The Saturday Stinger
Your weekly Charlotte Hornets notebook that’s not afraid to laugh at itself. Not here to convince you with stats– just good prose; I can’t afford Synergy.
February 28th, 2026
Owen Watterson's free, weekly publication can also be found here.
The Sermon on the Spectrum (Center)
My big picture, weekly State of the Hive Address:
Both of my children are lucky they were born before this current run that the Charlotte Hornets are on.
Definitely stole that one from a viral tweet.
My next dog will take the honor instead. For now, the “who” part of the naming honor is still up for grabs. The Hornets players are competing for something much more important (only to me) than an NBA Championship.
LaMelo Ball has five dogs. Surely he’ll understand the pressure he’s under here.
If we think back on his youth, Ball has never known anything but pressure. He carries himself carefree, and always has. Whether he’ll ever admit it or not, psychology tells us that this is a learned habit. One that grows out of childhood, and from our parents, of course. Like all of us.
Not sure about you guys, but my entire adult life mirrors everything that I wanted to be better than. To be better than the accumulation of bad things that happened to me has forever been my life’s North Star.
It seems to me that Ball has taken a similar approach, in his own way, with his own journey.
Let’s unravel my thinking here for a second.
LaMelo’s father, LaVar Ball, is a well-known figure, to say the least. One who is vocal about everything to the public; a guy like me can only imagine he was vocal and willing to speak his mind in his household, as well. I don’t even mean this in any sort of verbal abuse accusation, either.
I just mean that LaVar is a loud, confident, honest (of what he believes, at least; you aren’t beating MJ one-on-one, brother), and opinionated person. That’s him, and he’s never strayed away from it or been misleading about it. That I can respect, and I’m certain LaMelo Ball does, too.
Respect doesn’t always equal imitation. For me, with my own Mom, I respected her a lot– there were still a million things I thought could’ve been different, like everyone when they’re younger.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Me, personally? I disagree with that. The sincerest form of flattery that your child could give you, especially, is taking the best of you and using the best to overcome the parts of you they believe could have been better, or different, for the better.
Is LaMelo Ball to the point and honest like LaVar? Absolutely– it’s in his own unique, quiet manner, though. Now I’m answering my own questions. Great. You see why I decided to call this segment a Sermon.
This think tank here has all come out of my wondering what made a child basketball prodigy like LaMelo remain so loyal to a team like Charlotte.
Charles Lee is his third coach. Ball’s second coach (Steve Clifford) was the one fired to hire his first coach (James Borrego). He’s had a singular winning season, record-wise, with the Hornets since being drafted number three overall in 2020. Charlotte was blown out in its only play-in game that season against Indiana.
Despite all the losing in the NBA, Ball has never been anything but outwardly reassuring to the Charlotte media and fans that he loves playing here. Two brief quotes from Ball that summarize most of his past words on the topic of loyalty:
“All that you need to leave this and that– when you build something, it’s never just gonna pop off and be the best thing. You gotta stay there and work it out.”
“You supposed to just go to a team and build from there– I feel like that’s how it should be.”
So, as many times as we’ve seen articles, mock trades, and rumors about Ball returning to his hometown or even a bigger market in general as recently as this season (I’m not letting you forget, Kelly Iko)…
I mean it when I say LaMelo has never given reason to suggest it has any truth behind it. It would be one thing if he hadn’t ever commented on it at all, but he has expressed this same emotion on more than just these two accounts.
When you take into account where he grew up and how LaVar Ball differs from LaMelo’s adult self, as we’ve talked about briefly, it’s not complicated as to why he has potentially been so loyal to Charlotte.
It’s deeper than just building something to me– past Hornets players, even through bad regimes, have always spoken highly of what it was like to live in Charlotte. It’s the complete antithesis of Los Angeles, where LaMelo grew up and went to high school.
I think Ball likes the privacy Charlotte provides him. He told Rod Boone in his recent feature with the Charlotte Observer that he could essentially be comfy anywhere. But the ability the city gives him to live his life, generally speaking, however he wants, without much public interference or media hounding, is 180 degrees from his childhood.
We all tend to drift towards some things in life that are 180 degrees from our childhood. Not everything… but some things.
I’ve thought my whole life that with the right mix of superstar and a decent team, Charlotte could hit on this combo of superstar-tired-of-the-limelight, given the privacy the city offers.
This perk of living in the city was just always overshadowed by the Hornets’ losing for so long. It wasn’t time for their star yet. Charlotte has one now, one that hasn’t just bought into his head coach’s “Hornets DNA”; he’s bought into the city as a whole and the state of North Carolina.
Now that Charlotte has established a legit core, I could really see Ball staying with the Hornets his whole career. This is his second home now. LaMelo saw his father build something with him and his brothers in LA, and I think LaMelo has wanted to build something in his own way, in a different place.
He’s done it by having the patience with the city of Charlotte and the franchise’s struggles his whole career, in a way nobody but Kemba Walker has done.
Ball, I truly believe, has always seen the very specific-to-Charlotte opportunity not just to be an NBA legend, but to finish as one of the best that one of only thirty NBA franchises has ever seen. He has the very real chance to end his career as the undisputed best player in almost every category for the Charlotte Hornets if he sticks around through another full contract.
He’s been patient enough to lay the groundwork for it to happen, and we’re seeing the fruits of it now. Ball deserves all the credit for his patience and loyalty, and that’s what I wanted to have acknowledged most throughout my lobotomy of LaMelo in today’s Sermon.
To The Point (Or Die Stinging)
If I don’t get to the point quickly enough here, I succumb to death-by-hornet– I am often left on the floor, full of welts, with no EpiPen in sight:
Kon Knueppel didn’t just break Keegan Murray’s 206-made rookie three-pointer record on an average night. He did it while going into Thursday night’s Pacers game still five makes away from tying the record at 206. Knueppel, who averaged 3.4 three-point makes a night going in, finished the Pacers game with eight made shots on 12 attempts beyond the arc. Knueppel finished the Hornets’ 3-0 three-game road trip at 209 total three’s made through 60 games. S I X T Y. Knueppel has started all but one of Charlotte’s 61 games so far this season, now averages 3.5 makes per game from deep, and is on pace to finish the year with 286 made threes after 82 games and shatter Murray’s record.
On most major betting markets, Knueppel has moved ahead, in a few instances, equal to Cooper Flagg’s odds to win NBA Rookie of the Year.
The Charlotte Hornets broke their all-time franchise record for consecutive road-game wins against Chicago on Tuesday, to move to eight wins in a row on the road. The win versus Indiana on Thursday extended what is now an active all-time franchise record of nine straight road wins.
You can now find The Saturday Stinger in an extra place. This week’s publication will be the first to be cross-posted in full to SportCLT’s Substack publication as well. Creator Dylan Jackson was gracious enough to help me put the stinger out to an even wider audience, and he has big plans for that platform. I look forward to seeing how their all-inclusive coverage of Charlotte’s professional sports continues to evolve. Go and support someone who is just as much of a sicko as all of you reading this. Thank you, Dylan, for your kindness and belief.
The support all of you have given this endeavor so early means the world. This is authentically me, and it’s what readers deserve more of in sports from someone who knows sports but still can’t figure out Databllr. I’m good with words, not math or scatterplots. Clearly. In the words of Kevin Durant, who appears missing from the internet currently: “Who the f**k wants to look at a graph while having a hoops convo?” Show me your graphs still, please. I can’t make them myself.
The Biggest Pain in my Thorax
What’s really bothering my bee-hind this week?:
Pro sports could use a little more of the energy from college athletics. It’d probably be best if they kept the commissioner, players’ association, salary cap, and actual league structure part, though.
I just want the hatred!
I’ve been locked into South Carolina versus Clemson baseball since last night, and no matter the sport, as a native of SC, this rivalry was the birth of my love for sports. There’s something special about it. Everyone cares.
You get your first high school boyfriend/girlfriend, and your parents want to know whether they pull for Clemson or Carolina. The same thing that makes UNC/Duke in college basketball so high-octane and adrenaline-filled.
Imagine a world after 60 Hornets’ games that I can’t think of about ten things right off the top of my head that are vehemently pissing me off. Here we are. It is complete bliss.
Despite the invention by the NBA of the BBQ Pig Trophy, given to the victor of each Hornets/Hawks game, it still feels like we’re not taking this rivalry seriously enough.
For context, of what my biggest pain is, and how seriously I want you all and the NBA to take this rivalry:
I’m a big-time New York Yankees fan purely out of disdain for Atlanta sports, as a lifelong Charlotte sports follower. How could I follow one singular team from the city whose other teams I despise entirely? Up to and including the University of Georgia up the road in Athens?
I couldn’t. I wasn’t able to bear it despite the ever-present Braves’ script A logo I see all the time, everywhere I go in South Carolina.
This has only furthered my pointless and purely personal vendetta against the city of Atlanta.
The pig trophy has leveled it up a small notch in past years. I think it’s obvious what the NBA can do that’s staring them right in the face to help further potential rivalries like this:
Stop randomizing the NBA Cup Groups.
Make the divisions mean something again and give them some weight by making the NBA Cup Groups the same every year.
It’s the same reason conference rivalries sprouted in college football. The same group of teams every year being your barrier to entry for more than just an extra win on your regular season record, but for NBA Cup advancement to the knockouts, imitates that same ‘conference foe’ feeling.
I don’t feel as if we have gotten that from NBA divisional opponents in a long time. The NBA’s most storied rivalry is between teams that aren’t even in the same conference, much less the same division. Adam Silver is getting tons of resentment for his focus on tanking, and this is the kind of small “It’s staring you in the face” moves that could reignite some fan excitement. Or overall, just any nice words spoken about him.
It’s familiar to the division-style format the NFL uses, but it’s different enough to be uniquely the NBA, because the NBA Cup, aside from soccer, is special to The Association.
Oh, how this would ignite the spark. For more than just the Hornets and Hawks.
So, Charlotteans: I call you to further your level of spite for the Hawks, and ramp up your glee when the Hornets take over the BBQ Pig Trophy (as they have twice in a row).
But, simultaneously, thank you, Atlanta:
For saving my butt on posting a way-too-controversial and emotionally driven segment that got scrapped, and that you’ll never see. Ha! Restraint!
I don’t say “thank you” and “Atlanta” in the same sentence very often. Now I’ve done it twice, just to prove to you how important my thank-you really is.
You may never get it from me again, Hawks fans. Hopefully, you won’t ever get the BBQ Pig Trophy back from inside the walls of The Spectrum Center, either.
Not anytime soon, at least.
Just help make rivalries feel important again. It’s what makes sports special.
Even if it comes at the expense of hatred for a city you really have no business having any beef with.
The Sting Zone (Formerly Known as the Spin Zone)
Charlotte isn’t just having a feel-good year; they’ve opened a championship window:
I’ve been the first one to say the Charlotte Hornets should avoid a 40+ million dollar near-max extension for Brandon Miller this summer, but today’s Sting Zone runs deeper than that.
I want to spin an already happy narrative into something that’s staring us all in the face, but it seems the Hornetsphere is afraid to say out loud.
Miller is certainly making that contract topic the elephant in the room, though, before I get there. The “Address Me” GIF is essentially what Miller’s box score says to me after every game.
Despite his more frequent offensive outbursts of late, my argument to avoid paying Miller the max, up to this point, has come down to one main thing, and the rest branches off of that central idea:
If the Hornets fluff this contract, especially considering they have one of their starters (Moussa Diabaté) on one of the best value deals in the NBA at the moment, it could immediately close what appears to be a small championship window that’s opened.
To some of you, the end of that sentence was absurd. But this is real. I don’t even distinctly mean this season, I mean the next few seasons.
It’s not just Diabaté. Kon Knueppel still has three more seasons on a rookie-scale contract that Charlotte has full control over. Miller still has one more rookie year on the books before potential extension money would kick in. LaMelo Ball is the only player under the maximum salary right now.
The only ‘bad’ contract on the team is Tre Mann, whose two years, $16 million remaining after the 2025-2026 season won’t be as difficult to move off of as some may think. Too many teams are in a draft pick shortage right now to pass up even a lower-tier first-rounder and some seconds. Even if it means Mann is attached.
Miles Bridges’ contract also expires after the 2026-2027 season; he’ll likely be back. Maybe even for less money per season than he’s on now (27M AAV, ~28M ‘26-’27)...
Rod Boone mentioned a potential Bridges return as a small nugget in his recent ‘Ask Me Anything’ segment on the R/CharlotteHornets Reddit.
Boone also seemed 100% firm in the idea that Miller would be ‘locked in’ for what it’s worth:
Beat writers of Rod’s caliber and stature don’t just say things like that will-nilly. Everything is calculated.
That’s the best-case scenario for paying Brandon Miller, if the extension is closer to the max than preferred; hopefully, they can do more than just get Miles back in 2027.
If they can get him back on a deal that’s affordable, less than he’s making now, even– it opens up your cap for more Miller money in the coming years.
This is how they can keep their window open and navigable, while the cap sheet stays at a reasonable number:
Sign Brandon Miller to money that may not quite be max, but enough to make him feel valued, and go out and make a trade with Tre Mann + picks and sign a few quality free agents. Re-sign Bridges in 2027 to a team-friendly deal, hopefully after they’ve seen a playoff appearance or two.
It’s also completely plausible for Bridges to accept a deal like this from Charlotte in the summer of 2027, given how close he is with LaMelo Ball. On and off the court, like Rod Boone alluded to. If there’s anywhere Bridges’ value is highest, it’s next to his best friend.
The foundation is there, but things start getting tight after this Miller extension, if it happens. If they can’t bring Miles back on a team-friendly deal in 2027 and he remains right under 30M/year right as Brandon’s big money kicks in, this current core of 2025-2026 is very close to being locked in as the Hornets would start toying with the cap aprons.
That’s the primary reason I’ve been so focused on Miller’s potential money… the future. That’s on me, and it’s most definitely not a total reflection of how I feel about Brandon. Nuance is hard on the internet.
Maybe I should be less worried about going deep into the cap in future years, and appreciating what Brandon is actively giving this Hornets team:
The only guy who has consistently shown they can get a tough bucket when LaMelo’s shooting is off– Kon/Miles are all struggling from deep, and a bad offense is starting to render Diabaté’s glass dominance irrelevant.
A mid-range fadeaway. Good footwork on the low block. A dunk that swings the momentum back.
It truly is Brandon Miller. I have to give him his flowers there amidst all my concerns. My main concern has always been sustained relevance…
It’s the part of me that sees what’s here and available for the Hornets to grow in the future. I want more than just a playoff appearance or one series win, though.
I know how finite and almost lucky your chances have to be to assemble a team that’s capable of winning an NBA Title. As much as I’m excited about the future, a lot of my contract worries come down to fear. Fear of Charlotte screwing it up again.
I remember how bad the Nic Batum max-contract swing strapped the Hornets down in Kemba’s best years. Lord knows I think way more highly of Brandon than Batum’s tenure, but that wound still feels fresh, and that’s the easiest, ultra-negative devil’s advocate, situational comparison.
If they pay Brandon an increasing +8% that starts at, say, 38 Million a year. Lower than the possible 45 Million +8% each year, that’s fully available. Where do we land in three years if Miller never makes an All-Star team, and now it’s time to pay Knueppel via extension, too, and you can’t move off of Miller’s deal for something that keeps you competitive?
Decisions would have to be made. So much can happen in between then, I’m aware of that, but Knueppel’s extension time in a few years could be the first time we see how Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall feel about going into the aprons for winning’s sake. Just a thought, and most definitely all hypothetical, if that’s not abundantly clear.
Richie Randall of the Buzz Beat pod laid out what a full-on max extension for Miller could look like a few weeks ago. That is linked here.
I just want what is best for the Hornets. In every way. That’s led me to worry about all the wrong things, and I’m capable of admitting that.
That doesn’t mean the max contract extension is something we should write off as a must, as a potential window may have opened for the first time since the Bobcats’ creation.
I feel like Jesse in Toy Story 2 after meeting Woody for the first time.
This isn’t about not wanting to give Brandon his money.
It’s about not wanting to go back in the dark. Back in the ‘losing’ box because a bad contract puts us there, just like Woody leaving would have left Jesse back in storage.
She wasn’t really mad at Woody wanting to go home. I’m not mad at the idea of Brandon getting a lot of money.
I just don’t want to go back into the dark.
Predictions (Who Likes Puns, Anyway?)
Thoughts on the upcoming week:
I am going to discontinue this segment moving forward.
This newsletter tends to run long anyway, and you all can get predictions, up to and including my own still, at places like Hornets On SI.
If any of you feel so strongly about my discontinuation that you need to say something, my DMs are always open on Twitter at @0wenwatterson. I went 4-0 last week, so if you want my genie magic further, I’ll hear your plea.
Thank you all for understanding. The worst part is losing the only segment not built on a pun. Then again, maybe that’s actually the best part. We’re hive-minded through and through now.
Until next week… stay sharp.
- O