MillionDollarCam

87’ Lindsey in for Afful.

Into the last 5 minutes and Houston draws one back. CHARLOTTE FC 2 - HOUSTON DYNAMO 1 28’ OG 74’ Shinyashiki from Bronico

Goalllll Shinyashiki misses a sitter then comes back and slots one in the corner minutes later. CHARLOTTE FC 2 - HOUSTON DYNAMO 0

Gaines in for Jozwiak, Shinyashiki in for Swiderski. Still in a 5-4-1 GK - Kahlina RB - Afful RCB - Corujo CB - Walkes LCB - Fuchs LB - Mora RM - Gaines RCM - Bronico LCM - Ruiz LM - Bender ST - Shinyashiki

Looks like a 5-4-1 now. GK - Kahlina RB - Afful RCB - Corujo CB - Walkes LCB - Fuchs LB - Mora RM - Jozwiak RCM - Bronico LCM - Ruiz LM - Bender ST - Swiderski Available Subs - Marks, Lindsey, Makoun, Hegardt, Gaines, Vargas, Shinyashiki

61’ Bender in for McNeill, Mora in for Reyna.

HT CHARLOTTE FC 1 - HOUSTON DYNAMO 0 28’ OG

Offer hasn’t officially been pulled, all speculation right now. If it’s pulled then Miles becomes a UFA. One strange thing that happened today is LaMelo posted an IG story with some of Miles music playing…

Sheesh… Jozwiak just missed a sitter off of a layoff from Swiderski.

Goal!!! Reyna has been a force so far and puts a great cross in the box that Jozwiak plays across the six and takes a deflection off a Houston player for an own goal. CHARLOTTE FC 1 - HOUSTON DYNAMO 0

Defender goes straight through Reyna and nothing from the referee… MLS officiating needs to be a lot better… it’s downright atrocious right now.

Back at it against Houston, in desperate need of a win. Interesting starting lineup. GK - Kahlina RB - Afful RCB - Corujo LCB - Walkes LB - Fuchs CDM - Bronico RCM - Ruiz LCM - McNeill RW - Reyna ST - Swiderski LW - Jozwiak Subs - Marks, Lindsey, Makoun, Mora, Bender, Hegardt, Gaines, Vargas, Shinyashiki Not Included - Sisniega, Sobocinski, Jones, Alcivar, Ortiz, Rios Injured - Armour, Mello On Loan - Zendejas (Charlotte Independence), Santos (Charlotte Independence), Franco (Talleres)

Kai’s got a chance to special.

Link to the Malkin and Letang rumor. https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Malkin-and-Letang-Could-End-up-in-Carolina/1/117960

Friedman and Ecklund speculating the Canes could bring in both Malkin and Letang.

Washington isn’t an elite scorer either so in your starting line up you have Melo, Herro, Simmons, Washington, and Plumlee… Where exactly are your points coming from besides Melo and Herro? That would be the easiest starting five to defend. All teams would have to do is lock in on Herro. At the very least, our current starting lineup of Melo, Rozier, Hayward, Washington, and Plumlee has three good scorers when fully healthy. Not to mention, Hayward has played more games than Simmons over the past three years. You effectively traded one bad contract for a worse and longer contract.

All that and he barely has a winning record while playing with elite talent? He’s Westbrook… essentially a stat stuffer that can’t win. We don’t need his defense, we need our players who already good offensively to buy in. Hopefully Clifford can accomplish that. We also don’t need his play making, our offense wasn’t the problem last year and Melo needs to be surrounded by shooters, not guys who can’t make a a five foot jump shot. Anywho, it’s a moot point anyway as this hypothetical would never happen.

Numbers aren’t all there is to basketball, that’s what’s great about the player efficiency rating, it calculates a players overall impact in all areas. And yes, Diallo does guard the opposing teams best player, he’s Detroit’s defensive specialist and averages more steals per game than Martin.

Paying $40M for a player that scores 1 point in a playoff game is asinine… The Hornets already have a player with Simmons skillset who is a better player. Bringing in Simmons is on par with adding Westbrook except that Westbrook can sometimes shoot the basketball. Not to mention, Simmons is soft and has constantly been called out his teammates.

He’s not a better defender by $3M per year, I’ll also take Diallo’s PER over Martin’s indicating that Diallo is the more efficient player while making a lot less.

Simmons contract is worse than Haywards… Simmons hasn’t played in more than sixty games the past three years and he’ll soon be taking up 1/3 of the salary cap… not to mention he has a 15% trade kicker in his contract. Also, posting highlights doesn’t help the cause… they are supposed to be good… they are highlights. There’s plenty of lowlights out there for him too… like passing up and open layup in a playoff game or scoring a total of 1 point in a playoff game. The Hornets are better off teaching the players they have how to play defense rather than acquiring a defensive specialist (which they already have in Martin).

It’s not a massive overpay but there are players that are better than Martin (for example: Diallo) making less money on a worse team. I also would have preferred a three year deal.

I like Herro, would just prefer to use the money going to Simmons elsewhere.

Wouldn’t have had to, for one Miles contract even at a max would have still come under the luxury tax and secondly, PJ’s contract doesn’t expire until next year… you know when both Plumlee’s and Oubre’s deals also expire, opening up more than enough room for Washington. Obviously a moot point now since Miles is an idiot but regardless, overpaying your own free agents unless they are star players can be detrimental to the long term cap flexibility of the team.

So basically a bigger version of LaMelo that can’t shoot? The ball should be in LaMelo’s hands the majority of the time during the run of play. If Simmons were acquired then he’d need the ball in his hands to make any sort of impact. In reality, Simmons’ defensive game is the only intriguing thing about him. Literally the only thing that separates Simmons from a player like MKG is Simmons ability to handle the basketball, something that isn’t important to the Hornets. The perfect wing for LaMelo is an inside out player, unfortunately, that player just got arrested. Someone who gets into the lane as often as LaMelo doesn’t need another player that is going to spend most of their time in the lane.