Hornets are the 8 seed now. It’s happening.
They have a lot of young talent taking steps forward this year.
Some of the bad teams have so much young talent on their roster that if 1 or 2 guys take a step forward, the teams are suddenly good. The Hornets are probably in a better position than the C's going forward, honestly. They have a lot of cap space this summer but have choices to make on Graham and Monk. I'd guess Graham is all but gone but every game that passes, it looks more likely they'll want to keep Monk. It looks like he's in the midst of a breakout year but it's a 14 game stretch. He's been even better over the last 6 though, averaging 20.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 27.0 minutes on .489/.408/.773 shooting. PJ Washington has shown flashes but needs to find consistency. Bridges is a decent rotational player. Add in a generational talent like Ball, Hayward and apparently an elite shooter in Rozier and they are going to be very good for the next 3-4 years. They have enough money this summer to sign a max guy too, though I'm not sure how that effects Monk.
The C's youth is top heavy and is basically just the Jays The Hornets have 4 guys all 23 or younger on rookie deals contributing that should continue to get better. Ball considerably so. Of course, the C's do have a lot of youth so if one or two guys do take a step forward, they'll be in a better position than the Hornets. Hopefully that happens. If Romeo and Nesmith are both misses, it's gonna hurt. It sucks because it wasn't that long ago the C's were the young, up and coming team with tons of assets and picks. Now it's really just the Jays, Smart, the TPE and dreaming on Romeo and Nesmith to develop into useful rotational players while guys like Monk, Bridges and Washington already are. PP is fine and all but he'd be the oldest player on the list and has contributed the least to date. I'm not sure how much upside he really has.
There are a lot of young teams that could leapfrog the C's in a few years just from having their young players continue to develop. The Bulls have a nice young core and are competitive now. The Cavs have 3 pieces in place (Sexton, Garland, Allen) and possibly Okoro. Atlanta is loaded.
Long story short, if you combined the Hornets and C's, 7 of the top 11 players would be Hornets. They are much deeper. There would also be no bigs. I'd probably take TL myself. I doubt anyone would take Zeller.
Tatum, Brown, Smart, Kemba, Hayward, Rozier, Ball, Washington, Bridges, Graham, Monk. Not in order.
The youth bit wouldn't even be a problem if the C's were vet heavy but they are not. They are loaded with youth that is limited and/or not ready to contribute yet. It's amazing how shallow the bench is on this team... but again, add 1 or 2 players and you can go from shallow to deep. If AN was playing more like Miles Bridges this year, it would change the teams outlook drastically.