The light at the end of the tunnel has begun to appear for the Charlotte Hornets

Each stadium around the NBA holds a story.

The TD Garden in Boston, while not the original Boston Garden that hosted Bill Russell and Larry Bird, has 24 championship banners between the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins. Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, previously known as the Staples Center, holds the memories of Kobe Bryant, and the retired jerseys of some of the NBA's greatest players loom over the court each night. Finally, Madison Square Garden in New York City is the oldest arena in the NBA, being known as "The World's Most Famous Arena" with countless A-list celebrities in attendance each night to watch the New York Knicks.

Although the ghosts of many teams around the league are a sign of a high standard, creating pressure to live up to the expectations that were created by these legends, others are nowhere near this luxury.

While the ghosts of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Nic Batum, Dwayne Bacon, and countless others still haunt the halls of the Spectrum Center, the Charlotte Hornets have begun to try to replace the echoes around the building with something unfamiliar: winning basketball.

New ownership. New front office. New coaching. (Almost) new roster.

It's a time of change in Charlotte, and people around the league are beginning to notice. In ESPN's NBA Future Power Rankings, the Hornets rose from #26 to #23.

"The Hornets have 24 draft picks in the next 7 years, including 11 firsts, and could have cap space in the next two offseasons. As a result, Charlotte ranks in the top 10 in both draft and money."

It's a sign of an excellent start to a rebuild constructed by President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson and Head Coach Charles Lee. The two understand the difficulties of rebuilding the Hornets, a task many have tried and failed to do.