Wide Eyed Dan Morgan

All takes, no breaks, and no chance you're bored. You're clopped out email off. Back to the Triad's longest-running live sports talk show: The Drive. Back at it on WSJS, you are on a Wednesday drive where I think. Last night is exactly what Adam Silver had in mind when they came up with the concept of the play-in tournament.

Bring in a little March Madness style, one and done magic. to the NBA playoffs and that Was a success. That was the best play-in game we've seen, period, over the course of the time that they've been doing that. And Charlotte. Coming into the last night, or 0 and 12.

In elimination games. They looked like they were going to make it 0-13 as things started to progress down the stretch. Tyler Harrow was balling out.

However, Kobe White On the inbound play. North Carolina's finest. Tar Hill great. Did this. Here we go.

12.9 left. Points are down by three. White turn. Yeah. Last night was the Kobe White game.

That's what that was. Jeff Peterson. He probably deserves executive of the year for that transaction alone. Uh The unselfishness that Kobe plays with. He could give you 20 per night if he wanted to, and he does it coming off the bench.

He knows his role, and he does it so well. And he really, like, he only had two points, I think, in the first half, and then just came alive from three in the third quarter. And he already had spectrum center, the lid about to pop off just in the third with what he was doing. And then he did that, and you heard it right there. Just insane.

Lomello Ball, however, Was one of the best and worst players of the night all wrapped up in one? He had 30 points. But went two of 16 from three. Make that one make sense. He took a bazillion shots.

That's why that makes sense. And He had the turnover to the point I just made, best and worst player. He had the turnover at mid-court. With the Hornets up two. Then he fouls Tyler Hero while he's shooting a three, inexplicably.

Goes to the line for three. He takes a one-point lead. And then. Lamello Ball does this. James looking.

Ball breaks free. Gets it seven seconds ball to drop and ball. And there's no timeouts left for Miami. Sure. Up by one.

The drive went to the right. It should go to Geegan. The Hornets win. A wild night in Charlotte. Hornet fans have dreamed for that, a moment like that, that sounds like that, with a call like that by a great like Iron Eagle.

So let's get to the play, okay? The dirty play I'm putting in quotations here. You can have your own interpretation of whether he meant to do it or not. Iman Schumpert was on first take earlier today, or Pat McAfee earlier today, making the case that it looked like he was almost, because Bam was going out of bounds.

So Lamello was trying to get his arm out of the way quickly while he's going out of bounds to let him just keep going. And then the one that they showed from a year ago, where Desmond Johnson was just talking about how he got tripped up a year ago by Lamello. Lamello, and I actually buy this one, was looking like he was actually trying to argue the call, and Bam just happens to go over his arm. It actually does look like that's what he was doing. But he's not a dirty player.

Whether it was a dirty play or not last night, that's up for interpretation. He's not a dirty player. But Eric Spolstra did not love this, and here he was last night. I didn't see it, but that. I don't think it's cute.

I don't think it's funny. I think it's a stupid play. It's a dangerous play. Obviously, our best player is out. I'm not making an excuse.

The Hornets played. Great, you know, and they made those plays down the stretch. We had our opportunities to win. That's a shame. You know, he should be penalized for that.

I don't think that belongs in the game. You know, tripping guys, you know, shenanigans. And, you know, Curtis was there. It's his responsibility to see that. And if it's not his responsibility, then Zach's got to see it.

If, you know, somebody has got to see that. And that, you know, he should have been thrown out of the game for that. I don't know him from anyone. I just, there's no place in the game for that.

So there's Eric Spolstra's side of things. Lamello Ball also gave his. I apologize on that one. I mean, I got hit in the head, didn't really know where I was, but I'm going to check on him and see if he's okay and everything. That's nice.

That's nice. Didn't know where he was. I don't know about that.

However, to the heat fans out there saying, oh man, if Bam would have been in there, we would have whooped the Hornets. Settle down. First of all, Bam ain't that guy. Sure, he had his his 83 point or whatever the heck it was game early He on a million free throws and shots. He ain't that guy.

He's not Steph. He's not KD. He's not LeBron. He's not Kobe RIP, where he's just going to take over a game like that. He might have.

And also He yeah, he might have given you twenty, maybe. But in that The way the other guys on the heap played would have been different if Bam would have played, and it probably levels out. Davion Mitchell probably doesn't go off and get up as many shots as he did. 12 of 24, going for 28 points. Khalil Ware, who had a great night on the boards, 19 rebounds, 12 points, probably doesn't have the same type of game he did.

Andrew Wiggins, the same thing with 27. Probably looks a little different. They had to elevate their game because there was no bam.

So it relax on that. But What was so impressive is Charlotte was able to be in that game with all the lead changes and win it. without their superpower. without the thing that makes them this new iteration of the Hornets. Lamello from three.

shot the ball terribly. Went two of sixteen. Con Knipple couldn't buy a vowel. O of six, got benched six points. And yet the Hornets still were in position and won the game.

That's scary if I'm other teams out in the playoff field. But Miles Bridges, he deserves some love because He's been around for eight years. He's seen the lowest of the lows. And The dude really came up big last night, offensively early on. And then defensively.

physically and he had the block that put it away at the end as we just heard. The play-by-play call by Ion Eagle. 28 points for Miles Bridges.

So. Miles Bridges deserves a lot of love. Brandon Miller for the big three late in overtime as well that put the Hornets close enough in position to strike, but. That environment. Charlotte's been waiting for this for a long time.

You heard that building. It, it. It's lucky it still has a lid on it. Charlotte fans have been wanting this for a long time. It was the highest attended game in Hornets' history.

The Hornets get it done against the Miami Heat in overtime. And they will move on and face the loser. Of the 7-8 game tonight between the Orlando Magic and the Philadelphia 76ers. Let's go, baby. What, kind of like this?

Let's go! Go!

Now back to the drive. Back at it on the drive, right here on WSJS. Gonna get to some Carolina Panthers pre-draft talk. But before we do that Gotta tell you about what we got going on on WSJS.com. where we have the springtime winning list.

We have that.

So If you want to win tickets to go see Hank Williams Jr., The end of May, he's gonna be coming to Charlotte. That's an option for you. We also have Darius Rucker tickets. in mid-June. Excited for that.

Going to be coming to Greensboro, a little bit closer to home here. Then you also have the Hayes Jewelers, the Hayes Jewelers 200 modified feature. This weekend, the Madhouse is going to be rolling. It is. Could go out to Bowman Gray Stadium or John Fogarty, Steve Winwood, September 18th out in Charlotte.

All you do is go to wsjs.com and You know, you just sign up. Sign up for a chance to win. That's what you do. If you win, you gotta wait 30 days to get back in on that, but let your family know, let your friends know. We have ways for you to win stuff.

And don't doesn't everybody want to win stuff? As Morgan. I was about to say, as Morgan sits there decked out in this Michigan national champion gear. Yeah, we all like to win stuff.

So go to WSJS.com and do that.

Now. Dan Morgan. Spoke to the media yesterday. This is his Pre-NFL draft press conference? And the draft.

Going to be Thursday night, or next Thursday night, I should say. And I just want you, if you're watching on YouTube. Or X. This is great incentive for you. To look at what I'm about to throw on the screen here.

I want you to take a look at this because This is the face of a man. Dan Morgan. Who's ready to build something in Charlotte? This is somebody who's ready to make that Panthers logo feared again. Look at this.

We've got the return of wide-eyed Dan Morgan.

So Dan Morgan. When he was at The coach is um Get together, or the GM and coaches get togethers at the NFL meetings. Yeah, he was kind of. Had the shades on. We couldn't see his eyes.

He was looking a little more casual, a little more laid back in that setting. Went on with Kay Adams, heard some of what he had to say there, and he. Seemed a little more casual. No, no. It's it's time to eat.

It's time to work. This man's ready to get to business. What do you think of that, Morgan? I don't have words. No.

You wouldn't, now, would you? This guy's not playing around.

So let's get to what some of his, let's get to what he had to say. We can speak on a radio show. And let's also talk about what he didn't say. Starting with what he did say, we heard him talk about it yesterday. That They are not afraid to go out, quote unquote, go out of the box here.

and draft a third receiver in a row in the first round. They did it with Xavier Legette two years ago. They did it with T-Mac a year ago. And they might do it again. If Makai Lemon or or Tyson is there.

There's plenty, like this is going to be a very, very receiver-heavy. NFL draft. Mel Kuyper put out his latest mock draft. We'll get to that. Here in just a minute.

But Sticking with the Carolina Panthers, though. Dan Morgan said he had no problem going in a third receiver row because they listen. They don't want to be boxed into a certain way you're supposed to do things. Like T Mac worked out pretty well last year, winning offensive rookie of the year. Like that was that was a nice move.

And you're handing over the offensive sticks now to Brad Itzik.

So he you know, they like their offensive weapons in the draft. They do.

So don't be surprised in a very good receiver draft. If he does it again, and it might just work out again, and then now you have a downfield threat that you could probably use to go opposite Team Mac and Jalen Coker and the whole nine yards.

So That was what we heard from him. Uh in terms of the receiver piece of things. But he went on to say That They are waiting to pick up Bryce Young's fifth year option. They're gonna pick it up. It is gonna happen.

But they're going to wait to do it. for a little bit, and Dan Morgan explained right here why that is the case.

Well, you know, I think obviously the player's not in the building yet.

So, you know, once once Bryce gets in the building and you know, we're busy with the draft, it's off season, you know, so we'll get that done as soon as he gets back in the building. He just wants them to be in the building for it, but they're going to pick it up.

So, if there were any concerns out there about that or questions why they haven't done it yet officially. That's what it is. And that's going to be the same with any of their fifth year options that they've had.

So. That's the Bryce Young piece of this. You also had A terrific free agency period. And Where you got Jalen Phillips as an edge rusher, you got Devin Lloyd as a linebacker. You got Jalen Walker.

Um or excuse me, Rasheed Walker. Um Jalen Walker went to Atlanta last year in the draft. Rashid Walker, the top offensive tackle on the board in free agency to replace Iki Aquanu, who's out. with uh that injury that he's got that might have him out the entire year. We'll see.

But because they did all of those things, they really addressed their needs. Edge rusher being The top one of those. Um And they also could afford some help at linebackers well, and that was what what Devin Lloyd was for.

So they addressed a lot of those things in a big way in free agency. They were like one of the top spending teams in the NFL in that free agency window in that first week or two. And because of that, they have given themselves More flexibility with what to do with that number 19 pick. Like they don't have to narrow. Because somebody asked the question: hey, because you've done all these things, does that mean you're going to be more narrow in what you do?

At number 19, and Dan Morgan kind of went the opposite way. It was like, hey, like, we. We are completely flexible here to go. Best player possible, and that free agency, the things that they did really helped them with that. Here he was talking about this.

No, I think if anything, I think it opens opens us up to a lot of possibilities at PIC 19. You know, I think all positions are on the table. And like I said before, you never know who's going to fall down to us.

So I think we're definitely in the best player available mindset.

So yeah, I think what we did in Free Agency definitely set us up to do that. Dan Morgan Ready to get rocking.

Now, that's what Dan Morgan said. Mostly yesterday. But he didn't say a whole lot after that. He did, he said a lot without saying anything. Like that.

If you go back and you listen to the press conference, and that's our job here, we do it so you don't have to. Get ready, Morgan. Get ready for coordinator season. Press Conferences of the coordinators. That's what we're we We have a a segment each week where we let you hear what Tracy Smith had to say, the Special Teams coordinator, and Agiro Everow and Brad.

It's a very fun time for this show when we do that. Those who know know. Looking forward to bringing that back. But. He said a whole lot of, you know, we're just going to be flexible.

We're going to be open to doing it. Like, you weren't going to get a lot from Dan Morgan yesterday. That was kind of the common theme, but. Very curious to see what they do with that number 19 pick. And speaking of that, Morgan, did you have an opportunity to see Mel Kuyper's Latest mock draft.

Is this the last one he's going to do before the draft? Do we know that? I believe this is the last one. 4.0. 4.0 is going to be the last one because I think it's a week from tomorrow.

It is. I imagine he's working on the rest of his big board. You're going to be shocked to learn that Fernando Mendoza goes number one to the Raiders. Couldn't imagine anything different. Yeah.

Really, uh. I was really surprised by that news. Jets. David Bailey. That's another pretty consensus pick there out of Texas Tech.

or Val Reese, goin' to Arizona. I think that's going to be the pick there as well. I also think the Tennessee Titans are going to take Jeremiah Love at number four. I do not see him dropping below that. Caleb Downes, the brother of Josh Downes, The safety out of Ohio State.

He goes five in Mel Kuiper's latest. Mock, but then He has a projected trade. He has the Browns. And the Cowboys. making a trade where the Cowboys get up to number six.

Were you surprised by this? I was, but I like it for the Browns if this happens. It gives the Browns three first-round draft picks. Yeah. And the Browns could really use that, but also.

If the Browns didn't get this trade, they could also use Sonny Styles. They need a linebacker, somebody who can command the field, kind of like Stiles does. Good pick for either team. And that's who he has going at number six to Dallas. Then it's followed by Carnell Tate.

A lot of Buckeyes. Shout out to our boss, Mike Carbone. A lot of Buckeyes going here. Early on, as we obviously knew was going to happen. That's a good pickup for the commanders.

If it happens, Ruben Bain. and his supposed short arms. That really probably are not going to be a big deal out of Miami. He goes to the Saints, Jordan Tyson.

Somebody that the Panthers might be interested in? He goes to the Chiefs at number nine. Boy would that be a good pick up for them? Another weapon for Patrick Mahomes. Mansour Delaney, the cornerback out of LSU.

He goes to the Cincinnati Bengals. That rounds out the top 10. And then for our own purposes, just looking at where the Panthers are at at nineteen. They have Emmanuel McNeil Warren the safety out of Toledo.

So I was looking at Mackay Lemon potentially as well for the Carolina. I've seen a lot of mock drafts have him going at 13 to the Rams, and this one was no different. Mel Kuyper likes him. to go there. Um So we'll see.

I've seen a lot of offensive tackles going to the Panthers.

Some receivers, but that that safety slot The Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil Warren. That seems to be. That seems to be a good one to look at as well. Oh, did we find out where he had Ty Simpson going? Did we find that out?

Does he have him going in the first round? Yes, he does to Arizona. Pick number 30. And that's because of a projected trade he has. with the Dolphins.

And that is a team that I've seen. and heard a lot of people talking about You know. Being a team that could potentially try to get Ty Simpson in the first round, Arizona, because right now I don't know what they plan to do at quarterback. Is Jacoby Brissett still there? And Gardner Minshew.

That's right. Gardner Minshew. ECU legend, Gardner Minshew.

So Mel Kuyper thinks they trade up into the first round and they get Ty Simpson out of Alabama, making him, in fact, a first round quarterback. And that seems to be a big debate. Bye. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you? Will Dalton brings Triad Sports Talk with a little extra horsepower?

Now, back to the drive. Did you see Lamello Ball almost take out Hugo the Hornet last night? I did not. Yeah, they were all celebrating after the game, and he popped him upside the head with a little uppercut. Because he was like flailing his arms around, so he almost went two for two.

Yeah, you're back on the drive here on WSJS. All right. It's a segment we've started to do, and we enjoy it quite a bit. It's called Fact or Fiction. We'll use the generic bed for this.

Morgan, this is us producing on live radio. Letting you behind the curtain just a little bit. Uh and You make a statement. Like just a statement, and I got to tell you: is that fact or fiction? Let's get into it.

All right, so I have five today, a little bit of a shorter list. All right. Can LeBron. Will the Hurt Lakers pass the Houston Rockets? Fact.

Facts. Let me tell you something. Yeah. LeBron James has shown us things at 41 years old that we've never seen before, other than from. Thomas Patrick Brady Jr.

But LeBron is very much like that at 41 years old. We'll find out if this is delusion or not. Yeah, 41. We'll find out if this is delusion or not, because LeBron knows, I think. If he can get them past Houston...

He hasn't been the main option all year long.

So it's like, okay, he hasn't had to. Exert the amount of energy he used to back in the day. If he can revert back to 2018 LeBron, For the calves. In the finals. Where he averaged 30 something a game.

Again, it's been a minute. But if he can do that knowing, hey, there's a good chance we get Luka. And Austin Reeves back in the next round to take on Maybe the thunder? I think he's gonna get him there. It's gonna take everything he's got.

But I think LeBron's gonna show us yet again. Why he's that dude? King James. Probably gonna make some people upset on that one. Probably.

Um. Will either the Spurs or the Nuggets stop the Thunder from getting to. The NBA Finals. Fact. I think the Spurs are gonna do it.

I think After we've seen it. Throughout the regular season, the come-uppance, the continued growth, the continued emergence of the Spurs as one of the best teams in the NBA, and Wimby. I think the Spurs are gonna get it done. I do. I think they're going to establish themselves in these playoffs as.

you know, another Like, there's the Thunder, and there's also going to be the Spurs that we look at, and it's like, all right, which one's going to win it all this year? Which one's going to the finals when we get ahead, like to the beginning of the next season? The Spurs are going to establish themselves. For real, for real, in this one. Will the conference finals consist only of one and two seeds?

I think so. I think it's going to be Thunder Spurs in the West. Pan Let me actually re let me go back on that because I love Boston. I love Boston to get there. But I also really like Cleveland.

So, I actually want to take that back.

So, I actually say this is fiction. I think the West is going to be a 1-2 matchup in the Western Conference Finals. I think. There's a chance the Hornets take out Detroit if they get that far. But I like Cleveland.

To get to the Eastern Conference finals and take on the Boston Celtics, which would be a 2-4. I like that. Will a play in team make the second round? Hmm. Because I think Charlotte will.

I do. We've been wanting this series with Detroit. For the in ever since the brawl, the big brawl a couple of months ago. And again, I say the Hornets are not going to shoot like they did last night for a stretch. I don't believe that.

I'm trying not to be a prisoner of the moment here, but I also know what. I've seen from the Charlotte team Throughout The last several months since the calendar flipped to 2026.

So I'm going to say. The Hornets get past Detroit and they're going to be the play-in team. That moves on to the second round. Another kind of hometown question here. Lamello Ball.

Will he be suspended? I don't think so.

So Well, he gets suspended. That's fiction. The league is taking a look at it. I think if anything it gets upgraded to a flagrant one. I think that's all that could happen.

Don't think they're going to get him out of there for a game. Uh I do not see that at all. It's been factor fiction. Good to have you in. On a Wednesday.

I also like the clippers too. You think they get to the second round, Morgan? You're a Clipper fan. No, I'm going to make it out of tonight. You don't think.

Yeah, you're right. Warriors are going to handle that. What are we talking about? This is Steph Curry. We're also talking about Clippers with only Kawhi.

Yeah. That's not gonna cut it. Not gonna cut it. Yeah. Make some noise, make some noise, let's go!

If you've ever yelled at a ref, this show's for you. You're on the drive. Back at it on the drive, right here on WSJS as we welcome in one of our favorites. It's Desmond Johnson of Tobacco Road Sports Radio. Des, how are we doing?

What's going on man? Just basking in the glow of... Maybe the greatest play-in game of all time. It's terrific. I mean, Was this the best NBA game of the year?

It was, you know, Bill Simmons, and I posted it to my Facebook. Bill Simmons said it wasn't the greatest game of the year, it was the greatest drunk game of the year. Like, the whole game was drunk. Like, everything was drunk about it. There was like 16.

Ties, 17 lead changes in this game. You've got crazy shots. You've got. Old Lamello showing up at the same time as new Lamello showing up. Conka Nipple missing everything, which I think no one had in their parlay.

I know PJ and B-DOT, who are with me on Believe in Hills Hoops, they were both disgusted at Conka Nipple's performance last night because they lost money because he didn't hit a three. Just everything about that game. Amazon was drunk last night. Amazon goes out in overtime with 30 seconds to go, and the Hornet's up by three. And it's like a Sopranos moment.

It just disappeared for.

However long, but it felt like eternity just to come back to see if we had missed the end of that because of Amazon having the technical difficulties. Awful, that would have been the only thing we heard about today. But Uh, yeah, the drunk game of the year, uh, Hornets and Heath. It was the Amazon, the Prime stuff was, yeah, that was very frustrating. That was ridiculous.

I thought it was, I thought I was drunk when I saw it. I was like, what is happening? Oh my gosh. Let me ask you this because. The thing is, as you just mentioned, Khan Knipple could not buy one.

Now, his shooting has struggled a little bit. In the last handful of games of the year. But, I mean, it's the last stretch of the year. I don't think anybody, like you said, had him. going over from three last night.

But The fact that he didn't shoot it well from three, Lamello didn't shoot it well from three, and the fact that. It was as close as it was. There were as many lead changes as it was, and the Hornets were ultimately able to get the win. How impressive was that to you? Very, because those are the kind of games that the Hornets of the Past would have lost.

Like they would have, they would have found a reason to pack it up and just say, well, wait till next year. And they gutted it out. They really had to gut it out. And it came from places that maybe we didn't expect. Miles Bridges had a game.

That might have been his best game of his career in terms of. The points he scored were so needed. Especially in overtime and his block to still the win. Like that might be the best game of Miles Bridge's pro career in Charlotte for what it'll be remembered for. And hopefully they can keep this going.

But he's the grizzled vet of this group, and he's what, 27, 28.

So, I mean, this is a young team that we're talking about in Charlotte. And the core of it, I think LaMelo is 24, if I'm not mistaken. I think that's right. I think that's right. Brandon Miller's 21, 22.

So, this is a very young team. I'm very, I was more interested next year, but now it's like. I realized it during the game last night when uh when uh When Tyler Hero hit those free throws at the very end. I don't want the season to end. Like, I'm not ready for the season to end yet.

It sunk in. I was like, oh no, this could be it. Like, I won't have hornets tomorrow to think about if they don't pull this off. And Bless it. They pulled it off, and we get Hornets basketball at least for another night on Friday.

Um So we'll see. So, before we get to who the Hornets might draw on Friday night. Let's get to the play that everybody's talking about. The Lamello ball play seemingly intentionally or not, tripping up. Bam out of bio.

He's lost for the rest of the game. Was it intentional? Was it a dirty play? What was your take on that? Both things can be true.

It was intentional, but it wasn't a dirty play per se. Like, I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this notion that Lamella Ball. on his back. has enough strength to pull with his left hand. The a six foot ten, two hundred and twenty pound grown man off his feet off his feet.

That's a good point. It's like It's like when people talk about Jordan pushing off on Byron Russell in game six of the 98 NBA Finals, that when he did a little crossover, Russell was already going that way. His direction was already going. Bam was already falling to the ground. And I saw someone say, uh, use the video on Twitter, and they were going through it, and they were like, look.

Just think about this logically. If you fell down backwards and you're trying to, you know, you're using your left arm to try to support your fall or whatnot. And there's things around you. Your very first physical thing you're gonna do is pull your arm back towards you. And that's what he's doing.

He's pulling his arm back towards him.

Now, the problem is about a year ago, he got caught grabbing Bam by the ankle, trying to trip him in a basketball game.

So that's starting to come back up. I say all these things though. To say this one thing. Regardless if you think it was intentional or if you think that it was a dirty play. As a long-suffering Charlotte Hornets fan, I've come here to say, I don't care.

I really don't care at this point, because we're usually the ones that get this happen to us. Usually it's a player of ours that gets hurt. Usually it's us that has the. The Matthew Stafford goes down the field with a minute left in the game to win it and crush our season. It's usually us that goes through this.

So, while I feel for Miami fans right now, I kind of don't because you've been in the play in the past three or four years. You played the worst defense like in the history of the NBA the past like 15 games or whatever. You couldn't stop people with BAM out there.

So I'm not going to buy the logic of. They automatically would have won if Ben was out there. Like, I don't buy that at all. Um It just set up for a crazy game and I don't think they're going to suspend Lamello. I don't think so.

It's going to be dumb on the NBA's part, to be honest. You kind of want your stars out there during the playoffs. They may find him, which may be fine. 100,000, whatever. They will do something to compensate, but I don't think they're going to find him and risk having him not be in the play-in game to get to the eighth seed.

Yeah, and Sham Shams reported about an hour or so ago that it's not looking like they're gonna suspend him, but the league is looking into it.

So we'll see what comes out of that. But I agree with you 100%. And there's also this narrative out there that even if it was a dirt, like he's a dirty player. Yeah, that's we watch Lamello enough to know, like, even if that was a dirty play, whatever your interpretation, he's not a dirty player. He doesn't have a history of doing things like this.

Right. And again, again, he did try to trip Pam in the exact same way about this time last year.

So it's not the first time he's done this, which is why I think people are trying to throw gasoline on it. Yeah. But this isn't like a Grayson Allen situation where Grayson Allen was tripping people at college. He was tripping people in the pros. Like he has a reputation for tripping people.

Like this is not that. This is. Again, old mellow. And New Mello showed up last night in the same game. They were wrapped up in one.

Sometimes every other possession. Literally at the end, right? And they still, he missed 16 threes. He still scored 30 points on like 31 attempts or something nuts. Like it was.

Yeah. Sorry. We're moving on. Exactly.

So we're moving on to Friday.

So let's do that. Desmond Johnson with us, Tobacco Road Sports Radio. Who would you rather draw, the Orlando Magic or the Philadelphia 76ers right now? Orlando, easily. They've been playing worse than Philly down the stretch here.

We just saw Philly lost him a week or two ago, and we lost to him. Yeah, Paul George kind of put us out. The past couple games, I've watched them where they've lost. They got put out in the fourth quarter by a wing. It was.

Paul George in that 76ers game was Jalen Brown when they played the Celtics a week or two ago over the weekend. I would rather take on Orlando because Paulo Bancaro is not to me Turning into the number one overall draft pick that people, I guess, assumed he would be when he got drafted. They've got some talent, but Philly's got established veterans that have been like in the playoffs, like deep in playoff run. Paul George has been to conference finals. You know, Joelle Embiid has been to a conference final.

He's been a league MVP. Like, I mean, it's, and Joel, it's crazy watching him because he looks like an 80-year-old man playing basketball right now. He's just, everything's so. He just looks old and like it looks like he hurts when he plays, but he still can play. He's still a top.

30 player in the league by far.

So, I mean, we don't have the size to deal with Joel when he decides to go down into the paint.

So, I would rather play Orlando. Uh, plus, Orlando is probably an easier place to go on the road and play than in Philly.

So, like, I would rather go to Orlando and play that game than go to Philly and play against a rabid 76ers fan base. I think I agree with you on that. Let's uh let's transition to some Tar Heel basketball because. You do a podcast with our guys, B Dot and PJ Harriston, who we had together last week. I believe we're going to be joined by B Dot tomorrow, Believe in Heels Hoops.

Um What did you make of the Dylan Mingo parting of ways between him and Carolina? Did you think that was a very big deal? I didn't, actually. After sitting on it and sleeping on it, at first I was like, oh no, we're losing a five-star. But then you start to fill in the blanks with some of the reasons why, possibly.

And. While I understand from the outside looking in, people might think it's a big deal to losing a five-star incoming freshman. They have to understand a couple of things. Delamingo didn't really play a lot senior year in high school, he's been injured like all year. His brother Caden went to the portal from Penn State, which was one of Dylan's final three along with Carolina.

And by all accounts, it sounds like they are looking for a package deal together to go wherever they're going to go.

So if you're head coach Michael Malone, and we talked about this new episode of Believe in Hills Hoops is out right now.

So you can actually go find that on Tobacco Road Sports Radio's YouTube channel and we go a little bit more in-depth in it. If you're Michael Malone and you're used to coaching professional athletes. uh older athletes, do you want to take a chance paying $7 million to the Mingo brothers to run your backcourt when one's going to be a sophomore, the other one's going to be a freshman. Hadn't really played meaningful basketball in almost a calendar year because of the injury and seems to be injury prone. You don't really know what you're going to get.

From him, or would you rather pluck a guy out of the portal that's 22, has three years' experience, and will understand when you're young in the Smith Center at practice? I think Malone's going to build an older team, so I'm surprised Maximo Adams actually. Decide to stay, to be honest, because I don't know how much he'll actually play by the time this roster is spilled out, but. The fact that he chose to stay must mean he had a good conversation with Malone in terms of what he would be used for freshman year. I'm starting to think.

People were thinking Mingo made this choice, but that's not what I gather from the verbiage when you read what happened. It's always a. Uh Mutual parting of ways. Right. I've had that told to me at a number of jobs as they were escorting me out the door that we're going to mutually part ways.

That means they're done with you. That means Carolina no longer wants to have anything with you. I happened with me at WSJS. Like your services are no longer required.

So it's like, you kind of get it. It's just a nice way to kind of be like, Yeah, this isn't, we're gonna, we're gonna do this. And I think that's what happened with Dylan Mingo and Carolina. He never really fully committed after Malone was high. He could have committed last week and be like, Yes, I'm still wanting to go to Carolina.

They decided to go shopping. And that's kind of. The problem with NIL and the transfer report right now, they got to do something to put a lid on this because it's. It's wild, wild west out here right now. And it gets more and more every year.

And by the way, I think that's a big thing. I mean, I think that's why Luca Bogovat initially said he was going to come back and then decided not to, because they probably weren't going to pay him what he thought he was going to be getting paid. There's a picture of Luca sitting at the press conference for Michael Malone in the front row, and he has this look on his face and his arms across. He's just like. Like in the picture.

And it's before, I think PJ said to me, it's before he actually said he was coming back. Oh.

So it was like in that gray area. Yeah. So we think he talked to Coach Malone, said he was coming back. Malone started talking to some of these foreign-born players that they're talking to, went back to Luca. Was like, I think they were like, Hey, you want to come back for a little less?

Cause we're going to need some money to do this and that. And Luca was like, No, I'm out. And now Luca's at Oklahoma State.

So. I don't know if he made the right choice, but I don't think it might have been his choice to make. I think some of these moves are. push outs as opposed to the player searching for it. A couple more things for you on the way out here.

Jucaris. Seems it's down to Michigan, Carolina, and Tennessee, it sounds like. What do you like? Or how do you like Michael Malone and the Tar Heels chances of landing Juke Harris. I liked them when I woke up this morning.

Now, at 5:30, I don't like them as much because it sounds like Juke might be too expensive for us to go after because. Really, most of these teams have the top teams, their budget's about 20 million total for NIL money, right? And If if what I'm hearing is correct and Juke is asking for anywhere from three to five million. I don't know if Drew Karris is worth $5 million for a season. And if you do that, if you're Carolina, you're basically saying you're giving a quarter of your NIL budget to a wing player.

Like that, if you're going to do that in college, you probably need to give it to a big man, somebody you know you can kind of play through. Juke, well, he's special. He's got some sauce to him. I don't know if he's worth $5 million to Michael Malone. Maybe that's the best way to put it in the Carolina Brass.

Like, I don't know if they're going to spend that much. I'm hearing Tennessee is offering insane money right now.

So that might be where he ends up going.

So I thought I also heard Michigan is not going to outbid for Drew Karris.

So. They're kind of falling to the side. If Carolina lands them, great. But um I will say this: Carolina's going to probably need to start signing some folks in the next couple of days, or this fan base is going to start to, you know how they are, they're going to start to. Ask these questions.

Hey, what's going on? Mike Malone's sitting on his behind. Blah blah blah.

So I I would expect to hear some things in the next couple of days regarding signees. Last thing for you here: getting to the Carolina Panthers, you also do a podcast with our guy, Jonathan Stewart, former running back for the Panthers Believe-In Carolina Panthers. We heard Dan Morgan yesterday say that He's not going to be boxed in. Like, he might go three years in a row, a receiver in the first round. How would you feel about that?

And do you think you would actually do that? Like, how do you feel about that? There's a new episode of Believe and Panthers out right now, too.

So we can active this week.

So just go search for all this stuff. It's all over the place. But yeah, me and Steve were back this week. Yeah. To be honest, there's not a...

front office person and America right now that I trust more than Dan Morgan. I feel that. Like, he's just, he's just nailed it. Like, everything he's needed to do to rebuild this team, everything he said he was going to do, he's been doing now. I think it's a smoke screen.

Well, no, I think it wasn't a smoke screen. What he said during this press conference. That was really the only thing he said. He didn't really say a whole lot. Yeah, it's all we're keeping our options open.

We're going to be flexible. He said a lot and said nothing. That's Dan Morgan. Remember, like he basically led us on this, we kind of need defense kind of type thing. Yeah.

So I was, I was on Twitter flaming everyone and saying we were going to get technical. Like, I was like, there's absolutely no way we do that. That doesn't make any sense. Then he did it. And then we saw the season.

Yeah. And we're like, oh, Dan Morgan must know more about football than me.

So I'm going to defer to Dan Morgan going forward. When he said there's no rule that says we can't go get a third wide receiver in the first round. My immediate thought was: they are looking at a wide receiver to take in the first round at 19. Why not? Like, I mean, there's a lot of them out there.

We don't do mock drafts on Believing Panthers, and we haven't really done any shows for the past couple of weeks, except for a couple of draft shows earlier. Because we don't really, at 19. It's harder to gauge who the Panthers might get as opposed to the past couple of years where we're picking in the top 10.

So it's easier to do. Here are the top 10 prospects. Here might, someone might still be here at eight out of this group. Who fits the Panthers better? At 19, like Dan said.

Players could drop. They could, you know, somebody could move up ahead of them to get somebody they were looking at. We just, it's so deep into the first round, we just don't know.

So, I'm in the top I'm I'm in the the side of if If um The player you don't want, the player you want is gone, or there's not someone that's best player available that fits your needs. Trade down, trade down, and get some extra picks in the second or something because. We do have a lack of depth still in the roster, especially on the defensive side, especially at linebackers.

So, I think Dan would be more apt to do that. But if someone like Sonny Styles or somebody like that, like a linebacker starts to fall in the top of the draft. I would not be surprised. I would, I matter of fact, I'd be shocked if Dan Morgan didn't in on that because he's he's gone in on every action or whatnot. And he's actually, it's not word salad, he's actually in it.

So if they've targeted a linebacker, the Rodriguez kid from Texas Tech, Jacob Rodriguez, I think his name is, they've had him in for a visit. I think they've had Casey Concepcion and the wide receiver from Texas AM, who played in Charlie, played at Chambers, won two state titles there. NC State. He played at NC State for a little bit, yeah, before he transferred out. I've heard his name connected to the Panthers at 19.

If they don't move up or down. which would give them three first-round wide receivers. I dm I don't know, man. Kinyon Sadiq is actually the guy they're going to do something like that. But the tight end room is already kind of full.

So It's a good position to be in. It's a good position. The Panthers haven't been in this position probably since 2016, like where. They can just go into the draft and whatever's there, they can let the board come to them instead of being super aggressive. They can wait for a guy that they feel like will fit the culture.

The one thing Dan did say that I'll leave on with this, he said that these meetings, when they come in, They're not just to sit down and watch tape with the guy. They've already done all that stuff. He's like, you really use this time to get to know the player and if they're going to fit your culture. And that's what they've done the past two years. And that's why they've knocked it out of the park in the draft because they've spent so much time.

just talking to the player about their preparation and their family and What, you know, what are your beliefs? What do you, what do you... What do you do in this situation, that situation? They just get an idea of how a player is wired.

So you're not surprised two years after you signed them that they flipped out and. Robbed a liquor store or something, and it didn't catch you. You didn't catch it on the interview. They're very thorough with this. Whoever they do get at 19, it'll be somebody they've thoroughly vetted.

And not only will they be a good football player, but they'll fit the Panthers culture because that's been Dan Morgan's track record. Desmond Johnson, Tobacco Road Sports Radio. Good stuff. We appreciate the time, and we will do it again sometime here soon. Go Hornets.

Against whoever you play. Friday night. Let's go hob on the road. Let's get these Hornets in the playoffs because if they get in the playoffs, Will, we get Hornets probably versus the Detroit Pistons from a seven-game series. And that's what America deserves.

America deserves Hornets' Pistons. They don't like each other, Will. They hate each other. Let's get back to hating each other in the NBA. Hornets, let's make it happen.

There he goes. Desmond Johnson. Good stuff from him. Very quickly, though. East Coast wings.

Swing into the wings, wings and wins. That's what we're calling this.

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