Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

The Charlotte Hornets Are TANKING In Plain Sight!!

19 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:12

In this YouTube monologue, former NBA player and analyst Draymond Green discusses the NBA's upcoming crackdown on tanking and accuses the Charlotte Hornets of openly tanking their roster. He points to the benching of star point guard LaMelo Ball despite a hot shooting stretch, noting that Ball was taken out in the third quarter after hitting multiple threes and only returned late in the fourth. Green argues that without a dedicated point guard, the Hornets' other scorers—Miles, Brandon Miller, and Conkanupo—lack the necessary playmaking, making the team easier to defend. He frames these lineup decisions as clear evidence that the Hornets are deliberately losing games in plain sight.

Chapters

Couple months ago or a month ago or so came out that the NBA is going to crack down on tanking. And I would say great because the Charlotte Hornets is a team that is tanking right in your face in plain sight. We start our meeting and we're going through the starting lineup and I'm looking, I'm like, yo, Melo not playing. They like, no, he playing, he coming off the bench. And I'm sitting there looking like, huh, what? He coming off the bench? They are a much worse team and so easy to guard when LaMelo's not on the floor. When we played them in Charlotte, LaMelo had it going. Hit multiple threes in a row. He had got their team going. And then in the third quarter, he came out at about the 5-minute mark maybe and did not come back in the game no matter what was going on. He didn't come back in the game until the fourth quarter with 4 minutes to go. When he left the game, he had hit like 4 straight threes. Why is there nothing to explain about that? When you look at this team, like having Miles out there with LaMelo, they're one of the best lob duos in the league. But then you put him out there with no point guard. Who's setting him up? Brandon Miller got it going. Who's setting him up? Conkanupo got it going. Who's setting him up? You have a point guard that is built to set all those guys up, and he's on the bench on that team. So they're really just tanking in plain sight. Woo!