Are the Charlotte Hornets…bad?

All right, my friend, not on the scribe, Kenada Edwards joining us, CBSSports.com has covered the Hornets for a long time, and he joins us here to talk about that and the NBA as well, and some other things.

First, I appreciate your time as always, my friend. I actually, are the Hornets... I don't want to say are the Hornets bad, because I'm not qualified really to know.

What are the Hornets? The Hornets are a very young team that might lack a little bit of bench to start. Their starting five, I think, is going to be excellent. I think Mark Williams came along late after some seasoning in the G League. LaMelo Ball, if he stays healthy, plays 50 or 60 games, is going to...

I think we need to start there. LaMelo Ball, if he gives you 50 or 60 games, is going to have you at least 30 wins. He played 36 games last year, they won 27.

I feel like, if you're a bad team, you're probably what, a sub 25 win team? I think LaMelo Ball staying healthy prevents them alone from being that. However, it all depends on what we see out of this bench. Miles Bridges, we don't know if he's going to come back after that 10 games suspension start the year.

Most likely he will. I think the way the Hornets have done this and the way that they're presenting this is that they expect him back. I think for that first Milwaukee game in November, I believe they expect him back for that. I see no evidence to believe that he won't be back unless they find out something, I want to say three days before when he goes, appears before a judge for the criminal summons.

But after that, the bench is kind of sparse. Cody Martin is not healthy. Frank Neelakina, who was expected to be their likely lockdown defender, broke his tibia. He's going to be out for a month. He may or may not be back before the new year. Cody Martin, whose knee injury becomes more and more analogous with Lonzo Ball, and in terms of where we don't know where he's going to, when he's going to be back or if he's going to be back this year.

So, and then after that you have James book night was largely explained out. Brian gallons, who has taken a couple of steps here and there. We're not sure if he's an actual NBA player.

JT Thor looks like he's going to be pretty decent as your backup for Nick Richards, as your backup fives, you can do a lot worse, but when we come to the guard depth, they had to sign a Smith yesterday. And I think that lets you know all the problems they have with the, with the guard depth in Charlotte, right? I want to, I want to pair, uh, kind of drill down on the miles bridges thing, um, suspended for basically, well, he was suspended last year, the entire year.

Yes. Well, maybe not suspended, but he didn't play. And, and, uh, no, the suspension, uh, kind of drags on to the first 10 games.

Are they better off not only on the court in the locker room, but with their fan base to just move on from miles bridges based on everything that has happened and apparently continues to happen with this guy off the court. So this is a very, normally this would be one of those lockdown easy. I say, yes, but I don't, I think it's a little bit more complicated than that.

Oh, it's very, it's a very complicated story because first things first, I'm the first, if you read the observer article, news observer article yesterday, there was a reasoning apparently for the first warrant that was issued in January, there was, it was over a bit impermissible conduct. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. And permissible contact over, and that was violating the agreement by the state of California. So I say that to say, there's stuff about this that feels like it would be easy to kick them off the team or send him somewhere else. But at the same point, I would point out, point to you, the Derrick Rose stuff where Derrick Rose faced a civil trial for sexual assault. And essentially the PR machine that way, I think it was the next PR machine at some point. But at some point a PR machine just basically waved their magic wand and it all became adversity.

And we never remembered anything about that. Right. And then everybody basically crapped on, I believe it might've been the bulls that let him go and was like, how could you let this guy go?

Yada, yada, yada. The Hornets are legitimately afraid of that. And I don't necessarily blame them because at that point it just becomes a lose-lose scenario. He's a talented player. Exactly. So it becomes a lose-lose scenario where I lose a talented player for free, and I'm going to get the PR backlash no matter what. So I might as well keep him and see if we can get something out of him at this point. Yeah.

In terms of, in terms of on the court, it's, it is a very difficult situation to be in for a franchise that desperately needs good players and players who impact the game in a positive way on the court. And it's clear from a couple of years ago, cause it's been a long time since we've seen Miles Bridges play. But he was in line for a major contract until all of these, all of this came out.

All this happened. Exactly. So there's no question. And the fear is that, well, if we don't pay him, somebody else is somebody else is going to.

So, you know, I look, I, I get it. Morals play virtually no role in professional sports. Not at all. But the only time it does is when it impacts the team's bottom line.

And I want to move on from the Hornets and go to a couple of other things real quick, but is there any indication that this would impact the Hornets bottom line? I think there has to be another incident. I think, and I don't, and.

And what are the odds of that happening really? I, he says facetiously. Right. So like, I don't like, if the thing is, and I guess this is where I didn't answer it.

I will answer. If it were me, I, the reason you let him go is because you do not trust him because he has not shown the contrition. He has not shown like, we know, like there's a certain attitude to, and there's a certain standard procedure when people officially takes things serious.

He's finally started to now realize that his appearance matters, everything else like that. So maybe, but I just, if you're the Hornets, I don't see how you can trust them not to do anything because these things keep seeming to happen and they're clustered and they didn't trust them before, which is why the reason when, before this all happened, they, there were rumors and rumblings. They were going to trade this dude.

Yeah. So I'm not sure they trust him. And unfortunately there, I think their stance is, look, he's got to perform for us because if he doesn't do it for us, he's not going to do it for anybody else in this league because no one trusts him and everybody thinks he should be out of the league. Well, we'll see how it, how it goes when he comes back after the, the suspension, not in the Scrod, Kanata Edwards is joining us from CBS.

All right. So the NBA started last night, the four highest profile teams in the West all played Lakers were at Nuggets, Suns were at the warriors. I appreciate the CP three chant for Chris Paul at home when they have hated him forever. It just shows that if you're on the home team side, the home team, the home crowd will figure out a way to put everything they hated about you aside.

And look, if he's going to be kind of a dirty player, at least there'll be a dirty player for us. And that's all good. But I'm curious about this because the bucks and the Celtics have the shortest odds to win an NBA championship. I don't think either of those two teams are better than most of the four that we just talked about.

Right. But I'm not sure I go, I could be, chances are I'm wrong about this, but I don't see the bucks or the Celtics as being better than the nuggets or the sons or the warriors or the Lakers. But I feel like there is a lot less competition at the top in the East, because when I look at the West after the top four, I still have the Oklahoma cities of the world. I think OKC is going to be really good. Sacramento, we saw them last year.

Memphis is still Memphis. The Clippers, especially if they get James Harden. I think there is so much more depth of good teams in the West than there is in the East that it might make it easier for Boston and Milwaukee. I can't, I see where you're coming from. I can't fully go there with you just yet.

OK. I do think Miami is going to be improved in the regular season, despite the fact that we're in eight feet. I think that Cleveland, I think we're not talking enough about them out East.

Right. I think them getting humbled by the Knicks is going to be one of those things that ends up growing them in a way that I'm not sure we're going to see coming. I think the Knicks are really, really good. I think the Knicks are regular season good.

It's funny, Victoria, you're going to have to play that back for me later. It sounded like Kanata said the Knicks are going to be really, really good. Oh, regular season. I said regular season. Good. Regular season. Good.

I do want to. The Knicks are going to be regular season. Good. All right.

Regular season. Good. OK. I like I do believe in the Knicks as a regular season team.

That's like I think there's going to be a lot of games that are going to be me grinders out East. I do. I will say this.

I do agree with you in one sense. I do think Denver and they kind of showed it last night in the fourth quarter that ain't nobody out executing them late. Right.

Nobody. Because there was that I want to say four or five minutes stretch, five minutes stretch with LeBron off the floor in the fourth quarter where they basically went on a twenty one for a run and close that game out. And just if Denver if Denver has you in a spot where they need to execute, they will execute. If you are off, they are the Tori Hanzo sword of the NBA. So razor sharp. If you are off a hair, it's off with your head.

That's how good they are right now. I'm going to have to during the break, I'm going to have to look up what a Tori Hanzo sword means. I don't need you to explain it.

I'm going to look it up and then I'll be surprised because I'm not entirely sure what that means. All right. Final thing. Where does James Harden show up? He's going to start the season with Philadelphia. He finally showed up to practice today.

Congratulations, James. The season season starts. I guess they're playing at Milwaukee, I think, for the first game or they're potentially his first.

But he's not going to he's not going to travel. Where does James Harden ultimately play this season? It feels like it's going to be the Clippers, but I would say this, I don't think it happens till February. I think we're dealing with this for a long time because Daryl Morey is going to want to sit in and make sure that he gets what he wants. And despite the fact that he's going to wreak havoc with the chemistry of this team, Joel Embiid is going to get tired of talking about this like he was tired of talking about Ben Simmons.

This is going to be the thing that sinks Phillies season and is going to be the reason why by the time they finally trade him, it's going to be too late. And they may end up fighting for a playing spot. That's how bad I think this can get.

Don't do this right. Wow, they're yeah, I feel bad for Joel Embiid. He doesn't deserve he said they've had a run with teammates for Joel Embiid. But Adam, Joel grown, if he doesn't like it, he does what everybody else does. Go go ask for a trade.

Yeah. You don't like the situation like again, you're a grown man, you're a superstar. Throw your weight around finally and stop being passive aggressive with this front office and do something about it. I'm with you. I'm with you. He could also stay healthy. That wouldn't hurt him either. No, not at all.

Kanata Edwards at not describe on Twitter, my friend. I appreciate your time always. Absolutely, man. We'll talk soon. We got to talk about the Mets and how they're going to rebuild this thing for 2026. Yeah, you said the Knicks are going to have a good reg great rate. I think you said the Knicks were going to win the NBA title. Sir, I said great regular season. Don't even try that. No, we're not we're not doing that.

Talk to you later. In fairness, look, most of what I absorb right now about the NBA now I will watch. But most of what I absorb in the offseason comes through my son and tick tock about the NBA about the NBA.

So I'm not I'm not pretending that I know. OK, but I also am going by what I saw at the end of last year. So the Knicks, I think the Knicks will be good. I don't think I don't think the Knicks will be dramatically different than they were last year. But I think at least two teams to really watch between now and the, you know, the middle of the year before things, all sorts of things happen when it comes to the trade deadline. I love Oklahoma City and Sacramento.

I think those are places where you should be paying attention. So I really think OKC could be a thorn in the West. So we saw LeBron play twenty nine minutes last night, which is low for a LeBron. I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers had only the big picture in mind, like our regular season is about getting to April, where LeBron isn't worn out, where Anthony Davis isn't worn out. And since you can't load manage like you used to, maybe that load management will take place within games. So the Lakers, who aren't nearly as good with LeBron James off the floor, are going to roll the dice in a lot of games this year because they're not going to let LeBron play 40 minutes. So that's that. I think we're going to see a lot of that for them and for a lot of teams. It's going to be what do we look like when the games really matter? My thoughts.