Charlotte Hornets 2025-26 Recap: Roundtable Discussion
SportCLT talks over their biggest takeaways from the Hornets 2025-26 season.
The Charlotte Hornets season ended last Friday against the Orlando Magic. For the third time, they’ve fallen short in the play-in, despite a promising first game against the Miami Heat.
Despite the loss, the Hornets have the means to get meaningfully better this offseason: multiple draft picks and financial flexibility.
The SportCLT team talks about their biggest takeaways from the 2025-26 Hornets season.
Give one word to explain the Hornets 2025-26 season.
Dylan Jackson (DJ): Growth. There was a ton of growth across the board, from LaMelo Ball to Moussa Diabate to the organization as a whole. It feels like Charlotte is a serious franchise now, and that's a feeling that has been missing for as long as I can remember.
Steve Sears (SS): Promising. This team started out 4-14, and it looked like we were in for another horrible season. However, they battled back and gave us as good a run as one could ask for from that position. This year featured good health, young players developing, and stars being born. While the end was disappointing, it’s hard not to be excited about the future of this core.
Jacob Lequire (JL): Progress. Charlotte came into the season having won 19 games last year. They more than doubled that count (44) this past season. Three rookies played significant rotation roles. LaMelo Ball played in 70+ games for only the 2nd time in his career. Charles Lee looked like he had found his groove a bit better. There are still steps for this group, and wholesale roster changes that need to take place, but this season was a step in the right direction towards actual NBA relevance.
Akil Guruparan (AG): Exciting. It's the first season in a while that has felt like it was actually building towards something rather than the franchise just spinning its wheels while looking less than the sum of its parts. Just about every player who was already on the roster took a positive step in their development, the team developed a clear offensive identity that was fun to watch, and the three rookies who played regular minutes were all immediate contributors with awesome potential. Even before the Play-In games, the team was definitely flagging a little -- but the body of work shows an arrow pointing up.
Mali Payne (MP): Genesis. This is just the start of what this talented group, coaching staff, and front office can achieve together. The foundations have been laid, and now is the time to build on them.
What was your favorite moment of the season?
DJ: The Miami Play-In Game. I get what happened on the second leg of the play-in, but that win against the Heat is one of the best Hornets games I've ever seen.
SS: A lot of options, but it has to be the play-in victory over Miami. That game truly had everything, and we were finally able to get a massive win over the Heat. It cemented the thoughts that the Hornets had finally arrived at the party.
JL: Matinee mayhem win vs. San Antonio. The play-in game win vs. Miami is an obvious high point, but it felt like the season turnaround culminated in the home win against the scorching Spurs. Brandon Miller was lights out, the Hornets had one of their patented 3rd quarter blitzes, and Charlotte won a close game against a Top 3 team in the league.
AG: Thrashing the Thunder in Oklahoma City. It was basically the first game of the turnaround, and that game showed what this team could be when everything came together. There are ways that a result like that could be a fluke, but this didn't look like any of them -- it wasn't even like the Thunder played badly; they were just straight-up beaten. I'm not sure I've seen any Hornets team play better ball than that game; it was a vision.
MP: THE Coby White game-tying 3. Simply an unforgettable moment that will go down in Hornets history. As a fan, you live for moments like this; the euphoria of it is so unique. I’m sure when I’m old and grey, I’ll be that grandpa who refuses to let go of a moment, I'll be raving about it to anyone who will listen.
What player surprised you the most this season?
DJ: Moussa Diabate. You can point to almost any player on the roster for this question, but Moussa looks like a really high-end rotational piece and someone that you can play in high-leverage moments. Considering he was on a two-way contract 15 months ago, that's an amazing development and a testament to this development staff.
SS: Sion James. Maybe an unpopular name on the roster at this point, but it really is impressive what kind of impact James was able to bring to this team as a rookie. I expected him to spend most of his rookie campaign in Greensboro, and instead, he featured in all 82 games for the Hornets. Which was already crazy, but now that I type it out, it’s even crazier. 82 games, on this team?! It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s kind of his game, isn’t it? He was able to bring a much-needed level of physicality to the defensive side of the ball and had his moments of being a reliable shooter. Rough end to the year, but still finished shooting 35% from behind the arc. Which I personally didn’t expect. He’s the kind of player who every coach (not just Charles Lee) will trust to be on the court, and hopefully, he continues to develop.
JL: Kon Knueppel. I expected Kon to be a rotational piece that would be able to provide an answer to the lack of reliable wing shooting. I did not expect Kon to not only shatter the rookie 3PM record, but also lead the entire NBA in 3s made this season. Even with a pretty poor (by his standards) final 1-2 weeks of the season, Kon was incredibly impactful for the Hornets, especially during the mid-season turnaround.
AG: There are about 5 players who could all answer this question, but I think my answer is ultimately Moussa Diabate. He was a great energy big for a bad team last year, but I think I figured that his relative lack of positional size and strength would limit him from being much more than that. Those weaknesses did show up at times, but not nearly as often as I expected, and he proved to have more than just athleticism and a high motor as he became a key part of one of the best starting lineups in the NBA. He was a shockingly switchable defender, grew as a rim protector, and managed to be an elite threat on the offensive glass even with his minutes increasing, not just in short spurts.
MP: Kon Kneuppel. The huge impact he's had as a rookie was something I didn't see coming. We all knew he'd be at least a good shooter, but to finish up LEADING THE LEAGUE IN THREES??? Just incredible.
What was the low point for this season? You cannot say the play-in loss.
DJ: The seven-game losing streak early in the year. There was also a report from Kelly Iko related to LaMelo Ball that didn't help things. It was awful vibes, and it's shocking that the season turned into something special after the fact.
SS: I guess I’ll go with the November loss against the Knicks that had us at 7 straight losses and that 4-14 record. At this point, I was ready to hang it up. I couldn’t do another 60-loss season. The trade machine was getting opened, I finally caved and put LaMelo in some deals. I was done. Tankathon spins were happening. Not even 20 games into the season, and it was already over.
JL: 114 - 112 loss vs. Indiana at home (January 8). I attended this game in person and witnessed not only LaMelo Ball coming off the bench for the first time since his rookie season, but Rick Carlisle getting his 1000th career win off of Collin Sexton airballing a potential game-winning shot. Early losses like these against bad teams helped put the Hornets behind in the standings late in the season, partially leading to the poor result against Orlando in the play-in tournament.
AG: The back-to-back losses to Philadelphia and Boston at the end of March were when I started to be scared that this team was running out of life for the season. Knueppel shot 4/16 from three across the two games, which was maybe the foremost sign, but there was also just some defensive regression and a lack of physicality that ended up foreshadowing what they'd look like in the Play-In. That was really the first time since February that I thought this team might not make it to the playoffs, after looking like a for-sure top-6 team in the East for those two+ months.
MP: The early injury problems. When Brandon and LaMelo both missed extended time at the start of the season, it was a real punch in the gut. For years, all I've been saying to anyone who would listen is "the Hornets just need to be healthy", but seeing them go down just felt like it was going to be another year of no real progress and the same old excuse. Thankfully, it wasn't.
Who is your 2025-26 Hornets MVP?
DJ: The only answer is LaMelo Ball. He was by far the most impactful player for the Hornets. When he wasn't on the floor, you felt that loss. Extremely good basketball player and he reminded people of that this year. If he plays close to a full-82 next season, I think he gets some All-NBA nods.
SS: LaMelo Ball. Kon is rightfully getting a lot of the love for this season, but LaMelo is truly the engine that kept this car going. Before Coby White’s arrival, when LaMelo was off the court, I think everyone was terrified at what might happen, which is a credit to just how good he was and how much this team needed him to function. He stepped up in a major way this year and restored a lot of faith that may have been lost in him. It seemed like he finally bought in; he was still the goofball that we all have come to know, but he was playing with a level of seriousness that his game really needed.
JL: LaMelo Ball. There are many players who outperformed expectations or took significant steps. Kon Knueppel is a top-two rookie of the year candidate, and Moussa Diabate showed that he is a legitimate starter in this league. But no one on the Hornets had a greater overall impact than Ball. Ball is the engine of the Hornets’ offense that reached historic levels this season. He cut down on the frustration fouls, locked in more with on-ball defense, and became one of the premier 3-point shooters in the league. LaMelo was also one of the few players who fought hard and delivered in both play-in games.
AG: I could say LaMelo Ball or Kon Knueppel, but I'll go LaMelo. Everything about this team starts with him. He was never really "not a winning player" as some outside voices claimed, but even so, his increased buy-in on defense and, more importantly, to Charles Lee's management when he thought it was necessary to maintain LaMelo's health were key to getting him to ultimately play more games than he had since his rookie year. His playmaking and ability to reshape defenses as a shooting threat really opened things up for Charlotte's other shooters as well as for Diabate and Kalkbrenner as rebounders, which ended up being this team's offensive blueprint: it was entirely based on the way he plays.
MP: LaMelo Ball. The team would not have functioned as the offensive machine that it was without LaMelo Ball. He ran the offense, and we've seen at times just how dire it can be without him there as the driving force. His elite shooting and court vision make him one of the best half-court weapons in the league, and had this been another year where he was plagued by injuries, then the team would not have achieved half as much.
Looking forward to the offseason, what is the biggest need the Hornets have?
DJ: They have to add some sort of rim pressure. I get that the identity of the team is based on the 3-ball with Ball, Knueppel, and Miller, but there needs to be a dynamic scoring threat that is capable of getting you a basket at the rim.
SS: Physicality & improve the front court. The Orlando play-in loss confirmed the doubts people had about this team. This was a team that battled hard but just didn’t have the physicality to truly compete against these other playoff teams down the stretch. If LaMelo, Brandon & Kon are going to be your guys, we need those 4 & 5 spots to be guys who instill fear into other teams’ offenses. Also, I love Moussa, and this is not shade to him. I would be perfectly fine with him remaining the starter, but we’d need to get way bigger at the 4.
JL: Size and strength, particularly in the front court. Despite Miles Bridges' late-season heroics and Moussa Diabate's relentless energy on the boards, the Hornets' front court is still pretty lacking defensively. Having a 6-foot-7 PF and a 6-foot-10 (questionable measurement) C will lead to stronger and longer teams dominating the paint. Charlotte desperately has to upgrade the starting spot for one of these two positions and the overall depth for both.
AG: They need a plus post defender. I don't really care if it's a 4 or a 5 (or both), but they need somebody who can match up with opposing bigs and stop them from getting easy buckets while also offering resistance at the rim. The way this team is built right now, it has the pieces to be very good defensively on the perimeter, but as we saw against Orlando, they just couldn't stop a physical team from getting into the paint and finishing.
MP: Hornets are in desperate need of a four that can pick up the opposing team’s best player each night and efficiently score inside. It’s the glaring missing piece for this team, which should we find will plug the gaps the team has in defence and inside scoring. I think the Hornets look to acquire a player that fits this archetype through a trade.
Who are your early favorite draft targets?
DJ: I like Jayden Quaintance quite a bit. I think there is a unique opportunity to get him later than he'd normally go (due to injuries plus this year's loaded class). I also think Nate Ament has a very rare combination of size and shooting. I get he's more polarizing than some other prospects, but I'd take him in the lottery.
SS: Admittedly haven’t done too much homework here, but a couple of names I like so far are Hannes Steinbach, Morez Johnson Jr., Jayden Quaintance, Isaiah Evans, Amari Allen, and Adam Mara. Like the previous question, I’m looking to add some size & physicality to the front court.
JL: The Michigan front court: Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara. Charlotte needs productive size in the frontcourt, and Michigan's championship duo of Lendeborg and Mara can bring it. Lendeborg is older, but his ability to lead an offense when necessary and play from the triple threat as a power forward is something the Hornets need. Mara would likely battle Ryan Kalkbrenner for the backup center role, but brings a lot more juice to the spot than Kalkbrenner does at this point in his career.
AG: I like Aday Mara from Michigan with the latter first-round pick - he made a huge defensive impact for the best team in the country and is also a great post playmaker. Koa Peat from Arizona would be a slightly wonky fit with this roster and identity because he doesn't stretch the floor much for a 4, but I really love the way he plays. If the medicals check out, I'm a big fan of Jayden Quaintance from Kentucky and think he would immediately solve the Hornets' biggest issues. On the guard side, I like Labaron Philon and Isaiah Evans.
MP: Yet to do any real deep analysis of prospects myself, just a surface-level understanding. I’m basing this on the fact that Charlotte’s first round picks are 14 and 18. Two target areas for us in terms of needs are a big and a true point guard with off-ball potential as cover/scoring off the bench. My top realistic targets are: Hannes Steinbach. Jayden Quaintance, Bennett Stirtz, Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Christian Anderson.
Give the 2025-26 season a grade.
DJ: A. This was the year that the Hornets became relevant. Seeing that crowd against the Heat in the play-in game sealed things for me. This was a season to build on, but it was a damn fun one.
SS: A-. I wasn’t going to go A since they didn’t make the playoffs and were once again blown out in the play-in, but being where they were at and somehow winning 44 games is A worthy to me. You also got everything you were looking for from this team, good health, young players developing, seeing what your core looks like together (and it was pretty good) and they were able to actually compete for something.
JL: A. Making it into the actual postseason would be an A+, but there isn't much to complain about outside of the poor finish. Once everyone was healthy around December of 2025, the offense began to click. Jeff Peterson and his staff got a real sample size of evaluation for this group and what needs to change going into 2026. Charles Lee and his staff were able to get production out of multiple rookies and acquisitions brought in at the trade deadline. Most importantly, LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Kon Knueppel had extended time to play together on the court and learn each other's tendencies. If health can stay on the Hornets' side, there's a lot to look forward to in 2026 - something that Hornets fans haven't been able to reliably say in almost half a decade.
AG: B-plus. It fell a little short at the end, but considering where this team was last year and where it was expected to be this year, it wildly outperformed expectations and showed a blueprint for how Charlotte basketball can be successful going forward.
MP: A. Think an A+ would've been making the playoffs, so an A is sufficient for just missing out through the play-in. But all things considered, this was an INCREDIBLE season where the Hornets managed to assert themselves as a legit contender for a top seed in the east next year.
What is your confidence level (1-10) in the current Hornets' braintrust (Charles Lee, Jeff Peterson, and ownership)?
DJ: 9. Charles Lee has gotten the most out of his players through two years, and Jeff Peterson continues to win on the margins. I don't know if I'll ever get to a "10" rating for any braintrust, but it's certainly the most promising leadership the Hornets have had in my lifetime.
SS: 10. I have complete trust in the staff right now. They have been true to their process, and the results so far have delivered, and probably even exceeded expectations. I have faith in Peterson and his team to properly evaluate this team and have us ready to make a true playoff push next season.
JL: 7-8. It's hard to doubt the process that Peterson and his team have been cooking so far. The acquisition of extra draft capital, nailing pro scouting in regards to players like Diabate and rookie scouting with this year's class have been instrumental in this season's turnaround. Charles Lee also seems to get more out of his players than previous Hornets' coaching groups as well. This is an incredibly pivotal offseason for the brain trust. If they can make the swing that would give this team a real competitive ceiling, my confidence level would likely rise to a 9 or 10.
AG: 9. They did basically everything right this season, from nailing the draft to winning every trade they were a part of to Lee getting the product on the court to be what it was. Any issues I have would be nitpicks at best. Maybe they could have made a bigger swing near the trade deadline, but then again, I think the finish to this season showed that perhaps this team wasn't quite ready for it. I hope they won't be tentative as the window for this team to be a playoff team begins to open, but they've done a hell of a job getting to this point.
MP:10! Schlotkin have done all the right things since they've arrived and have turned this franchise around with the hirings of Charles Lee and Jeff Peterson. Jeff, in my eyes, can do no wrong. Sure the Salaun pick could've been someone who gave us more of an immediate impact, but Tidjane has been developing nicely in Greensboro, and his timeline is lining up with what is brewing. In the trade market, he's built up a real war chest of draft capital giving us great flexibility going forward. And then the Coby trade is just the cherry on top. As for Chuck, I love the way he's got Charlotte playing this year. He's got the guys to really buy into his culture and system and it's paying off big time.