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Mac & Bone Show - Walker Mehl Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We turn our attention to Walker and Hornets Talk Walker,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: what's up?
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Thanks for doing this today on a busy day that
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: includes the Hornets quest in defending the Summer Week Championship.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: You guys got your shirts on already?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Have you taken years off in the last year?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: No? Well that in the Moosa Antlers I've pretty much
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: been wearing twenty four to seven.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Is the same game where you turn your phone off
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: type games like this. This means that much to you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Don't talk to me. I'm locked in. This is serious business.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: You can talk to me after the game is done.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Is it wrong that I looked at the roster of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Sion and t Jon and co. With they got they
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: can do this, right, They're they're poised to maybe do this.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: It's so funny, man. Look it's all relative okay, relatively speaking,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: this squad is an absolute juggernaut in Las Vegas. I
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: love it too. And you know what, I'm not even
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: kind of kidding about that. It's not even really a joke.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: In Summer League. When you have a guy like Sion
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: James and Ryan Kalkbrenner suiting up, I think they're probably
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: gonna play man at most two games, but probably just
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: probably just a couple contests. But that's okay. We'll take
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: it to the fact that you have Ti Jon who
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: is now a summer League VET. At this point, I
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: think Liam McNeely is going to be very good. You
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: got two top twenty overall picks. You got two way
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: contract guys. I don't know two way contract guys work
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: out every once in a while. Hello to Moose. Just
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: an absolute juggernaut. Like the expectation for this team. It's
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: championship or bus.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Am I wrong that I thowt you know, throw Conn
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: out there for a game or two. Let's really run
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: this thing back.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't matter, right, I mean it's it's
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: like if you were it's you could put Christian Latner
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: out there like it was the dream team, and whoever
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: he suits up with, he's still going to be on
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the team that ends up winning by forty points. It
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: really doesn't matter. That's how good this team is going.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I do appreciate you acknowledging Christian Layner was on that team.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for that. That means a lot.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's not a good thing. Usually, like I didn't. Yeah,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: usually when people bring that up. It's because they said,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: oh and the other guy that happened to ride the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: coattails of everybody. I apologize, ma'x not there, so I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: had to throw a duke sho.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: He's part of the greatest team ever assembled. Can't take
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: him off the walker. What is your current trust level
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: or your faith level, however you want a word in
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: in Jeff Peterson right now, maybe from where it was
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: when the offseason started.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: My trust level is still there with Jeff. Look, we've
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: talked about this to death, the why of the trading
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: of LaMelo Ball, and I think if we want to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: just bring it down to something extremely simple, it's for
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: a few reasons. It's one, they didn't trust his injury risk.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: This is somebody that played seventy games once over the
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: last four years. They didn't trust it. Two, with him
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: being extension eligible, you've seen now, especially with the way
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that the Celtics trader Jalen Brown, they're scared to death
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: about having a sixty million dollar a year contract on
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the payroll. And three they're probably is a little bit
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of hey, LaMelo might not be physical enough to play
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: in the postseason. When officials swallow the whistles I think
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: it's a variety of those reasons, and I don't think
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: there's anything behind the scenes. I don't think there was
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: any kind of problem between the two parties. I think
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: those are probably the three reasons, and I can understand it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I would not have traded LaMelo Ball. I think LaMelo
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Ball is an offensive engine that is a suffant and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that makes everybody better constantly. But if the case is
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: you just don't trust him to hold up well enough,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: then it doesn't really matter how good LaMelo is if
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: he's on the pine in a boot. So if that's
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the case, they're going to have more information on that
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: than I do, and at that point, I just don't
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: have a whole lot of room to argue. As far
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: as the health concerns. Maybe maybe he's healthy all the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: way through this upcoming year, and that would be great,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and I love the bet that the Minnesota Timberwolves are
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: taking by acquiring him. But I can understand the move
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: at this point, and maybe I'm just doing this for
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: my own mental health to just kind of move past
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: all of the pain and try to get to some
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: place of acceptance and understanding. But I really am there, Jeff.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing if the game in the NBA right
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: now from a general manager standpoint, is the buzzword that
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: everyone is going with now optionality. You want to have
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: optionality with your team. Jeff Peterson is winning that game.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: He's got a million first round picks. He's got even
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: more somehow second round picks. And I was listening to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the Zach Low podcast. Bobby Marks was on the low
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: pod and he was saying how valuable it is to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: have these fifteen million to twenty five million dollars a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: year contracts on your payroll, just because how tradable they are.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And then he gave a shout out to the Hornets
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and saying they've got like ten, it's valuable to have four,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: but they have ten of those types of contracts. And
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: there are just all of these different routes that Jeff
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Peterson can take to make the team better. And ultimately,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: what it's going to come down to to actually have
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Jeff Peterson earn the trust back from the fan base
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: is cashing in on all of those avenues to improve
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and somehow winning basketball games, because we can't lose sight
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: of the fact of winning basketball games is the most
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: important thing.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: That is the voice of Walker Mail. You know him
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: here from WFNZ Wes and Walker Show locked on Hornets
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and Fiddy's biological radio father until he dropped them off
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: at our doorstep in a blanket like he's at a firehouse.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: But we're not mad about that. We're grateful to take
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: in Fitty. Don't worry about that.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm sorry for all of that, by the way, Yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: that's my fault.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: That's all right. The Hornets roster right now as it stands,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and obviously they have a lot of guys on this roster,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and some things may happen, but it's very interesting the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: amount of role guys that they have, the guys they
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: picked up from Phoenix, Dorian Finney Smith to go with
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Grant Williams and all the young guys. There's a lot
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of role players on this team. And I'd say there's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: four really good players or could be really good players,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and Kobe nas Miller and Cohn. But with that being said,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: there's not a star yet there on paper. So when
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you look at Brandon Miller in this upcoming year, how
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: much pressure do you think this roster makeup is going
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to put on him of all these guys to go
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to that nice level.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: I think a decent amount on he and Con. I
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: think they're both one A and one B in that
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: scenario where they both probably shoulder the same amount of pressure.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: We had this conversation on wesn Walker. Is there a
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: difference between being the face of the franchise and this
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: being somebody's team? Can that actually go to two different people?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Because I think kan k Nipple is the face of
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: the franchise now with the fanfare he received almost winning
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Rookie of the Year, should have won it, and also
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: appearing on Jimmy Fallon being the guy that the NBA
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: calls upon to be the rookie correspondent interviewing players in
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the NBA Finals, Right, he's very visible. I think Con
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: is the face of the franchise. I don't know if
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: that necessarily means that this is his team one. You
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: just have seniority with Brandon Miller having been there a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: couple of years and now here he is as the
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: longest tenured hornet currently on the Ross. It's wild, but
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: you have seniority if you're Brandon Miller. We always go
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: back to the rookie season when he was barking on
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: guys to get back on defense, showing some vocal leadership
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: type qualities, and he is ready for the smoke. I'll
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: remember before the brawl against beef Stew this past season,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: it was Brandon's rookie year when we were kind of
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: frustrated with the Hornets not stepping up to beef Stew
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: and there were only a couple guys that did. The
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: first one to do it, it was Brandon. Miller then
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: went straight to his face and said, I'm not going
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: to back down. And I think you see that every
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: time he's out there on the court. He likes to
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: talk trash a little bit, He's not afraid, and he
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: doesn't back down. So I wonder if in just different ways,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: both of those guys are going to shoulder a lot
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: of the responsibility as taking that step up. And I
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: think both of them can. I mean, they're still crazy
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: young and they still have I think the potential to
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: be if not fringe All Star players this year, then
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: maybe outright all star players. I think it's very possible
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: with those two guys.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Walker, there's a little bit of I know that you
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: have the intel this and you can explain this in
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a good way that maybe I can't because you have
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the intel explain what's going on with why the trades
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: have not been announced, and you know, I get it
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: with the fans and the Texters, there's a little trade
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: panic setting in there without the announcements. Can you shed
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: some light on what's going on there and when we're
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: gonna maybe find out the trades are announced?
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Well, how fitting on the debut of Summer League basketball
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: this go around that we have to talk about Summer
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: League stand out, if only just for one game. Mohammadu Gi,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: that's right. The guys for Gee movement that took over
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, we're kind of back, so
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: that really it's Mogie holding all of this up. It
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: looks like this thing is going to maybe by the way,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: even be a five team trade, but there's a lot
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: of there's a lot of complications with it. So with
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Minnesota and Chicago and Brooklyn all having that three team
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: trade that sends Julius Randall to Brooklyn, that sends Nick
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Claxton from Brooklyn to Chicago, and there was something that
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: needed to be traded from Chicago and even to Minnesota
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: or Brooklyn to make the deal get done right. So
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Chicago is trading Mogee to Minnesota to complete the transaction.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: The problem is with Mogi's contract, there is a trade
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: restriction that can't be lifted until today. So July ninth
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: is the day that Mogi's trade restriction can be lifted.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: That's because he signed with the team April nights, and
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: that allows for the a lot of time to elapse
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: before he's able to be moved. Just because of some
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: funny business that could take place with the NBA sign
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: a guy that immediately traded the next day can't do it,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: so you have to wait a few months. Anyways, now
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: that Mogi has his trade restriction lifted, now we can
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: maybe start to see some movement today. Only the only
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: thing that complicates that is I saw something out there.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know how true it is, but I wonder
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: if this Phoenix trade with sending Miles to the Suns
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: and getting Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neill in the pick back,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I wonder if that's going to be a part of it.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: So where we see a five team trade actually takes place,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: because we haven't seen the Miles Bridges trade be announced
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: as official yet either, so we could see a five
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: team trade on our hands, and that's the whole reason
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: that we haven't seen LaMelo on the move. And I
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: think it's probably a decent reason as to why we
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: haven't seen Miles officially on the move.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You explained it well, and some of these things do
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: get a little complicated, like the fact that this is
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: just Gee's league right now. He's holding up basically half
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: the league from moving. It's crazy to thought.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: We thought he was going to do this two years ago.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: But what's also funny about this. You know, it's been
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: about five minutes since I mentioned Moose's name, so I
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: have to beat my quota. But what's hilarious is we
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: all wanted Mogie. I mean, he was so good in
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: that one game and it looked like the skill set
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: from him would translate to NBA basketball. We wanted him
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to get the two way contract. Who got a two
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: way contract that same offseason, Yeah it was him. Mus Diabase. Baby,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: he's the guy that actually got the two way contract. Unbelievable.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: What's coming up today on the West and Walker Show
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: here at noon.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I've been wrapping my head around the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: take in response to everybody's reaction to Jeff Peterson's comments,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: and just it's interesting to me. I know people are
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: so frustrated. I can't tell you that I'm surprised about
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: how people are so frustrated with Jeff Peterson's comments, specifically
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: at the Kobe White charity event. Because I understand people
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: are going to be extremely mad about the LaMelo ball
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: trade and it's okay to demand answers. I just don't
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: think that people are going to be relieved when hearing
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: those answers once the time does come and he does
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: host the press conference. I don't think people are going
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: to have their pain alleviated because of all of that.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: So I want to discuss that a little bit more.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We've got Team Week as well. We're continuing to preview
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: the app State football season with our annual Team Week
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: that we're going on for about two months, and we've
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: got some more Panthers rankings to get to. So we
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: got a lot of good stuff, of course, and we
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: got to discuss possibly the greatest Summer League of all time.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: We're about to watch this upcoming session.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Awesome, man, We'll be listening. I appreciate you for making
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: time for us this morning. Thank you, Alger.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Thanks guys, appreciate it,