American players who go undrafted don’t often make it to the NBA, but Naz Reid put in the work to make it where others were have given up.

Playing at LSU, Reid signed with the Timberwolves, splitting time between the parent club and Iowa of the D-League in his rookie year.  Reid stayed with Minnesota for good in his second season, finding a role off of the bench to give a rebounding and blocking percentage, while still taking enough shots to make him viable offensively.  The addidtion of Rudy Gobert would keep Reid on the bench but last season he thrived in that role winning the Sixth Man of the Year off a 13.5 PPG year.  Last year, he was fifth in Sixth Man voting and had his best PPG with 14.2.

Reid's value has been cemented since he arrived in Minnesota, and there is so much more left.

D’Angelo Russell first turned heads with the Los Angeles Lakers, but was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2018, where he was an All-Star in 2019.  The Guard was then dealt to Golden State where he was part of the package to bring Kevin Durant.  As good as Russell was, he was part of another deal shortly after, where he was deal to his current squad, Minnesota, who sent Andrew Wiggins the other way.

Russell, meshed well in Minnesota, and helped them make the playoffs and kept his PPG average strong with a near 20 metirc.  A solid scorer, Russell was not an elite player, and the tinkering Timberwolves traded him back to his original team, the Lakers, during the 2022-23 Season.  WIth the T-Wolves, Russell averaged 18.5 Points per Game over approximately three years of service.

Highly regarded going into both the University of Georgia and the NBA as the #1 Pick in 2020, Anthony Edwards had an excellent rookie season, earning All-Rookie accolades, and averaging 19.3 Points per Game.  This was the scoring touch they expected from Edwards as a rookie, but there were plenty of mistakes, as displayed by his advanced metrics, namely his sub-15.0 PER. 

This was common for rookies, and Edwards progressed nicely in his sophomore campaign, breaking the 20 PPG threshold and minimizing miscues.  Edwards took it to the next level in his third year, where he crept within a hair of 25 Points per Game and made his first All-Star Game.  In that off-season, he was the best player for the United States at the FIBA World Basketball Championship, but that was just a launching pad.

In 2023-24, Edwards was again an All-Star and added a Second Team All-Star. An MVP contender, Edwards broke the 25 PPG threshold and led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals.  Basically, Edwards entered the competition to become the face of the Association!

Last season, Ant had very similar stats (27.6 PPG), and was again an All-Star, a Second Team All-NBA player, and was seventh (just like the previous year) in MVP voting.  Oh, and he also brought the Timberwolves back to the WCF.

Already a top-five player in franchise history, Edwards continues to get better, and do we finally have a player that could supplant Kevin Garnett one day?

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2021/22 revision of our top Charlotte Hornets

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Basketball Association. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Charlotte made the playoffs and have a nice nucleus of players that could make them a contender.  Last year’s results saw two new entries and one large jump on this young franchise, but nothing affecting the top tier.

As always, we present our top five:

1. Kemba Walker

2. Gerald Wallace

3. Larry Johnson

4. Mugsy Bogues

5. Dell Curry

You can find the entire list here.

Terry Rozier had a significant jump, moving from #40 to #23.

The highest of the three new entrants is Miles Bridges, who suffered an incident in the off-season that might prevent him from continuing hs career.  He debuts at #24.

Another high-profile debut is Point Guard, LaMelo Ball, who was the 2021 Rookie of the Year, and an All-Star last season.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.