The Hornets are in a terrible spot at the perfect time

Charlotte figures to fall off substantially this season, but there's no better season to fall off substantially.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Card Player, Pablo Picasso, 1913-14

It’s easy to forget but their season ended abruptly and unceremoniously, but the Charlotte Hornets were pretty good last season. They finished 43-39, sadly just No. 10 in a moderately deep Eastern Conference. The Hawks destroyed them in the play-in tournament. Few seem to be picking the Hornets to do better this season.

There are very clear reasons why that’s the case.

Miles Bridges remains unsigned while he faces a court date over allegations of felony domestic violence. His future availability to sign a contract of some sort with the Charlotte Hornets — he’s a restricted free agent, and the qualifying offer is sitting on the table as far as we know — is both an unknown and the least important matter in relation to him right now. What matters is the current and future health and safety of Bridges’ children and their mother, full stop. The basketball impact of what he has been alleged to have done is so far down the list of important things as to basically be non-existent.

That said, this is a basketball newsletter and I’m writing about the team that he last played for, and would be expected to play for next should he end up playing basketball this season. The NBA’s procedures on matters related to domestic violence charges, pleas and convictions is quite erratic and puzzling. As such, and given all the complexity inherent in prosecuting domestic violence charges, Bridges’ availability is a question mark at best. There is no way the Hornets can expect (or [in my opinion] want, given public evidence the allegations are true) him back anytime soon. For the purposes of assessing the Hornets this season, I consider Bridges a non-entity.

LaMelo is beginning the season injured. Gordon Hayward made his preseason debut on Wednesday; he is still Charlotte Hornets Gordon Hayward, which is to say he’s not going to be close to an All-Star or anything, barring a DeRozanian revival. The Hornets are incredibly shallow on both ends. In addition to the names mentioned, the only other player you’d consider an NBA starter on more than half of NBA rosters is Terry Rozier, and maybe P.J. Washington. There are a couple more legitimate NBA rotation players here: Jalen McDaniels, Kelly Oubre, a Plumlee, Cody Martin. There are some young prospects like James Bouknight and Kai Jones. But … this isn’t really a roster that can survive significant absences. And when you remove Bridges from the calculus, it’s not a team with much high-level talent barring some huge improvements from some prospects, or a major leap from Ball.

LaMelo has a rolled ankle and will miss the opener at minimum. He played most of last season (75 games) but missed a good amount of time as a rookie. Hayward hasn’t played 2,000 minutes in a season since Utah. Other teams in Charlotte’s general middle-tier zone in the Eastern Conference standings — Brooklyn, New York, Atlanta, Cleveland — stand to be better. Orlando could conceivably pass the Hornets as well, provided that at least a few of the Magic’s key players manage to stay healthy this year. Meanwhile, Charlotte stands to be worse.

And yet, can the Hornets really be as bad as Indiana or Detroit? Is Washington going to jump over Charlotte or falter? How low can the Hornets really go in the NBA standings after hiring a coach programmed to try to win at all costs and coming off of a 43-win season with a relatively young roster?