Hornets head to offseason determined to use 2025-26 NBA season as starting point
Facing uncertainty before the opening jump ball was thrown into the air at Kia Center on Friday night, the Charlotte Hornets’ chartered plane had two possible destinations.
One flight plan was pointed toward Detroit, home of the Pistons, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, and the site of Sunday’s first-round matchup in the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
The other direction? Back home to Charlotte, a path that would be traveled only upon losing to the Orlando Magic in the NBA play-in tournament.
Still, being at Spectrum Center on Saturday while the arena got prepped for Sean Gillis Live wasn’t necessarily in the Hornets’ vision, a frustrating reminder of the finality of it all. Succumbing to the Magic on Friday night put the finishing touches on an interesting 2025-26 season, one that was eulogized in a sense during exit interviews, and has the Hornets already looking ahead to how they must improve for 2026-27.
“I think the path’s going the right way,” LaMelo Ball said. “Before, we wasn’t winning a lot. This year, it got a little better. Hopefully next year, not even a play-in (berth). So, just got to keep doing the right things. But big summer. I feel like we’ve all got to be in here just working and trying to get better.”
Posting a 44-win season on the heels of a 19-victory campaign leaves the Hornets eager for the next step, which is shattering the NBA’s longest playoff drought that’s now extended beyond a decade, creating a daily reminder of just how far they have to go in order to reverse the trends that have kept the Hornets in a malaise since 2016.
But the desire is there. Complacency shouldn’t be an issue during the dog days.
“Fired up,” coach Charles Lee said, “fired up and fueled to get better as a coach, as a leader. Fired up and fueled up for our team to just want to work even harder this summer. If you’re not the last team standing, what you did might have been good, but not good enough. And I think the goals and the standards around here are really high and so we want to keep pushing forward.
“I’m excited to take a couple days to sit back and recharge the battery and reflect on the season. But there will be a ton of film watching and opportunities to try to find ways to get better as a coach and as a team.”
In other words, use the 2025-26 campaign as a jumping off point.
Build on how they were 33-16 since Jan. 1, representing a swath well north of half a season, and boasted the top net rating (11) in the NBA. That means they were getting it done defensively and offensively, making for a scary matchup when the Hornets were at their best.
They’ll need more of that and then some, given they won’t be under the radar and instead have to deal with the opposition’s best punch to the solar plexus.
“No one’s excited to see the Charlotte Hornets on their schedule anymore,” veteran Pat Connaughton said. “They understand what’s being built in these buildings, what’s being built within this organization. How guys are playing for the guy next to them more than just for themselves, how guys are playing for the final score on the scoreboard, not just the one next to their name.
“And I think that shift across the league is gaining respect. And when you gain respect, there’s a reason for it. In the NBA, you don’t get respect for just showing up.”
Here are three takeaways from the Hornets’ exit interviews:
Hornets must be more physical
Recalling what went wrong against the Orlando Magic, Ball didn’t sugarcoat things.
“It’s just knowing what to do, what we want to do, and not letting people just punk us around and push us for real,” Ball said. “And obviously, just knowing what’s going on for real. That team, I feel like we were beating them all season by some good points. So obviously, you keep beating the team, they are going to come in ready, you know what I’m saying?
“So, I feel like we just wasn’t ready.”
To combat that and shift things in the other direction, the Hornets intend on tackling the problem in various ways over the summer.
It begins with ensuring they’re able to withstand the rigorous nature of the league’s upper echelon, cutting out some of the pinballing that can occur far too often, leading to instances such as the offensive-foul plagued first half in the finale against the Magic.
“I think just watching the film of this past Orlando game,” Miller said, “the physicality is going to go up a ton. So, just preparing ourselves and our bodies more for that kind of physicality and atmosphere for the postseason.
“Our preparation starts now and that’s how it’s going to be.”
They really don’t have a choice after what happened to them against the Magic and versus Detroit, the very team they would have faced in the opening round of the playoffs if they didn’t tumble in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament finale.
“The physical part is getting in the weight room and having the mindset from the jump,” Miles Bridges said. “That should be our whole mindset next year, just being one of the most physical teams in the NBA because once that starts happening, then calls will start going our way. You notice the teams that are most physical in the league, calls definitely go their way.
“And the mental spot is just us learning the game more. Certain situations, can we get a good shot right here? Knowing people’s tendencies, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding. Just the little stuff like that. We’ve just got to continue to get better at that, and that comes with watching film and really studying the game.”
No excuses for Kon Knueppel
Despite averaging 18.5 points, leading the NBA in 3-pointers and shattering a gaggle of records, most of the attention on Kon Knueppel lately has focused on something else: his struggles.
Knueppel didn’t post more than 14 points in any of his final four regular-season games and averaged only 8.5 points in the Hornets’ two play-in tournament experiences. He logged action in all but one of Charlotte’s 84 games compared to the 70 of fellow rookie Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks, which came a year removed from playing for Duke and 24 months after being in high school in Milwaukee.
“Yeah, no excuses,” Knueppel said. “I just didn’t make a lot of shots. I shot really well throughout the year and you just got to the point in the last week of the season, the last two weeks of the season, just didn’t shoot it great. Sometimes that’s how it rolls. Obviously, there are some big games and you want to be able to shoot it well and you want to have your best stuff.
“I just didn’t have it. So, it’s frustrating. It is a long season. It’s my first time doing it, so some of that I think is a learning experience, just how to keep yourself fresh because these seasons are long. I haven’t had any off time since last college season, and so I’m looking forward to some rest. But it’ll be something I think about for sure, going forward, just one of the best ways to manage that come out ready to go next year.”
Lee isn’t concerned with Knueppel tailing off down the stretch offensively.
“He understands what he means to this team, how much we need him to keep growing,” Lee said. “One of the areas I would like to see him grow is just his overall leadership. Feeling more comfortable and confident to speak up in moments, because he has such a great basketball IQ. We need that communication.”
Knueppel nodded when that was relayed to him.
“I think that definitely is an area of improvement,” Knueppel said. “As a rookie, you’re kind of just trying to figure it out, and so that’s hard to do. But every time I had something to say, he would text me and say that it’s great to have you talk and we need your voice.
“So, I think that it’ll definitely be an area of emphasis, just coming in next year and be more vocal.”
The next step for LaMelo Ball
Ball finished second to Knueppel in made 3-pointers, draining a career-best 272. The star guard wound up seventh in the NBA in assists with 514.
He was one of four players — joining Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland’s James Harden and Denver’s Jamal Murray — averaging at least 20 points, seven assists and three made 3-pointers per game this season.
But the real number of importance is 72.
That’s the number of games Ball played in this season, the second most since logging 75 in his second year. He credited his routine as the main reason for his good health.
“Just staying on it through weight room treatment, just doing the whole nine,” Ball said. “So, I feel like that’s what helped.”
What’s the next step for Ball? Lee provided his vision.
“Being able to handle physicality,” Lee said. “I think that’s just a global theme for our team. I have to figure out how to help them in that regard, but then we also have to figure out how do we have the physical toughness? Which is a lot of weight room. And then I think some of it is also just the mental execution of how to best combat it.
“What play do we need to run? How fast do we need to play? What are some of the basketball situations? So a lot of that will follow Melo, because he’s one of our primary ball-handlers. But then it gets spread around to the whole team, too.”
