00:00:00
Speaker 1: But since we booked him for this interview, Bone, things have changed. The LaMelo storyline has kind of gone above our guys Honus and Christian Anderson in priority, so you know that's going to be involved in the conversation as well. The No Ceilings NBA crew, Man, they really showed out leading up to the draft though, Bone, whether it was their Draft guide, all the different podcasts and videos and stuff that they did, great draft content. And Stephen Gillespie is back with us from No Ceilings NBA to talk about the Hornets and the draft. Steven, what's going on, man, Just a quiet day in Charlotte today.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Mack and Bone, Good morning.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Congratulations on a very relaxed and calm kind of you know, media frenzy that goes on right now for your for your team.
00:00:42
Speaker 2: How are y'all holding up?
00:00:44
Speaker 4: I had a bunch of questions about the hand side of Honess and then I realized that's not happening right now. Wait on that momentarily, Oh Man, So look, you we're obviously we're in the forest, so maybe we don't see the tree. So I'm going to ask you for your perspective as someone that can just be measured about this because we're emotional about it, But like, does this it all make sense to you the Hornets after the year they have, the momentum they have, LaMelo finally stayed healthy, made strides in his game, Like, does it make sense that they would be willing to trade him?
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Now?
00:01:17
Speaker 5: What do you think?
00:01:19
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like, I think I have more questions for y'all. I understand that you're in the forest, but I feel like I'm in the wandering desert right now, just trying to figure out, like, how in the world do you have the season that you have? It felt like just one of the most It felt like everybody's second favorite team outside of Charlotte was the Hornet, you know, like everybody fell in love with that team, and now all of a sudden they're talking about trading and mellow Like I'm wondering if that's like from him in his camp as opposed to the team, because like, even though y'all did draft a point guard that I know that we're going to talk about here in a second, I don't know if that's the immediate replacement.
00:01:54
Speaker 4: You know, Steven A Texter said why now and not before the draft? And we had a rumor last week that the Hornets were trying to get up to seven for Sacramento. We thought, oh, that's got to be for Mara. Now we look at it as well, maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was for a guard. Do you do you think maybe the Hornets tried to get one of those guards, but we had the rare draft where those teams in that range one through twelve really we're not willing to move off their picks.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: I mean, that would make a lot of sense just because you know, the top four of this class obviously, you know, with Cam k lob Aj and Darren like, that's where obviously a lot of the heavy lifting of this class comes from. But I would say the identity of this class lied heavily in the freshman guards and even some of the upper classmen, And the fact that you would want to trade up to seven would indicate to me that you were after one of those guards, because I mean, to me, anything outside of that at that spot would be a reach.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: So, I mean, it would make sense.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: And you know, we always find about the you know, the whole now they tell this thing that comes out later.
00:03:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
00:03:04
Speaker 3: That that would be one of the kind of the sub stories of that piece.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes because bone what was our thing? We were trying to figure out, why do you want to get up in Guardville?
00:03:13
Speaker 5: We thought they've got a point guard?
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Yeah that's not sorry, you want Mores maybe way early, so no one takes him, right, but like maybe maybe all along they're thinking and Sacramento replacing Sacramento. Who was the rumortie was they were a cuff or bus. Basically that's crazy. A cuff actually wanted to play in Sacramento. I don't know how that happened, Steve, and how we found someone who wants to play in Sacramento.
00:03:35
Speaker 5: But that that's a twist. All right. So let's talk about the draft, the draft.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: Prospects, because Steven, you guys, like I said earlier, no ceilings NBA have been breaking down the draft prospects for weeks. Let's start with Christian Anderson. Like, so, if they traded LaMelo, I can't imagine you're doing that without re signing Kobe White, like, you know, I just if you're gonna lose them both, I mean, my lord, we're going to be despondent here. So let's go with a word, where Kobe White is your starting point guard, then and then Anderson is the backup point guard. How would you feel about that duo? And do you feel is Anderson ready to be, like, you know, a primary backup in the NBA?
00:04:13
Speaker 5: Right now? What do you think?
00:04:14
Speaker 3: I think that him being you know, your your first guard off the bench does make a lot of sense. You know, there's a lot of studies that have come out of guards or prospects in general who come into the combine weighing underneath one hundred and eighty pounds and like, how slippery of a slope that is to find success in the NBA. The good news is that Christian was like right at the one eighty threshold similar to that of a shake yogis Alexander. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's going to be SGA, but at least there's a path to success for him, and the numbers are in his favor in that respect.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: But I mean he's going to have to learn a lot.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: I think that he does fit like the mindset of this team because you know, watching him at Texas Tech, he played off of other guys who could either pressure the rim or who could help space the floor. I think him coming off of the bench makes a lot of sense with some of the lineups that you could run if you're splitting action or time between you know, Miller.
00:05:09
Speaker 2: Or con or what have you.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: Right, So I think that him being in the second unit makes a lot of sense. And you know you're hoping eventually, I mean, I guess it's especially if you're moving off the lamello, that he might work his way up into being a starting level guard. Probably not an all star, but I mean a good starter at that selection.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Is you know, still a home run pick.
00:05:30
Speaker 4: Who were you higher on entering the draft, Sturtz or Anderson?
00:05:34
Speaker 3: I was more of a Sturtz guy, just because you know, the size, the feel. I mean, we haven't really seen him playing an antillary role before, but his skills are a little bit more cleaner and projectible in my opinion. I mean, the margins are then they were really close on my board, like and in the same tier. I just feel more confident with the size and the ability that we've seen from starts just to succeed pretty much at every level, high usage in a high minutes role. But again I didn't have Anderson too far down the line. I was just more preferential to Starts, and.
00:06:07
Speaker 1: It's possible the Hornets were two right, and he gets picked before you know, if he was on the board, maybe they take him. There were some reports linking Starts to the Hornets and talk about a workout that he had, so maybe he was, you know, in their priority order. Over over Anderson, we're talking with Stephen Gillespie, no ceilings, MBA. We started with the LaMelo, you know, blockbuster trade talks that are reportedly going on. We're now easing into these guys in the draft. Let's talk about Hannes Steinbach. It feels to me like the debate in the minds of a lot of your brethren and the draft analyst community is is he ultimately a good first big, off the bench type player or is he ultimately a good starting big. Where do you fall on that? Where do you think he ends up in his career?
00:06:55
Speaker 3: What role I think, you know, I hate to give a boring end through here, but sometimes I think, you know, my opinion will change based off of the team that the player goes to.
00:07:05
Speaker 2: I really love the marriage of Steinbach to.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: Charlotte because I think that he goes and does all of the things that he's best at in some of the more concerning aspects, like on this team in particular, you're not necessarily worried about, you know, I think that him being in Charlotte, obviously he's going to be the premier rebounder I feel like on your team in the long term. That's his skill set coming in and he's been a dominant rebounder pretty much at every level at every stage of his career. And then you know, projectable shooter shot about thirty four percent from deep while he was at Washington this year. For his age and at his position, that's a pretty respectable and favorable metric. So I think that he kind of helped space this floor, and that's something that you guys exceled at this season. The biggest question that I have, and it might have had to do with where he played basketball this year, because you know, Washington.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: Wasn't necessarily a powerhouse.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: Is like his ability to playmake because I think he draws a lot of comparisons to your Domasa Boninus Alpha and Shane Gooon type guys. But those were clear cut, like really good playmaking big men. We didn't really get to see a lot of that with h Haness. I'm not saying that he can't. We just didn't really see it on volume. And if you value production over projection, that's probably the biggest question that you have with him coming in.
00:08:23
Speaker 4: You think he can be a five or is he more of a four? Why would you play him?
00:08:28
Speaker 3: I mean, he could be probably a tweener akin to you know, I'm not saying, like, you know, strength for strength with and Isaiah Stewart, but I think he can talk back and forth between just based on who the other front court made he is out there with. You know, I think that with him and Ryan, you probably want him spacing the floor.
00:08:47
Speaker 2: But if you want to.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Go smaller and have you know, one of your four spacing you know, four men out there, you probably can survive with him being out there for stretchers at the five. The biggest thing is that he's going to have to be more productive on the defensive end. I think he knows where to be and he's a really smart guy. He's just not like a disruptive defender either, So you probably want to see him at the four more often. But I think that you can get by with him playing a few minutes a game.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: At the five you mentioned his shot right like that, you talked about the playmaking piece, like is there more there in terms of playing through him and him setting up others? I also wonder about that shot. You mentioned his shot. Are you a believer that he will ultimately shot thirty four percent low volume? Are you a believer that he ultimately will be like a stretch big or are you skeptical of that.
00:09:36
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit more on the skeptical side, but I think that he could be at least respectable and have people come out there and guard him at some point. I'm not gonna I wouldn't project him to be, you know, like a forty point or forty percent three point shooter moving forward, but I think if he can get to that like thirty five thirty six percent level at decent volume, like that's still going to be a win.
00:09:59
Speaker 2: And that's me being on lower end.
00:10:00
Speaker 3: You know, there's people in the NBA, obviously, but even at no ceilings who are definitely more optimistic on the shooting projection. So even me being on like what I would say the lower end for our group, I still think that he'll be respectable from deep wish again at his size and the position.
00:10:17
Speaker 2: That's a win.
00:10:18
Speaker 1: All right, maybe we should conference in the one of the guys that is is it likes them better than you? All right, seriously, Steven, all right, no, Steven, you actually provided a service. You calmed us down, You allowed us to chill better. Now stop our freak out and focus on our draft picks for a few minutes. Now we will go back to freaking out. Appreciate you and I do all the compliments about you guys in your coverage, and you know, a bunch of guys came on with us and your content is great. No Ceilings NBA, y'all check it out no Ceilings NBA dot com if you're looking to see, like read up what they said about our draft picks.
00:10:51
Speaker 5: He is Stephen Gillespie. Thank you, Steven, Appreciate you.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: Mag Bone, Thanks for having me. You'll have a good rest of your day.
00:10:57
Speaker 4: You too, man, Thank you.
00:10:57
Speaker 5: Be good. There you go. Stephen Gillespie from the No Ceiling nb A team
Speaker 1: But since we booked him for this interview, Bone, things have changed. The LaMelo storyline has kind of gone above our guys Honus and Christian Anderson in priority, so you know that's going to be involved in the conversation as well. The No Ceilings NBA crew, Man, they really showed out leading up to the draft though, Bone, whether it was their Draft guide, all the different podcasts and videos and stuff that they did, great draft content. And Stephen Gillespie is back with us from No Ceilings NBA to talk about the Hornets and the draft. Steven, what's going on, man, Just a quiet day in Charlotte today.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Mack and Bone, Good morning.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Congratulations on a very relaxed and calm kind of you know, media frenzy that goes on right now for your for your team.
00:00:42
Speaker 2: How are y'all holding up?
00:00:44
Speaker 4: I had a bunch of questions about the hand side of Honess and then I realized that's not happening right now. Wait on that momentarily, Oh Man, So look, you we're obviously we're in the forest, so maybe we don't see the tree. So I'm going to ask you for your perspective as someone that can just be measured about this because we're emotional about it, But like, does this it all make sense to you the Hornets after the year they have, the momentum they have, LaMelo finally stayed healthy, made strides in his game, Like, does it make sense that they would be willing to trade him?
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Now?
00:01:17
Speaker 5: What do you think?
00:01:19
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like, I think I have more questions for y'all. I understand that you're in the forest, but I feel like I'm in the wandering desert right now, just trying to figure out, like, how in the world do you have the season that you have? It felt like just one of the most It felt like everybody's second favorite team outside of Charlotte was the Hornet, you know, like everybody fell in love with that team, and now all of a sudden they're talking about trading and mellow Like I'm wondering if that's like from him in his camp as opposed to the team, because like, even though y'all did draft a point guard that I know that we're going to talk about here in a second, I don't know if that's the immediate replacement.
00:01:54
Speaker 4: You know, Steven A Texter said why now and not before the draft? And we had a rumor last week that the Hornets were trying to get up to seven for Sacramento. We thought, oh, that's got to be for Mara. Now we look at it as well, maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was for a guard. Do you do you think maybe the Hornets tried to get one of those guards, but we had the rare draft where those teams in that range one through twelve really we're not willing to move off their picks.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: I mean, that would make a lot of sense just because you know, the top four of this class obviously, you know, with Cam k lob Aj and Darren like, that's where obviously a lot of the heavy lifting of this class comes from. But I would say the identity of this class lied heavily in the freshman guards and even some of the upper classmen, And the fact that you would want to trade up to seven would indicate to me that you were after one of those guards, because I mean, to me, anything outside of that at that spot would be a reach.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: So, I mean, it would make sense.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: And you know, we always find about the you know, the whole now they tell this thing that comes out later.
00:03:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
00:03:04
Speaker 3: That that would be one of the kind of the sub stories of that piece.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes because bone what was our thing? We were trying to figure out, why do you want to get up in Guardville?
00:03:13
Speaker 5: We thought they've got a point guard?
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Yeah that's not sorry, you want Mores maybe way early, so no one takes him, right, but like maybe maybe all along they're thinking and Sacramento replacing Sacramento. Who was the rumortie was they were a cuff or bus. Basically that's crazy. A cuff actually wanted to play in Sacramento. I don't know how that happened, Steve, and how we found someone who wants to play in Sacramento.
00:03:35
Speaker 5: But that that's a twist. All right. So let's talk about the draft, the draft.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: Prospects, because Steven, you guys, like I said earlier, no ceilings NBA have been breaking down the draft prospects for weeks. Let's start with Christian Anderson. Like, so, if they traded LaMelo, I can't imagine you're doing that without re signing Kobe White, like, you know, I just if you're gonna lose them both, I mean, my lord, we're going to be despondent here. So let's go with a word, where Kobe White is your starting point guard, then and then Anderson is the backup point guard. How would you feel about that duo? And do you feel is Anderson ready to be, like, you know, a primary backup in the NBA?
00:04:13
Speaker 5: Right now? What do you think?
00:04:14
Speaker 3: I think that him being you know, your your first guard off the bench does make a lot of sense. You know, there's a lot of studies that have come out of guards or prospects in general who come into the combine weighing underneath one hundred and eighty pounds and like, how slippery of a slope that is to find success in the NBA. The good news is that Christian was like right at the one eighty threshold similar to that of a shake yogis Alexander. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's going to be SGA, but at least there's a path to success for him, and the numbers are in his favor in that respect.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: But I mean he's going to have to learn a lot.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: I think that he does fit like the mindset of this team because you know, watching him at Texas Tech, he played off of other guys who could either pressure the rim or who could help space the floor. I think him coming off of the bench makes a lot of sense with some of the lineups that you could run if you're splitting action or time between you know, Miller.
00:05:09
Speaker 2: Or con or what have you.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: Right, So I think that him being in the second unit makes a lot of sense. And you know you're hoping eventually, I mean, I guess it's especially if you're moving off the lamello, that he might work his way up into being a starting level guard. Probably not an all star, but I mean a good starter at that selection.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Is you know, still a home run pick.
00:05:30
Speaker 4: Who were you higher on entering the draft, Sturtz or Anderson?
00:05:34
Speaker 3: I was more of a Sturtz guy, just because you know, the size, the feel. I mean, we haven't really seen him playing an antillary role before, but his skills are a little bit more cleaner and projectible in my opinion. I mean, the margins are then they were really close on my board, like and in the same tier. I just feel more confident with the size and the ability that we've seen from starts just to succeed pretty much at every level, high usage in a high minutes role. But again I didn't have Anderson too far down the line. I was just more preferential to Starts, and.
00:06:07
Speaker 1: It's possible the Hornets were two right, and he gets picked before you know, if he was on the board, maybe they take him. There were some reports linking Starts to the Hornets and talk about a workout that he had, so maybe he was, you know, in their priority order. Over over Anderson, we're talking with Stephen Gillespie, no ceilings, MBA. We started with the LaMelo, you know, blockbuster trade talks that are reportedly going on. We're now easing into these guys in the draft. Let's talk about Hannes Steinbach. It feels to me like the debate in the minds of a lot of your brethren and the draft analyst community is is he ultimately a good first big, off the bench type player or is he ultimately a good starting big. Where do you fall on that? Where do you think he ends up in his career?
00:06:55
Speaker 3: What role I think, you know, I hate to give a boring end through here, but sometimes I think, you know, my opinion will change based off of the team that the player goes to.
00:07:05
Speaker 2: I really love the marriage of Steinbach to.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: Charlotte because I think that he goes and does all of the things that he's best at in some of the more concerning aspects, like on this team in particular, you're not necessarily worried about, you know, I think that him being in Charlotte, obviously he's going to be the premier rebounder I feel like on your team in the long term. That's his skill set coming in and he's been a dominant rebounder pretty much at every level at every stage of his career. And then you know, projectable shooter shot about thirty four percent from deep while he was at Washington this year. For his age and at his position, that's a pretty respectable and favorable metric. So I think that he kind of helped space this floor, and that's something that you guys exceled at this season. The biggest question that I have, and it might have had to do with where he played basketball this year, because you know, Washington.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: Wasn't necessarily a powerhouse.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: Is like his ability to playmake because I think he draws a lot of comparisons to your Domasa Boninus Alpha and Shane Gooon type guys. But those were clear cut, like really good playmaking big men. We didn't really get to see a lot of that with h Haness. I'm not saying that he can't. We just didn't really see it on volume. And if you value production over projection, that's probably the biggest question that you have with him coming in.
00:08:23
Speaker 4: You think he can be a five or is he more of a four? Why would you play him?
00:08:28
Speaker 3: I mean, he could be probably a tweener akin to you know, I'm not saying, like, you know, strength for strength with and Isaiah Stewart, but I think he can talk back and forth between just based on who the other front court made he is out there with. You know, I think that with him and Ryan, you probably want him spacing the floor.
00:08:47
Speaker 2: But if you want to.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Go smaller and have you know, one of your four spacing you know, four men out there, you probably can survive with him being out there for stretchers at the five. The biggest thing is that he's going to have to be more productive on the defensive end. I think he knows where to be and he's a really smart guy. He's just not like a disruptive defender either, So you probably want to see him at the four more often. But I think that you can get by with him playing a few minutes a game.
00:09:13
Speaker 1: At the five you mentioned his shot right like that, you talked about the playmaking piece, like is there more there in terms of playing through him and him setting up others? I also wonder about that shot. You mentioned his shot. Are you a believer that he will ultimately shot thirty four percent low volume? Are you a believer that he ultimately will be like a stretch big or are you skeptical of that.
00:09:36
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit more on the skeptical side, but I think that he could be at least respectable and have people come out there and guard him at some point. I'm not gonna I wouldn't project him to be, you know, like a forty point or forty percent three point shooter moving forward, but I think if he can get to that like thirty five thirty six percent level at decent volume, like that's still going to be a win.
00:09:59
Speaker 2: And that's me being on lower end.
00:10:00
Speaker 3: You know, there's people in the NBA, obviously, but even at no ceilings who are definitely more optimistic on the shooting projection. So even me being on like what I would say the lower end for our group, I still think that he'll be respectable from deep wish again at his size and the position.
00:10:17
Speaker 2: That's a win.
00:10:18
Speaker 1: All right, maybe we should conference in the one of the guys that is is it likes them better than you? All right, seriously, Steven, all right, no, Steven, you actually provided a service. You calmed us down, You allowed us to chill better. Now stop our freak out and focus on our draft picks for a few minutes. Now we will go back to freaking out. Appreciate you and I do all the compliments about you guys in your coverage, and you know, a bunch of guys came on with us and your content is great. No Ceilings NBA, y'all check it out no Ceilings NBA dot com if you're looking to see, like read up what they said about our draft picks.
00:10:51
Speaker 5: He is Stephen Gillespie. Thank you, Steven, Appreciate you.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: Mag Bone, Thanks for having me. You'll have a good rest of your day.
00:10:57
Speaker 4: You too, man, Thank you.
00:10:57
Speaker 5: Be good. There you go. Stephen Gillespie from the No Ceiling nb A team
