Extra uh good morning mitch. Good to see you again. Let's just cut to the chase. So you're taking at 11. What makes you think we're still gonna have 11? Well played, well played with with the way that the workouts have gone? How pleased have you been with the guys that you've seen so far? And and has that really helped you and narrowing down options for yourselves at 11? Well, it's really helped. Um, you know, this this year clearly is different than years past, right? We weren't allowed to scout, you know, any college or international games in person. All the scouting was done via video. Um, so being able to get guys in, you know, beginning with Chicago predraft, and then there was a camp in Minnesota. And then of course, the last, you know, three or four weeks we've been bringing and probably close to 80 players into Charlotte. You know, for individual workouts in years past, you gotta be careful that, you know, bringing them in doesn't overly sway the way you look at a player and disregard what you watched, you know, for the prior year or two or three. Uh so this year is different. I mean, we're finally getting up close to a player, you can stand next to the player, you know, you get a great feel for their athleticism, their skill level. Um So it's been good, it's helped quite a bit, certainly better, you know, than what we had to kind of go through last year, although last year we did get to scout in person through february, you know, but we didn't get the individual workouts, we didn't get the pro days, we didn't get Chicago. So the last, you know, year, and then this year in the draft process, uh, you know, you gotta roll with the punches, right? It's been challenging, but it's not just us, it's every team in the league and just getting kids in, you know, scouting in person in Chicago, you know, it's been a breath of fresh air. Mhm. Let's go to san pearly. Hey mitch. I know you guys, um, obviously mentioned you brought in a lot of guys here. Is there any common thread between the prospects you're looking at what you're specifically looking to address in terms of on the court off the court? Um, I know it's kind of sometimes best player available there at that spot, but I guess what are some of the things you're looking to identify most bringing in these guys in the workout to help the team, both on and off the court? Well, I'll be consistent and just say talent, okay, we're still at that level. Yeah. Where we've got to add talent to this team. You know, we played pretty well last year. In fact, I think we've got the fourth place, you know, for a week or two or three, I'm not exactly sure how long, but we had a couple of injuries, you know, Gordon went down, melo went down and, you know, we plummeted, you know, our performance and to me that's just because, you know, if we're healthy, you know, we're a pretty good team, but we're not deep enough, you know, to be able to sustain an injury or two. And in this league you have to assume you're going to have an injury or two. So we've just got to add, you know, talent, you know, to this team Um at 11, quite frankly, you're probably going to end up with somebody who's 18 or 19. Uh there is a player or two, you know, that our four year guys uh that would be considered at 11, But most of the time at 11 you're going to get somebody very young. So, um, that player we'd like, if it is a young player, you know, to be a talented player with great character that would fit into, you know what we're trying to build here in charlotte. Thank you. Let's go to a rod Boone and then fill or been, hey mitch mitch, you mentioned trying to just add, I guess, talent and young talent, um, But this draft being the way it is constructed with the, I guess, is it deeper than, than people expect? Do you think you'll find a player 11 this year will be able to help you the way PJ miles have been a previous couple of years from that same position? Yeah, we think so. I've got great confidence, you know, in Larry Jordan, who oversees the scouting and our scouts, they've done a great job in the last three years. Um, you know, it's, it's not, you know, easy, it's not scientific, you know, I wish it was, you know, something where you can just sit down and and figure it out. That's not always the case. There's a lot of moving parts, But yeah, we think we'll get somebody, you know, who's good at 11. Uh, like I said, most likely that player will be another young player, but we don't know that for sure. And then this is the first obviously big step of the all season for you guys. Can just, I guess, I guess to discuss a little bit, just how important is for you guys to kind of keep to go the ball roll in the right direction and where you guys are doing right now. You mentioned you guys were 4th and 5th until injuries happen. How important for you guys to kind of keep it going the right direction. As you kind of see, you can maybe be on that level if you just make a couple of moves in the off season here. Well, I think naturally the bar has been risen. Um, you know, I think expectations are probably more this year coming up than they were last year. So just in that regard, it's important, right? People expect more. We expect more. I think our coaches are players expect more. So yes, we've got to keep going. Um, we've got a lot of flexibility with our cab, You know, and you know, we've got three picks, although two of the Pixar in the late 50s, um, moving forward and continuing to improve, uh, will be, and hopefully quite frankly to, you know, contend, you know, for a playoff spot this year. Cancer have said that in the last year. But based on how we played last year, I would hope that we do continue to improve. And we're in the hunt. You mentioned the challenges of the year ago. I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind taking me back to that time and your evaluation of lamelo, what, what were you able to see from him in that limited scope that made you so confident? He was the guy you thought he would be? Yeah, well, you know, our international scout, um, Yacoub, you know, went to see him twice, um, in Australia and, you know, I went one time back in november a year ago. We saw a couple of practices, you know, we saw a couple of games, It's a great league over there. The NBl they're they're all men, you know, they're all 27 28 30 32. You know, it's not like it's uh, you know, a league where it's all just young kids, you know, it's a very physical and very aggressive. They play for real, you know, and what we saw, he played well not only in practice, um, in the games, you know, he performed, it's not the N. B. A. Um, you know, the intel that our, our guys did all the film work, you know, that our scouts did, you know, larry leading the way. Um, yeah, we gathered as much as we could, you know, we did see some, you know, special qualities, you know, about him on the court, you know, a flare right to be entertaining, uh, the ability to pass the ball being unselfish. Um, I think there was a question about shooting the ball a little bit. Can you make a three? Um, and prior to the week, I think it was excuse me, prior to the draft, I think it was a week before the draft, myself and coach and Buzz flew out to Los Angeles for a private workout And, and a lot of it, if not almost all of it was, you know, watching him shoot the ball from three and we weren't so much concerned about him putting the ball down and being able to create a shot for himself. But the big question was, can he make open threes right? If you can't make an open three in this league and you're a ball handler, you know, then you're gonna have a problem. And we walked away, not only feeling good about his personality and his love of the game, but we felt very comfortable, you know, that he'd be able to make it three in our league. So, you know, a lot goes into it. Um We would have been better, right if you played a year in college ball and we get to scouting them 10 times 15 times in person, but that wasn't the case we made that we did the best we could with what we had available to us. And you know, keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we got lucky thanks mitch, let's go to steve reed and then Jonathan alexander. Hey mitch, steve read from the Associated Press um was going to ask you about the center position. Obviously there's a lot of talk about that and how you guys are going to address that. I wonder if you can discuss your center position, what you feel like you can do to upgrade that and just any, anything general about the, the center position, what do you feel like it needs to be done there? Yeah, I can't go into great detail because there's just not much more to share than, than what I shared a couple of months ago, I think in the season ending, uh, press conference, you know, yes, we have a void right now at the center position, the two centers that we had on the team, Cody Zeller and on Bismack, they're both free agents. Um, you know, we don't know what the future holds, you know, for them, you know, do they want to come back here? I think they do, you know, and then there's a marketplace that has to be considered. So if you just look at the depth chart, you know, it's clear to see that, hey, this, there should be a big X there at the center position. You know, there's a need there. Um, having said that, you know, PJ Washington did play some center last year, there aren't too many centers, you know, in the draft, you know, we're not going to hunt the center, like I said, we're going to try to get the best available talent at that position. Um, we'll have those answers going into free agency. Yeah, I hope to get more information on our two free agents very soon in terms of, you know, when we're allowed to speak to them. Um, and then we'll look at the market and we'll see what's out there other than what's on our team and maybe other than what we drafted and we'll figure it out. Um, we'll do the best. Let's go to Jonathan. Hey mitch Jonathan alexander with charlotte Observer, hope you're doing well. Um, you know, in, I just want to ask follow up questions. One of the things you said and taking the best available player, is there is there still a position that like say there are two players to players who are very close and um is there a position that say you think one is is better? One player is better, but he plays a position that you might not draft. I understood your question correctly. Um, I'm not sure I could answer it the way it was, you know, um, present presented we will take, excuse me, Yeah, NBA team calling in possible trade opportunity. We are going to look to take the best available talent. Okay. Um, if there are two players that you know, are definitely equal in talent and yeah, skill level and so forth and so on, then maybe we would lead to a big right because like I mentioned, you know, that is an area that there's more uncertainty. Um, but you know, we have two other free agents as well, right? The pentagram and Malik Monk and, you know, we're a little short in the back court and you could always use another wing also. So we would probably still continue to lean towards the best talent available. But at some point, you know, if it's real close that there'll be some discussions based on need, How do you, how do you feel about, you know, trying to resign, Devonte Graham and Malik, uh, Monk. And how are you approaching approaching that? This? Yeah. You know, unfortunately, we're not allowed to comment, you know, on any facet or free agency. So, um, you know, I can't really go further than that. And um, that's about it. I mean, they both earned the rights to be free agents and, you know, they're going to be a free agent um, shortly. So we'll contact the representatives and we'll go from there. Can I then, can I ask, you know, having you mentioned having flexibility? Um you know, having that, how does that help you in in free agency? Um And what do you hope to do with that? If you can answer that? Yeah. Well what I meant when I said that is is we will have cap prone how much cap room, you know, it remains to be determined right this cap hold, but I don't want to get too far into the weeds with, you know, the salary cap, but there's a cap hold for the pick, you know, there's cap hold, you know, for devante, there's a cap hold for Malik, there's a cap hold, but beyond Bismack, there's a cap hold. So, you know, if those cap holds, you know, are not removed or lessened, you know, because some of them are extraordinarily high, just based on the rules, then there'll be no flexibility for us. But you know, if we Want, you know, we could have up to 20 million plus you know, in cap room to go out and pursue free agents. Let's go to scott Fowler, and then rob long ago, Good morning mitch. Um speaking of the ball family, there have been reports about you having lee Angelo play for your summer league team. What can you say about that? And what are the positives in such a move? Well, he's been in our gym, working out with uh lamelo and, you know, before I, you know, start to answer the question completely, I've got to say that, you know, our gym has been, you know, just full of activity, You know, for the last 6-8 weeks, our coach has done a great job, you know, setting up times, you know, for players to come in, you're starting with treatment, training room, migrating to the weight room, then going up stairs and getting shots in uh Tuesdays and Thursdays, you know, they have fun, they scrimmage. So unlike any gym that I've been around in a long, long time, you know, the players like living in charlotte, you know, they're staying here and they're coming in every day to work out even on a friday at which we call a flex day, you know, which are playing, might want to get away for a weekend. Lot of these guys are still coming in on friday, so to answer the question, um, you know the mellow um, and his brother lee Angelo, right? Yeah, um I call him jello, so I gotta get the names right, but he showed up about a month ago with his brother and you know, they would come by at odd hours. You know, we allow, you know, our players to have a workout partner, you know, they can come in, you know, in the morning, on odd hours or in the afternoon or at night and come back and they wouldn't be working out together and then on open scrimmage days, you know, they would, he would scrimmage and um, you know, yeah, I guess to answer your question, we are going to present him with an invite and I can't confirm it, summer league, what we're gonna do is have four days of practice, I think, beginning on three August or maybe the fourth, four consecutive days here in charlotte And we'll probably bring in, you know, probably 18-20 players and he'll be one of them. And if they play well in those four days, then we'll get an invite to go to Vegas with the team. And we hope to be able to just bring 12 guys to Vegas a lot of times it ends up being more closer to 14. The more players you bring then it's harder to play them all. So we do try to keep the number down to 12 But it will probably go to 14 and that would be the plan with him and he's been great to be around. I'm sure mellow appreciates it. He's got a guy that uh he could you know hang out with and come to the gym with and rebound and shoot. So it's been good for him and you know he's a Division one player. He was a player that was recruited and played for U. C. L. A. He's a real you know talent whether he's good enough right now you know that remains to be seen. Um But he's fitting right in on the scrimmages that we play on Tuesdays and Thursdays and um and yeah yeah well we'll bring them to that four day camp and we'll go from there and I'm sorry I don't know this. But with Islam L. A. Will he play in the summer league this year's? He basically past that point I he will not play okay. Um We are allowed to once again I don't want to get too deep into the weeds but we are allowed to bring x number of veterans uh to Vegas and uh we we hope to bring almost all of our veteran players to Vegas some of which can work out you know when we work out um Of course the younger players will play and even the older players even though they might not work out in terms of practicing with the summer league team, they'll get workouts and there'll be a part of a group that's supporting each other, you know, in Vegas. So um of course I guess if his brother makes it right, he would definitely go, but he indicated to us that he was going anyway to be a part of the group. Thank you. Get around mitch. I was just curious if there was any rhyme or reason to the pre draft workouts. Like for example, you guys have brought in 456 players at a time and then there's a guy like high jones who was the only one for one day of a workout. I was just wondering if that was something that you guys wanted to see individually to take a closer look at guys or if it was just based on the prospects availability of when they could get in the gym. Yeah, I mean, we we would love to get all the players in were limited to three on three workouts. Okay, Okay. Which we don't play it right? We play five on five. So you'd love to have five on five, you know, second best would be four and four. But the rules only allow us to play three on three. Uh the Representatives, the agents, you know, to agree the degree, uh they control, you know, what takes place regarding the draft. Um you know, some representatives won't send us a physical of any player that they, you know, some would give you physical, but they won't let you work the player out. And some say, well we'll give you physical and you can work them out, but it has to be one on Oh right, it can't be two on 2 or three on 3. So, you know, something is better than nothing and, you know, a lot of the workouts, you know, it's very competitive amongst the representatives. Um you know, a lot of the players that are in the draft get advice from various sources, so sometimes, you know what actually we have to deal with doesn't make much sense to me, But a lot of the workouts for one I know, um and then we try to get three on three as much as possible, but we basically take what we can get. Thank you. Let's go to Nick Carboni. All right, let's I think Nick are you good? So let's wrap up with Richie, I'm sorry, I haven't done this in a while apparently. Um Mich, the way you guys have constructed the roster the last three or four years here, how do you feel about how it currently sits before you make the selection or do whatever you're gonna do thursday night and before free agency as you try to build this into, as you said, a hopeful playoff team? Well, my first year here, we had a veteran team led by Kemba walker and um I guess you could say it took me a year to figure out that we weren't going to be good enough to contend and get better and better every year. Um So we went through a natural, you know, process of um I don't want to phrase it as you know, starting over, but to some degree, you know, it was a transformation, you know, from a veteran team to, you know, a rebuilding team as quickly as possible and we've completed the second year of that. Um you know, once again, our scouts just bringing in the, the young talent, you know, the devotees and the martin brothers, um you know, Miles and P. J. McDaniels. Yeah, the tough picks, right? Um you know, when you're drafting very high in the draft, you know, you might not say it's a tough pick, but when you're drafting picks in the second round and you can get players then then you got to give credit to somebody, right? And um, our scouts have done a great job. The one thing we didn't expect last summer was Gordon Hayward being available to us alright, signing him was, you know, just a big boon for us to get a veteran, you know, of that stature, you know, in this organization and I think that's sped up, you know, expectations and our timeline a little bit, I think along with, you know, the progress that miles, especially the end of the season when he started for the last 20 games or so, he just made a gigantic leap. Um, and then mellow right. He didn't start the season as a starter. Um, He came off the bench and then Davante went down and then he stepped in and, you know, it took advantage, you know, of the opportunity. Um, So I think those factors, you know, pushed us along a little bit quicker. Then I thought we'd be at this time, um still have a lot of work to do. And you know, once again, we're just not deep enough, you know, to count on guys, you know, being healthy.