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00:00 I've got some questions here. Is he better than?
00:03 All right. So is he better than Sku Henderson? This is like if you're trying to win a game
00:08 tomorrow, you have to pick players. This isn't in how many years. Just if you're trying to win
00:12 a game tomorrow, is he better than Sku Henderson? Yep.
00:15 Okay. Is he better than Bruce Brown?
00:17 Ooh, no.
00:21 No.
00:22 Is he better than Norm Powell?
00:24 Yes, I think so.
00:27 Josh Hart?
00:29 No. Jabari Smith?
00:31 I don't want to be too indecisive, so I'll go no.
00:37 Kevin Hurter?
00:38 Oh, God, these are actually really hard. No.
00:42 Cam Johnson?
00:44 No. God, they're so close, though. Cam Johnson, I want to say yes so bad, but I just don't know if
00:52 I can. So those are basically the top, sorry, the bottom 10 to 15 players from the ringest top
00:59 100 player, Paul. Okay. Where they have their consensus rankings from across their writers.
01:04 So right there, you're saying he's better than Norm Powell, but than Sku Henderson. So like
01:08 very least, and that is like you would say that he is arguably a top 100 player in the NBA right
01:14 now. I think that's almost pretty certain, pretty clear. How Sku Henderson is in that top 100 is
01:20 just like, you want to talk about holding up the priors? Holy crap. If there is not him, prior him
01:25 being 92nd in the ringest top 100. If he is not in that top 100 by the end of the season, I'll be
01:31 pretty shocked because his numbers are like almost very similar to Jabari Smith, apart from Brandon
01:37 Miller has been a little bit more efficient and Jabari Smith has been a better rebounder, but he's
01:41 played more on, you know, as a center rather than a power forward than Brandon Miller's played more
01:47 on the perimeter. So there is subtle differences there. But yeah, I just thought it was interesting.
01:52 I think he's going to be on that top 100 players before the end of the season. And if he's not,
01:57 I'm going to keep calling things out and pointing it out because this guy needs to be getting the
02:02 respect he deserves. People made a stink when Derek White wasn't in the top 100. Just you wait
02:08 until you see Hornets fans and what they do if Brandon Miller is in the top 100 player by the
02:13 start of next season. Absolutely. Okay, before we move on to our next section, I want to talk
02:20 about allhornets.com, a credential Charlotte Hornets outlet powered by Sports Illustrated.
02:25 allhornets.com aims to bring you 360 degree coverage on all things Charlotte Hornets.
02:30 From breaking news, rumors, fan Q&As, in-depth analysis, allhornets.com covers it all and nobody
02:37 does it better. Okay, our last topic of the day. Amari Bailey, GLE, Pitstop Report. The Greens
02:46 have recently played your main Celtics twice recently. And you were able to see Amari Bailey
02:55 up close for the first time. And I'm unable to watch GLE film yet. I'm working on resolving
03:01 this issue. They're not on YouTube anymore for some reason. It's on ESPN plus. I can't get it
03:06 in the UK. I didn't have the GLE on Synergy. I don't know why. I'm trying to resolve it. But
03:11 in the meantime, Chase, I need you to help me because Amari Bailey has played a good set of
03:16 games now. He's averaging 17 points, five rebounds, three and a half assists, 46% from the field, 21%
03:22 from three. But you can only learn so much from statistics. So I need you to help me to understand
03:29 how Amari Bailey has looked. And then I'm going to be diving into some film and I can get my own
03:34 view and things sorted so far. So I guess give us some overall thoughts from what you saw out
03:38 Amari Bailey in the two main Celtics games. - So overall, I think the first thing to note
03:45 is that he has not started these games. He comes off the bench, which I think for a player that's
03:50 younger and hasn't played in the NBA at all either, or I guess he has, but not very much anyway,
03:56 in meaningful minutes. But to get to see how the game develops and the pace of the game,
04:01 like before you're actually out there playing, I think is going to be really beneficial to him.
04:04 It seems like it's been that way, especially as a scorer so far. He's been really like one of their
04:11 most impactful, I guess, players. And when he does play, he has the ball a lot. So it's definitely
04:18 clear that they're continuing to funnel those like developmental reps and minutes to two-way
04:23 players and players that the Hornets pick in the second round when they're down in Greensboro.
04:27 - Yeah, coming off the bench is interesting because I can see what you mean by like,
04:37 let him see it as a younger player. Equally, they've had young players in the past, Kai Jones,
04:42 JT Thor, Jaylon McDaniels. Like they very rarely came off the bench, those guys. They almost always
04:47 like went down to the G League and they started straight away. And I'm interested about that
04:53 change. If it's because the Greens will want to try and be a little bit more competitive with
04:58 veterans this year, or whether it's because they see Amari Bailey like playing that role in the
05:03 NBA, so they want to try and mirror it. I don't know. It's just interesting. I'm not seeing the
05:07 Charlotte Hornets do that before. Yeah, I don't, like my gut reaction is it's a bit strange, if I'm
05:14 being honest. I just want to be able to see as much Amari Bailey as I want, but I can understand
05:21 there is an angle there that you could say is important from a continuity development point of
05:26 view. - I think one way to look at it too is like, okay, he's never going to be the starting point
05:32 guard for the Charlotte Hornets, right? Unless something goes completely awry, he will almost
05:37 certainly never be, not even the point guard, he will probably never be a starting guard with how
05:41 small he is and the mismatches that would present next to Lamello in the NBA. So why not just get
05:47 him used to coming off the bench now, like right when he's adjusting to the league and coming,
05:52 getting his feet wet and all that, rather than, you know, having him be some sort of end of bench
05:56 rotation player that plays at most like 10 minutes in the NBA and then comes down and gets 33 minutes
06:02 with the G League team and has the ball in his hands the entire time and just doesn't really
06:06 have much synergy between his role at both of these levels. So I think that's probably, if I
06:10 had to guess, would be their thinking behind it. But I do agree with you that it's probably
06:15 beneficial, especially for somebody that plays the guard position, to just get as many reps as
06:19 you can possibly give them when they're in these types of situations in the G League.
06:23 - You mentioned about his position. What position is he playing? Because obviously,
06:29 coming out of UCLA, he was billed as a point guard. Then in the draft combine, like, well,
06:35 he played shooting guard at UCLA, but came out of high school as a point guard. Then in the draft
06:41 combine, played point guard and actually played quite well. And then back in summer league,
06:45 was more off ball. So what type of role has he been playing for listeners in terms of when he's
06:50 been coming off the bench? - So, I mean, I think this kind of
06:53 tracks with how he's bounced back and forth positionally since high school. He's really
06:57 like a classic combo guard right now. He gets a fair share of the ball handler reps, but he also
07:03 gets chances to attack a shifted defense or a closeout as an off ball scorer. Because Terrell
07:08 Brown Jr. was somebody that the Hornets signed to an Exhibit 10 contract just before the season
07:12 started as much more of a traditional point guard than Amari. And he, Terrell Brown, lacks the
07:18 shiftiness and wiggle and just general like basketball talent and explosiveness, athleticism
07:23 that Amari has, especially as a handle or ball handler and driver. And he's just a little smaller
07:28 too. So it's really difficult to play Amari as like the sole point guard when you have a player
07:32 like that. 'Cause Terrell Brown's also like a pretty good player for the swarm and one of their
07:35 better scorers and passers. So overall, it seems very similar to like what he was in summer league
07:41 and what his NBA role might project to be. Like if not being maybe a little more slightly skewed
07:47 towards the two than the one, because I do think just with his size and the athleticism that he has,
07:53 he's going to be a point guard if he hits the ceiling in the NBA. But right now it definitely
07:58 makes sense to get him those reps as a scorer and just kind of see where he's at with his touch and
08:03 his confidence, especially at like the second level and from three, because he has been a
08:07 very good finisher at the rim so far. - Yeah. And that's something we saw in
08:11 summer league. The rim finishing was really impressive. One thing that we did talk about
08:16 in summer league was his lack of playmaking. I think he had like one, before the last game,
08:20 I think he had either one or zero turnovers, sorry, assists and like a bunch of turnovers.
08:25 And I think so far he's done three and a half assists per game, but three turnovers per game.
08:29 Have you seen any more kind of playmaking from that side of him so far in his minutes in this
08:37 game that you saw? Or was it more like, were those three and a half assists, were they kind of like
08:41 loud assists or were they just, oh, he was passing the ball around and managed to get assists? Have
08:47 we seen some more as a creator, playmaker than we saw in summer league so far?
08:52 - So I do think right now, at least, like he has been much more of like a playing within the
08:59 offense type of passer than somebody that's like going to go out and create and set up a teammate
09:04 or something like that. But I do agree. He has been pretty rough as a playmaker right now. And
09:10 that does not seem to have changed since summer league as a pick and roll ball handler, which he
09:15 gets a ton of reps as a pick and roll ball handler. Greensboro uses a lot of pick and roll in its
09:20 half court offense, which makes sense given the frequency of pick and roll in the Hornets offense.
09:25 Bailey has 133 offensive possessions on synergy. For 39 of them, he's been a pick and roll ball
09:31 handler. So a very large chunk of the total possessions that he's getting offensively are
09:36 with him as a pick and roll ball handler. Only scoring like a little over 0.6 points per possession,
09:41 pretty pedestrian number. He has just gets a lot of like, I don't want to say like ugly turnovers,
09:48 but just they're just very not like technically sound passes. Like one thing I've noticed that
09:53 was very specific and really stuck with me, his pocket passes are not like very crisp or accurate,
10:00 and they have like very little zip behind them at all. So if a big comes up and sets a screen
10:05 and like flips his hips and starts rolling to the rim, and there's that little bit of space that you
10:09 have to squeeze the ball through when the defense is like playing up at the level to be able to get
10:13 the ball to the big rolling to the rim. And most of the time it results in an open layup or at least
10:18 a kick out pass to the corner when it is successful. But Amari gets those passes picked off
10:23 a lot. Defenders like very easily just reach down and grab the ball from, you know, either before
10:29 or after it bounces. Just very little like aggressiveness or sense of urgency to him as a
10:34 playmaker, which isn't really something you think about as a passer, but it's definitely a necessary
10:38 skill for a point guard to like not hesitate or not play like lackadaisically or nonchalant or
10:44 anything. And I don't want to like put those words on him or those descriptors on him because they're
10:49 pretty negative, like off the surface. But it does seem like that does seems like a shortcoming for
10:55 him is just the overall like accuracy and crispness and delivery of the passes that he makes.
11:02 Yeah, so it sounds like the playmaking still has a long way to go. Something else that also has a
11:08 long way to go looking at the percentages here is three point shooting 21.4% on threes,
11:13 two attempts per game, but interestingly shooting 93% from the free throw line.
11:17 So there seems to be a little bit of change there, but he kind of always looked to have a better
11:23 mid-range shot in college than it did from the three point line. The extra distance definitely
11:28 seems to be a little bit more difficult for him. But yeah, the shot kind of any very brief thoughts,
11:36 I'm not expecting a full breakdown here of mechanics, but any brief thoughts on the shots
11:40 still looking uncomfortable from three or is that or does it actually look fine and the percentages
11:44 just maybe it's not going in yet. Yeah, I mean, it looks the same like mechanically pretty good
11:49 for a lefty, like good rhythm and whatnot through his release doesn't look like something that you'd
11:54 say, oh, this guy's not going to be an efficient three point shooter because of the way that he
11:57 shoots jumpers. I have noticed though, most of his misses from three are long and even one of
12:02 his makes, he like banked it in off the backboard from above the break, which is, you know, very rare
12:08 three, three point make up you like, but, and I'm not sure if that's like him compensating for a
12:13 lack of strength. Cause he does, he does jump like pretty far forward on jump shots from deep
12:18 or just doesn't have mechanical. I always thought his shot, it's quite like set very like stiff
12:24 elbow. And then it's almost like a set trebuchet, like launch. Like I always thought it looked like
12:30 a better set shot than an off the dribble shot, but then he shoots it better off the dribble in
12:33 the mid range or did a college. Yeah, no, that was a huge strength of his game in college. And I don't
12:38 know, maybe it's like, he, he almost shoots. Like if you were to go to like a coaching clinic and
12:45 give someone the pointers of how to shoot, but not actually show them be like elbow in hips,
12:50 like hip straight up, back straight, like extend out and flick your wrist over your forehead. Like
12:55 it's like, that is like what he does, but it doesn't look like, yeah, very robotic and like
13:00 planned of a, uh, of a release, but he doesn't have like a ton of ugly misses though, which is
13:06 a good thing. Like, I feel like missing long is something you can counteract either by like,
13:11 just improving your touch with more reps or getting stronger. Like if that is the issue,
13:14 it doesn't have like the lower body strength generate, uh, like the touch from that far away.
13:18 But, uh, and you said he had been a really good off the bounce shooter. He doesn't really take
13:25 very many of them anymore. I don't, I don't know if it's like, cause the, the other thing is that
13:31 two point jumpers are highly discouraged in the G league. The G league is a very fast paced
13:35 physical, like threes and layups type of league. You play in transition a lot, like slowing
13:41 everything down and working your man and breaking them down and getting into a, like an elbow pull
13:45 up is not a very common thing that happens at all anyway. So even if he was good at it,
13:50 he probably wouldn't be doing it often, but it doesn't seem to be a very efficient look for him
13:53 right now, which is very interesting because he was never really struck me as like a superb athlete.
13:58 And if he can't, if he athletically can't like get to his spots and create space and
14:02 in the mid range, especially where he was most effective, that's going to be a huge problem
14:08 as a score in the pros. But he does shoot very efficiently from the field as a whole. Cause
14:13 his, his rim numbers, 55% from the rim, which is very good for a player. His size.
14:18 He's not, he's not what you'd call like a classic good athlete in terms of like speed running,
14:24 jumping, but he's the most like functional athlete. One of the most functional athletes
14:28 I've seen in terms of just like a feel, uh, you know, a hang time around the rim.
14:33 He's obviously got really good touch and feel. And like, he does seem to have some functional
14:39 athleticism that allows him to get to his spots at times when like attacking the rim,
14:43 which is just something that like Kai Jones was an out of this world athlete, but it wasn't always
14:49 the most functional times. He's almost like the polar opposite. Um, so it's quite interesting.
14:53 Lastly, defensively, um, I thought he played with some pretty good energy in the summer league.
14:59 Is that kind of, was that just new draft D shine or is that worn off a little bit? What did you
15:04 see in the defensive end from Mari? Yeah. So he's definitely an effort defender. He's not somebody
15:08 that you're going to look at and be like, he doesn't fight through screens. He doesn't rotate
15:12 quickly. He doesn't close out with his hand up and with like short choppy steps. So he doesn't
15:15 get beat. He does like all of those things, at least at the, at the G league level he has so far.
15:20 So he does project to be somebody that could at least like fill a role defensively, but
15:24 terms of like production wise in the two games that I watched, he got very mixed results, mixed
15:29 results, because I think the main thing is that size is never going to work in his favor. So he
15:35 needs to be matching up with somebody that's like pretty small as well. And he doesn't have
15:38 versatility as a switchable guy really at all. Cause he's only like six, three. And like you
15:43 said, not like a great athlete. He's more just functional and gets around the court. Well,
15:47 moves his feet. But in that first game, he gave up a career high 38 points to JD,
15:53 not as an individual, but like him, Terrell Brown, anybody else that was guarding him,
15:57 JD Davidson scored 38 points in that game. Uh, he held up much better to the second time around,
16:02 which I think is very interesting to note because that like learning quickly and adjusting when you
16:08 make a mistake is something that Steve Clifford has talked about a lot in regards to Brandon
16:12 Miller. If Amari Bailey has that trait as well, that bodes very, very well for him and his
16:18 development. Cause obviously that's something that's going to help him overcome any like
16:22 athletic or skill shortcoming that he would have. Very interesting thing to know, I think going
16:26 forward and see if that like continues or if it was just maybe a coincidence in that game,
16:31 he just happened to have a bunch of better defensive outing the second time around, but
16:34 very similar, like play style defensively as he was in summer league. But obviously now with
16:39 increased reps and better competition, the results have not always been the same.
16:43 I kind of feel similar to how I felt after some of these, like his, his smarts. And like you say,
16:50 his ability to adapt and learn and to understand what the other team are doing is like his
16:55 basketball super skill because it's, it's difficult. You look at the profile of him right
17:00 now, not a great shooter, not a like incredible, like extra defender, isn't a great playmaker.
17:08 So then you're like, well, what is it like, what is he good at? And it is that like finishing
17:13 around the rim, just like feel getting to a spot. And that's really difficult. Cause you take,
17:18 you describe a lot of players like that and you go, well, how's he going to have an NBA role?
17:22 And I think he will always probably be someone, even if he does make it in the NBA, who will be
17:25 like a little bit unique in how he impacts the game and affects the game. And that's what I think
17:32 he'll be. He's not your prototypical guy. And with that normally means you need a lot of faith
17:37 from the front office. You need a lot of faith from the coaching staff, because sometimes finding
17:41 a right role for those people can be more challenging going forward. But Chase, we
17:46 appreciate you giving us some Amari Bailey breakdown here. It was obviously seven games.
17:51 Now we've not talked about the Greensville tournament, or I think we're waiting until
17:54 they had a few more games under their belt. And I like touching on these guys towards the end.
17:59 Maybe we can, Nick Smith Jr. got signed for a game. So maybe we can touch on some of his game.
18:04 Maybe next week we can do a leaky black at the end of one of these episodes as well. Cause
18:08 that was very useful for me. He was not a chance to any CNAG league film yet. And sure. It was
18:14 very useful for all the listeners too. - Of course. I'm glad that my many,
18:18 many hours of watching G league basketball is starting to pay off here because I have seen
18:23 a lot of Amari Bailey this year, even though he hasn't been with the Hornets very much,
18:29 I've seen quite a bit of him play. And I mean, anybody that wants to watch these games also
18:32 greensboro swarm.com, NBA G league.com. You can find their schedule where they're streaming and
18:39 whatnot. It's usually ESPN plus or the G league website. So if you want to watch Amari Bailey
18:44 yourself, there's, there are ways to do it. So. - Yeah. Chase, before we get out of here,
18:51 I know we're not getting too far ahead of ourselves. Give us one draft prospect from this
18:58 year. If you said they ended up in the Hornets in 2024 draft, I'll let you choose where about in the
19:04 draft you want them to be. If one guy that Hornets fans should go keep an eye on, look at some draft
19:10 film of if you want to watch some highlights on YouTube. - Okay. So we're going to go with a guy
19:16 that's maybe between like five and 10 right now, cause the Hornets probably sitting in that range
19:21 currently. I'll give the listeners Garvey Duall from Providence is a six, six, more of a lead
19:28 guard, but could probably be classified as a combo as well. You want toughness, physicality, energy,
19:34 intensity. That guy has it probably more than any teenage draft prospect that I've seen. That's not
19:41 like one of the Thompson twins that dude. - Did he punch a guy? Did he, is he the one
19:44 who punched the guy? - Yes, he did. Yeah. - That is physicality.
19:48 - After it, like he plays hard and he like has a nose for the ball, like dives on the floor,
19:55 does all of the little things that you want and has pretty impressive, like playmaking feel
20:01 shiftiness to his handle. He can get by guys really easily, not a shooter yet, which is a
20:05 pretty big issue for a guy that's going to be a guard and have the ball in his hands a lot,
20:09 but the defense passing ability to get by guys and that first step quickness all there. He's going to
20:15 be a almost certainly going to be a top five guy for me, unless the rest of the season goes pretty
20:20 poorly. But I really, really like Garvey Duall, big East prospects are right up my alley too.
20:26 Great style of basketball they play in that conference. So would definitely be a great fit
20:30 in the Hornets organization as a whole, not much less just on the court.
20:33 - I'm going to go down the defense first route to Ryan Dunn out of Virginia. - There we go.
20:44 - Sophomore player, Tyler Rucker of no ceilings, formerly been on this podcast,
20:48 wrote an article called the agent of chaos. And his stocks, steel block numbers are like,
20:58 yeah, he is absolutely off the charts. And again, you want to talk about like defensive ability,
21:05 toughness, physicality. You should definitely go watch some Ryan Dunn film because it is,
21:11 it is shocking. The offense, like similar to your guy, it's going to take some time to get there.
21:17 Okay. But these are defensive instant instincts that you do not see in many draft prospects. And
21:21 he's a six, eight defender who can play versatile position wise. He's listed as a shooting guard,
21:26 but is like an off ball shot blocker that you've not seen from like a six, eight guy,
21:31 very, very rarely. So if you want to go out and look at some Ryan Dunn film, I definitely
21:36 encourage you to do. And I think you can see the theme there in both draft prospects, but forward
21:40 there by me and Chase for people to go watch. But everyone, thank you very much for listening
21:45 to this week's episode of Inside the Hive and we'll come at you next week. - Thanks everyone.