👀 Inside Hornets' turn from punch line to playoff hopeful

15.04.2026, 02:55 espn.com

THE SUN WAS still hours away from rising over the Manhattan skyline, but a lively LaMelo Ball was up shortly after 4 a.m., delivering perhaps his most important assist for the Charlotte Hornets on this crisp morning in April 2025.

Ball and Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson were on their way to the renowned Hospital for Special Surgery for the point guard's season-ending arthroscopic surgeries on his right wrist and ankle. As their town car cruised up the near-empty New York City streets, Peterson asked Ball for his input on some potential lottery draft targets. The point guard's attention turned toward a highly touted Duke prospect.

Although Cooper Flagg was the consensus can't-miss prospect, Ball was talking up Kon Knueppel to the Hornets GM. Ball had watched Duke play during the season and told Peterson how savvy he thought the forward was. He was struck by Knueppel's basketball IQ and understanding of the game -- impressive even for a five-star prospect. And of course, there was Knueppel's elite shooting.

Ball's astute scouting report was before Charlotte even knew where it would be drafting. The Hornets learned in the draft lottery a month later that they would have the fourth pick, which they eventually used on Knueppel.

"He's spot on with those traits," Peterson told ESPN of that break-of-dawn draft breakdown. "He was very detailed in his evaluation of why he liked him. That was even more impressive that he was able to kind of highlight him because there were some other guys that he didn't highlight.

"He may have a future in the front office if he wants."

A year later, Ball is having the most successful season of his career. And Knueppel, whose historic first season could lead to Rookie of the Year honors, has been a revelation and the perfect player to unlock Ball's and the Hornets' potential.

Ball and Knueppel have formed a Hornets 3-point shooting duo of the future that has a new-age Splash Brothers feel to it. Charlotte has been perhaps the best story of the NBA season and authored the most surprising turnaround with a potent starting five that includes the emerging Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate. The Hornets won 44 games after totaling just 19 wins a season ago. Only the Spurs have had a bigger turnaround this season.

"Nobody's thinking that playing Charlotte is going to be an easy walkover game," Knueppel told ESPN. "Which it has been the last couple years."

After averaging 60 losses over the previous three seasons, Charlotte has its buzz back for perhaps the first time since Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning were whipping the Hive into a frenzy and the Hornets looked like a team of the future back in the '90s. At the controls is Ball, who is not only healthy but also is trying to prove that he's a winning point guard and not all flash. And the young talent that Charlotte has collected is blossoming and determined to show the Hornets are no longer a punchline.

The Hornets could've succumbed to an early rash of injuries and a 4-14 start, but instead they are two wins away from snapping the NBA's longest current playoff drought. After nine years of postseason-less basketball, Charlotte can end the futility by advancing out of the play-in, which begins Tuesday night with its game against the 10th-seeded Miami Heat.

Since Jan. 2, the Hornets have gone 33-15 with belief-building -- and at times convincing -- wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

"We just continue to change the narrative," guard Coby White, who was a key trade acquisition at the deadline, told ESPN. "Before, people weren't serious about Hornets basketball. Sports analysts made jokes on TV. A lot of guys in the locker room were offended and took that to heart. So you see the way that they play -- they're tired of that narrative here.

"Now I think the world is starting to see how serious Hornets basketball is."

WHEN THE INDIANA PACERS were making their stunning run in the Finals against the Thunder, Bridges, Ball and Miller texted each other.

"'We can do that too,'" Bridges told ESPN of what they said to one another. "We kind of modeled our game after that. We want to get out and run like this."

Indiana lost Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tendon injury and lost the Finals in Game 7. But the Hornets saw the possibilities of running an up-tempo offense with an improvising point guard who can pass and shoot. Last season, Ball and Haliburton were first and second, according to GeniusIQ, in jump passes per game, which can create movement in a random offense and be difficult to defend.

Head coach Charles Lee -- who also adds a Boston flavor to the Hornets' offensive style from his time as a Celtics assistant under Joe Mazzulla -- can often be seen signaling a playcall with a steering wheel gesture to his team. It's fitting since the Hornets want to play full throttle with constant movement; they lead the NBA in double on-ball screens per game and points per game off those actions this season, according to ESPN Research.

"They gave the blueprint for a lot," Knueppel said of the Pacers. "We might not have like the superstar, All-Star, All-NBA guy, but we got a lot of good players. When we play fast and we have a bunch of guys that can really contribute, it's just a good style for us."

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In their second season together, Peterson and Lee set a different tone in camp with a move that was unlike the Hornets of the past. Charlotte waived veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie in October just three months after signing him to a one-year, $3.6 million deal. The Hornets instead kept veteran Pat Connaughton as a locker room presence, making a financial choice that the franchise might not have done in the past.

"Of course Spencer's talented, a great guy," said Bridges, the longest-tenured Hornet who has been with the club since entering the league in 2018. "But they kind of went with Pat because Pat has a ring, has been around great playoff teams, has a great voice. We just need those type of guys in the locker room.

"I didn't think we were going to cut [Dinwiddie]. It was definitely eye-opening."

Even though the Hornets lost 14 of their first 18 games, including a seven-game slide, the locker room was able to stick together and not fall into old habits despite injuries to Ball and Miller.

"When I first got here, sometimes it was hard for guys to fight through those moments of adversity," Lee told ESPN. "I felt sometimes guys were like, 'Ah, we're the Hornets. Here we go. We're injured again. We're going to lose the game.' And there was almost like this defeated attitude when adversity hit."

But Lee saw a different attitude this season. Once Ball and Miller got healthy and Lee turned to a starting five of Ball, Miller, Knueppel, Bridges and Diabate, the Hornets took off. They shockingly destroyed the Thunder in Oklahoma City, 124-97, on Jan. 5.

"After the game, we were like, 'Why can't we do this every game?'" Bridges said. "Ever since then, we had the confidence that we could beat anybody."

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They pummeled the Utah Jazz 150-95 for the second-largest win in franchise history five nights later. They later beat the Lakers in Los Angeles by 18, won at Denver by 23 and went on a nine-game winning streak and another six-game streak in late February through early March. Those six straight wins came by 15-plus points, tied for the second-longest streak by that big of a margin within a season in NBA history. Since Jan. 1, Charlotte owns the top-ranked offense (120.7 ORTG) and fifth-ranked defense (110.2 DRTG).

"Similar to OKC, you have a bunch of guys all bought into a role," the Philadelphia 76ers' Paul George said. "They play an ego-less basketball ... They're all kind of shining together."

Like most young teams, Charlotte still has difficulties pulling out close games and is just 10-18 in clutch-time games, when the scoring margin in the last five minutes is within five points. The Hornets also have to show they can handle physical and bigger teams. They viewed a recent three-game home stretch against the Knicks, Sixers and Celtics as a major test against teams with playoff-tested stars.

They wasted a 15-point lead and lost 118-114 at home to the 76ers -- who had Tyrese Maxey, George and Joel Embiid back together -- in a game that had a playoff feel to it on March 28. The next day, the Hornets lost 114-99 to Jayson Tatum and the Celtics, who played without Jaylen Brown. Ball and Knueppel shot a combined 22-for-72 from the field in the two losses.

"That's the next step," White said. "Everything else, you check the box. For us, winning those games in the mud when things aren't going your way ... These are how games are in the playoffs."

The Hornets, though, showed why they can be so dangerous in a 114-103 win over the Knicks on March 26. During a 64-second blitz in the third quarter, Ball and Knueppel combined to hit three deep triples. Knueppel kept popping open off screens for 11 momentum-building points in the quarter.

When Miller threw down a thunderous fast-break dunk with 8:32 left in the fourth quarter to push the Hornets up by 21, the forward dapped up rapper DaBaby, a frequent supporter, on the baseline. The Spectrum Center exploded, with Hornets supporters for once drowning out the large contingent of Knicks fans who always show up.

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That game was one of the Spectrum Center's record 25 sellouts this season. Dell Curry -- the all-t