2026 Charlotte Hornets

[frankw]

52 points in the paint last night.

[uncfan888]

Magic and heat both lost. Take all the help we can get

[HardcoreHokie]

16 minutes ago, uncfan888 said:

Magic and heat both lost. Take all the help we can get

Hornets now sitting at the 8-seed.

[toldozer]

It's a dangerous game but I'd rather play the Pistons instead of the celtics. That means staying in 8th and beating the Heat at home after losing to the Raptors. Obviously best case would be finding a way into the 6th seed but I think the loss to Philly pretty much sealed the Hornets fate to be in the play in

[pantherdad]

2 hours ago, toldozer said:

It's a dangerous game but I'd rather play the Pistons instead of the celtics. That means staying in 8th and beating the Heat at home after losing to the Raptors. Obviously best case would be finding a way into the 6th seed but I think the loss to Philly pretty much sealed the Hornets fate to be in the play in

Either way I’m happy. No matter what happens after this point I feel this was a successful season. The fact that we are feeling things that we haven’t felt in a long time and can be a little disappointed this late in the season is a good thing! Going from 19 wins to 40+ wins is a great accomplishment, and hopefully they can build on that next season and hit the 50 mark.

Edited 4 hours ago by pantherdad

[t96]

3 hours ago, toldozer said:

It's a dangerous game but I'd rather play the Pistons instead of the celtics. That means staying in 8th and beating the Heat at home after losing to the Raptors. Obviously best case would be finding a way into the 6th seed but I think the loss to Philly pretty much sealed the Hornets fate to be in the play in

dude I don't give a crap who we play as long as we get into the playoffs. Obviously the season is already a success but man it'd hurt to get a 9 or 10 seed and lose in the play in round after how well we've played the last 3 months

[MechaZain]

On 3/30/2026 at 7:52 AM, frankw said:

Realistically as much fun as it has been to see this team bombard teams from 3 it just isn't sustainable for us as a winning formula aside from catching better teams off guard from time to time and it isn't going to translate to a playoff run and certainly not a championship when we are so ineffective in the paint and have no go to answer in that area when games are on the line. The strategy of this franchise entering the offseason should be getting better in the paint. Drill that into everyone's head inside the building. All this rabble about not disrupting chemistry is weak minded. What chemistry? This team is 10th in the standings heading into April. In a historically weakened Eastern conference.

Boston's a top team and Embiid is like if someone designed a basketball player in a lab specifically to beat to Charlotte. I would not get too hung up on those

[frankw]

19 minutes ago, MechaZain said:

Boston's a top team and Embiid is like if someone designed a basketball player in a lab specifically to beat to Charlotte. I would not get too hung up on those

Losses for a young team are going to happen. I get disappointed in the moment but to be clear I am emphatically impressed with the progress these guys have made and LaMelo has stepped up in a big way as a leader.

Embiid is just a monster and also gets the very cushy benefit of practically every call going his way against franchises such as ours.

The Celtics actually could serve as a tale of hope for us. They lingered and lingered and flirted with playoff success but couldn't get over the hump to the point of people clowning them. But then suddenly everything clicked and they went on a run and won the finals.

If this team gets serious about dedicating themselves to maximizing the whole floor and not just from behind the arc we could find ourselves in the midst of a Celtics or Thunder kind of postseason run sooner than later. But it won't happen without that offensive evolution. I just hope to see that come to fruition.

[toldozer]

1 hour ago, pantherdad said:

Either way I’m happy. No matter what happens after this point I feel this was a successful season. The fact that we are feeling things that we haven’t felt in a long time and can be a little disappointed this late in the season is a good thing! Going from 19 wins to 40+ wins is a great accomplishment, and hopefully they can build on that next season and hit the 50 mark.

I think it would be a huge blow to the players to not get in to the playoffs. They really need to get in for confidence going into next season

[pantherdad]

15 minutes ago, toldozer said:

I think it would be a huge blow to the players to not get in to the playoffs. They really need to get in for confidence going into next season

All they have to do is play like they want the damn thing and not like they played the last 2 games at home. They should have took exception to getting T-bagged by Maxey, Embiid, and Tatum. Hopefully they can man up against the Suns and Pacers. If they don’t make the playoffs, they have nobody to get mad at but themselves. That would be my motivation.

[AggieLean]

I want actual playoffs, and would be disappointed losing in play in. We really need to get that 7th or 8th seed. It’ll be a tall task winning 2 in a row from the 9th or 10th seed