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00:00 And this is easily the saddest part for me.
00:02 So we're ending this on a low note.
00:04 I know I did this on purpose.
00:06 So you had I know I know you did.
00:07 So my property on Bryce McGowan's Island has never had lower value.
00:12 I'm going to start with the very brief positives right now.
00:15 His overall efficiency numbers have gone up by a noticeable degree.
00:19 He's now a 38% shooter from deep on two threes per game.
00:22 Solid numbers for a role playing wing.
00:24 I also think he's like a solid positional defender that doesn't get beat as often as
00:29 some players on the team do.
00:31 Solid I think is a word that you have to use a lot with Bryce McGowan's, which it just
00:34 is not going to cut it for a player that, you know, is in the role that he is in and
00:39 has the especially has the talent that he has.
00:41 I think I'd go below solid.
00:42 I have to say I think you're being very kind with solid.
00:44 I think I'd go like rubbery.
00:47 Offensively, it's not even solid, which is the thing is because he's supposed to be like
00:51 a good offensive player.
00:52 But he is an extremely he's so hesitant, dude.
00:55 I don't get it.
00:56 He just doesn't.
00:58 Confidence crisis.
00:59 Confidence crisis.
01:00 He's lost the identity of who he was as a player.
01:02 He used to play with swag in college.
01:04 He used to play with like so much offensive.
01:07 I'm the effing dude and I'm going to get buckets.
01:12 And I feel like he's almost watched too much film.
01:14 Coaches got too much in his ear.
01:16 And now he just thinks about everything and is trying to fit in too much.
01:21 And he's just lost what made him at all an interesting player.
01:23 I mean, he dominated the G League.
01:25 He was like so dominant in the G League in his rookie season.
01:28 And we have just reversed backwards.
01:32 I don't even get like you tell him shoot 38% this year.
01:34 You think, oh, great.
01:36 But that makes no difference because the rest of the game is just abandoned him.
01:41 So for whatever reason, this was the most confusing part of it to me.
01:47 He is averaging fewer field goal attempts and has a lower usage rate than he did last
01:52 season.
01:53 Like how should that be possible with a year of development and having a firmer place in
02:00 the rotation?
02:01 Somebody that is calling card is being a on ball scorer, like just a guy that can heat
02:07 up, like you said, gets buckets, attacks guys one on one and can score.
02:11 He can draw fouls, which is really the only positive in his game right now is that he's
02:15 still in the 94th percentile in shooting foul percentage on cleaning the glass.
02:20 But the only thing is that he doesn't lean into that.
02:23 Like he only averages like less than two free throws or just barely over two free throws
02:28 per 36 minutes, not even per game, like per game.
02:32 He's barely over one.
02:33 And he only if you gave him starter minutes, he's still only averaging two point four free
02:39 throws per game while being fouled at an extremely high rate.
02:42 And in college, that was his best skill.
02:45 It just has not come through in the NBA at all.
02:47 And if that were the case, being accentuated by that raised three point percentage would
02:52 probably help.
02:53 But the lack of like just aggressiveness that he has, he's not like a potent score at all,
02:59 which is like what he used to be like.
03:01 You could picture him being like a six, seven, like microwave scoring wing that got to the
03:06 line a lot and scored off the bounce from three and made like the right passes on dump
03:10 offs and to cutters and stuff.
03:13 And the defense at times last year and even early this year showed signs.
03:17 But like it's just not there.
03:19 Like nothing that he does is going to cut it in like a like a bench scorer role or even
03:23 like a more simplified three and D role, which is shown by the steep drop off in minutes
03:28 lately to D and B's and two minutes against Philly.
03:31 So yeah.
03:32 And now behind Nick Smith Jr. in the rotation, I mean, and James Booknight for a period of
03:36 time, it seemed that that is a more ghastly statement than we've said probably about anybody
03:42 in this whole podcast.
03:43 He's one of the rare players who got benched during a game this year by Steve Cuffin, which
03:47 rarely happens.
03:48 Yeah.
03:49 Look, it's one of two things, Bryce.
03:51 It is either he is, like you say, a complete confidence crisis and he is not in a good
03:56 place like in terms of like his headspace and he's just not in ability to like buy into
04:03 the game and commit to it.
04:06 Or he made it to the league, he's got his guaranteed contract and he's mailed it in.
04:10 Right.
04:11 I don't know the guy, so I can't tell you that's happened, but he would not be the first
04:15 person who you get that big contract, you take your foot off the pedal, you relax.
04:21 I know we're all excited about his morning workouts with Gordon Hayward in the offseason.
04:25 Whatever they were doing, it has not worked.
04:28 Yeah, I don't look, I don't think Bryce McGowan's is that type of character.
04:32 You know, I'd be reluctant to say that, but there's something was fundamentally different
04:38 with how he approaches the game.
04:41 And he's like, say he's lost that verb, like Nick Smith Jr.
04:45 He's playing exactly like how he was in high school and college.
04:49 Like he has identity as a player.
04:50 Bryce McGowan's is just like, is non-existent.
04:52 He's lost his identity.
04:54 I think we begin to see it in summer league this year where like he just turned into like
04:59 an occasional downhill driver and like he was just, we were all scratching our heads
05:04 a little bit at the summer league performance and it's just carried straight on into the
05:08 season.
05:09 So yeah, my alert level on Bryce McGowan's is pretty high right now.
05:14 He is a non-guaranteed 2 million, I think it is for next season.
05:19 He needs to, he needs to take some opportunities for the end of this, the end of this year.
05:24 I actually think he might be a sneaky candidate to be moved at the deadline here.
05:28 If another team is interested in a flyer on a young player or maybe swapping flyers on
05:33 a young player for another team.
05:34 None of these Hornets young guys have any trade value.
05:36 So it's like, who the fuck would want to take a flyer?
05:40 That is a great point, but I do think Bryce, maybe just being young, the youngest of the
05:45 bunch, I mean, apart from Nick Smith, obviously, but you'd have to imagine the Hornets are
05:48 looking to keep him.
05:50 Maybe Bryce has something to offer to an opposing team, but yeah, I mean, and even if he's not
05:57 moved, like if they move other guys and bring new guys in, like I have to imagine that they
06:01 would be, you know, pushing him further down the pecking order for the rotation.