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Top 50 Charlotte Hornets

Entering the National Basketball Association as an expansion team in 1988, the Charlotte Hornets have had an interesting history, though not necessarily a successful one. Many speculated that the city could not support professional basketball, despite North Carolina being a haven for the college game.

The pundits were proven wrong as though they played like an expansion team, the attendance was huge and they led the NBA in that category during their inaugural season. Charlotte suffered through the aches and pains of being an expansion team, but finally, they made the playoffs and has a few good players which gave them national attention, though when they slipped back, the attendance wasn’t there and they fell to the bottom in that category and management moved the team to New Orleans following the end of the 2001/02 season.

While that might seem like it would doom professional basketball in Charlotte, the state had already shown it could support hockey (the Carolina Hurricanes) and football (the Carolina Panthers). The NBA wanted to give it another try, and in 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats were born, though again feeling the pains of expansion. Despite the challenges, Charlotte has emerged as a city with one of the best basketball programs in the NBA. 

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, the team sought to come up with a team that reflected their own region. For the 2013-14 season, they were renamed the Pelicans, and the city of Charlotte looked to get back their old name, which after one year they had. This is where it becomes very interesting for our purposes.

The new Charlotte Hornets absorbed the history of the old Charlotte Hornets, which splits the career of many “Hornets” whose best years are divided between New Orleans and Charlotte for our Top 50s.

This list is up to the end of the 2022/23 season.

Note: Basketball lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics and post-season accolades.
Vlade Divac was one of the more popular players in the NBA, but for many in Charlotte, this is the guy who was traded for the rights to Kobe Bryant. History now shows that trade being a little lopsided (though let’s be honest, do you really see Kobe playing his entire career in Charlotte?) but history also shows that Divac was a very good player who put up good numbers in every metric.
Coming out of Bradley, Hersey Hawkins had a solid three year run (over two stints) with Charlotte, where he would put together a solid 11.4 Points per Game run. That may have been a lower statistically than he was with the Philadelphia 76ers years before, but his run in Eastern Pennsylvania helped make him a draw in Carolina.
The path for LaMelo Ball to the NBA might be a template for others to follow, though few people have a father like LaVar Ball. The youngest Ball brothers forewent college, playing overseas and ationally in his father’s developmental league, honing his skills and parlaying that to a Third Overall Pick in the 2020 Draft.  Many predicted that LaMelo would become the best in the family, and early in his career, that appears to be the…
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was the Second Overall Pick in 2012, and the NCAA Champion from Kentucky came in with lofty expectations.MKG had seen a marginal improvement from his rookie season (where he was a Second Team All-Rookie selection), however, a shoulder injury sidelined him for the 2015-16 season. He would return but other than one 10-plus PPG season, Kidd-Gilchrist never achieved the level that the Hornets hoped for.  Still, he was a solid player who didn't…
An All-Big Ten First Team player from Michigan, Miles Bridges was taken with the 12th Overall Pick in 2018 by the Los Angeles Clippers, only to be immediately traded to Charlotte. After a decent rookie year (7.5 PPG in 21 MPG), Bridges settled in as a regular starting Forward as a sophomore, but his progression was not as fast as the Hornets were hoping for, and he was regulated to more of a bench role in…
Arriving as a Free Agent, Brevin Knight was allotted the most playing time in his career and had the only two campaigns of his career where he exceeded 10 Points per Game. The Point Guard kept his distributing numbers high and would lead the NBA in Assist Percentage in the Bobcats inaugural year.
While Boris Diaw improved his overall game with the San Antonio Spurs (helping them win a NBA Title in 2014), the Frenchman did have a couple of good seasons in Charlotte before he ran afoul of management due to not being in the best physical condition. Diaw set personal bests in Points Per Game, and Rebounds per Game as a Bobcat, which is what got him to this elevated rank, but realistically, he is in…
While P.J. Brown would spend five seasons with the Hornets, only two of which were in Charlotte, which as you know for basketball history according to the NBA, only equates to two campaigns for this endeavor.
Beginning his professional career with the Charlotte Hornets, Kendall Gill was a spectacular dunker who made the First Team NBA All-Rookie Team. Gill would become an effective scorer for Charlotte and in his sophomore season would average more than 20 Points per Game. Gill was a balanced player, who for whatever reason has fallen through the cracks in Charlotte basketball folklore.
Drafted in the first round out of Duke, Gerald Henderson spent his first five seasons in a Charlotte uniform. Henderson would become a decent enough scorer but his overall game did not develop strong enough with the Hornets to have a higher ranking.
Like a few others on this list, Jamal Mashburn lost a few ranking spots due to his Hornets tenure being split between Charlotte and New Orleans. Despite that fact, Mashburn made his 116 Games in Charlotte count. In Charlotte, Mashburn would average over 20 Points and 7 Rebounds per Game producing over 10 Win Shares as the scoring leader of the team.
While D.J. Augustin has shown flashes of brilliance over his career, it has always been countered with ample mistakes. Still, when he was on, Augustin showcased solid shooting, especially from the free throw line as a Bobcat (he would finish in the top ten in the NBA three times in Free Throw Percentage) and averaged over 10 Points per Game while donning Bobcat orange.
A well respected Power Forward and product of Old Dominion, Kenny Gattison would be one of the more tenured players in Charlotte history playing 390 of his near 500 Games with the Hornets. Gattison was not the best player on his team, but his natural leadership and desire to the little things that didn’t show up on a stat sheet made him an asset to his team.
A two-time Third Team All-NBA player and one-time All-Star when he was playing for the New Jersey Nets, Derrick Coleman still had a lot left in the tank when he arrived to Charlotte in his early 30’s. Coleman no longer had a double-double average, but could still explode for great games on both ends of the court.
A seven footer from Salem, Massachusetts, Matt Geiger spent the best three years of his NBA career with Charlotte. Geiger, while non-descript to many had a soft image yet still averaged 10 Points per Game in Charlotte, and stepped up his defensive presence more than he got credit for.
From the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bismack Biyombo is a big man who was adept at rebounding and blocking who had two runs in CharlotteBiyombo was the seventh overall pick in 2013. and though his skills did not develop the way Charlotte hoped, he found a role in the rotation, finishing in the top ten in Blocks per Game twice.  Signing with the Raptors in 2015, and then the Magic a year later, Biyombo was…
How did Jason Richardson rank so high when he only played one season and change with Charlotte, and was unable to take them to the playoffs? The answer is that while he couldn’t take the team to the postseason, Richardson did put together one of the better offensive seasons in franchise history and for an organization that hasn’t had that many, it is enough to elevate him in this rank.
During his collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin, Frank Kaminsky was the consensus College Player of the Year in 2015.  Drafted ninth overall, Kaminsky played his first four seasons with Charlotte.  Usually used off of the bench, Kaminsky showed decent production with a pair of 10 plus Points per Game seasons, but his rebounding and blocking digits were low for a man his size.
While Johnny Newman was an NBA journeyman, his three year and change run with the Charlotte Hornets, was the most productive of his career. Newman would have two straight seasons averaging more than 15 Points per Game for the organization.
Mason Plumlee can be a punchline in some circles, but that should not be the case, as his play at Center has always been solid, though not star-making. You don’t have to be a star to make it in the NBA, and Plumlee was already an eight-year veteran before he was traded to Charlotte, his fifth NBA team.  A Hornet for 129 Games, Plumlee started them all, averaging 9 Points and 8.6 Rebounds per Game.…