This season, something important was restored in Charlotte.
Decades ago, the NBA came to a college basketball-loving part of the United States, accompanied by a genuine buzz. The Hornets showed that there was more than enough basketball for a fan’s entertainment dollar in the Carolinas. That identity — the one carried by the likes of Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson in the franchise’s first playoff forays — means something to a fan base . When you fall in love with a team or anything (anyone) else in life, being able to call your beloved by name really matters.
When the Hornets left for New Orleans, the subsequent arrival of the Bobcats filled a place on a court in an arena, but it wasn’t quite the same. It wasn’t a first love. Bringing back the Hornet name gave this season a purely emotional form of good feeling, a reward in itself for the fans.
However, a restored name wasn’t supposed to be the only reason Charlotte partisans had to be giddy about the local NBA scene. This is where our story takes a sour turn.
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Last season, the Bobcats set up the Hornets to succeed. They made a surprising dash to the playoffs and played the Miami Heat competitively in the first two games of their first-round series, but watched Al Jefferson aggravate an injury, essentially ending the series before it came to Charlotte for Game 3. This season, with former Indiana Pacer catalyst-antagonist Lance Stephenson on the roster, things were supposed to get better.
Jefferson and capable wing scorer Gerald Henderson were back for the 2014-2015 season. Better yet, Charlotte knew it would retain Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who has successfully transferred his relentless energy from Kentucky to the pros. Kidd-Gilchrist might never have been as dynamic as his No. 2 standing in the 2012 NBA Draft suggested, but there’s no law saying No. 2 picks have to be superstars. Kidd-Gilchrist is only 21, and he seems to be on course for a long and very productive career, validating the Hornets’ choice (during the Bobcat era).
Most of all, Charlotte was relying on Kemba Walker to take his place among the NBA’s best point guards. Anyone who saw Walker at Connecticut appreciated just how lethal and consistent he was as an ankle-breaking ballhandler and knockdown-shot artist. That capability made the Miami Heat sweat bullets in Game 2 of last year’s playoff series, and it’s what any upper-echelon NBA team needs to play into the month of May.
No, the 2014-2015 season did not begin with expectations of playing into the month of June, but a return to the playoffs — perhaps as a No. 5 seed — and a first-round win looked like realistic goals for the Hornets. Playing into May seemed attainable.
Instead, injuries reared their ugly heads… and ankles (Kidd-Gilchrist)… and calves (Jefferson)… and knees (Walker). With multiple core players missing large chunks of action, the Hornets haven’t been able to gain any traction.
When a team such as the Miami Heat — with four straight NBA Finals appearances — watches its players get sidelined by injuries, one can say that the laws of averages evened out, or that the strain of playing extended-length seasons caught up with a team. With the Hornets, what can be said? Young players, not old-man Dwyane Wade, were the ones getting hurt. The team didn’t go deep into the playoffs last year or in any of the previous several seasons. This was just rotten luck. One can therefore attribute this failure on the part of Charlotte to forces outside its control.
However, that verdict — while containing a considerable degree of truth — doesn’t tell the whole story.
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Lance Stephenson — the one nicknamed “Born Ready” — was evidently not ready to help his team when its core parts went down. One of the more high-profile acquisitions of the 2014 offseason was supposed to be a core part himself, but with a paltry average of roughly eight points per game, Stephenson’s fallen well short of what the Hornets were expecting from him. What’s more is that while Charlotte was hoping for so much more from Stephenson this season, even a modest improvement over his current statistical totals could have put the Hornets in position to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
Consider a few games from the past season, one in which Stephenson missed 14 games bridging the end of 2014 and the start of 2015:
First, let’s be fair to Stephenson and not cherry-pick any November games (he was just getting settled in) or any games played within one week after his injury. Seven games into his return from the shelf, Stephenson played 20 scoreless minutes in a nine-point loss at San Antonio on January 28. On February 7, Stephenson scored only 6 points in an eight-point loss against Philadelphia. The next night, in a one-point homecourt loss to the Indiana Pacers — his former team — Stephenson didn’t elevate his game. He finished with 8 points on 2-of-7 shooting. On February 27, Charlotte scored under 100 points against the Boston Celtics’ suspect defense, losing by eight. Stephenson posted only 4 points in 23 minutes.
When you combine Stephenson’s season with multiple homecourt losses to Orlando and a 1-3 record against Indiana (Paul George did not play in any of those games), it becomes entirely reasonable to make the argument that Charlotte has left at least six or seven games on the table, even when accounting for its injuries as a starting point.
Yes, just about every NBA team can point to six or seven games it gave away during a season — that’s a fair and even necessary counterpoint to make.
The differences with Charlotte? The Hornets made the playoffs last season… unlike the Boston Celtics. The Hornets didn’t lose their star player for more than 75 games the way Indiana did. The Hornets weren’t plunged into chaos the way the Miami Heat were. Most of the teams from the seventh through twelfth spots in the Eastern Conference standings experienced brutally bad luck this season, and the Hornets were one of those teams. Yet, of those ballclubs, the Hornets had more to protect with a generally younger core… and probably weren’t the foremost victim of bad luck; other teams in that cluster actually had it worse.
This team — given its injuries — should not have been expected to win a playoff series. In that sense, expectations should have been reined in as the 2014-2015 NBA season progressed, especially when the All-Star break arrived. However, failing to make the playoffs, while the Boston Celtics (in particular) close in on the postseason?
That still does feel like failure.
There won’t be a lot of buzz in the offseason in Charlotte, although a 2015-2016 season marked by health and wholeness will truly show us where this franchise stands in the National Basketball Association.
