It almost seems pointless to talk about these things at this point. Every Charlotte Hornets season is turning into its own version of Groundhog Day. In the summer, we talk about how good this team could be if the team stays healthy and the players develop like we expect or hope them to. Then some players get hurt, others underperform, then they also get hurt. By the time some of the first injured players come back, another crop of players has landed on the injury report. At some point the team goes on some catastrophic losing streak. While it’s all happening, we find ourselves pivoting from watching the playoff standings to watching the lottery standings.
The 2024-25 season was the latest in a string of such seasons. The Hornets changed course last season by trading away Terry Rozier, PJ Washington, and Gordon Hayward. That seemed to signal a shift to a genuine rebuild, but the emergence of Tre Mann, the steady play of Grant Williams, and the assumed health of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Mark Williams gave fans glimmers of optimism that this team could still at least be competitive with the players it has.
And maybe it could be, but we never really got to see what this team was fully capable of. Mark Williams suffered a “minor” foot injury in camp that ended up sidelining him for the first few weeks of the season. Tre Mann looked like a 6th man of the year candidate during those weeks before he got shelved with a back issue. Grant Williams followed soon after with a torn ACL; his last game of the season was actually the one after Mann’s. LaMelo Ball’s intermittent issues started a couple of games later. Miles Bridges missed some time at the same time. I could keep going, but you get the point. Injuries completely derailed the season in late November and it never got back on track.
When they were on the floor, the key players showed something that could spark some excitement for the future. Mann (who’s a restricted free agent, for what it’s worth) and Williams looked like very good bench pieces. LaMelo Ball led the league in scoring for a while. Brandon Miller became more of a creator even with his shooting being a bit rough. Mark Williams had some dominant offensive showings. Miles Bridges looked like his pre-suspension self. Moussa Diabate came into our lives. There’s a lot to like there.
Even with the appealing pieces, the Hornets are at a crossroads once again. Rookie first round pick Tidjane Salaün did not contribute nearly what you’d expect out of a sixth overall pick even if the organization outwardly seems to believe in his long term development. The future of Mark Williams is uncertain given the team’s attempt to trade him in the middle of the season. The team also has to decide how to weigh the injury history of LaMelo Ball. Decisions have to be made somewhere. The fan base won’t be content with another offseason where the plan seems to be “run it back and hope no one gets hurt this time.” That would make it what? Three or four straight summers where that’s the crux of the plan?
That said, the trainwreck of a season does add another piece of hope to the future, as these things often do. The Hornets have the third best lottery odds, and there’s a franchise altering prospect awaiting the lottery winner at the top of the draft. It’d be nice if the Hornets would get lucky for once and land that kind of talent, but even if they aren’t so lucky, this draft does seem much more likely than last year’s to produce a hit.
All of these talking points are redundant at this point. We welcome the end of the season with open arms after languishing through meaningless basketball for months. We get here and talk about the light at the end of the tunnel if the players just stay on the floor and if the latest in a string of lottery picks is the guy this team needs to push it over the top, for real this time. As repetitive as its been, at some point it has to work out, right? Right? The new ownership and management are going into their second offseason, and they seem to at least have the right ideas. Hopefully they work out sooner rather than later, because this fan base is tired of being on this treadmill in the NBA’s basement. If the Hornets don’t make the playoffs next year, it’ll be the tenth straight season with that result. No other fan base is currently experiencing a longer wait. The team is preaching patience, but they do need to remember that they’re dealing with a very jaded fan base that needs to see some positive steps very quickly else they’ll check out completely, and it’ll be hard to get them to buy back in once that happens.
