Charlotte Hornets Team by Team

For those wanting the best content that describes the Hornets previous season, I recommend watching the latest episode of The Hive on NSL tv. I’m not going to call it the highlight of the season as it was only released the other week, but the quality of production is high. The content covers everything you need to know about the decisions the team made throughout the season and steps you through the week-to-week results that helped inform those decisions.

The content of this Team by Team will stray into “opinion” territory to deliver a different take on the process.  As such the season that we just saw from the Hornets is partially put down to bad luck and questionable trades that date back to the season before. Maybe the season was karma for the Ja Morant and Kristaps Porzingas trade for Kevin Love and Luke Doncic which was broken down into parts separated by 6 months. While the dollars in the deal were legal the Porzingas for Love portion of the deal that was delivered for an unsuccessful end of season run for the Hornets in 22-23. Lux Tax complications followed that meant that the Hornets were deep in the negative and it was a lot of hard work from Craig to get his team square to complete the Ja for Luka portion of the deal. The karma flowed from that deal that effectively saw Ja Morant miss most of his first season in Charlotte, which was disappointing for fans and the team who knew the squad was built around a Ja centric offense.

The team and management worked hard all season to right the ship and remain competitive but saw the team bow out of the play-in tournament.

 

2023-2024 Season Finish: 35-47

Season Highlight:

It was the 12 games with a healthy and unsuspended Ja Morant which showed the potential for what this team could achieve with him at the helm. He was scoring 32 a game at an effective clip and doing a bit of everything with a solid 5 rebounds a game and 7 assists. In the week 8 return the team went 3-1 looked to get some momentum but then the lowlights hit almost immediately. When Ja returned due to schedule timing in week 13 again the team went 3-1.

Season lowlight:

Hard to choose. Was it the Draymond Green indefinite suspension or the Ja Morant injury? With Ja Morants injury coinciding in real life around the time that his NSL suspension the highs dipped straight into the lows. The problem was the compounding factor of Draymond and Ja uncertainty. Injuries suck, but indefinite suspensions suck more I think because the activity that causes the suspension is in the control of the player getting suspended. The frustration from the front office was palpable and the writing was on the wall for Green to be shipped out in the off-season.

Best Trade:

The Charlotte Hornets send Kristaps Porzingis to the New York Knicks.

The New York Knicks send DeMar DeRozan and JaeSean Tate to the Charlotte Hornets.

Craig knows how to get the most out of his team, and while some might not like the Zinga for DeMar deal as losing a unicorn for an expiring clutch player, at least we see Demar play occasionally. Craig outlines in The Hive that the clutch nature of Demar and Ja as a pairing makes sure his teams close-out tight games and I tend to agree with him. If we look back at this deal in a weeks time and DeMar walks in free agency, perhaps the cost of renting a few wins in a lost season might not be worth losing an injured unicorn.

Other Notable Trades:

The Charlotte Hornets send Derrick White to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers send Jusuf Nurkic to the Charlotte Hornets.

I like Derrick White and Nurk fills a hole. The talent loss in this deal outweighs the positional challenges that Nurk solves.

 

The Charlotte Hornets send Mike Conley to the Sacramento Kings.

The Charlotte Hornets send a 1st-Rounder (Cha 2026) to the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks send Terry Rozier to the Charlotte Hornets.

The Dallas Mavericks send a 2nd-Rounder (LAL 2028) to the Charlotte Hornets. 

This is only part of a multi team deal, but it isolates what Charlotte got and sent. I kinda see this as a sideways move to get younger at the cost of their own first rounder. Its always a risky move sending out your own firsts, don’t know if the juice was worth the squeeze on this one.

 

The Charlotte Hornets send Terry Rozier to the Sacramento Kings.

The Sacramento Kings send Bojan Bogdanovic to the Charlotte Hornets.

So we sent a first to get younger a few months earlier to get older again, but taller.

 

The Charlotte Hornets send Bojan Bogdanovic to the Phoenix Suns.

The San Antonio Spurs send Timothy Hardaway to the Charlotte Hornets.

Now we get more untradeable?

The Charlotte Hornets send Fred VanVleet to the Sacramento Kings.

The Sacramento Kings send Jerami Grant and Chris Boucher to the Charlotte Hornets.

Kyshawn George might have been a part of this deal too, going to Sac.

I don’t dislike this trade, but I don’t like Grant’s contract. Maybe its the years and cost for an average player, but FVV probably is a similar style deal so its a bit of a wash until you start looking at early season Kyshawn George stats.

 

Star:

The star is DeMar DeRozan. His all-around brilliance and clutch 2kness just helps teams win. Really its why Craig wins the deal. When you come out of a deal with the more impactful player then you win. Perhaps its win-win as Zinga can be more impactful on another team, but for the Hornets who needed a go-to scorer while Ja was out it just worked.

Super efficient season from DeMar too, 54/44/90 splits and nearly 5 rebounds a game and effectively a break even +/- on a team that lived as a whole in the -

The most important stat that DeMar put up last season was 62 games. Its been said before “availability” is the best ability.

Flop: 

As I’ve mentioned already, Craig gets the most out of his guys, and no player really flopped this season. Is it too early to call Bronny James a flop when it costs 2 future 2nds to grab him off Smaug of the 2nds.

Draft Grades:  F+

Bronny James for 2 future seconds and Kyshawn George who was sent to Sacramento for 1 GM.

I suppose Bronny is at least a warm body with awesome athleticism ratings but to move the needle on any of his other ratings we are going to have to see him get non-garbage NBA game time which we wont see this season or next.

I’m not applying a rating on George as I am assuming it was a Klemm direction to select him.

The Future:

We were getting a bit dour there as the TBT wore on, but there is a bright-side to the new season and it revolves around Ja. He’s back and he’s brilliant. He hasn’t been hampered by his time off and he looks to lead this team to a good season. The rest of the future is a bit murky though, The Hive talks about T.J McConnell being on the team just before what I assume is a cat drum solo (34min mark), but last word on the trade block was McConnell was available from Phoenix, along with Jerami Grant. Myles Turner is available in Portland and I thought I heard Norm Powell was elsewhere too. There are going to be lots of post free agency trades with this squad who gets to live the sub 2^nd apron life which I am guessing is bringing in a KAT (drum solo unclear) and other pieces.

As long as Ja is healthy and the team can fill out a roster, Craig will get them winning.