Good News, Bad News for the Hornets

[ozymandias]

Good News, Bad News for the Hornets

The regular season has ended a few weeks ago, but it’s never too late to take a look back and see how the 2023/2024 season went for the Charlotte Hornets.

Good news: Relevancy
We all know that the Hornets are in the process of rebuilding and they’ve been a lottery team for quite a few seasons now. Fortunately, it looks like the Hornets are on a good way to becoming relevant in the CSL as they made a serious push for the playoffs this season. They didn’t end up meeting the goal of appearing in the playoffs but the Hornets finished as the 7th seed and were just three Ws away from facing the Celtics in the first round. They’ve made the first step towards relevancy this year but now it’s up to both the front office and players to keep improving and work towards finally finishing a season with a winning record.

Good news: Young and Dunn
The Hornets indeed had a good season and the biggest reason for it is their dynamic duo in Trae Young and Kris Dunn. Both players have made their first All-Star appearances this year and seem to be the future of the franchise. Trae transformed from Dunn’s sidekick into an equally important piece of the team and the Hornets expect him to get even better in the future. He finished the season as the 3rd most-efficient 3-point shooter, having made 266 threes this year on a 46.9% 3pt shooting percentage. Dunn also had the best season in his career so far and was the team’s best scorer with 20 ppg. There’s no doubt the duo will return to the Spectrum Center next year and try to achieve even more.

Bad news: Defense
When you take a look at team stats page, you’ll see that the Hornets didn’t struggle with scoring over the 2023/2024 campaign. They’re in top 8 in ppg, top 13 in fg%, and top 3 in 3%. However, where they struggled is stopping other from scoring as well, despite having Poltl and Bridges, both defense-first players in their starting five. The Hornets still need to work on figuring out how to defend their opponents and perhaps the switch to the new engine will help them with it.

Bad news: Mikal Bridges
I wouldn’t go and say that Mikal had a terrible rookie season but he also wasn’t exactly what the Hornets expected. He looked only okay on the defensive end and didn’t perform as expected on offense. He only finished two games with 20+ points and most of the time would struggle to score over 10. His college three-point shot exactly translate to the CSL but the good news is that he still has room for improvement. Although he’ll be 23 by the time the next season starts, the Hornets have to rely on him to work hard over summer and figure out his offensive game.

Bad news: Draft Picks
Missing out on playoffs won't hurt so much if the Hornets got a lottery pick out of that. However, their this year's pick is owned by the Celtics and the Hornets will have to settle with selecting at 25/26 via Detroit. They also have a few second round picks but it's hard to assume that's where they'll be able to find much-needed talent.

Offseason preview:

Under contract: PG Trae Young, SG Kris Dunn, SG LJ Peak, SF Mikal Bridges, PF Christian Wood, PF Landen Lucas, C Angel Delgado

Player options: PF Harrison Barnes

RFAs: SF Furkan Korkmaz, C Jakob Poltl

UFAs: PG David Stockton, PG Marquise Teague, SG Terran Petteway, PF Bobby Portis, C Ndoye Youssou

Picks: Pistons 1st (25/26), Bucks 24 2nd (37/38), Jazz 2nd (40), Hornets 2nd (43/44)

[Andrewu91]

Great GM

[cb4raptorscb4]

The core is here and Trae should only get better. The undersized backcourt may not help with the defensive struggles though. Good luck this offseason!

[Flaming Homer]

As mentioned before, I like the Hornets roster and the work you are doing in Charlotte.
I think next year you will finally crack the playoffs. Trae's development helped a lot but he and Dunn are one of the most dynamic back court duos in the league. If you bring the important players back and Bridges can improve his play a little bit it looks good. And with this many chances to draft, there is hopefully at least one more rotation player coming in.

[andrei]

Backcourt of Young and Dunn is awesome and certainly you are a couple of solid pieces away from establishing yourself in that upper echelon in the East

[TheTwoWallaces]

Mikal's rookie season was definitely disappointing. He was exactly what the Hornets needed -- no one could fault you for drafting him over Shaq Harrison. Hindsight's a bitch though, so it'll be interesting to see how you work on building your wings & frontcourt from here.

A solid team, that really reminds me of the NBA's Trail Blazers. Hopefully you're a good enough GM so that players like NBA Mario Hezonja don't see the court. Good drafting is the difference between having an NBA Trail Blazers vs. NBA Warriors. Best of luck!

[emplep7]

Mikal was a slight disappointment for sure, but he seemed like the perfect fit at the time. If he got a +10 he would have been perfect but you still have a very good roster and one that should translate well in the new engine. You have some interesting decisions this off-season, but I'm assuming you;re bringing back Korkmaz and Poetl. Petteway had a great year for you guys and he would be nice to bring back as well.

[hardenwithnod]

This team is improving every year, and I think this team should continue to get better as the core is very young. Our division will be a blood bath once again.

[Dennis]

I think you did it right to say no to my offer to trade your pick this year for last years‘. It appears the draft the past year was stronger than this years, so you did. quiet well there. Also, your team is primed to be awesome in 19. Being honest I would bring Kork back as he could be way better in the new engine - so far he flopped though. Actually your team should be a playoff team with the best backcourt in the league, you’ve just been unlucky that the east is so damn strong. With the right tactics you could have sneaked in though as I see you on the level of Brooklyn.