Hornets Media Day: The Deep Cuts You Missed, Quotes You Should Know

Just like a good bridge in a great song, media day quotes have slowly faded down in volume while training camp has started — but I’m here to build back up the tempo in an attempted crescendo and dive into some of the things I feel have slipped through the cracks since Monday.

You may have seen clips, but I’ve got the transcripts; two completely different things, I must say.

So I’ve spent the last 48 hours tidying it all up, and I've brought my personality along for the ride (per usual) as I dive into it all.

The Hornets gave us media in attendance at Spectrum Center the full gamut — I was in the press room for everyone except Grayson Allen.

For those who are new, I’ll attempt to be entertaining to make your reading experience more digestible…

Hopefully you’ll learn something along the way. At the very least, you’ll undoubtedly have at least one moment when you can laugh at me.

Moussa Diabaté: “He’s a monster”

NO — this wasn’t Diabaté’s response to me asking a bad question.

It was a response to me asking a Hannes Steinbach question… and all I asked was for Moussa’s initial impressions of the rookie.

“Yeah for sure, I mean, he's a monster,” Diabaté said. “Like, for somebody this young to be able to play the way he plays? I mean, it's gonna be very, very exciting. Great touch around the rim, understanding of the game, great feel. And as I said, I mean, he's so young, so like he's still growing into what he's gonna become in the future. I mean, I'm just excited for everything. And like I said, it's him, but also Ryan (Kalkbrenner) as well. Being able to see how much better he’s gotten. So I'm just very excited for the both of them, and Hannes is, is a,— (it sounded like Diabate stopped himself from giving an outlandish claim as he shook his head) — yeah. It’s going to be very exciting.”

While my impressions of Diabaté’s mannerisms while he said all of this are ultimately speculation…

You could tell he meant what he said and wasn’t using “monster” lightly. He said it with quite a bit of vindication, actually.

We’ll see what the reality is in a few short weeks, folks.

Speaking of Hannes… Steinbach is a Center: His Words, Not Mine

Well, they were mostly his words. Hannes, as a good young player does, didn’t say he couldn’t or wouldn’t play the four — he said he was capable of both.

“Yeah, I'm definitely comfortable to play both positions,” Steinbach said Monday. “I think it's just important to do whatever is expected of me, which is probably going to be a little bit more of (playing) the five early this season, especially in the beginning. So yeah, just being able to play both positions (is something I can do).”

This makes sense, too: If you look at the full roster, it’s not ready-made for Hannes to even play PF.

The only lineup where Steinbach could clearly be defined as the PF is one where he’s alongside Ryan Kalkbrenner. We may see that combo, but in my opinion, it won’t happen often.

In a lineup with Steinbach and Moussa Diabate, it’s just semantics to discuss "Who is the PF” in that lineup.

We get lost in these made-up height ranges we’ve associated with each position in the NBA, but in reality, it’s not about “Can Hannes play the 4?”; it’s about “Can Hannes still execute our game plan alongside X player in the front court?”

That’s what matters. For this section, what matters is that Hannes will generally be the 5 when he’s on the floor. He also has had some love for his vets and their mentorship thus far this summer:

"Yeah, Grant helped me a lot in that, just like, telling me all his experiences, how he saw it, how he experienced it,” Steinbach said. “And then the rookies from last year have really communicated with us. Just like telling us that it's going to be a lot of games and we really have to take care of our minds."

Grant won’t be the only help Steinbach has alongside him this season, as the team acquired PG Dennis Schröder from Cleveland.

Schröder brings us to…

Grant Williams Remains a Class Act — I Believe He’ll Remain a Hornet, Too

My question to Williams on Monday wasn’t even about him; it was about Schröder, who, as I said, brought us here.

Grant told a story about Schröder that was really honest and open, and showed me that he understands the value of a good veteran well.

He’s become that same thing, a great vet, and that — not the below Schröder story — is why I believe he’ll remain a Hornet.

Williams is incredibly articulate and astute in his observations. He’s exactly the kind of mentor you want for the youth on your team; he can elaborate on anything to a point a young player could understand.

He also helped me understand further why Schröder is such a great vet himself, like I mentioned:

"I remember there's a story that, of course, we get back to the gambling of back in the day,” Williams began as he answered my question.

You could tell this was a fond memory for Williams, and he was beyond happy to brag on the Hornets’ new PG. Grant continued:

“But we were just playing cards in the hotel when Sam Hauser was a rookie (in Boston). And I remember Dennis had just won a very increasingly large-sized pot. And Sam Hauser was running to get — I think it was chips or something like that — from the gas station as a rookie duty, as a joke, and he came back; it was late. Whatever. Dennis won that (entire) pot and gave it all to Sam. That's the kind of human being that he is. He shows up for what he cares for.”

I sure do hate to bring up Hornets DNA again, but Grant has it. Clearly Dennis has it, and I don’t expect either to go anywhere this season. Williams is more valuable than the return Charlotte would get from another team, and I truly believe they see Williams returning as an UFA.

To the point that they’d rather bet on that happening than snag a few extra minuscule picks for him… That’s saying a lot for Jeff Peterson, too.

Sion Broke Down NBA Tendencies to Me & His IQ Continues to Impress

Sion James has a soft spot in my heart.

He hasn’t taken me to dinner, or anything… although it would’ve helped his case.

I’ve spent the entire summer defending Sion, his defensive prowess, and his overall potential to my YouTube co-host and fellow Hornets on SI writer, Albert Böttcher.

At this point, we’ve debated James so often that I’ve built a Sion James-sized hill that I would be embarrassed not to die on. I’ve spent too much time building the dang hill. May as well die up there.

Sion James is worth betting on, though. He was Charlotte’s best defender last year, bar none, so naturally I wanted to ask Sion how he could improve on that end.

My head went to tendencies; you’d think, in Sion’s shoes, that having a year in the league and already knowing other players’ tendencies was the first battle.

Learning how to use those tendencies he’s now familiar with was the next step, I thought. But when I framed it to Sion like this, he said it was actually the opposite of where my head was.

It’s great insight into how overcomplicated we make things sometimes in NBA discourse. My question to Sion was, “Is that where you really hope to grow this year? Is understanding guys' tendencies, like you said, understanding what they're trying to get you to do and how you can exploit that rather than them using it to exploit you?”

Sion was kind in his tone as he answered very wholly.

“I'd actually say it the other way around,” Sion began.

“Tendency is one of those things that, like: Jalen Brunson's been in the league for however many years, and the thing that shocked me when I came in last year is how, especially the best players, they do the same thing every single time. Like, they have a lot in their bag for sure, but if you let Jalen Brunson — tell him he's got one play to go score a bucket — He's going to do the exact same thing every time because that's what he's mastering.

“He's got counters on top of that. So in saying that, the coaches can teach you tendencies. They can tell me, for example, it's not saying it’s his example, but like say (Brunson) wants to go right and shoot a pull-up jumpshot. Like, they (the coaches) can teach you that stuff. The big thing for me is not just understanding those tendencies, but then getting a feel for what he likes to do out of that (move he’s mastering), or how he sets up to get into his moves, or what he's like getting into his counters. And I’m just using him (Brunson) as an example, you can use that for any player, but that's more of what is learned than just the tendencies on paper.”

If it surprised Sion James as a rookie to realize this, I certainly don’t feel so bad asking and being a bit wrong. Incredible defensive insight here, and I was excited to include it.

Pat Connaughton Talks Charles Lee’s Offensive Identity, if Coaching is in His Future

I was excited to talk to Pat. Another incredibly intelligent player, NBA champion, and well-respected vet on this team.

He’s on the roster bubble, and I certainly didn’t ask any hard-hitting offensive questions on the man’s last potential Hornets’ media day, but Connaughton did give some great answers.

I didn’t get a chance to ask Coach Lee about offensive identity before his presser ended, so I asked Pat instead.

I asked how Coach Lee measures Charlotte’s pace differently than other teams do; how it seemed a bit intentional that they finished 26th in both transition points and frequency, and asked Pat what he thought about Lee’s philosophy there. How do you balance wanting to run and get easy buckets with wanting to emphasize good, efficient half-court offense?

“Yeah, I mean, look, we want to continue to try to push pace in the areas that we can but we also want to make sure that we're pushing pace (in general). And (Coach Lee will) probably give us more leeway to push pace if we're taking care of the basketball and we're getting good shots. I think there's a difference between running and gunning and just firing everything up at the rim that may not be good shots. That's not a great way to play basketball, in my opinion.

“But we still want to try to get up more shots at the rim whenever we can, as long as they're good shots. And I think we'll continue to try to push pace this year. But I think we'll always come back to what type of shots are we getting? How efficient are those shots? And that's where the half-court offense comes into play.”

Just great stuff from Pat. Hot takes are fun, but I love watching these guys' basketball minds turn. It’s hard to find questions that give them a chance to do that sometimes.

Pat talks like a coach, which is why I asked, but to end his interview, I also asked him outright whether he saw coaching in his future.

"No, I don't think so — We'll see,” Connaughton started.

A bit of an oxymoron, Mr. Connaughton, but hey, he’s PR-trained. He took back a for-sure statement. The guy’s a pro. The back half of his quote tended to agree with the first half of Pat’s oxymoron, though:

“I respect the hell out of the coaching staff and the time and effort, but you know, I don't think they get enough credit for how much time they put in, and how much time away from their families that it takes,” Connaughton added. “And for me and my little man, and hopefully, you know, future family members -- I want to spend some time with them. Maybe a management role, maybe an ownership group will let me tag on and be a consultant, or something. But I want to stay involved with the game, at some point, whenever my playing career is over, (but) I don't know about coaching the ship."

It’s a common question I’ve seen about Pat, asking whether he’d become a coach or not.

He’s also got a pretty hefty real estate business going on, so I’m sure if Pat doesn’t find that tag-along consultant gig, he’ll be just fine. I asked Pat about his side ventures as a real estate mogul; I’ll keep the internet-theorized earnings of said business up to you and your own research. I will not discuss the man’s money at my writing table, as Kenny Rogers reminded me I shouldn’t.

“Yeah, I mean, look, I think as a young guy, I learned very quickly there's a lot of downtime during an 82 game season,” Connaughton said of his real estate endeavors.

“There's a lot of road trips, a lot of time in hotels, kind of how you manage your time (is important), and what you have interest in, you can find time for, especially in today's NBA. Right, it's about recovery. It's about making sure you're not on your feet, you know, 24/7. And so there's areas where you can learn about different things. And so from a real estate standpoint, My dad was a general contractor. I learned a lot from him growing up.

“I worked on a lot of job sites, and I just kind of wanted to start to invest my money in a place that I had a passion for. And it's started to grow and did grow quicker than I anticipated, which has been a lot of fun and kept me busy, and what I like to say is: It keeps me out of trouble.”

I sure hope Connaughton pulls off the miracle of staying around because, as many have said before, he was a pleasure to talk to. Hard not to see why everyone around the team has bragged about him so much.

PJ Hall Ankle Injury Update

The former Clemson star came along later in the afternoon, but he was a great interview, as always. Way more in-depth stuff about PJ is available here in the Hornets on SI exclusive profile I did on Hall a few months back, if you’re interested.

But for today, he’s given us an update on his ankle progress, and that’s what I’m here to share:

Reall excited for this coming year,” Hall said. “But with the ankle, yeah, it's coming along really well. Been back doing some stuff on the court. I've been, you know, getting up to speed, getting back in shape, and you know I’d say I'm right on pace for where we're running (to start the season). So it's coming along really smoothly.”

I also asked Hall whether he’s had a chance to gain any wisdom from Naz Reid, who stood right where Hall stands now in a two-way spot before making his claim to fame in Minnesota.

“Yeah, we actually talked about that the other day,” Hall said of Reid. “We were talking about our journey, coming along, some different stuff, and yeah. He has a cool journey. Dude can really play. I love his game. Super smooth, super fluid, just like a fun guy to watch. And so, seeing a guy who is that talented fighting his way through the process is cool to see, and it's kind of a light in the tunnel, you know, that I can try to follow. And so, yeah, I've enjoyed being around him so far.”

Closing Thoughts

It’s not everything, but I sure tried to hit a lot of it. Lots of Media Day is smoke, but I’ve tried to wade through the fog to get here.

Thanks for bearing with me through it all, and I hope you left more knowledgeable about this team than before.

That’s ultimately my only goal — well, my second goal. The first is to entertain you along the way. I bid you farewell with my best Russell Crowe Gladiator impression:

“Are you not entertained?!”

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