NBA: Grading each team’s 2014-2015 season

4th. Southeast Division, Eastern Conference. CHARLOTTE HORNETS. D+. <p>The Lance Stephenson experiment did not go accordingly to plan in North Carolina.</p> <p>After a season when the Hornets won 43 games and earned an Eastern Conference playoff spot seemingly out of nowhere, there was real regression in Charlotte in 2014-2015. The high-profile acquisition of the aforementioned Stephenson was a gigantic flip, as Lance posted an 8.8 PER while shooting 37.6% from the field and a 17.1% from beyond the 3-point arc.</p> <p>In fairness to Stephenson, his monumental drop-off is just one piece of the puzzle. The Hornets are still a top-10 defensive team in the league on a per-possession basis, but Charlotte has cratered offensively, landing among the bottom three along with Philadelphia and New York. That is, quite obviously, a place that no franchise wants to be in 2015, but given their propensity for long two-point jump shots, it shouldn’t be a shock that Charlotte’s efficiency has suffered.</p> <p>The Hornets are going to finish 11th in the East and they were involved (on the fringe, at least) in the playoff race until the season’s final week. That means that things didn’t go as poorly as they could have, but at the same time, no one in Charlotte is pleased with the 2014-2015 performance.</p>