One big question for every NBA team

Can the Hornets finish within the league’s top ten in 3-point attempts and makes?

Charlotte is essentially locked into its roster for the next year or two, unless they unload players via trade. For the time being, this will be the squad that Charlotte tries to get back into the playoffs with.

Two seasons ago, the Hornets surprisingly finished within the league’s top five in 3-point makes after years of inept shooting had sterilized the team’s offense. Kemba Walker transformed into a legit long-range threat and Marvin Williams dropped bombs from deep. The additions of Nic Batum and Jeremy Lin fueled a nuanced passing game that opened up the offense. The Hornets regressed to the mean last season, and the infusion of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist into the offense (he missed almost all of the previous year) cluttered the team’s spacing. The Hornets missed the playoffs and fell out of the league’s top ten in 3-point makes.

The acquisition of Dwight Howard, in what was a great financial trade for Charlotte, is going to cramp this team’s spacing even further though. Starting Dwight at center will move Cody Zeller to the four spot and he is not a shooting threat at all from deep. If those two ever share the floor with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the Hornets will be playing some of the most offensively inept lineups in the league.

Steve Clifford is going to have to work some magic to establish a solid offense this season. He will have to stagger rotations so that certain guys don’t share the floor. They just have so little reliable shooting outside of the Walker, Batum, Williams trio. If any of those three have bricky seasons, Charlotte could be in for a long year.