The Hornets Aspire To Be An Also-Ran With A Plan

Listening to Jeff Peterson, president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, talk about the recent LeMelo Ball trade, you get a pretty good idea of what he thinks about last season's team. "There's no doubt in my mind that we had a successful season last year, by a lot of people's standards, and of course LaMelo was a huge part of that," said Peterson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVZ6a6CBTE">from Las Vegas, upon the formal completion of a deal announced nearly two weeks ago.

Eager to sing the praises of the incoming Naz Reid, Peterson was also about as clear as decency could permit about what he seems to think of as the realistic limits of a Ball-led team. "These decisions are challenging, at times, but when you look at the totality of the season, and everything, of where we were, it's important to take an honest look in the mirror.

The goal is never to compete for a play-in spot.

The goal isn't to get to the play-in, or even to the playoffs for one year."

The Hornets recovered from a wobbly start last season to finish with a winning record and make the East's play-in.

They went on a tear after the All-Star break, finishing their campaign on a bonkers 30–12 run; Cleaning the Glass https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary">says they posted the NBA's seventh-best point differential on the season.

Ball, healthy for the first time since his sophomore season in 2022, finished third on the team in minutes played, and the Hornets were about 7.5 points better https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612766/onoffcourt-advanced?SeasonType=Regular+Season">by net rating when he was on the court, powered by an improvement in offensive efficiency of nearly 13 points per 100 possessions.

It was Charlotte's best season by record since 2016; by Basketball Reference's dopey https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHA/">Simple Rating System, which combines point differential and strength-of-schedule, this was Charlotte's best season literally in franchise history.

That accounts for the first part of Peterson's quote up there, the part about the Hornets having had a successful season "by a lot of people's standards" and LaMelo being a big contributor.

As for the second part: The Hornets failed to sustain their momentum through the play-in, and their season ended in embarrassment.

They needed a last-second go-ahead bucket in overtime to squeeze past a decimated Heat squad, and then three nights later they were summarily be-gibletted in Orlando by a Magic team so desperate to flush their season, fire their head coach, and hit the beach that they might as well have been playing in flip-flops and swim floaties.