The Charlotte Hornets’ ceiling was the roof
By John Buhler
The 2016-17 NBA season was supposed to be a year of great promise for Michael Jordan’s Hornets. With the Southeast Division looking worse than it had ever been, Charlotte was a sexy pick to win the division and achieve home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The Hornets got off to a hot start, winning eight of their first 11 games. They seemed to have the Hawks’ number — the presumptive biggest threat to them in the division. The Wizards looked like a total wreck in November, so did the Heat and the Magic continued to do Magic things. In the end, the Wizards definitely figured it out, the Hornets did not, the Heat did but it was too late and the Magic could have used a dry eraser.
Point guard Kemba Walker emerged as one of the best at his position in the Eastern Conference. This looked to be the year where the Hornets would make back-to-back trips to the NBA Playoffs since the Bobcats reincarnation, but it was all a dream.
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Things started to take a turn for the worse once Charlotte’s Big Handsome Cody Zeller had to look all suave and debonair in those street clothes because of injury. Zeller did not have a Happy New Year, as he would miss 17 of Charlotte’s 24 games in January and February due to a nagging quad injury. Seeing as the Hornets were 9.0 points per 100 possessions better with Zeller on the floor, it’s no surprise they stopped winning games on the road shortly thereafter. They went from being 23-21 on Jan. 21 after a win over the Nets, to finishing the year 36-46. Their defense went from top-tier to middle of the pack and their better-than-expected offense wasn’t enough to keep The Hive alive into month five.
To best summarize how Charlotte’s season went, Jordan went to his alma mater in Chapel Hill before that Duke game and dished out the best soundbite of his basketball life: “The ceiling is the roof!”
Well, that might have worked for the North Carolina Tar Heels since they did win the 2017 National Championship over Gonzaga. However, that phrase uttered on March 10 would be the pogo stick that smashed The Hive into full-blown colony collapse disorder. Few teams were as pitiful down the stretch as Charlotte. The Hornets couldn’t stop stinging themselves. It was Tommy Boy gotta-swerve-off-the-road-Richard bad.
Besides Walker, here were some other highlights from the Hornets’ swatted season. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was healthy, playing in 81 games. The problem was his 3-point game was as lethal as Sandy Lyle’s in Along Came Polly. Nine times did he attempt a 3. I don’t remember him attempting nine 3s, do you? Well, only one of them went through the ring to rule them all. It was like the Rudy of field goals. So long, Astoria, and take that 3-pointer for data!
Frank Kaminsky got that potato in the mail that one time, so that was neat. It was a great distraction from his bountiful harvest of shooting the basketball at a delicious 39.9 clip. Are we sure he didn’t make his own potato art? It’s the type of distraction that could make a center shoot under 40 percent from the field. He should have turned that potato into a clock because winning time is the only time that matters in the NBA. Get it together, Spud!
So where do the Hornets go from here if they can’t go beyond the roof because their shoe salesman owner says they can’t? Charlotte will be in the back-end of the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery before you know it, primed to pick either an 19-year-old point guard the Hornets don’t need or some guy that played in the second weekend of the 2017 NCAA Tournament, probably from an ACC school.
In all honesty, Charlotte can go anywhere but point guard with their upcoming first-round pick. Since they did trade away a former one-and-done who played his college ball in Washington, why not get the 10-point man from the West Coast Conference in the form of Gonzaga’s Zach Collins? Lonzo Ball’s dad will be off the board, so Mr. Collins it is!
There will be a lot of buzz around that No. 11 to No. 14 pick by the Hornets. If they magically get into the top-10, look out! The Hornets might have to draft the next Kaminsky at No. 9 again. It could happen. Jordan did watch the NCAA Tournament because the Tar Heels were easily the best basketball team in North Carolina this year.
Overall, one could argue that the Hornets had the most massively disappointing season of any team in the Eastern Conference. We knew that the Knicks were going to be dysfunctional anyway. Who honestly thought that the combination of Phil Jackson, The Triangle, Derrick Rose, the Joakim Noah contract, unhappy Charles Oakley and the delightful James Dolan was going to work?
You better believe the Bulls made the playoffs! The Heat almost did and Stan Van Gundy didn’t have enough raw material to form his wall. It was all being used to build new Little Caesar’s Arena downtown for the Pistons and the Red Wings (Pizza, pizza!). Indiana got swept in round one and Brooklyn pretty much got swept during the regular season. The Nets were that atrocious and the 76ers somehow exceeded expectations.
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This brings us back to our main point: Was Charlotte the biggest disappointment in the Eastern Conference this past regular season? It looks to be so. Until something changes, it would be foolish to really say the buzz is back at the hive. It’s hard to build a winning culture when the colony continues to collapse on itself at least every other year.
The truth stings.