It’s beginning to look a lot like the NBA regular season is effectively over. Rather than sit around and wait for basketball to come back into our lives, let’s reflect on what the season has dished up to this point.
We’ll take a look at each and every NBA team over the coming weeks, assessing what went right, what didn’t go to plan, and where their journey took them as well as where the team hoped it would take them.
Today, we’ll examine three teams that all finished next to each other in the Eastern Conference, despite vastly different pre-season expectations: the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards.
Charlotte Hornets
Record: 23-42 (10th in Eastern Conference)
82 game pace: 29-53
Expectations
Charlotte finally – finally – embraced the rebuild this off season. It took losing Kemba Walker to make them face facts that the generation of Nic Batum, Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was not getting it done, Kemba or no Kemba.
In making a concerted effort to put their youngsters front and centre and let them play through mistakes, expectations were suitably conservative in Charlotte this season.
What went right
The Hornets discovered that they have an actual living, breathing, young core. Terry Rozier turned 26 last week. Devonte’ Graham is 25, the Martin twins are 24, Jalen McDaniels, Malik Monk and Miles Bridges are all 22, whilst PJ Washington is still 21. Even veteran centres Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo are only 27. Not all of these players will be contributors to the next good Hornets side, but in the diminutive back court of Rozier and Graham, Charlotte at least have a base to build from. Graham in particular surprised many with his play this season, leading the team with 18.2 points and 7.5 assists and shooting a (for him) blistering 37.3% from deep.
Rozier slipped into his more natural two-guard role, putting up 18 points of his own per night. Bridges and Washington look to be a front court of real potential. Washington started his rookie campaign with a bang, hitting seven trey’s on his way to 27 points. Late in this abbreviated season, McDaniels and the Martin twins, Cody and Caleb all emerged as key 2nd unit contributors.
They’re still missing an elite talent to tie it all together, but this Hornets side is suddenly very young and surprisingly deep.
What went wrong
In the grand scheme of things, not too much. The team wanted to give their youngsters playing time, and that has happened to generally positive reviews. They wanted to shed themselves of some of the veterans contracts and they were able to give the long serving Williams and Kidd-Gilchrist the new homes they were seeking. I’m sure the team would have preferred to get something, anything, from Nic Batum – who was terrible from the get go – so as to trade him to a contender, but it was not to be. Batum will be paid $27 million in the last year of his contract, next season. Both Zeller and Biyombo also come off the books post 2021; again, I’m sure GM Mitch Kupchack was looking to trade at least one of them. I’m sure the team would be happy to keep one of those bigs (probably Zeller) at a more reasonable price.
The outcome
For the most part, Charlotte got what they wanted out of season 2019-20. I’m sure they would have appreciated some more game time for their young core, but of course every team is effected by the shutdown, so they can have no complaints. Their top eight played in minutes played through the season are all (perhaps Biyombo aside) players that they can move forward with. That’s a positive result.
Whilst they didn’t win a hatful of games, the Hornets have at least established a direction. If their notoriously impatient owner can keep faith with that direction, the team will be better for it.
