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00:00 We're going to start with Nathan Mensah, Chase. I have to say, I've been watching and enjoying
00:06 Nathan Mensah's minutes. People have been asking why am I listening to a Hornets podcast with a
00:11 main section about Nathan Mensah. And by the way, the only picture I could find of him on our image
00:18 bank that we can use or Hornets was this weird photo, if you're watching on YouTube, of Nathan
00:22 Mensah bent over at a 90 degree angle. It looks like he's just been kicked in the nuts, which is
00:29 bizarre. So that is Nathan Mensah, if you're wondering who the heck is that on YouTube.
00:33 I have a question to kick this off. Is Nathan Mensah better than Kai Jones right now?
00:40 Like right now? Definitely. I can, yeah, I think so. He's a more competent defensive center. And
00:49 if you're just asking a player to come off the bench and play like in a dozen or so minutes a
00:55 game, like Nathan Mensah is definitely more reliable, consistent, and yeah, he's just overall
01:00 better at it, I think, than Kai Jones, which is a crazy thing to say. But yeah, that's definitely
01:05 true. He's the antithesis of Kai Jones. Kai Jones is like, I'm big, I'm athletic, I like to shoot
01:11 pull-ups. Like I have no idea what's going on on the court. I play outside of myself all the time.
01:17 Whereas Nathan Mensah is just the complete opposite of that. Like stays in his lane,
01:22 knows exactly what he needs to do, has great defensive awareness, does all the little things,
01:26 you know, muscling in before the play really starts. They're polar opposites of players,
01:32 but you can understand why coaches like guys like Nathan Mensah, because he's been really
01:38 impressive. Chase, he is third in the NBA in charges per 36 minutes. That was my stat too.
01:44 Yes. That was my stat. Let's go. I think this was as of January 5th, the Hornets themselves
01:50 actually tweeted out, this is how you know the whole team is in on the Nathan Mensah experience.
01:54 He was tied for second in the NBA in total charges drawn with five since making his debut
02:01 on December 15th. That man is willing to sacrifice his body for the betterment of the team. And we've
02:07 talked about this on many episodes. There are not many or any players on the Hornets that are
02:13 willing to do that right now. They needed a guy like Nathan Mensah that was willing to go out
02:17 there and do the dirty work. And he's standing out because of it. You can't have watched the
02:23 Hornets in the last couple of weeks and not have just noticed him and been like, "Who is this?"
02:27 Maybe if you didn't know who he was, didn't watch college basketball, pay attention to
02:31 Greensboro or E-10 signings or two ways or whatever, you say, "Who is that guy? Number 31?
02:36 I had no idea there was a 31 on the Hornets and he's playing backup center because Mark's out."
02:42 And then now you watch two, three, four games and all of a sudden, he's a pretty good rebounder.
02:47 He's really, really active inside the paint. He's super physical. He's not afraid to push
02:51 people around. Obviously, he's drawing a lot of charges. I'm pretty sure he's already surpassed
02:57 Brandon Miller for total charges drawn among rookies, which is again, second or third place
03:04 among rookies total. And he's played like a hundred or so minutes already. It's just really,
03:10 obviously he's still a very limited offensive player. And even defensively, he's not elite.
03:15 He's just good enough to get by as an NBA backup for now. But this is definitely a fun thing to
03:20 watch and a good storyline that's developed from this menagerie of injuries here is that the Hornets
03:27 may have scraped up another capable backup or rotation player on a two way here. Yeah. He's
03:33 never going to be a guy that you probably want to be in your rotation. Oh, absolutely. Yes,
03:37 absolutely. If you're talking about someone that have on the two, when he got signed to the two
03:41 way, I was kind of a bit like, well, I guess, but I didn't really see anything in summer league that
03:46 made me think Nathan Menses is a good option. But now I'm like, oh, well like spot minutes when
03:53 there's an injury crisis, like does all the little things plays the right way. You know, protects the
03:59 rim pretty well, actually gets some blocks, but even when he doesn't block shots, he's just like
04:04 physical. He fights through screens. He really anticipates. Well, this is the thing that he
04:09 reads the other offensive teams so well, and he always able to kind of put himself in the right
04:13 position. You know, he's not really athletic. He's not super quick. He's not super big,
04:18 but he's just strong and smart. And I mean, he should be, even though he's a rookie, I think
04:22 he's 25, 26 years old. He's like super old. He had six college seasons. Yeah. He's a very
04:28 experienced basketball player, even though he's only a rookie. He is. But that's the kind of stuff
04:33 that the Hornets are needed over the years, right? These like smart, physical, not the most flashy
04:38 when you see them on workouts, but you watch them say basketball, you go, oh, oh yeah, I see. He
04:42 impacts the game. And I just think in this lost season, these are the little storylines that we
04:48 need to latch onto because he's done really well with zero expectation, people making jokes when
04:54 they sign Nathan Mensa. And like he matched up, was it with Jokic one night? Who was it the next
05:00 night? There was a, he had like two all-star guys back to back. It was that the Lakers. Oh,
05:06 so bonus. Okay. And Jokic and AD as well. And like you watching it and they were not getting
05:12 whatever they wanted against him. Yeah. I just, just shout out Nathan Mensa. We don't, we don't
05:17 give this guy any recognition. No one's ever talked about him probably in a basketball context
05:22 since he left college, but we're doing so now because he deserves it. So we want to say shout
05:27 out Nathan Mensa. We respect the hustle. Shout out to Nathan Mensa.