these teams. Like we talked
about with the Nipple for Rookie of the Year, he's
gonna play with so many guys that need to eat
first that it's gonna make it a little tough for
him to put up the requids at number So I
especially don't know that Kalkbrenner will be able to do so.
But if he's the starter in getting starters minutes, then
he's got a shot as well.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I would go out on a limb.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I would say, I think only one, but I wouldn't
be completely surprised to make it, especially if Kalkbrenner is
getting starter's minute.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
It's bold prediction. Yeah, it's not one that is the favorite.
You got plus odds on this, But I don't think
it's a bad bat. I think Kalkbrenner. Here's just what's
interesting in a battle that Kalkbrenner won alone, is it
was supposed to be a three headed I'll put I'll
say monster. I don't know if we're describing this as
a three headed monster at the center rotation, but it
(38:00):
was supposed to be three guys competing for that spot.
It was Kawkbrenner, it was Mason Plumley, and it was Musa.
It's really just a two man job now in my opinion.
Now this issa still and he's the VET. He's the
emergency break glass guy. I wasn't so sure about that
when they signed him, but that seems to be the
case now. So Yeah, I mean that's already a lot
of the battle, you know, beating a vet that knows
where to be, knows what to do. Yeah, I think
(38:21):
that's a decent amount of the battle. So anyways, both
of those guys should contribute kind of king of the hill. Whatever.
We can just kind of work it out here on
this segment grouping all of the Charlotte athlete Charlotte rookies together. Okay,
so I got team at kon K Nipple, Nick Gorton,
Ryan Kalkbrener, Prince Ummuel, and Mitchell Levins. Really the question
is who are the rookies that provide the biggest impact
(38:44):
for their team? Because we have four for Charlotte, it's
a lot of rookies in an NBA game, and they
all signed real deals. They're not I mean, I'm sure
some of them will spend some time in the G League,
but they're not on two way contracts. They're on legitimate
NBA contracts. And then, of course we had a whole
bunch of rookies that drafted by the Carolina Panthers. If
we were to list the biggest impacts provided by each
(39:05):
of these players, do we have to start at team AC. Yes,
I think he's pretty clearly number one. Yes, I just
called him the most valuable offensive player. And even if
he hasn't had as much production lately, he had the
two touchdowns against Dallas, but he hasn't been targeted nearly
as much. I think a lot of that is because
they're leaning on the run game. Script two probably dictates
to move away from McMillan a few times. I still
(39:28):
think TMAC is number one flounder. If you want to
join in on this, do you agree that Tamak has
to be number one on the rookies that will contribute
the most of their team team Ac number one? Yes,
I would say, so who's number two? I'll let you
go first on this one because this one's a little
tougher for me. Yeah. The order that you have him
on this sheet, I would probably go.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
I think I will go Conker Nipple, and I think
that's fair to put him there because of the fanfare
that he comes in with. He will more than likely
be a starter at the two guard for the Hornets.
He's gonna get shots, He's going to be able to
make impact here. And I think the way that he plays,
if he's able to stay on the court defensively, which
it seems like he's doing good enough in that area,
(40:09):
I would think that the way passes and the way
he plays that he's going to be able to make
an impact, So I would go with caniple number two.
I think so too.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
It's tough that the guy I have below him is
Nick Gorton, And really this was just a rough draft
of the list, but it felt right to put those
guys there. Nick Gordon's getting a lot more snaps than
what Princeville Manmuelan is, who seems to be a third
down pass rush specialist. S Gordon is playing a lot
more downs. They do need a lot of edge rush
help over there, man, especially with Pat Jones being out.
(40:39):
Do you think the injury to Pat Jones actually propels
Gorton passed Canipple or you still think we should go
with cakniple number two.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
I would still go with caknnimple, just because as a team,
the Panthers still even with him in the lineup. Now,
he did have a sack and a half last week.
We'll see if that continues, because that projection could change
based off how he does this week. If he comes
out again and gets another sack, and when we start
to maybe look at him and say, okay, this guy
might be on his way. But I just think as
a whole, the Panthers don't get a ton of pass
(41:08):
rush as a team or sacks. Yeah, so I would
say Nipple will have a little bit more tangible impact.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I think I'm gonna go Scorton, Car Nipple. I think
I changed my mind a little bit. I think I'm
gonna go Scorton. I just it's the thing that I'm
worried about the most with this Panthers team, despite playing
well and having a three game win streak, it's I
don't think that pass rush is for real that they
showed against the Jets. I think Derek Brown's is. I
think Scorton has a lot of almost sacks, but princely
just not playing a ton of downs. Even though I
(41:36):
like him, I do view him more as the he'll
contribute down the line more so, Scrton, we need you
now because of your run stopping ability because we don't
have Pat Jones, and it's exactly WHOEVERO is calling on.
As soon as Pat Jones gets injured, I'm gonna go
Scorton to Ca Nipple three. I think it's really close.
I do think Car Nipple, being this guy that has
(41:56):
all the gravity, you gotta account for him as a shooter.
I love having him in the corner rather than Josh
Green offensively, so he can one be a dead eye sniper.
But also, man, if you don't come correct on a closeout,
he's going to drive by you. I con is not athletic.
We get all that, but how many times did he
drive by guys in the preseason because they weren't chopping
(42:17):
their feet? He makes you pay for not practicing your
fundamentals and then once you recover because you might be
athletic enough to get back in position, now he's finding
the open man because you got beat. It's done. Sorry bye.
You can't recover fast enough and fast enough to beat
kN Kinipple with the smart decision making. So I do
like him. Man, that's tough for me. So Gordon Knippall
(42:38):
goes Gordon to canipple three. Who's uh, who's fourth? If
you think Gordon's number three?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
All right, So now we get down to Prince League
called Brenna Mitchell Evans territory.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
I'm surprised to you.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So you don't see Leam McNeely as a guy that's
going to play enough to be able to warrant being
on this list.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I do not. Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No, I will go with Kalchmaner because he's going to
be a starter, and if he's started getting starters minutes,
as I said, I think he's going to contribute in
some way even if he's not a guy a's averaging
ten plus points a game, rebounding, a shot blocking, those
were his mos coming out of college, especially the shot blocking.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
So I would say Cockbrenner, Yeah, Uh, I think this
one's tough too. That's why I introduced the comment here.
I am creating the segment and I'm having a hard
time answering the questions. This is not great formatting, this
is not great planning. But no, I think I'm with you.
I'm gonna go with Kalkbrenner. Also, I just think they're
gonna play him more. If you would have asked me
(43:35):
this three weeks ago, four weeks ago, I think I
probably would have had Prince Lee up here. But I
think Klkbrenner now you're depending on him more so than
you're depending on Mason plumb Lee. This has become a
two man job at center. So I'm gonna go with Kaalkbrenner.
And I think this is the type of center Charles
Lee wants to deploy. If you go back to his
time in Milwaukee and Boston, he had the big rim
(43:58):
protector smart that was just a monster down low that
could also stretch the floor just a little bit. Haven't
seen that consistently at all from Kaalkbrenner, but we know
that's a part of his game, just an eens teensy
bit so Brook Lopez with Milwaukee, Kristaps Porzingis and Boston.
I think Charles wanted Mark Williams to be that and
it never materialized. So kaukrender fits the idea of what
(44:22):
Lee wants, and I think that's going to play quite
a bit this rookie season. So I'll put Kalkbrenner there
as well.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
All right up for grabs, just the rest on the list.
So last two, I would put Mental Evans over Princely.
I would go with that because Mental Evans to me,
like I said, he surprised me. He's got nine catches
for ninety yards. But he's got two touchdowns on the season,
and even coming into the year, if you had asked
me if I thought he would have two, I probably
wouldn't has thought that, and I think that he will
(44:49):
have a couple more before the season's over.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
With I'll go Princely Mitchell, but I think it's close
there as well. I just I think there's desperate need
for pass rush and anybody that can get some sacks,
anybody that can rush the passer. I think we've seen
some moments where Princely has gotten in on the run
action too, where it just made outright good plays stopping
the run, some solo tackles in the backfield. I do
like Princelely. I think it's a slower burn than what
(45:11):
you're getting from Scorton, but I'm still here for it.
And yeah, just shout out to Mitchell Evins. I think
maybe the other reason I would put Mitchell Evans a
little further down is because they're going to use JT. Sanders,
even if Mitchell Evans has been better and Tommy Trimble
has been a monster blocking. So anyways, that's the list
as I would see it. Coming up. NeXT's the Campus
(45:31):
Koda Tom Powell rankings. On a Wednesday, Ready Sports Sports
rate of ninety two seven WFZ.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Listen to the West and Walker Show Whee teas from
noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two point
seven FM UFNZ, the
Speaker 4 (45:46):
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