Bleacher Report’s <\/a>NBA Power Rankings listed Charlotte sixth overall on their newest rankings, it got me thinking pretty hard. Frankly, I think there\u2019s a good case to be made for fifth-or-better when the Hornets are playing at their best.<\/p>\nLet me not get too far ahead of myself.<\/p>\n
From No. 5 to No. 1, the five teams ranked above the Hornets in the newest power rankings were Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio.\u200b<\/p>\n
Coincidentally (or perhaps not\u2026), the only five teams to have better records than Charlotte, in the same order, are predictably the five teams I listed above who were ranked higher.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, following a win against the Indiana Pacers, the 23-win year-over-year increase from 2024-2025\u2019s 19 wins to 2025-2026’s (currently) 42 is the largest win change from one year to the next in franchise history.<\/p>\n
While we have all discussed their net ratings with the starting five of LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabat\u00e9, that year-over-year stat is what matters way more than if they\u2019re worthy of a top five ranking, to me.<\/p>\n
Power rankings are for a team like OKC, a team that has a right to have some qualms with being second instead of first as the defending champions. Teams that are undoubtedly in a win-now window. <\/p>\n
Before Moussa was inserted as a Hornets starter in late December? The very LAST thing any of us would have called this season is a season that is part of a Hornets \u201cwin now\u201d window. Despite all of it, the Hornets are here with the best of them.\u200b<\/p>\n
Next year is the season to be focused on how you fare against the league\u2019s top teams in both conferences. 2026-2027, the Hornets WILL have expectations.<\/p>\n
So, do I think the Charlotte Hornets are a top-five NBA team right now? No, and that should be okay. This is a team that had 19 wins last year and had questions about its returning star players, who were coming off season-ending injuries.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most important is that right now, hanging with these big teams when they weren\u2019t expected to do so, is what WILL make the Hornets a top-five caliber team in the long run. The battles, toughness, and strategies you learn when contenders take you seriously in the regular season are incredibly underrated.<\/p>\n
Charlotte has a LOT of that now. More than Hornets players in their sixth season, like LaMelo Ball, have ever had. Same for Miles Bridges, the only longer-tenured Hornet (seventh season).<\/p>\n
Fans have the play-in and this year\u2019s playoffs on their mind right now, when really, what everyone is missing here in the last few weeks of the season?<\/p>\n
We all have to remember the future we’re looking forward to with this young team. A future capable of being a top-five NBA unit, without needing any think piece explaining it.<\/p>\n
Just not quite yet. Patience is a virtue, friends.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter for the latest news and updates on the Charlotte Hornets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent two-game losing streak against high-level foes shouldn\u2019t remove us all from having this title discussion. So,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-699708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-hornets","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116352669896805169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}