July 6, 2023 • 21 mins
The Hornets fell 98-83 against the Golden State Warriors in their final game of the California Classic in San Antonio. Sam Farber and Rob Longo talk about the game and their silver-lining performances, and also discuss the first two games of Brandon Miller's professional career.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Hornets Highcast, presented by Charlotte I ear
Nose and Throat Associates, the official I ear Nose and
Throat Care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host,
Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets timee cast your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, and daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privileged to have you with
us here once again on the Hornets I've cast brought
to you by Santa Charlotte IE ear Nose and Throat Associates,
the official I ear nosen throat Care provider of the
Charlotte Hornets. It's a silver Linings edition of the HHC
(00:38):
from Summer League. Hornets dropped to zero to two in
the California Classic, which took place in Sacramento, dropping one
to the Golden State Warriors ninety eight to eighty three.
Will break down the performance from number two overall. Pick
Brandon Miller, the game is a whole and give you
our silver lining selections. Want to let you know once again,
even though by the time you're listening to this, the
(00:58):
moratorium will have been lift did We are not a
on demand twenty four hours a day podcast, much as
we try to be, so we myself, Sam Farmer and
Rob Longo, my partner here today on the HGC are
still in the moratorium, not able to talk about free
agency stuff that should be coming out for you starting tomorrow.
And trust me, we've got a lot of thoughts on
(01:19):
what's taking place here in free agency at large, and
of course what the Hornets have been up to over
the course of the moratorium. So we'll get into that
on our next edition of the Hornets Iive cast, but
to break down the loss to the Golden State Warriors.
He is my producer on the Hornets Radio Network as
well as the producer of this fine podcast. Rob Longo
here with me once again. Rob, a happy post fourth
(01:39):
of July. Hopefully you've still got all nine fingers and toes.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I didn't know I only had nine, so I must
have grew an extra one somewhere along the line. But yes,
happy to be.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Here, well said, well said, All right, Well let's start
things off with Brandon Miller. This is a fifteen point
loss here for the Charlotte Hornets. Clearly, several things went
wrong for the team along the way. But the focal
point for any Summer League game is always on the
first round draft pick, and even more so on one
of those top five a lottery, and even more so
(02:08):
to another stratosphere when you're talking about the top three.
That's the kind of rarefying air Brandon Miller is going
to live in this Summer League. And overall, I think
there's a lot of ways to look at this from
a positive standpoint, But when you see the number two
overall picked only post six points and seven assists, that
assist number is pretty good, but certainly not leading to
(02:28):
enough winning plays. That's going to draw a lot of eyeballs.
So your thoughts here on performance number two from Brandon Miller.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, one of the things that I posted on Twitter
after the game is kind of an overall general thoughts
that I had included the play of Brandon Miller, And yeah,
I mean, when you look at the stat line, you think, well,
it was very ineffective. He didn't do a whole lot
out there. But I mean, at the end of the day,
I'm not too worried about it. It's just one game,
it's just summer League. I'm not worried about it is
in general. I mean, when you look at it, is
(02:57):
this going to be something that is consistent in and
night out though I don't think so. But the passing
really impressed me. I thought they did a good job
finding his teammates, handling the ball when he needed to
on the offensive side. Defensively, I didn't see any lapses
or anything like that in terms of breakdowns and letting
players get to the rack rather easily. I thought he
did a good job with his spacing out there. Yeah,
(03:17):
there were a lot of fouls out there. He ended
up with eight fouls, and a lot of those came
in the first half once again, he had six in
the first and a lot of them might have been
a little TICKI tack here or there. But I thought
he did a really good job facilitating the ball when
he was open and he took those shots. They looked
really good. He had that corner three there in the
fourth quarter, which I really really liked. It was off
a great feed from Bryce McGowan's and I just envisioned
(03:39):
that kind of situation playing out here in the fall
when he's getting open looks in a corner from LaMelo
ball and maybe even Bryce McGowan's as well too in
the second unit. But at the end of the day,
I'm not too too worried about this. It's just the
second game of Summer League. You're still trying to get
your feet wet, so I don't think it's time to
push the panic button as it is.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No no on the panic button. I'm not worried either.
I thought there were a lot of good things that
we saw, but let's clear the negative stuff out of
the way here. From game two. First off, way too
many turnovers once again, he had four turnovers in this one.
That's too much for a player of his caliber, even
with all the attention on him. And then way, way,
(04:17):
way too many fouls. He would have filed out of
both Summer League games he would have filed out in
this one in the first half. He ends up with
eight personal fouls on average over two games. He's averaging
six point five fouls per game, so he's fouling out
plus one. That's not what you want to see. And
some of that is just adjusting to the speed of
the NBA game, and there are other factors there as well.
(04:37):
No doubt in my mind that's going to get cleaned up.
He is a very very good defender based off his
time in college, so not a real huge reason for concern,
but it's something worth noting here. Clearly, Brandon Miller has
a bulls eye on him, as do all top picks.
So one of two things needs to happen. Either one
he needs to be able to overcome that in terms
of the one on one matchups with the other sides
(04:59):
best of and either just beat that person off the
dribble and make plays happen, or he needs to make
more of the plays that you reference some of the
assists that punish a defense for playing that way, and
I thought he did an okay job of that. Seven
assists led the team far and away. He had as
many assists as the rest of the starting five combined,
so I thought assists wise, he was fine out there,
(05:21):
but just making the defense pay for it. And part
of that, too, is the rest of his teammates making
him pay. There were a lot of possessions where Brandon
Miller just wouldn't touch the ball. He'd be on the
other side of things and they'd work through other players.
And that's okay. If Brandon Miller is drawing so much
attention that you get more advantageous matchups on that other side.
But sometimes if he's just not involved, that doesn't have
(05:44):
a chance to happen. So I would have liked to
see more of that. And that's more on his teammates,
I would say, and playing towards his direction than anything else.
Overall in Sacramento, he averages twelve points per game, four
and a half rebounds per game, five assists per game.
All those are okay to find, above average quite frankly
for a first round draft pick. Turnovers high four and
(06:05):
a half per game. That's an issue. Fouls big issue,
six and a half fouls per game. Shooting percentages, I
think you got to like what you saw. Forty six
percent from the floor overall, forty four percent from three,
he goes seventy five percent from the line. All of
those numbers are really solid. You know, one more shot
falls his way, he's a fifty percent shooter. One more
free throw falls his way, he's an eighty percent free
(06:27):
throw shooter. The only major thing I have I think
he needs to be the leading shot taker for the Lrrens.
You're the number two pick. You're not just someone who's
going to be leaned on in these games. You're someone
who could get leaned on pretty early in your regular
NBA career, your regular season NBA career, So to never
be the leading shot taker for the Hornets and your
team losing by seventeen points per game, that is the
(06:48):
thing that I want to see cleaned up more in
Las Vegas. Either he becomes more of a focal point.
I think they mentioned it on the television broadcast a
couple of times. If they're going to lose by fifteen,
I'd rather he ended up with whatever point totally had
and taking fifteen shots contested or not, then settling for four,
even though the four were highly efficient, good quality shots
(07:08):
were more often than not, he is making the right
basketball play, but his level of stardom comes with the
responsibility to take more of the tough shots and not
leave them to other players.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I understand that thought process, but at the same time,
I don't know if I completely agree with that, Sam,
just because you don't want to build bad habits, and
I'm not saying that if you go out there and
you take twenty shots that all of them are going
to be really good looks or all of them are
going to be really bad looks or anything like that.
But there needs to be that fine balance between them.
I understand if there's a shot clock coming down to
(07:39):
the why you got to put a shot up, or
if there's one where you're just kind of stuck and
you got to put the ball up, that's fine too,
But I just don't want someone to create those bad habits.
I thought there were a couple of times where and
again we'll get to this in our second segment here
coming up, but there were times where the balls stuck
and there was some kind of that one on one
basketball that's not really hornet's basketball that some of these
rookies need to learn about, and they were taking bad shots.
(07:59):
Of his teammates were taking bad shots, and there were
opportunities for Brandon Miller to be open, it's just the
teammates didn't get him the ball. So I don't know
if I want my number two overall pick to go
after that and just be that guy that can kind
of drive to the lane and just put up these
wild circus shots or anything like that. I like those
good habits of taking those efficient shots, and I don't
think that's an indictment on anybody really about one way
(08:21):
or the other. Rather that's Brandon thinking that he needs
to take those efficient shots to be efficient from a
field goal percentage standpoint, and rather not just putting up
shots just to put up shots. So I think it's
a fine balance between the two. I didn't necessarily agree
with that with what they were saying on the broadcast,
but at the same time I kind of understand it.
So again, I think there's kind of that fine line,
that tricky little balancing act that you have to figure
(08:43):
out to get to that point.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think that's fair. I think we could both agree
though four shots is too few for the number two
overall big the team needs to find him more looks.
He needs to find himself a few extra but overall
shooting percentages as advertised, he is a really top not shooter.
He brings a lot to the table in that regard,
and just continuing to operate with that bulls eye on him.
(09:06):
I think that's something that's enigmatic of any top pick,
is that ability to be the star of a team.
He was that at Alabama. Hope is that he will
be that at some point for the Charlotte Hornets overall,
and certainly here in summer League. The team kind of
needs him to be a little bit more of that.
Moving forward into Las Vegas ninety eight to eighty three,
the final score Hornets fall of the Warriors, Zo and
two now in Summer League, will take a look the
(09:27):
rest of the squad and their performance as well as
have silver linings when we return here on the Hornets
iive Cast, Sam Farber and Rob Longo here with you
on the HHC The Hornets five Cast, brought to you
by scent Us Charlotte I hear nosen Throat Associates, the
official I ear nosen Throatcare provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
(09:47):
Rob the team falling ninety eight to eighty three. A
couple of blowout losses, and certainly there's an aura of
danger when you're you're seeing these kinds of lopsided scores,
and in particular some really lopsided quarters along the way.
There was one the third quarter twenty nine to fifteen,
Charlotte outscored, did kind of return the favor to a
(10:09):
lesser degree in the fourth quarter, besting the Warriors twenty
eight to twenty one, but by that point the damage
had already been done. But overall, the Hornets are just
struggling at times to get their offense going in defensively
smarting without that anchor there at the back end. Certainly
we saw moments from certain players, but overall not the
level of play we needed to see. Biggest issue for
(10:30):
me as a team. You can look at a couple
of different steps, but I think the two that really
separated the Warriors from the Hornets, and this one one
is rebounding. Charlotte out rebounded by nine in total, by
six on the offensive glass. Too many second chance opportunities.
We talk about it a lot during the regular season.
The team who wins the field goal attempts battle by
a wide margin has a huge advantage. That happened against
(10:52):
the Warriors, Golden State attempting seventy eight field goals compared
to sixty nine for Charlotte, and the free throw disparity
of attempts not nearly enough for the Hornets to make
up for that. The other was just playing three point shooting,
and I thought the Warriors did a better job moving
the ball to generate higher quality looks, but they knocked
out a lot more of them too. Fourteen for thirty
nine were the Warriors from deep that's thirty five percent.
(11:14):
Charlotte goes three for twenty just fifteen percent, and overall
on the two games in Sacramento shoot just twenty four
percent from three. That's not gonna be enough to get
it done.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, for me, the three point shooting was probably the
biggest disparity. You mentioned it. Thirty six percent is a
percentage for Golden State, doesn't look like much. But they
were also fourteen to thirty nine from beyond the yark,
So in typical Warriors fashion, they were just chucking them
up from beyond the arc, and kind of in what
we've seen as of late from the Hornets over the
last season or so, just again, not very good from
(11:46):
beyond yark, just three at twenty, didn't hit a three
pointer until there was about fifty some seconds left to
go in a third quarter as well, So yet not
very good from a three point standpoint for the Hornets.
But I mean there were definitely some flashes. I thought
that fourth quarter from Charlotte a little too late, but
I thought they played well. They could have really just
mailed it in after that third quarter when they were
down seventy seven to fifty five after three quarters of play,
(12:08):
but they come back, they shoot almost fifty eight percent
from the field in that fourth quarter alone, hit a
couple of threes. We're perfect at the free throw line.
So I thought it was a good job from Charlotte's standpoint,
just trying to kind of build some momentum going into
the Las Vegas portion of Summer League here in a
couple of days by just building that momentum and building
those good habits in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
One other big storyline I wanted to bring up here
before we get to our silver Lining selections. After the
hornets ninety eight to eighty three loss to the Golden
State Warriors, I just would like to see a little
bit more from some of the veterans in terms of
either trying to take over a game or just using
their experience to flat out take over a game. I
think there were moments there, but in each of the
(12:47):
first two contests, you saw a veteran either of the
G League or the NBA with lesser experience. Obviously, that's
why they're playing in Summer League. They're not necessarily an
NBA regular by any stretch. But you saw someone come
in and have a huge game and take things over.
Lester Kenyonez did that in this last game for the Warriors.
Credit to you, Rob Longo. He was your player to
watch from Golden State, not someone with a lot of
(13:10):
NBA time on his resume. He was the G League
Most improved player as well as a G League All
Rookie Team selection from last season, so clearly got a
lot of time playing at the NBA adjacent level. But
he's the one who came out and took over the
game twenty one points. He was a plus twenty one
on the floor. The Warriors rookie Brandon Potimski also had
(13:31):
a really good game with seventeen points in five steals,
but he got more of the shot volume, not necessarily
a better accuracy compared to Brandon Miller. It was the
veteran Kenyons who really set the tone. And I think
for the Hornets, you know, you're looking at some okay
stat lines from guys like Bryce McGowan's from James book Knight,
(13:52):
from Kai Jones over the first couple of games, but
we're not seeing any of those players necessarily go for
eighteen to twenty or really put their mark on a
game just yet. So that's something I'd like to see. Obviously,
the focus is gonna be on the elite draft pick,
particularly Brandon Miller, but these guys have the time and
experience in the NBA as well as the ability to
(14:15):
really take over one of these games, and I'm anxious
to see one of them do it.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
And I thought the one person, if you want to
go into that camp, that had the ability to take
over the game last night was Kai Jones. I mean,
at halftime, he was four or five from the field.
He at three steals eight points, which doesn't look like
a lot, but that was tied for a team high
along with Amari Bailey, and Kai just did not have
a very good first game here in California. He also
did not have a very good first quarter last night
(14:39):
as well, but something just seemed to click there in
that second frame. I don't know if there was just
one play or there was something that was said, but
it looked like he really, really really elevated his game,
especially on the defensive end, where he was maybe a
little bit late to a switch or two in the
first quarter, but in that second quarter, he was active,
his hands were getting in passing lanes. He ended up
with a couple of steals like I mentioned in did
(15:00):
some offense for the Hornets, and they went on a
little bit of a run there in that second quarter
and closed what it was a four point deficit to
I think they ended up taking the lead there early
on in the second quarter as well. I want to
say it was like twenty three to twenty. Unfortunately, they
went into the locker room down eight. But again, Kai
Jones had that potential there in that second quarter. Didn't
really do a whole lot in the second half, but
he was a guy that I was maybe looking at,
(15:21):
and of course I had him as my player to
watch going into this one and it just didn't pan out.
But that is a guy that I think has the
ability to take over a game, like you talk about
in a summer league that is a little bit more
of a veteran.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, the one I had circled for this one was
James Booknight, and there it was a little bit of
a feel there for a while in this Warriors game
as to the final game of the regular season last
year where book Knight knocked down to three and against
Cleveland in Cleveland kind of turned things for the Hornets.
They ended up going to the win and it was
a game where Charlotte just shot terribly from three until
book Night knocked one down and then the floodgates kind
(15:54):
of opened. And similarly in this one we were waiting
and waiting. Unfortunately it took a little too long for
those gates open the Horns to finally get rolling from three.
But Booknight a tough day shooting from three. Hopefully he's
got better days on the horizon for him coming up
in Las Vegas. Coming up next here on the Hornets podcast,
our silver Lining Selections. That's next here on the AHHC.
(16:17):
Sam Farber, Rob Longo here with you on the Hornets
I've cast brought to you by Santa Charlotte I hear
nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. It's Silver Linings edition Hornets falling
ninety eight to eighty three to the Golden State Warriors.
Before we get to our silver Lining selections, a reminder
we are not ignoring free agency altogether. Even though by
(16:39):
the time you're listening to this podcast, the moratorium will
have been lifted, it's not by the time we're recording it.
So we're not ignoring things on purpose. We'll have thoughts
on free agency and who is on the Hornets roster
heading into the twenty three to twenty four season a
little bit later, but for now, let's continue to talk
about the loss to the Golden State Warriors in Sacramento
(17:00):
eighty three. Rob Longo. Rob rules apply. You get to
select your Silver Linings player first.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, I think the easy one here is the guy
that had the leading points for the Hornets, and that
was off the bench. That was Amri Bailey. He finishes
with a team high seventeen last night, goes for four
rebounds as well, six to nine from the field, perfect
that the free throw line, which is a great turnaround.
He was five for five. I think he was just
two to seven from the charity strike the other night
against San Antonio. Ends up being a plus seventeen in
(17:26):
about seventeen and a half minutes out there on the floor.
I would absolutely love to see him get an expanded
role at some point in Las Vegas. I don't care
what team it's against. I would love to see him
get the start and see what he is capable of.
I don't mean that to take away from anybody else,
but I just want to see more of Amari Bailey again.
Second round pick has a lot of length. They're talking
(17:48):
about it on the broadcast yesterday and Summer League at
Sacramento about how he has the ability to be a really,
really good defensive player just because of his length as
a guard, and I just would like to see more
of him, and maybe we're going to see that in
Las Vegas in a couple of days. But Amari Bailey
is clearly my silver lining performance from last night's game.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I thought he was the easy pick. I agree with you.
Rob seventeen points in seventeen minutes peak efficiency, a six
for nine from the floor, five for five from the
free throw line. It just makes all of the easy,
kind of simple plays. And even though he's someone who
is the leading scorer coming off the bench, doesn't necessarily
have a strut or a bravado to him out there
on the floor and out that he's not confident. I
(18:27):
mean that to say, you know, he's just kind of
focused on making the right plays, letting the game come
to him, and it came really easily. That athleticism that
he has that made him a top ten recruit going
into his one and done year at UCLA was evident.
He can play above the rim at times, particularly for
a guard, and has that length to stretch into passing lanes.
But overall, just really really smart play from Amari Bailey.
(18:50):
I'm with you, I think you know less so and
he needs to take over for someone else more so,
in a similarity to like what we saw from Bryce
McGowan's last season. You know, he's getting opportunities, he's making
the most of them, he's earning more of them. And
so while there are players that need to get more
minutes out there for the Charlotte Hornets in Summer League,
and I would contend that Amari Bailey, as a second
(19:11):
round pick from this most recent draft, is one of them,
I think he is deserving of more opportunities as well.
For my silver lining selection, I'm gonna go with Nick
Smith Junior. I thought we saw him get more comfortable
out there from a scoring standpoint second leading scorer on
the team at fourteen points. He didn't have an inefficient game,
just didn't have a really great game in terms of efficiency.
(19:33):
A Mario Bailey six for nine that pops off the
score sheet. Nick Smith Junior six for thirteen not bad
and as the pseudo point guard out there for the team.
There's a lot of possessions where if things are winding down,
he finds the ball in his hands, he's asked to
create and make a more difficult shot for himself that
rather than launch a hand grenade to somebody else. So
(19:54):
I thought the shooting percentage was fine. One for four
from three that's not exactly what you want. But as
we talk about a lot, when you look at these
kind of stat lines, when you only take four threes,
making one more, as saying for Nick Smith, he'd be
fifty percent. Oh, this is some brilliant game. One for four.
I'm not gonna harp on it. I thought his shot
selection was pretty good, and I don't think his shooting
was too far off of having a really strong night
(20:17):
in terms of percentage. Most importantly, for me assist to
turnover ratio four assists two turnovers, that's really solid out there.
But I'm with you, I think far and away Amari
Bailey was the star of the game for the Hornets.
When you lose by fifteen and you have anyone on
your side that's plus seventeen, that's a great sign. But
when he also was your leading scorer scoring seventeen points.
(20:38):
That's even better. So Bailey definitely the star for Charlotte
in Sacramento. That's going to do it for this edition
of the Hornets, I've cast one last reminder. Coming up
in our next edition to the AHHC, we finally get
to talk about free agency. The shackles are off, Rob Longo,
just the ones left to the desk there for you.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I guess I can't get everything in life, but I'll
take what I can get.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
We are looking looking forward to talking about Hornets free
agency and how the dust's gonna settle in terms of
the Hornets moving forward towards the twenty three twenty four season.
Obviously certainly some things to be very excited about. If
you are a Hornets fan, which we'd imagine you are
since you're tuned into the Hornets hyve Cast, we appreciate
it as always much appreciated the services of Rob Longo. Again,
(21:21):
thanks for joining us in this post fourth of July
edition of the AHHC. Rob pleasure. As always, thanks to
all of you as well for tuning in. For everyone here,
I'm Sam Farber saying it's been a pleasure and a
privilege having you along. We will talk to you next
time right here on the hornets HiPE Cast.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Thank you for listening to the hornets hip Cast, brought
to you by Senta, the official i ere nos and
throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage,
visit hornets dot com
Welcome to the Hornets Highcast, presented by Charlotte I ear
Nose and Throat Associates, the official I ear Nose and
Throat Care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host,
Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets timee cast your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, and daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privileged to have you with
us here once again on the Hornets I've cast brought
to you by Santa Charlotte IE ear Nose and Throat Associates,
the official I ear nosen throat Care provider of the
Charlotte Hornets. It's a silver Linings edition of the HHC
(00:38):
from Summer League. Hornets dropped to zero to two in
the California Classic, which took place in Sacramento, dropping one
to the Golden State Warriors ninety eight to eighty three.
Will break down the performance from number two overall. Pick
Brandon Miller, the game is a whole and give you
our silver lining selections. Want to let you know once again,
even though by the time you're listening to this, the
(00:58):
moratorium will have been lift did We are not a
on demand twenty four hours a day podcast, much as
we try to be, so we myself, Sam Farmer and
Rob Longo, my partner here today on the HGC are
still in the moratorium, not able to talk about free
agency stuff that should be coming out for you starting tomorrow.
And trust me, we've got a lot of thoughts on
(01:19):
what's taking place here in free agency at large, and
of course what the Hornets have been up to over
the course of the moratorium. So we'll get into that
on our next edition of the Hornets Iive cast, but
to break down the loss to the Golden State Warriors.
He is my producer on the Hornets Radio Network as
well as the producer of this fine podcast. Rob Longo
here with me once again. Rob, a happy post fourth
(01:39):
of July. Hopefully you've still got all nine fingers and toes.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I didn't know I only had nine, so I must
have grew an extra one somewhere along the line. But yes,
happy to be.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Here, well said, well said, All right, Well let's start
things off with Brandon Miller. This is a fifteen point
loss here for the Charlotte Hornets. Clearly, several things went
wrong for the team along the way. But the focal
point for any Summer League game is always on the
first round draft pick, and even more so on one
of those top five a lottery, and even more so
(02:08):
to another stratosphere when you're talking about the top three.
That's the kind of rarefying air Brandon Miller is going
to live in this Summer League. And overall, I think
there's a lot of ways to look at this from
a positive standpoint, But when you see the number two
overall picked only post six points and seven assists, that
assist number is pretty good, but certainly not leading to
(02:28):
enough winning plays. That's going to draw a lot of eyeballs.
So your thoughts here on performance number two from Brandon Miller.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, one of the things that I posted on Twitter
after the game is kind of an overall general thoughts
that I had included the play of Brandon Miller, And yeah,
I mean, when you look at the stat line, you think, well,
it was very ineffective. He didn't do a whole lot
out there. But I mean, at the end of the day,
I'm not too worried about it. It's just one game,
it's just summer League. I'm not worried about it is
in general. I mean, when you look at it, is
(02:57):
this going to be something that is consistent in and
night out though I don't think so. But the passing
really impressed me. I thought they did a good job
finding his teammates, handling the ball when he needed to
on the offensive side. Defensively, I didn't see any lapses
or anything like that in terms of breakdowns and letting
players get to the rack rather easily. I thought he
did a good job with his spacing out there. Yeah,
(03:17):
there were a lot of fouls out there. He ended
up with eight fouls, and a lot of those came
in the first half once again, he had six in
the first and a lot of them might have been
a little TICKI tack here or there. But I thought
he did a really good job facilitating the ball when
he was open and he took those shots. They looked
really good. He had that corner three there in the
fourth quarter, which I really really liked. It was off
a great feed from Bryce McGowan's and I just envisioned
(03:39):
that kind of situation playing out here in the fall
when he's getting open looks in a corner from LaMelo
ball and maybe even Bryce McGowan's as well too in
the second unit. But at the end of the day,
I'm not too too worried about this. It's just the
second game of Summer League. You're still trying to get
your feet wet, so I don't think it's time to
push the panic button as it is.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No no on the panic button. I'm not worried either.
I thought there were a lot of good things that
we saw, but let's clear the negative stuff out of
the way here. From game two. First off, way too
many turnovers once again, he had four turnovers in this one.
That's too much for a player of his caliber, even
with all the attention on him. And then way, way,
(04:17):
way too many fouls. He would have filed out of
both Summer League games he would have filed out in
this one in the first half. He ends up with
eight personal fouls on average over two games. He's averaging
six point five fouls per game, so he's fouling out
plus one. That's not what you want to see. And
some of that is just adjusting to the speed of
the NBA game, and there are other factors there as well.
(04:37):
No doubt in my mind that's going to get cleaned up.
He is a very very good defender based off his
time in college, so not a real huge reason for concern,
but it's something worth noting here. Clearly, Brandon Miller has
a bulls eye on him, as do all top picks.
So one of two things needs to happen. Either one
he needs to be able to overcome that in terms
of the one on one matchups with the other sides
(04:59):
best of and either just beat that person off the
dribble and make plays happen, or he needs to make
more of the plays that you reference some of the
assists that punish a defense for playing that way, and
I thought he did an okay job of that. Seven
assists led the team far and away. He had as
many assists as the rest of the starting five combined,
so I thought assists wise, he was fine out there,
(05:21):
but just making the defense pay for it. And part
of that, too, is the rest of his teammates making
him pay. There were a lot of possessions where Brandon
Miller just wouldn't touch the ball. He'd be on the
other side of things and they'd work through other players.
And that's okay. If Brandon Miller is drawing so much
attention that you get more advantageous matchups on that other side.
But sometimes if he's just not involved, that doesn't have
(05:44):
a chance to happen. So I would have liked to
see more of that. And that's more on his teammates,
I would say, and playing towards his direction than anything else.
Overall in Sacramento, he averages twelve points per game, four
and a half rebounds per game, five assists per game.
All those are okay to find, above average quite frankly
for a first round draft pick. Turnovers high four and
(06:05):
a half per game. That's an issue. Fouls big issue,
six and a half fouls per game. Shooting percentages, I
think you got to like what you saw. Forty six
percent from the floor overall, forty four percent from three,
he goes seventy five percent from the line. All of
those numbers are really solid. You know, one more shot
falls his way, he's a fifty percent shooter. One more
free throw falls his way, he's an eighty percent free
(06:27):
throw shooter. The only major thing I have I think
he needs to be the leading shot taker for the Lrrens.
You're the number two pick. You're not just someone who's
going to be leaned on in these games. You're someone
who could get leaned on pretty early in your regular
NBA career, your regular season NBA career, So to never
be the leading shot taker for the Hornets and your
team losing by seventeen points per game, that is the
(06:48):
thing that I want to see cleaned up more in
Las Vegas. Either he becomes more of a focal point.
I think they mentioned it on the television broadcast a
couple of times. If they're going to lose by fifteen,
I'd rather he ended up with whatever point totally had
and taking fifteen shots contested or not, then settling for four,
even though the four were highly efficient, good quality shots
(07:08):
were more often than not, he is making the right
basketball play, but his level of stardom comes with the
responsibility to take more of the tough shots and not
leave them to other players.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I understand that thought process, but at the same time,
I don't know if I completely agree with that, Sam,
just because you don't want to build bad habits, and
I'm not saying that if you go out there and
you take twenty shots that all of them are going
to be really good looks or all of them are
going to be really bad looks or anything like that.
But there needs to be that fine balance between them.
I understand if there's a shot clock coming down to
(07:39):
the why you got to put a shot up, or
if there's one where you're just kind of stuck and
you got to put the ball up, that's fine too,
But I just don't want someone to create those bad habits.
I thought there were a couple of times where and
again we'll get to this in our second segment here
coming up, but there were times where the balls stuck
and there was some kind of that one on one
basketball that's not really hornet's basketball that some of these
rookies need to learn about, and they were taking bad shots.
(07:59):
Of his teammates were taking bad shots, and there were
opportunities for Brandon Miller to be open, it's just the
teammates didn't get him the ball. So I don't know
if I want my number two overall pick to go
after that and just be that guy that can kind
of drive to the lane and just put up these
wild circus shots or anything like that. I like those
good habits of taking those efficient shots, and I don't
think that's an indictment on anybody really about one way
(08:21):
or the other. Rather that's Brandon thinking that he needs
to take those efficient shots to be efficient from a
field goal percentage standpoint, and rather not just putting up
shots just to put up shots. So I think it's
a fine balance between the two. I didn't necessarily agree
with that with what they were saying on the broadcast,
but at the same time I kind of understand it.
So again, I think there's kind of that fine line,
that tricky little balancing act that you have to figure
(08:43):
out to get to that point.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think that's fair. I think we could both agree
though four shots is too few for the number two
overall big the team needs to find him more looks.
He needs to find himself a few extra but overall
shooting percentages as advertised, he is a really top not shooter.
He brings a lot to the table in that regard,
and just continuing to operate with that bulls eye on him.
(09:06):
I think that's something that's enigmatic of any top pick,
is that ability to be the star of a team.
He was that at Alabama. Hope is that he will
be that at some point for the Charlotte Hornets overall,
and certainly here in summer League. The team kind of
needs him to be a little bit more of that.
Moving forward into Las Vegas ninety eight to eighty three,
the final score Hornets fall of the Warriors, Zo and
two now in Summer League, will take a look the
(09:27):
rest of the squad and their performance as well as
have silver linings when we return here on the Hornets
iive Cast, Sam Farber and Rob Longo here with you
on the HHC The Hornets five Cast, brought to you
by scent Us Charlotte I hear nosen Throat Associates, the
official I ear nosen Throatcare provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
(09:47):
Rob the team falling ninety eight to eighty three. A
couple of blowout losses, and certainly there's an aura of
danger when you're you're seeing these kinds of lopsided scores,
and in particular some really lopsided quarters along the way.
There was one the third quarter twenty nine to fifteen,
Charlotte outscored, did kind of return the favor to a
(10:09):
lesser degree in the fourth quarter, besting the Warriors twenty
eight to twenty one, but by that point the damage
had already been done. But overall, the Hornets are just
struggling at times to get their offense going in defensively
smarting without that anchor there at the back end. Certainly
we saw moments from certain players, but overall not the
level of play we needed to see. Biggest issue for
(10:30):
me as a team. You can look at a couple
of different steps, but I think the two that really
separated the Warriors from the Hornets, and this one one
is rebounding. Charlotte out rebounded by nine in total, by
six on the offensive glass. Too many second chance opportunities.
We talk about it a lot during the regular season.
The team who wins the field goal attempts battle by
a wide margin has a huge advantage. That happened against
(10:52):
the Warriors, Golden State attempting seventy eight field goals compared
to sixty nine for Charlotte, and the free throw disparity
of attempts not nearly enough for the Hornets to make
up for that. The other was just playing three point shooting,
and I thought the Warriors did a better job moving
the ball to generate higher quality looks, but they knocked
out a lot more of them too. Fourteen for thirty
nine were the Warriors from deep that's thirty five percent.
(11:14):
Charlotte goes three for twenty just fifteen percent, and overall
on the two games in Sacramento shoot just twenty four
percent from three. That's not gonna be enough to get
it done.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, for me, the three point shooting was probably the
biggest disparity. You mentioned it. Thirty six percent is a
percentage for Golden State, doesn't look like much. But they
were also fourteen to thirty nine from beyond the yark,
So in typical Warriors fashion, they were just chucking them
up from beyond the arc, and kind of in what
we've seen as of late from the Hornets over the
last season or so, just again, not very good from
(11:46):
beyond yark, just three at twenty, didn't hit a three
pointer until there was about fifty some seconds left to
go in a third quarter as well, So yet not
very good from a three point standpoint for the Hornets.
But I mean there were definitely some flashes. I thought
that fourth quarter from Charlotte a little too late, but
I thought they played well. They could have really just
mailed it in after that third quarter when they were
down seventy seven to fifty five after three quarters of play,
(12:08):
but they come back, they shoot almost fifty eight percent
from the field in that fourth quarter alone, hit a
couple of threes. We're perfect at the free throw line.
So I thought it was a good job from Charlotte's standpoint,
just trying to kind of build some momentum going into
the Las Vegas portion of Summer League here in a
couple of days by just building that momentum and building
those good habits in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
One other big storyline I wanted to bring up here
before we get to our silver Lining selections. After the
hornets ninety eight to eighty three loss to the Golden
State Warriors, I just would like to see a little
bit more from some of the veterans in terms of
either trying to take over a game or just using
their experience to flat out take over a game. I
think there were moments there, but in each of the
(12:47):
first two contests, you saw a veteran either of the
G League or the NBA with lesser experience. Obviously, that's
why they're playing in Summer League. They're not necessarily an
NBA regular by any stretch. But you saw someone come
in and have a huge game and take things over.
Lester Kenyonez did that in this last game for the Warriors.
Credit to you, Rob Longo. He was your player to
watch from Golden State, not someone with a lot of
(13:10):
NBA time on his resume. He was the G League
Most improved player as well as a G League All
Rookie Team selection from last season, so clearly got a
lot of time playing at the NBA adjacent level. But
he's the one who came out and took over the
game twenty one points. He was a plus twenty one
on the floor. The Warriors rookie Brandon Potimski also had
(13:31):
a really good game with seventeen points in five steals,
but he got more of the shot volume, not necessarily
a better accuracy compared to Brandon Miller. It was the
veteran Kenyons who really set the tone. And I think
for the Hornets, you know, you're looking at some okay
stat lines from guys like Bryce McGowan's from James book Knight,
(13:52):
from Kai Jones over the first couple of games, but
we're not seeing any of those players necessarily go for
eighteen to twenty or really put their mark on a
game just yet. So that's something I'd like to see. Obviously,
the focus is gonna be on the elite draft pick,
particularly Brandon Miller, but these guys have the time and
experience in the NBA as well as the ability to
(14:15):
really take over one of these games, and I'm anxious
to see one of them do it.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
And I thought the one person, if you want to
go into that camp, that had the ability to take
over the game last night was Kai Jones. I mean,
at halftime, he was four or five from the field.
He at three steals eight points, which doesn't look like
a lot, but that was tied for a team high
along with Amari Bailey, and Kai just did not have
a very good first game here in California. He also
did not have a very good first quarter last night
(14:39):
as well, but something just seemed to click there in
that second frame. I don't know if there was just
one play or there was something that was said, but
it looked like he really, really really elevated his game,
especially on the defensive end, where he was maybe a
little bit late to a switch or two in the
first quarter, but in that second quarter, he was active,
his hands were getting in passing lanes. He ended up
with a couple of steals like I mentioned in did
(15:00):
some offense for the Hornets, and they went on a
little bit of a run there in that second quarter
and closed what it was a four point deficit to
I think they ended up taking the lead there early
on in the second quarter as well. I want to
say it was like twenty three to twenty. Unfortunately, they
went into the locker room down eight. But again, Kai
Jones had that potential there in that second quarter. Didn't
really do a whole lot in the second half, but
he was a guy that I was maybe looking at,
(15:21):
and of course I had him as my player to
watch going into this one and it just didn't pan out.
But that is a guy that I think has the
ability to take over a game, like you talk about
in a summer league that is a little bit more
of a veteran.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, the one I had circled for this one was
James Booknight, and there it was a little bit of
a feel there for a while in this Warriors game
as to the final game of the regular season last
year where book Knight knocked down to three and against
Cleveland in Cleveland kind of turned things for the Hornets.
They ended up going to the win and it was
a game where Charlotte just shot terribly from three until
book Night knocked one down and then the floodgates kind
(15:54):
of opened. And similarly in this one we were waiting
and waiting. Unfortunately it took a little too long for
those gates open the Horns to finally get rolling from three.
But Booknight a tough day shooting from three. Hopefully he's
got better days on the horizon for him coming up
in Las Vegas. Coming up next here on the Hornets podcast,
our silver Lining Selections. That's next here on the AHHC.
(16:17):
Sam Farber, Rob Longo here with you on the Hornets
I've cast brought to you by Santa Charlotte I hear
nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. It's Silver Linings edition Hornets falling
ninety eight to eighty three to the Golden State Warriors.
Before we get to our silver Lining selections, a reminder
we are not ignoring free agency altogether. Even though by
(16:39):
the time you're listening to this podcast, the moratorium will
have been lifted, it's not by the time we're recording it.
So we're not ignoring things on purpose. We'll have thoughts
on free agency and who is on the Hornets roster
heading into the twenty three to twenty four season a
little bit later, but for now, let's continue to talk
about the loss to the Golden State Warriors in Sacramento
(17:00):
eighty three. Rob Longo. Rob rules apply. You get to
select your Silver Linings player first.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, I think the easy one here is the guy
that had the leading points for the Hornets, and that
was off the bench. That was Amri Bailey. He finishes
with a team high seventeen last night, goes for four
rebounds as well, six to nine from the field, perfect
that the free throw line, which is a great turnaround.
He was five for five. I think he was just
two to seven from the charity strike the other night
against San Antonio. Ends up being a plus seventeen in
(17:26):
about seventeen and a half minutes out there on the floor.
I would absolutely love to see him get an expanded
role at some point in Las Vegas. I don't care
what team it's against. I would love to see him
get the start and see what he is capable of.
I don't mean that to take away from anybody else,
but I just want to see more of Amari Bailey again.
Second round pick has a lot of length. They're talking
(17:48):
about it on the broadcast yesterday and Summer League at
Sacramento about how he has the ability to be a really,
really good defensive player just because of his length as
a guard, and I just would like to see more
of him, and maybe we're going to see that in
Las Vegas in a couple of days. But Amari Bailey
is clearly my silver lining performance from last night's game.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I thought he was the easy pick. I agree with you.
Rob seventeen points in seventeen minutes peak efficiency, a six
for nine from the floor, five for five from the
free throw line. It just makes all of the easy,
kind of simple plays. And even though he's someone who
is the leading scorer coming off the bench, doesn't necessarily
have a strut or a bravado to him out there
on the floor and out that he's not confident. I
(18:27):
mean that to say, you know, he's just kind of
focused on making the right plays, letting the game come
to him, and it came really easily. That athleticism that
he has that made him a top ten recruit going
into his one and done year at UCLA was evident.
He can play above the rim at times, particularly for
a guard, and has that length to stretch into passing lanes.
But overall, just really really smart play from Amari Bailey.
(18:50):
I'm with you, I think you know less so and
he needs to take over for someone else more so,
in a similarity to like what we saw from Bryce
McGowan's last season. You know, he's getting opportunities, he's making
the most of them, he's earning more of them. And
so while there are players that need to get more
minutes out there for the Charlotte Hornets in Summer League,
and I would contend that Amari Bailey, as a second
(19:11):
round pick from this most recent draft, is one of them,
I think he is deserving of more opportunities as well.
For my silver lining selection, I'm gonna go with Nick
Smith Junior. I thought we saw him get more comfortable
out there from a scoring standpoint second leading scorer on
the team at fourteen points. He didn't have an inefficient game,
just didn't have a really great game in terms of efficiency.
(19:33):
A Mario Bailey six for nine that pops off the
score sheet. Nick Smith Junior six for thirteen not bad
and as the pseudo point guard out there for the team.
There's a lot of possessions where if things are winding down,
he finds the ball in his hands, he's asked to
create and make a more difficult shot for himself that
rather than launch a hand grenade to somebody else. So
(19:54):
I thought the shooting percentage was fine. One for four
from three that's not exactly what you want. But as
we talk about a lot, when you look at these
kind of stat lines, when you only take four threes,
making one more, as saying for Nick Smith, he'd be
fifty percent. Oh, this is some brilliant game. One for four.
I'm not gonna harp on it. I thought his shot
selection was pretty good, and I don't think his shooting
was too far off of having a really strong night
(20:17):
in terms of percentage. Most importantly, for me assist to
turnover ratio four assists two turnovers, that's really solid out there.
But I'm with you, I think far and away Amari
Bailey was the star of the game for the Hornets.
When you lose by fifteen and you have anyone on
your side that's plus seventeen, that's a great sign. But
when he also was your leading scorer scoring seventeen points.
(20:38):
That's even better. So Bailey definitely the star for Charlotte
in Sacramento. That's going to do it for this edition
of the Hornets, I've cast one last reminder. Coming up
in our next edition to the AHHC, we finally get
to talk about free agency. The shackles are off, Rob Longo,
just the ones left to the desk there for you.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I guess I can't get everything in life, but I'll
take what I can get.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
We are looking looking forward to talking about Hornets free
agency and how the dust's gonna settle in terms of
the Hornets moving forward towards the twenty three twenty four season.
Obviously certainly some things to be very excited about. If
you are a Hornets fan, which we'd imagine you are
since you're tuned into the Hornets hyve Cast, we appreciate
it as always much appreciated the services of Rob Longo. Again,
(21:21):
thanks for joining us in this post fourth of July
edition of the AHHC. Rob pleasure. As always, thanks to
all of you as well for tuning in. For everyone here,
I'm Sam Farber saying it's been a pleasure and a
privilege having you along. We will talk to you next
time right here on the hornets HiPE Cast.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Thank you for listening to the hornets hip Cast, brought
to you by Senta, the official i ere nos and
throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage,
visit hornets dot com
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Sam Farber
Rob Longo
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