Charlotte Hornets
The 2022-23 Charlotte Hornets can be defined as an injury-riddled excursion that never had much of a chance, resulting in the No. 2 pick in the prized 2023 NBA Draft.
What did we learn?
It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Hornets this season.
With LaMelo’s preseason ankle injury that caused him to miss the first three weeks, and with Miles Bridges out of the picture due to his awful off-the-court issues, the Hornets were missing their top-2 scorers from the jump. (Bridges at 20.2 ppg + LaMelo at 20.1 ppg = missing a whopping 40 points per night.)
Charlotte’s offense sputtered out of the gate. An abundant amount of injuries locked the Hornets into the lottery real quick.
At least it was a good season to have a bad season.
Steve Clifford’s big purple dogs never did find their way offensively, posting the worse offensive rating in the league after being top 10 last year.
It always looked decently better when LaMelo was in there, but that was just not very often as he re-injured the same ankle numerous times. There was the fluke play where he stepped on a fan’s foot sitting courtside, and the last time was a full-blown season-ending fracture.
Gordon Hayward actually played 50 games for the first time in a Hornets uniform. He made it to 50 games exactly. The Hornets were 20-30 with Hayward in the lineup and 7-25 without him.
Contract-year P.J. Washington was also a bellwether player for Charlotte. When PJW scored 20+ points, the Hornets went 14-9. In all other games, they went 13-46.
Kelly Oubre averaged the most points of his career at 20.3, but he also missed nearly two months due to surgery to repair a torn ligament in his shooting hand.
The Hornets moved on from Mason Plumlee at the trade deadline, clearing the way (and forcing) Steve Clifford to play lottery-pick rookie Mark Williams more minutes. Mark Williams took advantage, racking up 10 double-doubles post-trade deadline after having just one before.
Terry Rozier’s 3-point shot was off every month save for January. That’s when Rozier turned up, averaging 25 a night alongside LaMelo when Oubre was out.
Rozier’s 3-point percentage by month:
Nov: 28.6
Dec: 31.5
Jan: 38.0
Feb: 29.6
March: 31.7
However, Rozier did still average a career-high 21 points and 5 assists per game while playing 35 minutes a night, most of the time as the Hornets’ main scorer and facilitator.
Probably the brightest spot of the Hornets this season was the revitalization of Dennis Smith Jr., who finally found his NBA home back in his home state. DSJ was a big part of the Hornets’ upsets over his former Dallas team, and he showed that he can still throw down some power dunks.
The Hornets deserve credit for playing the role of spoiler at the end of the year. Those two back-to-back wins over the Mavs in late March, which basically ended the Mavs playoff chances, showed that this team still had pride. They still cared about growth. (Thankfully they were already locked into the 4th-worst record, so the wins did not hinder their precious lottery chances.)
The Hornets also rang up 51 points in the first quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks on a random Friday night in early January, setting the franchise record and tying the NBA record! (2019 Warriors.)
As always, Eric Collins was there to bring his unparalleled enthusiasm and energy every night despite all of the losses and bad basketball.
But once again — it really cannot be stressed enough:
It was a good time to be bad.
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Additional Notes
Nick Richards had some games where Eric Collins could be heard shouting: “This guy has the touch of a masseuse! Velvety soft!”
Between Kai Jones, James Bouknight and JT Thor, the Hornets could really use a home run draft pick.
The Hornets chose to keep Cody Martin instead of Heat playoff legend Caleb Martin. Cody Martin played 7 games this entire season while Caleb Martin averaged 19 points in 7 games in the Eastern Conference Finals. That alone paints a pretty good picture of how things have been going in Charlotte.
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
This team is trending downward in a stacked conference. Under 34 wins.
Hornets 2022-23 record: (27-55)
Yes indeed! This one was never in doubt.
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What’s Next?
The No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft. It’s gotta be Scoot right… Right??? Let it be known that Scoot is the preference of this here blog. Charlotte also has the No. 27 pick (from Denver via New York and OKC from the Jalen Duren trade) and three second-round picks.
Free agents here include a couple of juniors, Kelly Oubre and Dennis Smith, and a couple of restricted FAs: P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges. (Bridges was sentenced to three years of probation, but the thought of him playing in the NBA again seems like a longshot.)
Get LaMelo healthy. He’s played 162 games in three seasons. It’s concerning that the injuries keep occurring, especially when also thinking about Lonzo…
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Favorite Hornets Highlight of the 2022-23 Season:
Eric Collins later admitted that from his vantage point in Capital One Arena, he thought that Kai Jones went between the legs on this dunk. Either way, his enthusiasm remains unmatched and a national treasure.
