Mar 1, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Washington Wizards forward Kyshawn George (18) drives on Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) during the fourth quarter at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-Imagn Images Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

NBA insider says Hornets want draft positioning but might be competitive

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Zach Roberts | Last updated Aug 4, 2025 2:28 PM ET

The Charlotte Hornets are coming off a 19-win season and are seemingly really focused on the future as opposed to the present. That can make them a difficult team to predict. They have talent and some good building blocks, but they're also not competitive and probably aren't trying to be right away.

That's why ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton listed them among the teams that are "all-in on draft positioning." That may or may not be a fancy way of saying that the Hornets are going to tank again, but that is where their focus has been. They were listed alongside the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Brooklyn Nets, the four worst records in the NBA last year.

But of those four dead-end teams, Charlotte might actually move up out of this tier in 2025-26. Pelton and Bontemps said, "Of this group, the Hornets seem most likely to be competitive this season after adding more playmaking depth behind starting point guard LaMelo Ball with newcomers Spencer Dinwiddie and Collin Sexton."

They continued, noting that they're the only team in that group with a top-four pick, "Kon Knueppel also appears most ready to help as a rookie of these lottery picks after being named MVP of the Hornets' NBA summer league championship game victory." Knueppel should help the Hornets be better and more competitive.

Despite that, the Hornets (and the other three) are still a ways away from competing for a playoff spot, and they'd definitely prefer to have someone from the top of the 2026 draft class than someone in the middle or back end of the lottery.

That may not be possible for Charlotte given how much they've done to raise their own floor this year. However, since the draft lottery clearly doesn't help bad teams and seems to consistently reward teams who were decent or mediocre but not bad, their ascension into the middle of the lottery might end up helping them in an ironic twist.

Either way, being here is better than being in another tier Bontemps and Pelton came up with, the "all-in on nothing" tier that houses teams like the aimless Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors, all of whom have a weird situation and are kind of stuck in NBA purgatory (where the Hornets have been for a long time, too).