The Charlotte Hornets made a hard pivot this offseason, and that’s what makes the conversation around next year so interesting. After a 44-win season and a trip to the Play-In Tournament, Jeff Peterson chose not to simply run it back. Instead, the roster got reshaped in a way that makes repeating that number feel far from automatic.
The biggest reason for the uncertainty is obvious: LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges are gone. On paper, that should make life tougher right away. And yet there’s a case to be made that this group is being underestimated a bit.
One view inside the discussion is that the Hornets may be better equipped in certain areas than they were a year ago. Coby White is not LaMelo Ball, but he brings more durability, more reliability, and a much cleaner handle on the basketball. That matters, especially after ball security became such a problem for Charlotte last season.
There’s also the belief that Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel are ready for real growth. Losing LaMelo’s playmaking could make their lives harder in some ways, but it also pushes them toward creating more of their own offense, which is part of the next step for both players. If those two level up, the offense may not need to lean on one creator quite as heavily.
Naz Reid is viewed as an upgrade over Miles Bridges, and the roster now has better depth at the two, three, and five spots than Charlotte has had in recent years. That kind of balance could help the Hornets stay competitive even if they don’t have the same high-end shot creation they had before.
Still, not everyone sees a clear path back to 44 wins. The departures of Ball and Bridges have also been read as a sign that Jeff Peterson and the Hornets may be comfortable living in that 10th-seed range, hanging around the middle, and chasing the first pick. At the same time, there’s a thought that last season’s approach suggested they were trying to stay in the Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer race.
With Charles Lee still in place and Miller and Knueppel continuing to develop, the ceiling isn’t easy to pin down. A playoff push isn’t impossible if the young core takes a real leap. But the more likely range, according to the discussion, is a team that spends time in the mix for the top of the draft.
The consensus is that winning 40 games again looks unlikely. One projection has the Hornets landing around 42 wins in 2026-27, a step back from 44 but not a collapse. The reasoning is straightforward: the roster is considered worse, but Charlotte should avoid the early injury issues that complicated last season, and the team won’t need as much time to figure out its starting five.
So the answer to whether the Hornets can top last year’s total is yes, but only just. The path is there if the young players take off and the breaks fall right. The odds, though, are being kept below 50 percent.
In Other News...
Hornets Quietly Added A Long Term Piece In The LaMelo Trade
Buried in the four-team deal around LaMelo Ball, Charlotte also picked up a more subtle asset for the future: the draft rights to Italian guard Matteo Spagnolo. The move does not change the Hornets immediate rotation, but it does give the front office another young piece to monitor, the kind of low-cost swing that can matter later if a player keeps trending in the right direction.
Spagnolo has spent his development years overseas, building experience with Alba Berlin and now Saski Baskonia rather than making the jump to the NBA right away. For Charlotte, that makes him a classic long-term stash candidate, someone who can keep sharpening his game in Europe while the Hornets decide when, or if, the timing is right for him to come stateside. [Read more 🡒]
Grant Williams Weighed In On The Hornets' Stunning Ball And Bridges Loss
The Hornets roster has been turned over in a major way after moving on from Miles Bridges and LaMelo Ball, and Grant Williams was quick to acknowledge just how much talent walked out the door. Even so, the veteran forward framed the changes with a dose of optimism, pointing to the teams added shooting and the possibility that the new mix can still make Charlotte an entertaining group to watch.
Williams also made clear that the Hornets are not done adding pieces, with expectations already attached to incoming rookies Hannes Steinbach and Christian Anderson. For a team trying to reset its identity around a very different core, his comments offered a glimpse of the balancing act ahead: respecting what was lost while trying to find out whether the next version of the roster can come together fast enough. [Read more 🡒]