October 23, 2025 • 46 mins
In the first hour of the show, the guys talk about the Hornets' blowout win against the Nets, discuss whether or not they believe Bryce might actually play this weekend and tell you what they would do at running back if Rico Dowdle to go off.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven a half
m A U f M. See fine, this is the
Weston Walker Show. Even a crowd knows what's coming there.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Championship, NBA Finals, Yeah, number one seed in the East.
Don't forget that, like eight when people talk about eighty
two and oh, I've seen that joke a million times.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
But do you think we can get to sixty? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't think we can beat the Warriors record of
seventy three victories. I do want to try to be
reasonable about this because I am excited. I don't think
that the Hornets can reach seventy three victories, But do
you think that we can find that sweet spot of
being the number one seed in a really weak East?
I just want to know, like sixty three, maybe sixty three.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm probably three six, Like I'll go sixty six deadly
sixty three, Yeah, I'll go sixty six.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Sixty six is probably I don't know, man, that seems
a little high for me. But the way that they
were performing last night, you might be right. Who do
I mean by they? I mean you're twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six NBA Champs, the Honets.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, I think a little six seven.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, don't you bring that in here. Don't you bring
that in here. We're talking a lot about the Hornets today.
I know that there are gang members we direct you
to founder. Well, this is Wes. Wes is our, he
is our. I don't know gang researcher.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
If you will say, you know, I, well things well
for when they put that in my algorithm, because I
watch a lot of that guy's content.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But you know, I just find out the truth about things.
I'm the truther.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, but a lot of it comes back to gangs,
and so it feels like there's a lot of gang
res searching that you do on your YouTube rabbit hole
that it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Comes down to that's a fact.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So a gang researcher, Wes Bryant, he's gonna come out
with a channel on YouTube and go follow him.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I don't have the time to do that kind of research.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Okay, Well we can talk about that a little bit later.
God Almighty, I mean, there is a lot to discuss
off of the court in the NBA today. I just
come on, Terry, could you not get arrested the day
after we're supposed to have good feelings about the team
you played most of your career for. Could you wait
two days to get arrested? I mean or FBI. I'm
(02:32):
at the FBI today. They even mentioned the Charlotte Hornets.
Could you not wait one more day? We always find
our way, man tells you. North Carolina is the most
random state. We always find our way into big things.
But but it's not charl Hornets related. It's Trow. This
is all on Terry. The NBA didn't know about it.
There's no link to the Hornets specifically, there's nothing there.
(02:52):
There's no players in that Hornet's locker room that are
linked to Terry. It's a whole new culture around here, Wes,
and that culture allows you to win. We were a
fifth straight opener, this time against the Nets, one thirty
six to one seventeen. This game got a little close
midway through that scoring output. I think it was fifty
six to fifty two is as close as it got
a little bit later in the game.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And yet I never.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Felt like the Hornets weren't incomplete, total and utter control
of this contest. I never felt like the Nets you,
We're going to come back and win this one now, Yeah,
the Nets aren't going to be very good. They are
projected to be one of, if not the worst team
in basketball. We gotta get that caveat out of the way.
Can I just go ahead and say a couple of
disclaimers at the beginning of the show so he don't
(03:33):
have to repeat it all three hours long if they
stay healthy? Okay, I don't want to say that anymore. Yes,
the Nets are maybe the worst team in basketball. Okay,
I don't want to say that anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Are we all good? We all good?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Because I don't want to see that. Guys, don't be excited.
It's the Nets.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Look, I talk about this team every day in the offseason.
This is a team that won nineteen games last year.
That team looked different to me. It looked very different
in a way that's sustainable. They didn't get crazy hot
from three and nail fifty of them. We didn't have
our random Kelly oubreak quarter where he goes off for
nine threes, where okay, we can't expect him to shoot
(04:12):
nine threes and make all of them in every single quarter.
We don't have anything like that. All we have is
a sustainable brand of basketball. In my opinion, con Kinople
giving me the bar of the season, possibly on the
first night, saying it was a pot luck everybody ate
ooh God almighty, you're gonna provide bars to me your
(04:33):
first night ever. You're actually going to score the first
bucket for the Hornets this season, and it's going to
be a coast to coast. I know Bone was making
fun of me, not make fun of me, giving me
a shout out earlier today, and I welcome that because
I said, I was soaring when I saw con Kinepple
look off LaMelo for his first bucket and take it
Coast to coast. Feels different around here, man, I got goosebumps.
(04:54):
Let me warm up a little bit while you take
the mic.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, you're just.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Happy to see all those guys out there playing together.
And I knew in the first half when they had
twenty assists and the way that they were getting out
on the fast break and being able to do those things, man,
that I knew that this team was going to be
playing the right way and that they were going to
get a big time victory. And like you said, it
does feel different because last year the ball did get stagnant.
There were too many guys missing at different times, and
(05:18):
there were a lot of different caveats that caused this
team to play the way that they did. But for
them to come out like they did last night, share
the basketball, keep that basketball hot, as Dale Curry would say,
and finish the game shooting over forty five percent from
three and fifty three percent from the field.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You have to be excited about it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And it feels like they have the right mix of
rookies and young veterans and some veterans last night, Man,
so all around, like you said, everybody ate. I mean
you look at the bench. The bench mob was in
the house last night. You boy Diabate doing his thing.
To John, I'm still rooting for that cat. He's out there.
Can I just say real quick though, his jump shot,
(05:55):
it feels like every one that I see him make,
it's just straight wish, like he has a wet jump
shot to Jond when it goes in, it's a nice one. Yeah.
It feels like every time it feels like he hits
no rim every time he hits a three man. So
to John Balling, Trey Man got it going in deep Man.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
When we were talking about wind totals, Sam Deman on
the FanDuel text line wrote in y'all smoking and he's
not wrong. We smoking on that nets pack. Yeah, well
we smoking off today. Let's open up the doors with
all the smoke being let out, smoking on that net pack.
Let's pull up to the scene, floun dog and let's
get off of the bus.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We look good getting off the bus. I got man.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Con said it, You said it. We all say it.
Everybody ate last night the Hornets they win. They win
their fifth straight season opener one thirty six, one seventeen
against the Nets. You also mentioned that nine of the
ten players that participated in this game, they all reached
double digits outside of sea On James, who played seventeen
minutes and just was a Tasmanian devil out there. That
(07:03):
was maybe the biggest surprising, the most surprising thing we
saw from a rotation standpoint, both starters at the two
and the five spot, they were rookies. I was O
of two in my projection. I thought Colin sext did
would win that bout with him being the veteran. I
thought Mussa Diabat being a little bit of the veteran
and showcasing all of the effort at center during the preseason,
(07:24):
the offseason last year, thought he would start at center. Nope,
it was the two rookies. It was Kyonkin Nipple getting
a start in his first ever NBA game, and it
was Ryankulkbrinner getting a start in his first ever NBA game.
And the Hornets they gotten out in transition and Wes,
I'll say this, this felt like the culmination of all
the high end outcomes that we predicted going into this year.
(07:45):
They were really fast, all of them played hard as hell.
Colin Sixton got to the Colin Sexton got to the
foul line immediately and got there right away. Brandon Miller
looked stronger. That was a talking point. LaMelo passed two
more talent to teammates, perhaps the most talented roster that
he's had since that play in run his second year
in the league. Lamello wasn't forcing up all these terrible shots.
(08:09):
He had talent, so he looked more like a facilitator.
And Brandon Miller was the score, running a lot of
pick and roll ball handling possessions, getting out in transition
with three dunks last night, a couple of monstrous jams
from half court, alley oops, seemingly so. The alley oops
in transition from LaMelo were great. It felt like the
culmination of all the high end outcomes we were hoping for,
(08:30):
and it all was on display against the net.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And the thing you look at your backcourt fifteen assists
between LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. And the thing I like, too, man,
is that you know what's the thing that LeVar would
always tell us about his boys is that they like
to get out and they like to run eighteen and
zero first half break points twenty three to five for
the game. And that's the horness team that I want
to see. I want to see those cats getting out running.
I want to see the assists. I want to see
(08:52):
the lobs, I want to see all that. It was
an exciting brand of basketball that they were playing last night, man,
and so I'm ready for more of it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Four Labradoodles is saying, I really like the Hornets. You
guys need to pump the brakes a little bit. Forty
to forty five games one day, I hope people will
get sarcasm. I do not expect them to win sixty three.
It's really about fifty three. I expect him to win
fifty three. Al right, I'll drop it down to fifty.
All right, does that seem reasonable? Fifty wins and we're
the three seed. There you go. No, it felt god man,
(09:24):
the hive was alive last night. I've said it a
million different times. If you give them something to cheer for, Hornets,
fans are going to show up and they're going to
be loud. Charles Lee made note of it last night.
Brandon Miller as soon as he went to the table,
as soon as he started speaking on the microphone, Brandon
Miller said, we appreciate the fan support for how they got.
Remember back during the play in run when they were
(09:47):
forty three and thirty nine, the hive was pretty packed
every single night. I don't think they were top five
in attendant, but they was jumping. It was it was
because we are so starved for fun basketball around here,
good basketball. I think a positive trajectory where it felt
like they were on the up and up a couple
of years ago, and then injuries happen, moves happen, guys
(10:10):
don't improve internally, and then we kind of stagnate with
bad drafts. Of course, the twenty twenty one draft was
really bad and so we stagnate, but it does feel
like we're moving in the right direction. We have a
war chest of draft picks to choose from that have
not been utilized yet. We have real talent, we have
real depth. We don't have any bad contracts. There's not
(10:31):
a single bad contract on our roster right now. The
biggest one is Lamello's and there are questions to be
asked about his game. But as long as he plays
like that, which to me is sustainable with the talent
around him, that's a valuable contract. I value what his
deal is. So the fact that you have all of
these different boxes that you checked off and it looked
good immediately. The rookies, three guys getting seventeen minutes or
(10:55):
more right away, and they actually played well within what
their role is supposed to be. Why I'm flying high today,
As I said on Twitter, I'm soaring Wes. I'm soaring
above Queen City. With the way that they played us
h as you should be, man. I mean, we got
to see everybody. We talked about it yesterday. There were
no caveats coming into this game. This wasn't well, you know,
(11:16):
we got this cat and he's going to sit out
or this guy's going to be on a minute restriction,
and we didn't have any of that last night, so
we got to see the full potential of this team.
And there's still a couple of guys who can help
this roster who are sitting out with Grant Williams and
Josh Screens.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So that's the thing too.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You talk about how deep this team, and that's why
I said, man, I feel like this team is more
than capable of getting to a plan and making some noise.
And I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but I just
think that the talent that they have and the experiences
that they've been through, they seem like a more mature group.
You hear LaMelo on interviews now you know he's sounding better.
(11:51):
You hear some of the things that are coming out
from guys. This is a group that That's why I said,
young veterans like Miles, like LaMelo, guys that have been here, well, wow,
they've been through things. And I think Dad's going to
start to pay off for this team. We have a
couple of people riding in fandal text line. M Dog says,
I put up my house that the Hornets were going
to win glad they didn't lose. We up, baby, hey
(12:12):
go buy you and you got bigger problems than that.
And now I go ahead and buy another house. I
shouldn't kid on today of all days. Don't put up
your house people. Stephen from Huntersville said, my god, I
hope the Hornets make a deep playoff run because Walker's
energy is going to be unhinged. Mack and Bohe were
joking that I was still partying last night when they
hopped on at six am, saying, Walker, if you're out there,
go home.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Olivia's worried about you. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I can't confirm nor deny that fact. I just got
ready in time to do a show today from twelve
to three. But perhaps they were right. Perhaps they were right,
And if they went on a deep playoff run, then
you did.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You at least have a post game drink or something
when you got home, you know, toast it up for
what you saw.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I'll be real honest with you what I did when
I got home. As soon as the game was over.
I went to the postgame press conference with Charles Lee,
Brandon Miller.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Kin can nipple.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
That's responsible way to go.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So after I did that, I drove home, and the
first thing I did was pull up Synergy and watch
a whole bunch of clips from the game.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's all I did. I had a glass of water
last night. That's it. Did you get in of the
new food items at the Spectrum Center last night? I
didn't even do that. To be honest with him.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Did you even eat at the Spectrums?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I did not. I said that you wonder when Walker
eats as.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Much as he talks about much as he talks about
how much he eats, we never see it or really here,
I'm a one meal guy. I one meal I ate
before I went to the Hornets. Gay, I actually did
eat a decent amount before I went to the Hornets.
That that's my issue, and I don't like it. It's
actually not healthy. Don't do that so you only eat
one meal a day?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I mean not.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I think a lot of the times that I've been
doing in the last year is when I get home,
I'll have a little something or Carolina smoothies shout out.
It's like one of my favorite things in Charlotte. I
get the PEB and J smoothie on my way home
because it's right on the way home, So I get
that quite a bit and then I'll lead a big dinner.
But yeah, I'm eating a big dinner because I was
gonna say, then, do you eat breakfast? No?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I don't eat breakfast. I never. I never eat breakfast. Never,
I never eat breakfast. I got it. Just want to
make me some steak and eggs.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I did drink nets fear Nets fans teers last night, okay,
So I was like full off of that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, a little full off.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Not many tears apparently.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, you know there wasn't a lot of Nets fans. Hey,
y'all got the win last night. Y'all got lood.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Jalen Brunson playing off the ball now, not dribbling the
hell out of it all the time.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He said he looked things looking good for the Knicks last.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Night, the Mike Brown effect. Man, we gotta get Wimby.
We gotta get Wimby. It looks incredible. He does look great.
It's okay because we almost won by twenty.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Those are my tears last night thinking about what he
could have been doing in a hornet's uniform.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Wenby went for forty and looked like something I've never
seen before. In mind time, I'm gonna let it go man,
I gotta let it go at some point, right, at
some point, But I don't think you will. You're you
would think that's right, you would think, Hey, we got
to get shout outs to some individual performances. I'm gonna
talk more about LaMelo because I thought he had a
very different game than what we were accustomed to seeing
last year. Brandon Miller leading all scores with twenty five points.
(15:10):
We got to talk about the Rooks and we can
continue to read your text messages on the FANDUL text line.
We're often running baby one to zero in the Queens Hornets. Actually,
the vibes are high with all of these teams or
the playoffs for Charlotte FC.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We continue the vibes. Coming up next the most.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Story franchise and all off basketball, this Charlotte Hornet.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm glad Sean Sharania broke the news yesterday about the
NBA Finals, going back to the lob being on the court,
because it's gonna look nice at the Spectrum Centera certain will.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You can't wait to see it, and I can't wait
to see it when it's in the trophy case.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
From Larry Brown Toilarry O'Brien, right the Charlotte Bob Cats
thirty for thirty the Rise of the Hornets. Like the
Bobcats start producing that. Now, let's get it into the
works immediately.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I'm with you on that.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Let's read some text people are celebrating on the fanjul
text line all things, Carolina said. Dean Smith would have
asked Musa why he didn't pass the ball. I had
to brand it on his fast break opportunity. Thought almost
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I said the same thing when I saw it
last night.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I said, dang, he just looked off Brandon and went
ahead and took it in because Brandon was way ahead.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Brandon was right there. Musa only took two dribbles on that.
I wonder if he couldn't get a hold of the
basketball to throw it ahead. But I think I might
just a nice cover up for you.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
That's a nice one.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Oh. No, he should have passed. He should have passed
it because I was worried about a travel. There were
a couple of things that I was worried about. Yeah,
the path he chose that led to more problems, but
at least he finished it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
There was no travel. It was a I think that
was at the very end of the first half.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I think there was only seconds on the clock left
after that, so I was hoping that he would pass
it to Brand But either way, Musa he got it,
and of course just the effort is unbelievable from him
every single night. The real Josh Allen writes this in
I'd rather have nine guys scoring ten plus than one
to two guys scoring thirty all day. I think you're
going to see that pretty consistently. I think I actually
(17:15):
think it's going to play out pretty close to the
way that it did last night here Wes. I think
what you're going to see just in terms of who
the leading scorer is, who's going to be doing the facilitating,
who's going to be the spark plug, who are going
to be your role players. That's why I think this
is going to be a pretty nice blueprint of what
Charlotte Hornet's basketball is going to look as the season
(17:36):
goes on.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
What it's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Because Brandon Miller had twenty five points, I think the
way that the offense is set up, I think he's
going to be your leading scorer this year. So Brandon
is your twenty five point guy last night. I think
that's going to continue. LaMelo finished with twenty two and eight.
The rebounds are going to be more than that. The
question is are the assists going to be more than that?
He had seven in the first half, so he came
(17:59):
down to just one in the second. I think he
could average tennis sists this year. I do think that's possible.
And then you go to your third leading score. It's
Miles Bridges at eighteen, barely ahead of Colin Sexton at fifteen.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Seems about right.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Maybe even Colin Sexton beats Miles Bridges because Colin gets
to the foul line and he's coming off of the
bench more so you can beat up on second units,
but Miles. I think I'd probably put money down on
so many betting references today that are apparents given the news,
I'd probably put money down. Legally, I'd put money down
on Miles Bridges to be the third leading scorer. But
(18:35):
Colin and Miles, it's probably a good toss up between
those guys. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
To me.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It felt like a pretty damn good example of what
you can expect in twenty twenty five twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
What would you say to you know, Brandon Miller Steel
We talked about yesterday House that I wanted to see
him be a little bit more efficient. And yeah, he
gets to twenty five, but only on forty two percent shooting.
How'd you feel about that? Well, forty two is better
than last year one. I think there were a lot
of jump shots from him, which this is where the
discourse starts to get a little hairy because people don't
like the People like the jump shots.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Some people don't. Now we get into this analytics conversation.
Should the NBA should players move away from the mid range? Well, yeah,
the efficiency wasn't great. He did take a lot of
jump shots last night. There were a lot of threes
from him. He actually didn't make a lot of threes.
He's only two n two of nine. Not great. I
expect that to go up. He's yeah, of course, Like
you're not going to shoot two of nine.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I'm giving him the grace of rust. I just wonder
what you thought about that, because if you're saying that's
how the blueprint looks, I wonder if he's like, let's
just say because it is better than what he shot
last year. If the efficiency is forty two to forty three,
percent and he's taken that volume of shots.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I just wanted to do you like that, but no,
I want the overall efficiency efficiency to look better. But like,
that's why I try not to get so caught up
in the makes in a first game. Right, Yeah, how
did it look so for me? Nine three pointers for
Brandon in this game, eight for LaMelo. Yeah, I'm cool
with that. I know it's a lot of threes for Brandon,
(20:02):
but he took ten last year. It's actually a tick
down from what he was averaging last year. So give
me eight to nine threes a game for Brandon because
there are going to be other shooters surrounding you. He
got to the foul line and shot ten free throw attempts.
That's what I want to see. I mean, that's how
you play a fish in basketball. That's why the true
shooting is better than what the field goal percentage is.
Because you got to the foul line and you were
(20:22):
seven of ten, I expect you to be eight of ten.
But the fact that you shot ten free throws, that's fantastic.
And look, you missed a lot of shots, but a
lot of them were beyond the arc. I'm happy with
the two point field goals that he made. That's what
he struggled with in the half court set. I thought
he battled on drives. I thought he absorbed contact.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I thought a.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Little bit of the chicken wing was working for him
last night. And there were some no calls, which you
should not apologize for, given some calls that went against
the Hornets last night as well, So we deserve to
have a couple of calls go in our favor also.
But Brandon Miller, I think, got away with the chicken wing.
So be it play physical he is, He's welcoming it.
He's a dog, and I think played like a dog
last night, and can I think that will continue? So yeah,
(21:04):
I think the efficiency is going to go up.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It has to. But just the way it looked, it
looked good to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And I think too, if we want to continue to
look at things that are going to really help this thing,
or things that we want to see continue to happen
up for them to win, I think, for one, the
assists have to be at at least twenty five a night.
I think with all these playmakers and all these guys
you've got now, I think that's the number that you
want to hit at least you would love to hit
thirty plus, but also plus twelve on the boards and
from your bigs last night, you got a pretty good
(21:32):
rebounding production from those guys, because we know how important
rebounding is. You get eleven from Miles, eleven from Cork Brandan,
you get nine from Musa. So I think those are
really solid numbers that you want to see as well
from guys that you would consider your bigs, and then
everything else kind of icing on the cake where you
get five from kan Ker Nipple as well. But I
thought that your quote unquote bigs last night rebounded the
(21:54):
ball really well, and to win plus twelve on the
boards last night was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
We might just be amazing at offensive rebounding because Musa
legitimately is one of the best offensive rebounders in the league.
That's a thing, that's not an exaggeration. He's like in
the ninetieth plus percentile. But how about Kalkbrenner having more
offensive rebounds. Maybe not a higher percentage because he did
play more minutes, but he had five offensive rebounds. He
had eleven total, got a double double in his first
ever game. Shout out to Kawkbrenner, who I thought continued
(22:22):
to look good to me. There were some times early
on where I thought, oh buddy, it was a bad
first two minutes of basketball in my opinion from him
drop coverage. Nick Claxton put the ball on the deck
going right at him, and Kalkrenner doesn't move. So I'm
worried about his size being manipulated at the rim by
just simply taking a step left or right and then
getting a shot by him rather than over him. But
(22:45):
if somebody catches the basketball right next to him, now
I feel good about his defense. It's when you can
get a full head of steam and then move one
way or the other. Then I think he's going to
be susceptible to allowing some points. But good rebounding game
from him, a bunch of block shots. A lot of
people were angry about the call against Terrence Man where
there's a foul call clean block, clean, and Terrence Man
(23:08):
got rewarded with a couple of free throws that he
shouldn't have. So really like what I saw from him Man.
I think the decision making in the high post is
going to have to improve. He's a rookie, right, It's fine.
We are grading on a curve here for somebody that
played in his first ever NBA regular season game, Hey
started in his first ever NBA regular season game. You
(23:28):
look like that, I'm going to put up with a lot.
You deserve all of the grace, And even if it
was a pretty good matchup for you, because the Nets
aren't going to be very good. They don't have a
lot of big guys that you're worried about. I felt
like he did a lot of the things that you
want him to do. Protecting the rim. If the basketball
did get inside, you're going to be vulnerable every once
in a while because you're not very mobile. You're going
(23:49):
to be vulnerable to shooting bigs. That's going to come
maybe in Philadelphia with Joel Embiid. So all of that's
still going to be an issue. But the complimentary pieces
that you have with Mussa and Klughbnner, the center rotation
is going to be a top five, top ten unit
in the league. But I'll go to war given the
circumstances with those two guys as my starting five.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, I think so too. And you can't beat him
going five for six either, And so I think that's
the thing.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Man.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You feel like you're getting an immediate return from these rookies,
which is something you couldn't say in the past. You
know Liam McNeely, he sits the bench. I mean, you
can't play everybody to on us have a lot of guys,
but even your young guys, because I'll still add Tjan
into that group as well.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
He's continuing to work, continue to play hard.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Because frankly, I was surprised when I turned on the
game because I got in on it just a little
bit late and saw Seon James out there, because I
didn't necessarily expect to see him getting minutes like that.
But to feel like you're getting immediate returns from not
just your first round picks, but your second round picks
as well, Like that's yeah, that's pretty good. I mean,
if you and you're not playing them out of necessity,
(24:53):
sorry to cut you off, but you're not playing them
out of necessity because you're in a position maybe like
the nets, where you just don't have the talent and
like you, guys I have to play no matter what.
One has had plenty of talent to where they decided
not to.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Play A James or you know, those guys that they
could get away with I felt his impact last night.
I felt all of the rookies impact last night. At first,
I wasn't with Kalkbrenner. I thought it was a real
rough first two minutes and then snapped right out of it,
had to get his feet wet, and then once he did,
he dove right on in. I loved to see it
rapid fire. Individual performance shoutouts already talked about Brandon. I'm
(25:28):
getting a lot of sophomore here, Lamello Vibes, and I
think that can be amplified with the talent around him,
with him having a better understanding of the game, being
a veteran in this league. At this point, I think
the shooting is going to go up. I don't think
we're going to see the wild shot selection as much.
I think he's going to have his heaters and he's
going to have a heat check where he does his
(25:49):
one footed fade away three point shot. I don't want
all of that out of his game, to be fair,
I don't want all of it out. I don't want
it as at the frequency that we saw it last year,
but it was a necessity. So I think LaMelo is
giving me sophomore year Vibes. Where he reached an All
Star game. I think we're going to see an awesome
LaMelo year. And then we got to talk about the
(26:10):
rookie kN K Nipple, fourth overall pick coming in right away,
scores the first basket of the season, and yeah, it's
the tweet that you know, I think show just how
excited I was about the game. But kN K Nipple
looks off, LaMelo decides we need to get out in transition.
This is the whole thing we've been preaching all off
season long. So it proves that he's coachable. He recognizes
(26:31):
the lane that he has all the way to the
end of the basket. Ryan Kalchbrenner steals his guy, so
kN K Nipple isn't going to have to worry about
the trees down low, and then hits the first layup
of the season. Then he would go on to hit
a couple threes. He was three of four from distance
last night, four of six in totality, not forced shots,
making the right read only a couple of turnovers, the
(26:52):
one assist five rebounds too. I really really like what
I saw from kN K Nipple within the confines of
what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, and I would second that as well.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I mean, obviously he's not going to shoot with that
kind of efficiency every night, but he did the things
that you feel like he could add to this team
as a rookie. And as I said, if he could
play decent enough defense to be on the court. We
know he's not going to be some lockdown defender, but
if he could play good enough to get out on
an NBA court, then you feel like that the offense
was going to be something that was going to be complimentary.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Man, And it was.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And so for him, he's just a guy that is
high basketball que. He's all business, he's all basketball. You
see that come out on the court, and you know,
in retrospect, yeah, well there's some things athletically I didn't
like about his game, no, But from just an IQ
standpoint and what he brings to this team mentality disposition wise, yeah, man,
I think he brings a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Okay, let's move on from the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
We'll come back and talk more Hornets, and move on
from the Hornets, go to the Panthers, will come back
and talk a little bit more about Charlotte. As the
show goes on, Brad Shug might play Wes. Looks like
there's an increasing chance of that happening. Dave Canalis talking
with media yesterday, do we have the sound on this flounder?
While you pull it up. I'll go ahead and talk
about it a little bit more. But there was a
(28:07):
report or there was a tweet and a picture from
Joe Person of Bryce Young going out to the practice field,
and Joe said no noticeable limp. Andy Dalton didn't speak
to media because Bryce Young is still technically day to day.
So I would still think that Andy Dalton starts, but
it's not a foregone conclusion like we've been talking about it, like,
it's just not technical yet.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
But perhaps there is a shot.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Here's more from Dave Canalis on the chances Bryce Young
does suit up against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Did more than he did yesterday, so that's good.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
That's our plan right now is each day, try to
push him a little bit more, see if we can
get him out there in a different capacity. He wasn't
able to practice today, but was working on the side,
was able to do some movement stuff, and we'll just
take it day to day and make the best decision.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Thoughts on the chances of Bryce Young playing against Buffalo,
I don't think he will. I don't think he should play.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I forgot what was the last player that had a
high ankle's brain and they went up practice or something
and they didn't have a lamp or they were walking around, Like,
I feel like that you can do it, But I
just think it's too big of a risk to put
him out there one week removed from a high ankle sprain,
because I think that even if you do do that,
it would be so quick to get aggravated, in my opinion,
(29:18):
so I don't foresee that happening. Yeah, first, in the
fact he didn't practice like they listed him as like
out like as far as like he didn't get into
the nitty gritty.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so today's Today's a big day for that. It's
all Ron River used to say it all the time.
It's all about how you feel the next day. So
we'll see how Bryce looks today after doing something I guess.
I don't even know how much he was doing on
the sideline, but he wasn't taking the reps. So we'll
see about Bryce. But I do think there's more of
a chance than I did on Monday. I think there's
more of a chance than that. Look, this is where
(29:48):
you have to trust the training staff. If they say
it's all good, we don't think he's gonna get hurt
or further injury further that risk, throw him out there. Okay,
if you feel that way, I guess play the better player.
Bryce s Young is the better player. But you're right
if there is a higher risk of reinjury. I don't
want that to happen because if Bryce Young gets hurt
for the season, then this season goes out the window
(30:11):
for a lot of what you were hoping to develop.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Okay, I want Bryce Shong to be as healthy as possible,
and if that means needing to miss a game or two,
then that's the route I want to take. This is
just kind of where we have to trust the training
staff and see. But there's a higher chance of him
playing against Buffalo than I thought earlier this week.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Again, like we said, today will be the day. But
I would probably suspect that he's not going to be
able to do too much. But I mean, maybe he
heals quickly. Maybe Bryce Young is you know, a mutant
in those respects that he can heal up pretty well.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
How much do you play with this being a winnable
game because Buffalo isn't who they we thought they were,
and you want to play your best players, and if
you feel like Bryce can give it a go, then
you can capitalize at home get a nice cushion above
five hundred before you have a few more games against
Division fos. You still have Tampa Bay twice, you still
have New Orleans twice, you still have Atlanta once. So
(31:07):
you've only played one Division game to this point. I
wonder if there's anything there to say, I'd really like
you to play Bryce, if you can give it a go.
Is there any pushing?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah? See, while I think that Buffalo would, you know,
I never quite fully buy into them anyway, even when
they were supposed to be super Bowl contenders. But to
the point I'm saying that, while I may not think
that they're the super Bowl Championship favorite, but I still
think they're a pretty dog on good team that you
still have to look out for, you know, like you
said eight to oz coming off of by Since twenty seventeen,
(31:38):
we talk about how they're the fourth points, fourth most
points scored after a buying, How Josh Allen seven to
zero as well following a bye week. So this is
going to be a team that, you know, I wouldn't
quite put the label on it, not as good as
we thought. I think they're a good team. I think
they've hit a tough stretch in the season, but I
think that this team has had a week to prepare,
(31:58):
and as I like to say, that an angry bunch
coming off of a couple of losses.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
So you could get a Buffalo bill team that comes
in here flat. You just could.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And maybe it is one of those deals that those
two losses were giving us the insight that this team is,
you know, having a downward trajectory. But I was still
at the end of the day, I'm just not sure
that I would play Bryce hung if there was a
high probability of reaggravating or even low.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I do agree with you.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
I wonder what's going on through the coach's mind and
the panther's mind, but I do agree with you. I
don't want to mess around with it.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
If he had a regular sprain, regular ankle sprain, and
I think you probably have a little bit more of
a chance for him to play.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
But those high ankle sprains. Those are so dice And
you mentioned this too, Bryce, A lot of his game
is predicated off of mobility and avoiding sacks. In fact,
here I am mentioning it. As I scroll my Twitter timeline,
I see this stat from Keep Purring podcast or Ben
also in parentheses, he tweeted out a graph from patent
Analytics that has Bryce as the second most efficient quarterback
(32:59):
after avoiding a sack, with the fourth most sacks avoided
at ten. Because of the capability that he has within
the pocket, you need to be mobile. If I don't
think it would be a coincidence. If he's hurt, he
doesn't avoid as many sacks as we're accustomed to seeing.
And I guess by that alone, you probably just turn
up the volume on the increase of injury there if
(33:20):
he gets sacked because he can't move. So the more
you talk it out, the more you see what Bryce does. Well,
run the ball. Put Andy Dalton under center. See if
we can get four quarters of magic, because we got
four more left to go after that, the eight quarters
rule for Andy, the two games rule.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We got four quarters to use up. This is fine.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Bryce Sewan comes back after the Bills game maybe after
the Packers game, and then he.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Can come back one hundred percent healthy enough to avoid
those with.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
The bills, Like I said, second best pressure rate in
the league, and then happen to get up on those
toes with that high ankle spring beat.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Ah, it is funny.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You do talk about injuries with Bryce a little differently, right,
not wrong. We see him getting up on those toes.
He loves his toes.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Throws. Yeah, he has to climb the lad Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
I know.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
If it was Joe Flacco, even at forty years old,
he's six', five maybe the ankle sprain doesn't bother him his. Body,
Guys i'm not moving. Anyway, Yeah i'm melting to the.
Ground nobody shows you that they're gonna make you. Move. Yeah,
Right so this is, hey training, staff, doctors and you
put away the degree we figured it out for.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
You don't play.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Them put some, pham cut some foam and put it
in his cleatstance so he doesn't have to get up
on his toes from about three inches of phone.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
In, There Doctor brian has spoken AT i can't it
always is. Weird Doctor mail is my, dad so that's
a real. PERSON i can't say doctor male. Junior, yeah,
yeah even that seems weird because he's a. Junior, actually,
ok yeah, yeah all, Right Doctor bryant and the pall
the pr right And walker. Mail that's our. PRACTICE i
want to talk more About Rico Dwdell. Wes if he
(34:59):
continues a ball then how interesting of a contract? Conversation
what are we going to? Have that's the conversation good
news for you we're going to have coming up next
To west And Walker Sports radio.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Ninety two SEVEN. Wfz welcome, back. Folks this is The.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
West And Walker Show Sports ready on ninety two seven
w f N.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Z walcome out taking it was the one o'clock. Out
it's all.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
RIGHT i was.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Interesting, yeah we're gonna go to the coda here soon
now at one.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
O'clock we do want to tell, you, though that we
are broadcasting live from The Chandler vault to STUDIOS Cv
Injury law Dot. COM Cv Injury law Dot.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Com one.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Call that's all The carolina's personal injury. Lawyers when do
you want to give out these? Tickets by the, Way
flounder and what's a good time to do? That you
have any input on? That? YEAH i mean we could
we could go ahead and give them. Out now do it,
now you want to do it? Now, okay this is
actually the wrong, read so we won't do it, now
but just keep, okay coming.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Up coming, up we have tickets for you To charlotte
FC's playoff.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Game so stick.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
Around, Yeah, well have a keyword that you text to
seven oh four, five seven ninety six, ten and it'll
enter you first shot to.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Win a four.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
PACK i like this format a lot better because now
it keeps people. Intrigued if you find a topic we're discussing,
boring WHICH i don't know how you could do that
even if it's a boring.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Talk that's.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Impossible we could talk about paint drying and you would
want to listen the entire day and then go back
TO wfnz dot com and pull it up. Again but
just in, case as a fail, safe we want to
keep you around for you to have a chance to
win Some CHARLOTTE fc. Tickets and this is to their
first playoff game On, tuesday Correct bank Of, America that
would be. Correct, yeah all, right So, tuesday stick around
(36:40):
and you have that chance to win some of those.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
TICKETS i really.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
AM i started thinking about a little bit more of
this running back, Situation, WES i really do think we
could like this. THING i don't want to, say get
off the. RAILS i don't think this conversation is that.
Dramatic BUT i do wonder what this world looks, Like.
Wes If rico continues to Outperform cuba every, time he
(37:08):
looks better Against, buffalo he looks better Against Green. Bay
he's more, efficient he's more, explosive he's better in the passing.
Game just if he continues to look like that compared
To cuba for the next three four, five, LIKE i don't,
know maybe just continues to go on on his one year. Contract,
okay now you're in a weird situation where you've already
(37:32):
Given Cuba hubbard a big time contract. Extension, no it's
not a ton of. Money it's eight million a. Year
it's not one of the highest paid running back situations
that you have With.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Cuba but he's got a.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Few more years left on his, deal, RIGHT i mean
he's here for the long, term relatively. Speaking rico's gone
after this. Season if you want to keep him, around
then you're gonna have to talk. Turkey turkey means what two,
years three? Years and how much money you're willing to pay,
him and now you're in a situation where you have
allocated resources to Keeping cuba. Around not only did you
(38:05):
use a second round pick On Jonathan Brooks, wes you
trade it up to get, Them so now you Have Jonathan.
Brooks you used a fourth round, pick a guy that
could potentially be a. Starter, Hello Mitchell eleven's a fifth
round pick who's playing good. Ball so you used a
fourth round pick On Trevor etn And rico's on the
outside looking, in despite being the best running back that
you have on the. Roster none of the decisions you
(38:29):
made before you Signed RICO i think deter you from
keeping him on your. Team but ALSO i think it's
fair to question the process of how all of this.
Unfolds If rico ball's, out he looks better than all
the other running backs that you've allocated resources. To but
it's not like you can just move on from all
those other guys via sunk. Cost but even if you've
(38:52):
view that as a fallacy LIKE i, DO i, Mean
tuba's on the, books you're talking about dead, money And
i'll look up his contract situation a little, more.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
But it's it's a weird situation BECAUSE i was about
to tell you what IF i told you there was
a potential out Into bahubbard's contract in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Six so he has twenty twenty six ers that going into.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
This so his twenty twenty sixth salary of four point
five million becomes guaranteed On march, Fifteenth so cutting him
before that date would result in a different cap hit
and did money calculation than if he were cut after the.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
DAY i don't think they'd cut him. THOUGH i don't
even think that's on the. TABLE i don't want to cut,
him but, yes THE.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
NFL i, Mean i'm just saying that's THE.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Nfl if he doesn't produce to the level that they're looking,
for and, if under the scenario that you're bringing, up
if ricco'daldill clearly establishes himself as the better back and
this team is able to win huge football games because
of his, performances then, YES i think that that is
certainly something that would be on the table for The
Carolina peedis because then they can, say all, right, well you,
(39:50):
know we'll take a little bit of a lick if
we do cut. You but then they could, say, hey
we could Have rico dowd ll sign him to a
relatively you, know cheap, deal and then we Have etn behind,
him and then we Got Jonathan brooks coming. Back so,
NO i would not put it out of the realm
of possibility that they would do. THAT i think it
would be a lot to, say don't Worry panthers. Fans
(40:11):
we Have Trevor etn and we Have Jonathan brooks who's
played two games as our guy that we're going to
fall back.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
On With Rico daddle as our. Starter what a fans
ain't gonna kick because they already Love Rico Dada.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Moore, Well i'm just, saying If rico does go down
with an injury and then you're looking at one of
these other, GUYS i don't Think tube is going to get.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Cut i'd be.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Surprised the way that they're still giving him, carries the
way that he's breaking the huddles in, practice the way
that he's viewed as a leader with this, squad WHICH
i know you might not. CARE i get that If
Wes bryant was running a.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
TEAM i know you're.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Ruthless, now But i'm just saying that you see all
the time and free. Agency these teams sign these players
to these massive deals and they cut them a year
or two.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Later SO i would not be shocked in the.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Least, NO i get that if we're, PREDICTING i think
it would be very surprising to. Me If Dan morgan
a guy that valsues culture and we use Two Cuba
hubbard as one of the poster boys of. Culture he
is a leader amongst a locker room that has a
lot of. Leaders, now so if you decided to cut
that guy when it's not like you're paying him a
(41:12):
ton of money in terms of the percentage of the
cap that you're allocating his, way it starts to add
up once you pay all these other running. Backs BUT
i don't think the conversation is do they end up Cutting.
CUBA i think the conversation is do they end up Paying?
Rico that's WHAT i think. Happens and if they Pay,
rico now you are talking about a lot of, money
(41:32):
a decent percentage of the cap being allocated to these running.
Backs or the other thing that you look at is
is this A Deonta foreman situation where he comes, in
looks good runs for nine hundred yards and THE nfl
is ruthless as you, Say, seeya and he doesn't really
do anything else with his other. STOPS i wonder if
that's that play on the other, Side.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah BECAUSE i, think like What aja says on The
fando text on, saying that's essentially What cuba did To
miles standards AND i think you could, see you, know
a scenario like.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
THAT i think it's.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Interesting but LIKE i, SAID i think THAT i will
say That rico will have to really perform at a,
high high level to be able to create this type of,
Scenario like it's got to be where he's the clear
cut guy there for them to be in a position
to do something like.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
That, Yeah AND i think it's fair to bring that
scenario up Because cuba did take the job From Miles.
SANDERS i think the two things that are different about
that Situation miles is, Bad cuba's not. Bad miles is real,
bad And miles isn't making as much money As. Cuba,
yeah those are big, differences but it is true we
did See cuba just straight up take the job from
the guy that was supposed to be the starting running
(42:43):
back after The panthers gave him that kind of.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Money, yeah Because i'm just operating off what you.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Said if he is clearly outperformed going down the stretch
of this, season.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
And that's WHY i think this becomes.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Plausible, well let me ask you, this do you Think
rico has clearly Outperformed tuba based on what you've seen
and given the? Context me, PERSONALLY i say, no BECAUSE
i think That cuba would have put up big numbers
against these defenses as.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Well so that's why that's the only reason WHY i say.
THAT i think the tail of the tape is going
to be in these games coming up to see who
rises and who's the cream of the crop.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Here, YEAH i Think i'm probably somewhere in the. MIDDLE
i Think cuba would have had some big time numbers
had he not had a calf. STRAIN i don't know
if he would have had the same numbers As, rico
BUT i think he would have been.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah now the question Becomes rico's getting the outside. Runs
cuba wasn't as. Much they were using him more so
between the. Tackles rico looked great on those outside. Runs
cuba had the one big run yep on the left,
side which is where they were eating pretty much in
the run game all day long against The. Jets so
are you going to start calling the same run plays
(43:49):
for each guy or are you going to continue to
use them in different ways the direction in which you
want them to. RUN i want to see just less
variables at play in order for me to truly figure
out who is the better running back eye, Test rico
has looked better going back and watching What tuba did
earlier on What rico has done against bad, defenses and
(44:12):
The jets are a better rush defense than The. Dolphins, rightly,
yeah but, right But rico does look better to. Me
and so if the eye test continues to tell me
that there's this, gap Which i'm with, YOU i don't
think it's this Monster Sean alexander to whoever the hell else,
Gap that's not. That BUT i do think there has
been a gap in how these guys have, performed AND
i do think there's a clear gap in the receiving,
(44:35):
game which. Matters so if it continues to look like
this the rest of the, way that's WHEN i think
things start to get.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Interesting, yeah and so it's gonna be fun to. Watch
that's going to be one of the big storylines going
down the. Stretch here because the thing to, me LIKE i,
said they look different to, me and That rico has
a little bit more of an initial burst Than chuba.
Has chewba to, me takes a little second to get,
going to get his speed. Up but it's, like, yeah
When rico gets the right is, there that's that initial
(45:02):
just burst through the whole and it looks really. Good
so again they've got another porous run defensive as we've
been talking about all week coming up In. Buffalo so
this is going to be an opportunity for both guys
to be able to get some chunk runs and see
who can put up the bigger.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Numbers, yeah if we Get rico.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Putting up ninety And cuba gets fifty, five, sixty even seventy,
five And rico has only a couple more carries or
maybe a couple. LESS i hate this. Thing it continues
to mount. Up it mounts, up it mounts.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Up so who? Buddy interesting running back convers is good
the problem to?
Speaker 5 (45:36):
Have, no it?
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Is, yes good players. Good, hey if you take nothing
else away from this, show good players are good to.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Have take.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
That that's the hard hitting analysis From wes And walker
campus called up balling And Falling ball And falling coming up.
Next sports rated out in two SEVEN. Wfz listen to
The west And Walker Show We tease from noon to
three only On Sports radio ninety two point seven half
co U, fnz the
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Official home of The charlotte sports fan
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven a half
m A U f M. See fine, this is the
Weston Walker Show. Even a crowd knows what's coming there.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Championship, NBA Finals, Yeah, number one seed in the East.
Don't forget that, like eight when people talk about eighty
two and oh, I've seen that joke a million times.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
But do you think we can get to sixty? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't think we can beat the Warriors record of
seventy three victories. I do want to try to be
reasonable about this because I am excited. I don't think
that the Hornets can reach seventy three victories, But do
you think that we can find that sweet spot of
being the number one seed in a really weak East?
I just want to know, like sixty three, maybe sixty three.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm probably three six, Like I'll go sixty six deadly
sixty three, Yeah, I'll go sixty six.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Sixty six is probably I don't know, man, that seems
a little high for me. But the way that they
were performing last night, you might be right. Who do
I mean by they? I mean you're twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six NBA Champs, the Honets.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, I think a little six seven.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, don't you bring that in here. Don't you bring
that in here. We're talking a lot about the Hornets today.
I know that there are gang members we direct you
to founder. Well, this is Wes. Wes is our, he
is our. I don't know gang researcher.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
If you will say, you know, I, well things well
for when they put that in my algorithm, because I
watch a lot of that guy's content.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But you know, I just find out the truth about things.
I'm the truther.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, yeah, but a lot of it comes back to gangs,
and so it feels like there's a lot of gang
res searching that you do on your YouTube rabbit hole
that it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Comes down to that's a fact.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So a gang researcher, Wes Bryant, he's gonna come out
with a channel on YouTube and go follow him.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I don't have the time to do that kind of research.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Okay, Well we can talk about that a little bit later.
God Almighty, I mean, there is a lot to discuss
off of the court in the NBA today. I just
come on, Terry, could you not get arrested the day
after we're supposed to have good feelings about the team
you played most of your career for. Could you wait
two days to get arrested? I mean or FBI. I'm
(02:32):
at the FBI today. They even mentioned the Charlotte Hornets.
Could you not wait one more day? We always find
our way, man tells you. North Carolina is the most
random state. We always find our way into big things.
But but it's not charl Hornets related. It's Trow. This
is all on Terry. The NBA didn't know about it.
There's no link to the Hornets specifically, there's nothing there.
(02:52):
There's no players in that Hornet's locker room that are
linked to Terry. It's a whole new culture around here, Wes,
and that culture allows you to win. We were a
fifth straight opener, this time against the Nets, one thirty
six to one seventeen. This game got a little close
midway through that scoring output. I think it was fifty
six to fifty two is as close as it got
a little bit later in the game.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And yet I never.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Felt like the Hornets weren't incomplete, total and utter control
of this contest. I never felt like the Nets you,
We're going to come back and win this one now, Yeah,
the Nets aren't going to be very good. They are
projected to be one of, if not the worst team
in basketball. We gotta get that caveat out of the way.
Can I just go ahead and say a couple of
disclaimers at the beginning of the show so he don't
(03:33):
have to repeat it all three hours long if they
stay healthy? Okay, I don't want to say that anymore. Yes,
the Nets are maybe the worst team in basketball. Okay,
I don't want to say that anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Are we all good? We all good?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Because I don't want to see that. Guys, don't be excited.
It's the Nets.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Look, I talk about this team every day in the offseason.
This is a team that won nineteen games last year.
That team looked different to me. It looked very different
in a way that's sustainable. They didn't get crazy hot
from three and nail fifty of them. We didn't have
our random Kelly oubreak quarter where he goes off for
nine threes, where okay, we can't expect him to shoot
(04:12):
nine threes and make all of them in every single quarter.
We don't have anything like that. All we have is
a sustainable brand of basketball. In my opinion, con Kinople
giving me the bar of the season, possibly on the
first night, saying it was a pot luck everybody ate
ooh God almighty, you're gonna provide bars to me your
(04:33):
first night ever. You're actually going to score the first
bucket for the Hornets this season, and it's going to
be a coast to coast. I know Bone was making
fun of me, not make fun of me, giving me
a shout out earlier today, and I welcome that because
I said, I was soaring when I saw con Kinepple
look off LaMelo for his first bucket and take it
Coast to coast. Feels different around here, man, I got goosebumps.
(04:54):
Let me warm up a little bit while you take
the mic.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, you're just.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Happy to see all those guys out there playing together.
And I knew in the first half when they had
twenty assists and the way that they were getting out
on the fast break and being able to do those things, man,
that I knew that this team was going to be
playing the right way and that they were going to
get a big time victory. And like you said, it
does feel different because last year the ball did get stagnant.
There were too many guys missing at different times, and
(05:18):
there were a lot of different caveats that caused this
team to play the way that they did. But for
them to come out like they did last night, share
the basketball, keep that basketball hot, as Dale Curry would say,
and finish the game shooting over forty five percent from
three and fifty three percent from the field.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You have to be excited about it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And it feels like they have the right mix of
rookies and young veterans and some veterans last night, Man,
so all around, like you said, everybody ate. I mean
you look at the bench. The bench mob was in
the house last night. You boy Diabate doing his thing.
To John, I'm still rooting for that cat. He's out there.
Can I just say real quick though, his jump shot,
(05:55):
it feels like every one that I see him make,
it's just straight wish, like he has a wet jump
shot to Jond when it goes in, it's a nice one. Yeah.
It feels like every time it feels like he hits
no rim every time he hits a three man. So
to John Balling, Trey Man got it going in deep Man.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
When we were talking about wind totals, Sam Deman on
the FanDuel text line wrote in y'all smoking and he's
not wrong. We smoking on that nets pack. Yeah, well
we smoking off today. Let's open up the doors with
all the smoke being let out, smoking on that net pack.
Let's pull up to the scene, floun dog and let's
get off of the bus.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We look good getting off the bus. I got man.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Con said it, You said it. We all say it.
Everybody ate last night the Hornets they win. They win
their fifth straight season opener one thirty six, one seventeen
against the Nets. You also mentioned that nine of the
ten players that participated in this game, they all reached
double digits outside of sea On James, who played seventeen
minutes and just was a Tasmanian devil out there. That
(07:03):
was maybe the biggest surprising, the most surprising thing we
saw from a rotation standpoint, both starters at the two
and the five spot, they were rookies. I was O
of two in my projection. I thought Colin sext did
would win that bout with him being the veteran. I
thought Mussa Diabat being a little bit of the veteran
and showcasing all of the effort at center during the preseason,
(07:24):
the offseason last year, thought he would start at center. Nope,
it was the two rookies. It was Kyonkin Nipple getting
a start in his first ever NBA game, and it
was Ryankulkbrinner getting a start in his first ever NBA game.
And the Hornets they gotten out in transition and Wes,
I'll say this, this felt like the culmination of all
the high end outcomes that we predicted going into this year.
(07:45):
They were really fast, all of them played hard as hell.
Colin Sixton got to the Colin Sexton got to the
foul line immediately and got there right away. Brandon Miller
looked stronger. That was a talking point. LaMelo passed two
more talent to teammates, perhaps the most talented roster that
he's had since that play in run his second year
in the league. Lamello wasn't forcing up all these terrible shots.
(08:09):
He had talent, so he looked more like a facilitator.
And Brandon Miller was the score, running a lot of
pick and roll ball handling possessions, getting out in transition
with three dunks last night, a couple of monstrous jams
from half court, alley oops, seemingly so. The alley oops
in transition from LaMelo were great. It felt like the
culmination of all the high end outcomes we were hoping for,
(08:30):
and it all was on display against the net.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And the thing you look at your backcourt fifteen assists
between LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. And the thing I like, too, man,
is that you know what's the thing that LeVar would
always tell us about his boys is that they like
to get out and they like to run eighteen and
zero first half break points twenty three to five for
the game. And that's the horness team that I want
to see. I want to see those cats getting out running.
I want to see the assists. I want to see
(08:52):
the lobs, I want to see all that. It was
an exciting brand of basketball that they were playing last night, man,
and so I'm ready for more of it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Four Labradoodles is saying, I really like the Hornets. You
guys need to pump the brakes a little bit. Forty
to forty five games one day, I hope people will
get sarcasm. I do not expect them to win sixty three.
It's really about fifty three. I expect him to win
fifty three. Al right, I'll drop it down to fifty.
All right, does that seem reasonable? Fifty wins and we're
the three seed. There you go. No, it felt god man,
(09:24):
the hive was alive last night. I've said it a
million different times. If you give them something to cheer for, Hornets,
fans are going to show up and they're going to
be loud. Charles Lee made note of it last night.
Brandon Miller as soon as he went to the table,
as soon as he started speaking on the microphone, Brandon
Miller said, we appreciate the fan support for how they got.
Remember back during the play in run when they were
(09:47):
forty three and thirty nine, the hive was pretty packed
every single night. I don't think they were top five
in attendant, but they was jumping. It was it was
because we are so starved for fun basketball around here,
good basketball. I think a positive trajectory where it felt
like they were on the up and up a couple
of years ago, and then injuries happen, moves happen, guys
(10:10):
don't improve internally, and then we kind of stagnate with
bad drafts. Of course, the twenty twenty one draft was
really bad and so we stagnate, but it does feel
like we're moving in the right direction. We have a
war chest of draft picks to choose from that have
not been utilized yet. We have real talent, we have
real depth. We don't have any bad contracts. There's not
(10:31):
a single bad contract on our roster right now. The
biggest one is Lamello's and there are questions to be
asked about his game. But as long as he plays
like that, which to me is sustainable with the talent
around him, that's a valuable contract. I value what his
deal is. So the fact that you have all of
these different boxes that you checked off and it looked
good immediately. The rookies, three guys getting seventeen minutes or
(10:55):
more right away, and they actually played well within what
their role is supposed to be. Why I'm flying high today,
As I said on Twitter, I'm soaring Wes. I'm soaring
above Queen City. With the way that they played us
h as you should be, man. I mean, we got
to see everybody. We talked about it yesterday. There were
no caveats coming into this game. This wasn't well, you know,
(11:16):
we got this cat and he's going to sit out
or this guy's going to be on a minute restriction,
and we didn't have any of that last night, so
we got to see the full potential of this team.
And there's still a couple of guys who can help
this roster who are sitting out with Grant Williams and
Josh Screens.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So that's the thing too.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You talk about how deep this team, and that's why
I said, man, I feel like this team is more
than capable of getting to a plan and making some noise.
And I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but I just
think that the talent that they have and the experiences
that they've been through, they seem like a more mature group.
You hear LaMelo on interviews now you know he's sounding better.
(11:51):
You hear some of the things that are coming out
from guys. This is a group that That's why I said,
young veterans like Miles, like LaMelo, guys that have been here, well, wow,
they've been through things. And I think Dad's going to
start to pay off for this team. We have a
couple of people riding in fandal text line. M Dog says,
I put up my house that the Hornets were going
to win glad they didn't lose. We up, baby, hey
(12:12):
go buy you and you got bigger problems than that.
And now I go ahead and buy another house. I
shouldn't kid on today of all days. Don't put up
your house people. Stephen from Huntersville said, my god, I
hope the Hornets make a deep playoff run because Walker's
energy is going to be unhinged. Mack and Bohe were
joking that I was still partying last night when they
hopped on at six am, saying, Walker, if you're out there,
go home.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Olivia's worried about you. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I can't confirm nor deny that fact. I just got
ready in time to do a show today from twelve
to three. But perhaps they were right. Perhaps they were right,
And if they went on a deep playoff run, then
you did.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
You at least have a post game drink or something
when you got home, you know, toast it up for
what you saw.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I'll be real honest with you what I did when
I got home. As soon as the game was over.
I went to the postgame press conference with Charles Lee,
Brandon Miller.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Kin can nipple.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
That's responsible way to go.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So after I did that, I drove home, and the
first thing I did was pull up Synergy and watch
a whole bunch of clips from the game.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's all I did. I had a glass of water
last night. That's it. Did you get in of the
new food items at the Spectrum Center last night? I
didn't even do that. To be honest with him.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Did you even eat at the Spectrums?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I did not. I said that you wonder when Walker
eats as.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Much as he talks about much as he talks about
how much he eats, we never see it or really here,
I'm a one meal guy. I one meal I ate
before I went to the Hornets. Gay, I actually did
eat a decent amount before I went to the Hornets.
That that's my issue, and I don't like it. It's
actually not healthy. Don't do that so you only eat
one meal a day?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I mean not.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I think a lot of the times that I've been
doing in the last year is when I get home,
I'll have a little something or Carolina smoothies shout out.
It's like one of my favorite things in Charlotte. I
get the PEB and J smoothie on my way home
because it's right on the way home, So I get
that quite a bit and then I'll lead a big dinner.
But yeah, I'm eating a big dinner because I was
gonna say, then, do you eat breakfast? No?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I don't eat breakfast. I never. I never eat breakfast. Never,
I never eat breakfast. I got it. Just want to
make me some steak and eggs.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I did drink nets fear Nets fans teers last night, okay,
So I was like full off of that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, a little full off.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Not many tears apparently.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, you know there wasn't a lot of Nets fans. Hey,
y'all got the win last night. Y'all got lood.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Jalen Brunson playing off the ball now, not dribbling the
hell out of it all the time.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He said he looked things looking good for the Knicks last.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Night, the Mike Brown effect. Man, we gotta get Wimby.
We gotta get Wimby. It looks incredible. He does look great.
It's okay because we almost won by twenty.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Those are my tears last night thinking about what he
could have been doing in a hornet's uniform.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Wenby went for forty and looked like something I've never
seen before. In mind time, I'm gonna let it go man,
I gotta let it go at some point, right, at
some point, But I don't think you will. You're you
would think that's right, you would think, Hey, we got
to get shout outs to some individual performances. I'm gonna
talk more about LaMelo because I thought he had a
very different game than what we were accustomed to seeing
last year. Brandon Miller leading all scores with twenty five points.
(15:10):
We got to talk about the Rooks and we can
continue to read your text messages on the FANDUL text line.
We're often running baby one to zero in the Queens Hornets. Actually,
the vibes are high with all of these teams or
the playoffs for Charlotte FC.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We continue the vibes. Coming up next the most.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Story franchise and all off basketball, this Charlotte Hornet.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm glad Sean Sharania broke the news yesterday about the
NBA Finals, going back to the lob being on the court,
because it's gonna look nice at the Spectrum Centera certain will.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You can't wait to see it, and I can't wait
to see it when it's in the trophy case.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
From Larry Brown Toilarry O'Brien, right the Charlotte Bob Cats
thirty for thirty the Rise of the Hornets. Like the
Bobcats start producing that. Now, let's get it into the
works immediately.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I'm with you on that.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Let's read some text people are celebrating on the fanjul
text line all things, Carolina said. Dean Smith would have
asked Musa why he didn't pass the ball. I had
to brand it on his fast break opportunity. Thought almost
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I said the same thing when I saw it
last night.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I said, dang, he just looked off Brandon and went
ahead and took it in because Brandon was way ahead.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Brandon was right there. Musa only took two dribbles on that.
I wonder if he couldn't get a hold of the
basketball to throw it ahead. But I think I might
just a nice cover up for you.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
That's a nice one.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Oh. No, he should have passed. He should have passed
it because I was worried about a travel. There were
a couple of things that I was worried about. Yeah,
the path he chose that led to more problems, but
at least he finished it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
There was no travel. It was a I think that
was at the very end of the first half.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I think there was only seconds on the clock left
after that, so I was hoping that he would pass
it to Brand But either way, Musa he got it,
and of course just the effort is unbelievable from him
every single night. The real Josh Allen writes this in
I'd rather have nine guys scoring ten plus than one
to two guys scoring thirty all day. I think you're
going to see that pretty consistently. I think I actually
(17:15):
think it's going to play out pretty close to the
way that it did last night here Wes. I think
what you're going to see just in terms of who
the leading scorer is, who's going to be doing the facilitating,
who's going to be the spark plug, who are going
to be your role players. That's why I think this
is going to be a pretty nice blueprint of what
Charlotte Hornet's basketball is going to look as the season
(17:36):
goes on.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
What it's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Because Brandon Miller had twenty five points, I think the
way that the offense is set up, I think he's
going to be your leading scorer this year. So Brandon
is your twenty five point guy last night. I think
that's going to continue. LaMelo finished with twenty two and eight.
The rebounds are going to be more than that. The
question is are the assists going to be more than that?
He had seven in the first half, so he came
(17:59):
down to just one in the second. I think he
could average tennis sists this year. I do think that's possible.
And then you go to your third leading score. It's
Miles Bridges at eighteen, barely ahead of Colin Sexton at fifteen.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Seems about right.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Maybe even Colin Sexton beats Miles Bridges because Colin gets
to the foul line and he's coming off of the
bench more so you can beat up on second units,
but Miles. I think I'd probably put money down on
so many betting references today that are apparents given the news,
I'd probably put money down. Legally, I'd put money down
on Miles Bridges to be the third leading scorer. But
(18:35):
Colin and Miles, it's probably a good toss up between
those guys. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
To me.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It felt like a pretty damn good example of what
you can expect in twenty twenty five twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
What would you say to you know, Brandon Miller Steel
We talked about yesterday House that I wanted to see
him be a little bit more efficient. And yeah, he
gets to twenty five, but only on forty two percent shooting.
How'd you feel about that? Well, forty two is better
than last year one. I think there were a lot
of jump shots from him, which this is where the
discourse starts to get a little hairy because people don't
like the People like the jump shots.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Some people don't. Now we get into this analytics conversation.
Should the NBA should players move away from the mid range? Well, yeah,
the efficiency wasn't great. He did take a lot of
jump shots last night. There were a lot of threes
from him. He actually didn't make a lot of threes.
He's only two n two of nine. Not great. I
expect that to go up. He's yeah, of course, Like
you're not going to shoot two of nine.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I'm giving him the grace of rust. I just wonder
what you thought about that, because if you're saying that's
how the blueprint looks, I wonder if he's like, let's
just say because it is better than what he shot
last year. If the efficiency is forty two to forty three,
percent and he's taken that volume of shots.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I just wanted to do you like that, but no,
I want the overall efficiency efficiency to look better. But like,
that's why I try not to get so caught up
in the makes in a first game. Right, Yeah, how
did it look so for me? Nine three pointers for
Brandon in this game, eight for LaMelo. Yeah, I'm cool
with that. I know it's a lot of threes for Brandon,
(20:02):
but he took ten last year. It's actually a tick
down from what he was averaging last year. So give
me eight to nine threes a game for Brandon because
there are going to be other shooters surrounding you. He
got to the foul line and shot ten free throw attempts.
That's what I want to see. I mean, that's how
you play a fish in basketball. That's why the true
shooting is better than what the field goal percentage is.
Because you got to the foul line and you were
(20:22):
seven of ten, I expect you to be eight of ten.
But the fact that you shot ten free throws, that's fantastic.
And look, you missed a lot of shots, but a
lot of them were beyond the arc. I'm happy with
the two point field goals that he made. That's what
he struggled with in the half court set. I thought
he battled on drives. I thought he absorbed contact.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I thought a.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Little bit of the chicken wing was working for him
last night. And there were some no calls, which you
should not apologize for, given some calls that went against
the Hornets last night as well, So we deserve to
have a couple of calls go in our favor also.
But Brandon Miller, I think, got away with the chicken wing.
So be it play physical he is, He's welcoming it.
He's a dog, and I think played like a dog
last night, and can I think that will continue? So yeah,
(21:04):
I think the efficiency is going to go up.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It has to. But just the way it looked, it
looked good to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And I think too, if we want to continue to
look at things that are going to really help this thing,
or things that we want to see continue to happen
up for them to win, I think, for one, the
assists have to be at at least twenty five a night.
I think with all these playmakers and all these guys
you've got now, I think that's the number that you
want to hit at least you would love to hit
thirty plus, but also plus twelve on the boards and
from your bigs last night, you got a pretty good
(21:32):
rebounding production from those guys, because we know how important
rebounding is. You get eleven from Miles, eleven from Cork Brandan,
you get nine from Musa. So I think those are
really solid numbers that you want to see as well
from guys that you would consider your bigs, and then
everything else kind of icing on the cake where you
get five from kan Ker Nipple as well. But I
thought that your quote unquote bigs last night rebounded the
(21:54):
ball really well, and to win plus twelve on the
boards last night was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
We might just be amazing at offensive rebounding because Musa
legitimately is one of the best offensive rebounders in the league.
That's a thing, that's not an exaggeration. He's like in
the ninetieth plus percentile. But how about Kalkbrenner having more
offensive rebounds. Maybe not a higher percentage because he did
play more minutes, but he had five offensive rebounds. He
had eleven total, got a double double in his first
ever game. Shout out to Kawkbrenner, who I thought continued
(22:22):
to look good to me. There were some times early
on where I thought, oh buddy, it was a bad
first two minutes of basketball in my opinion from him
drop coverage. Nick Claxton put the ball on the deck
going right at him, and Kalkrenner doesn't move. So I'm
worried about his size being manipulated at the rim by
just simply taking a step left or right and then
getting a shot by him rather than over him. But
(22:45):
if somebody catches the basketball right next to him, now
I feel good about his defense. It's when you can
get a full head of steam and then move one
way or the other. Then I think he's going to
be susceptible to allowing some points. But good rebounding game
from him, a bunch of block shots. A lot of
people were angry about the call against Terrence Man where
there's a foul call clean block, clean, and Terrence Man
(23:08):
got rewarded with a couple of free throws that he
shouldn't have. So really like what I saw from him Man.
I think the decision making in the high post is
going to have to improve. He's a rookie, right, It's fine.
We are grading on a curve here for somebody that
played in his first ever NBA regular season game, Hey
started in his first ever NBA regular season game. You
(23:28):
look like that, I'm going to put up with a lot.
You deserve all of the grace, And even if it
was a pretty good matchup for you, because the Nets
aren't going to be very good. They don't have a
lot of big guys that you're worried about. I felt
like he did a lot of the things that you
want him to do. Protecting the rim. If the basketball
did get inside, you're going to be vulnerable every once
in a while because you're not very mobile. You're going
(23:49):
to be vulnerable to shooting bigs. That's going to come
maybe in Philadelphia with Joel Embiid. So all of that's
still going to be an issue. But the complimentary pieces
that you have with Mussa and Klughbnner, the center rotation
is going to be a top five, top ten unit
in the league. But I'll go to war given the
circumstances with those two guys as my starting five.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, I think so too. And you can't beat him
going five for six either, And so I think that's
the thing.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Man.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You feel like you're getting an immediate return from these rookies,
which is something you couldn't say in the past. You
know Liam McNeely, he sits the bench. I mean, you
can't play everybody to on us have a lot of guys,
but even your young guys, because I'll still add Tjan
into that group as well.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
He's continuing to work, continue to play hard.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Because frankly, I was surprised when I turned on the
game because I got in on it just a little
bit late and saw Seon James out there, because I
didn't necessarily expect to see him getting minutes like that.
But to feel like you're getting immediate returns from not
just your first round picks, but your second round picks
as well, Like that's yeah, that's pretty good. I mean,
if you and you're not playing them out of necessity,
(24:53):
sorry to cut you off, but you're not playing them
out of necessity because you're in a position maybe like
the nets, where you just don't have the talent and
like you, guys I have to play no matter what.
One has had plenty of talent to where they decided
not to.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Play A James or you know, those guys that they
could get away with I felt his impact last night.
I felt all of the rookies impact last night. At first,
I wasn't with Kalkbrenner. I thought it was a real
rough first two minutes and then snapped right out of it,
had to get his feet wet, and then once he did,
he dove right on in. I loved to see it
rapid fire. Individual performance shoutouts already talked about Brandon. I'm
(25:28):
getting a lot of sophomore here, Lamello Vibes, and I
think that can be amplified with the talent around him,
with him having a better understanding of the game, being
a veteran in this league. At this point, I think
the shooting is going to go up. I don't think
we're going to see the wild shot selection as much.
I think he's going to have his heaters and he's
going to have a heat check where he does his
(25:49):
one footed fade away three point shot. I don't want
all of that out of his game, to be fair,
I don't want all of it out. I don't want
it as at the frequency that we saw it last year,
but it was a necessity. So I think LaMelo is
giving me sophomore year Vibes. Where he reached an All
Star game. I think we're going to see an awesome
LaMelo year. And then we got to talk about the
(26:10):
rookie kN K Nipple, fourth overall pick coming in right away,
scores the first basket of the season, and yeah, it's
the tweet that you know, I think show just how
excited I was about the game. But kN K Nipple
looks off, LaMelo decides we need to get out in transition.
This is the whole thing we've been preaching all off
season long. So it proves that he's coachable. He recognizes
(26:31):
the lane that he has all the way to the
end of the basket. Ryan Kalchbrenner steals his guy, so
kN K Nipple isn't going to have to worry about
the trees down low, and then hits the first layup
of the season. Then he would go on to hit
a couple threes. He was three of four from distance
last night, four of six in totality, not forced shots,
making the right read only a couple of turnovers, the
(26:52):
one assist five rebounds too. I really really like what
I saw from kN K Nipple within the confines of
what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, and I would second that as well.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I mean, obviously he's not going to shoot with that
kind of efficiency every night, but he did the things
that you feel like he could add to this team
as a rookie. And as I said, if he could
play decent enough defense to be on the court. We
know he's not going to be some lockdown defender, but
if he could play good enough to get out on
an NBA court, then you feel like that the offense
was going to be something that was going to be complimentary.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Man, And it was.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And so for him, he's just a guy that is
high basketball que. He's all business, he's all basketball. You
see that come out on the court, and you know,
in retrospect, yeah, well there's some things athletically I didn't
like about his game, no, But from just an IQ
standpoint and what he brings to this team mentality disposition wise, yeah, man,
I think he brings a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Okay, let's move on from the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
We'll come back and talk more Hornets, and move on
from the Hornets, go to the Panthers, will come back
and talk a little bit more about Charlotte. As the
show goes on, Brad Shug might play Wes. Looks like
there's an increasing chance of that happening. Dave Canalis talking
with media yesterday, do we have the sound on this flounder?
While you pull it up. I'll go ahead and talk
about it a little bit more. But there was a
(28:07):
report or there was a tweet and a picture from
Joe Person of Bryce Young going out to the practice field,
and Joe said no noticeable limp. Andy Dalton didn't speak
to media because Bryce Young is still technically day to day.
So I would still think that Andy Dalton starts, but
it's not a foregone conclusion like we've been talking about it, like,
it's just not technical yet.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
But perhaps there is a shot.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Here's more from Dave Canalis on the chances Bryce Young
does suit up against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Did more than he did yesterday, so that's good.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
That's our plan right now is each day, try to
push him a little bit more, see if we can
get him out there in a different capacity. He wasn't
able to practice today, but was working on the side,
was able to do some movement stuff, and we'll just
take it day to day and make the best decision.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Thoughts on the chances of Bryce Young playing against Buffalo,
I don't think he will. I don't think he should play.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I forgot what was the last player that had a
high ankle's brain and they went up practice or something
and they didn't have a lamp or they were walking around, Like,
I feel like that you can do it, But I
just think it's too big of a risk to put
him out there one week removed from a high ankle sprain,
because I think that even if you do do that,
it would be so quick to get aggravated, in my opinion,
(29:18):
so I don't foresee that happening. Yeah, first, in the
fact he didn't practice like they listed him as like
out like as far as like he didn't get into
the nitty gritty.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so today's Today's a big day for that. It's
all Ron River used to say it all the time.
It's all about how you feel the next day. So
we'll see how Bryce looks today after doing something I guess.
I don't even know how much he was doing on
the sideline, but he wasn't taking the reps. So we'll
see about Bryce. But I do think there's more of
a chance than I did on Monday. I think there's
more of a chance than that. Look, this is where
(29:48):
you have to trust the training staff. If they say
it's all good, we don't think he's gonna get hurt
or further injury further that risk, throw him out there. Okay,
if you feel that way, I guess play the better player.
Bryce s Young is the better player. But you're right
if there is a higher risk of reinjury. I don't
want that to happen because if Bryce Young gets hurt
for the season, then this season goes out the window
(30:11):
for a lot of what you were hoping to develop.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Okay, I want Bryce Shong to be as healthy as possible,
and if that means needing to miss a game or two,
then that's the route I want to take. This is
just kind of where we have to trust the training
staff and see. But there's a higher chance of him
playing against Buffalo than I thought earlier this week.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Again, like we said, today will be the day. But
I would probably suspect that he's not going to be
able to do too much. But I mean, maybe he
heals quickly. Maybe Bryce Young is you know, a mutant
in those respects that he can heal up pretty well.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
How much do you play with this being a winnable
game because Buffalo isn't who they we thought they were,
and you want to play your best players, and if
you feel like Bryce can give it a go, then
you can capitalize at home get a nice cushion above
five hundred before you have a few more games against
Division fos. You still have Tampa Bay twice, you still
have New Orleans twice, you still have Atlanta once. So
(31:07):
you've only played one Division game to this point. I
wonder if there's anything there to say, I'd really like
you to play Bryce, if you can give it a go.
Is there any pushing?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah? See, while I think that Buffalo would, you know,
I never quite fully buy into them anyway, even when
they were supposed to be super Bowl contenders. But to
the point I'm saying that, while I may not think
that they're the super Bowl Championship favorite, but I still
think they're a pretty dog on good team that you
still have to look out for, you know, like you
said eight to oz coming off of by Since twenty seventeen,
(31:38):
we talk about how they're the fourth points, fourth most
points scored after a buying, How Josh Allen seven to
zero as well following a bye week. So this is
going to be a team that, you know, I wouldn't
quite put the label on it, not as good as
we thought. I think they're a good team. I think
they've hit a tough stretch in the season, but I
think that this team has had a week to prepare,
(31:58):
and as I like to say, that an angry bunch
coming off of a couple of losses.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
So you could get a Buffalo bill team that comes
in here flat. You just could.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And maybe it is one of those deals that those
two losses were giving us the insight that this team is,
you know, having a downward trajectory. But I was still
at the end of the day, I'm just not sure
that I would play Bryce hung if there was a
high probability of reaggravating or even low.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I do agree with you.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
I wonder what's going on through the coach's mind and
the panther's mind, but I do agree with you. I
don't want to mess around with it.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
If he had a regular sprain, regular ankle sprain, and
I think you probably have a little bit more of
a chance for him to play.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
But those high ankle sprains. Those are so dice And
you mentioned this too, Bryce, A lot of his game
is predicated off of mobility and avoiding sacks. In fact,
here I am mentioning it. As I scroll my Twitter timeline,
I see this stat from Keep Purring podcast or Ben
also in parentheses, he tweeted out a graph from patent
Analytics that has Bryce as the second most efficient quarterback
(32:59):
after avoiding a sack, with the fourth most sacks avoided
at ten. Because of the capability that he has within
the pocket, you need to be mobile. If I don't
think it would be a coincidence. If he's hurt, he
doesn't avoid as many sacks as we're accustomed to seeing.
And I guess by that alone, you probably just turn
up the volume on the increase of injury there if
(33:20):
he gets sacked because he can't move. So the more
you talk it out, the more you see what Bryce does. Well,
run the ball. Put Andy Dalton under center. See if
we can get four quarters of magic, because we got
four more left to go after that, the eight quarters
rule for Andy, the two games rule.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We got four quarters to use up. This is fine.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Bryce Sewan comes back after the Bills game maybe after
the Packers game, and then he.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Can come back one hundred percent healthy enough to avoid
those with.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
The bills, Like I said, second best pressure rate in
the league, and then happen to get up on those
toes with that high ankle spring beat.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Ah, it is funny.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You do talk about injuries with Bryce a little differently, right,
not wrong. We see him getting up on those toes.
He loves his toes.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Throws. Yeah, he has to climb the lad Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
I know.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
If it was Joe Flacco, even at forty years old,
he's six', five maybe the ankle sprain doesn't bother him his. Body,
Guys i'm not moving. Anyway, Yeah i'm melting to the.
Ground nobody shows you that they're gonna make you. Move. Yeah,
Right so this is, hey training, staff, doctors and you
put away the degree we figured it out for.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
You don't play.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Them put some, pham cut some foam and put it
in his cleatstance so he doesn't have to get up
on his toes from about three inches of phone.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
In, There Doctor brian has spoken AT i can't it
always is. Weird Doctor mail is my, dad so that's
a real. PERSON i can't say doctor male. Junior, yeah,
yeah even that seems weird because he's a. Junior, actually,
ok yeah, yeah all, Right Doctor bryant and the pall
the pr right And walker. Mail that's our. PRACTICE i
want to talk more About Rico Dwdell. Wes if he
(34:59):
continues a ball then how interesting of a contract? Conversation
what are we going to? Have that's the conversation good
news for you we're going to have coming up next
To west And Walker Sports radio.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Ninety two SEVEN. Wfz welcome, back. Folks this is The.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
West And Walker Show Sports ready on ninety two seven
w f N.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Z walcome out taking it was the one o'clock. Out
it's all.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
RIGHT i was.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Interesting, yeah we're gonna go to the coda here soon
now at one.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
O'clock we do want to tell, you, though that we
are broadcasting live from The Chandler vault to STUDIOS Cv
Injury law Dot. COM Cv Injury law Dot.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Com one.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Call that's all The carolina's personal injury. Lawyers when do
you want to give out these? Tickets by the, Way
flounder and what's a good time to do? That you
have any input on? That? YEAH i mean we could
we could go ahead and give them. Out now do it,
now you want to do it? Now, okay this is
actually the wrong, read so we won't do it, now
but just keep, okay coming.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
Up coming, up we have tickets for you To charlotte
FC's playoff.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Game so stick.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
Around, Yeah, well have a keyword that you text to
seven oh four, five seven ninety six, ten and it'll
enter you first shot to.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Win a four.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
PACK i like this format a lot better because now
it keeps people. Intrigued if you find a topic we're discussing,
boring WHICH i don't know how you could do that
even if it's a boring.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Talk that's.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Impossible we could talk about paint drying and you would
want to listen the entire day and then go back
TO wfnz dot com and pull it up. Again but
just in, case as a fail, safe we want to
keep you around for you to have a chance to
win Some CHARLOTTE fc. Tickets and this is to their
first playoff game On, tuesday Correct bank Of, America that
would be. Correct, yeah all, right So, tuesday stick around
(36:40):
and you have that chance to win some of those.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
TICKETS i really.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
AM i started thinking about a little bit more of
this running back, Situation, WES i really do think we
could like this. THING i don't want to, say get
off the. RAILS i don't think this conversation is that.
Dramatic BUT i do wonder what this world looks, Like.
Wes If rico continues to Outperform cuba every, time he
(37:08):
looks better Against, buffalo he looks better Against Green. Bay
he's more, efficient he's more, explosive he's better in the passing.
Game just if he continues to look like that compared
To cuba for the next three four, five, LIKE i don't,
know maybe just continues to go on on his one year. Contract,
okay now you're in a weird situation where you've already
(37:32):
Given Cuba hubbard a big time contract. Extension, no it's
not a ton of. Money it's eight million a. Year
it's not one of the highest paid running back situations
that you have With.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Cuba but he's got a.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Few more years left on his, deal, RIGHT i mean
he's here for the long, term relatively. Speaking rico's gone
after this. Season if you want to keep him, around
then you're gonna have to talk. Turkey turkey means what two,
years three? Years and how much money you're willing to pay,
him and now you're in a situation where you have
allocated resources to Keeping cuba. Around not only did you
(38:05):
use a second round pick On Jonathan Brooks, wes you
trade it up to get, Them so now you Have Jonathan.
Brooks you used a fourth round, pick a guy that
could potentially be a. Starter, Hello Mitchell eleven's a fifth
round pick who's playing good. Ball so you used a
fourth round pick On Trevor etn And rico's on the
outside looking, in despite being the best running back that
you have on the. Roster none of the decisions you
(38:29):
made before you Signed RICO i think deter you from
keeping him on your. Team but ALSO i think it's
fair to question the process of how all of this.
Unfolds If rico ball's, out he looks better than all
the other running backs that you've allocated resources. To but
it's not like you can just move on from all
those other guys via sunk. Cost but even if you've
(38:52):
view that as a fallacy LIKE i, DO i, Mean
tuba's on the, books you're talking about dead, money And
i'll look up his contract situation a little, more.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
But it's it's a weird situation BECAUSE i was about
to tell you what IF i told you there was
a potential out Into bahubbard's contract in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Six so he has twenty twenty six ers that going into.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
This so his twenty twenty sixth salary of four point
five million becomes guaranteed On march, Fifteenth so cutting him
before that date would result in a different cap hit
and did money calculation than if he were cut after the.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
DAY i don't think they'd cut him. THOUGH i don't
even think that's on the. TABLE i don't want to cut,
him but, yes THE.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
NFL i, Mean i'm just saying that's THE.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Nfl if he doesn't produce to the level that they're looking,
for and, if under the scenario that you're bringing, up
if ricco'daldill clearly establishes himself as the better back and
this team is able to win huge football games because
of his, performances then, YES i think that that is
certainly something that would be on the table for The
Carolina peedis because then they can, say all, right, well you,
(39:50):
know we'll take a little bit of a lick if
we do cut. You but then they could, say, hey
we could Have rico dowd ll sign him to a
relatively you, know cheap, deal and then we Have etn behind,
him and then we Got Jonathan brooks coming. Back so,
NO i would not put it out of the realm
of possibility that they would do. THAT i think it
would be a lot to, say don't Worry panthers. Fans
(40:11):
we Have Trevor etn and we Have Jonathan brooks who's
played two games as our guy that we're going to
fall back.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
On With Rico daddle as our. Starter what a fans
ain't gonna kick because they already Love Rico Dada.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Moore, Well i'm just, saying If rico does go down
with an injury and then you're looking at one of
these other, GUYS i don't Think tube is going to get.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Cut i'd be.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Surprised the way that they're still giving him, carries the
way that he's breaking the huddles in, practice the way
that he's viewed as a leader with this, squad WHICH
i know you might not. CARE i get that If
Wes bryant was running a.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
TEAM i know you're.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Ruthless, now But i'm just saying that you see all
the time and free. Agency these teams sign these players
to these massive deals and they cut them a year
or two.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Later SO i would not be shocked in the.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Least, NO i get that if we're, PREDICTING i think
it would be very surprising to. Me If Dan morgan
a guy that valsues culture and we use Two Cuba
hubbard as one of the poster boys of. Culture he
is a leader amongst a locker room that has a
lot of. Leaders, now so if you decided to cut
that guy when it's not like you're paying him a
(41:12):
ton of money in terms of the percentage of the
cap that you're allocating his, way it starts to add
up once you pay all these other running. Backs BUT
i don't think the conversation is do they end up Cutting.
CUBA i think the conversation is do they end up Paying?
Rico that's WHAT i think. Happens and if they Pay,
rico now you are talking about a lot of, money
(41:32):
a decent percentage of the cap being allocated to these running.
Backs or the other thing that you look at is
is this A Deonta foreman situation where he comes, in
looks good runs for nine hundred yards and THE nfl
is ruthless as you, Say, seeya and he doesn't really
do anything else with his other. STOPS i wonder if
that's that play on the other, Side.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah BECAUSE i, think like What aja says on The
fando text on, saying that's essentially What cuba did To
miles standards AND i think you could, see you, know
a scenario like.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
THAT i think it's.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Interesting but LIKE i, SAID i think THAT i will
say That rico will have to really perform at a,
high high level to be able to create this type of,
Scenario like it's got to be where he's the clear
cut guy there for them to be in a position
to do something like.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
That, Yeah AND i think it's fair to bring that
scenario up Because cuba did take the job From Miles.
SANDERS i think the two things that are different about
that Situation miles is, Bad cuba's not. Bad miles is real,
bad And miles isn't making as much money As. Cuba,
yeah those are big, differences but it is true we
did See cuba just straight up take the job from
the guy that was supposed to be the starting running
(42:43):
back after The panthers gave him that kind of.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Money, yeah Because i'm just operating off what you.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Said if he is clearly outperformed going down the stretch
of this, season.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
And that's WHY i think this becomes.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Plausible, well let me ask you, this do you Think
rico has clearly Outperformed tuba based on what you've seen
and given the? Context me, PERSONALLY i say, no BECAUSE
i think That cuba would have put up big numbers
against these defenses as.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Well so that's why that's the only reason WHY i say.
THAT i think the tail of the tape is going
to be in these games coming up to see who
rises and who's the cream of the crop.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Here, YEAH i Think i'm probably somewhere in the. MIDDLE
i Think cuba would have had some big time numbers
had he not had a calf. STRAIN i don't know
if he would have had the same numbers As, rico
BUT i think he would have been.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah now the question Becomes rico's getting the outside. Runs
cuba wasn't as. Much they were using him more so
between the. Tackles rico looked great on those outside. Runs
cuba had the one big run yep on the left,
side which is where they were eating pretty much in
the run game all day long against The. Jets so
are you going to start calling the same run plays
(43:49):
for each guy or are you going to continue to
use them in different ways the direction in which you
want them to. RUN i want to see just less
variables at play in order for me to truly figure
out who is the better running back eye, Test rico
has looked better going back and watching What tuba did
earlier on What rico has done against bad, defenses and
(44:12):
The jets are a better rush defense than The. Dolphins, rightly,
yeah but, right But rico does look better to. Me
and so if the eye test continues to tell me
that there's this, gap Which i'm with, YOU i don't
think it's this Monster Sean alexander to whoever the hell else,
Gap that's not. That BUT i do think there has
been a gap in how these guys have, performed AND
i do think there's a clear gap in the receiving,
(44:35):
game which. Matters so if it continues to look like
this the rest of the, way that's WHEN i think
things start to get.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Interesting, yeah and so it's gonna be fun to. Watch
that's going to be one of the big storylines going
down the. Stretch here because the thing to, me LIKE i,
said they look different to, me and That rico has
a little bit more of an initial burst Than chuba.
Has chewba to, me takes a little second to get,
going to get his speed. Up but it's, like, yeah
When rico gets the right is, there that's that initial
(45:02):
just burst through the whole and it looks really. Good
so again they've got another porous run defensive as we've
been talking about all week coming up In. Buffalo so
this is going to be an opportunity for both guys
to be able to get some chunk runs and see
who can put up the bigger.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Numbers, yeah if we Get rico.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Putting up ninety And cuba gets fifty, five, sixty even seventy,
five And rico has only a couple more carries or
maybe a couple. LESS i hate this. Thing it continues
to mount. Up it mounts, up it mounts.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Up so who? Buddy interesting running back convers is good
the problem to?
Speaker 5 (45:36):
Have, no it?
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Is, yes good players. Good, hey if you take nothing
else away from this, show good players are good to.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Have take.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
That that's the hard hitting analysis From wes And walker
campus called up balling And Falling ball And falling coming up.
Next sports rated out in two SEVEN. Wfz listen to
The west And Walker Show We tease from noon to
three only On Sports radio ninety two point seven half
co U, fnz the
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Official home of The charlotte sports fan
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