{"id":712523,"date":"2026-04-17T15:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712523\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:21:18","slug":"longest-nba-playoff-droughts-how-hornets-can-snap-record-with-win-over-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712523\/","title":{"rendered":"Longest NBA playoff droughts: How Hornets can snap record with win over Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longest NBA playoff droughts: How Hornets can snap record with win over Magic<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contention has evaded the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> since the days of Kemba Walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Despite having some solid talent roll through North Carolina, from LaMelo Ball<\/a> and Kon Knueppel<\/a> to Gordon Hayward<\/a> and Terry Rozier<\/a>, the Hornets have struggled to remain in playoff contention \u2014 until, all of a sudden, they’ve surged in the second half of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Entering Friday’s Play-In Tournament game against the Orlando Magic<\/a>, all it will take is one Hornets win to break the longest playoff cold spell in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the NBA’s longest playoff drought and the last time the Hornets made the bracket.<\/p>\n

MORE: The longest playoff droughts in sports, from the Jets to the Pirates<\/a><\/p>\n

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Longest NBA playoff droughts<\/p>\n

Because Play-In Tournament berths are not considered a playoff appearance, the Hornets will have to officially make the 2025-26 first round to officially break their drought, which is the longest in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Charlotte hasn’t made the playoffs in any of the last nine seasons. Should the Hornets loss to the Magic in the Play-In Tournament, that number would increase to a full decade’s worth of non-playoff seasons.<\/p>\n

However, if the Hornets do make the playoffs, there will be a new longest playoff drought in the NBA owned by the Washington Wizards<\/a> at five seasons. The last time the Wizards made the playoffs was in 2021, when a Bradley Beal-Russell Westbrook-led squad was taken down by the 76ers<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

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The Utah Jazz<\/a> and Chicago Bulls<\/a> both last made the playoffs in 2022, while the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> and Sacramento Kings<\/a> last made it in 2023.<\/p>\n

Rank<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Last Playoff Appearance<\/p>\n

Drought (Seasons)<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n

2016<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Washington Wizards<\/p>\n

2021<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

T-3<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz<\/p>\n

2022<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

T-3<\/p>\n

Chicago Bulls<\/p>\n

2022<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

T-5<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Nets<\/p>\n

2023<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

T-5<\/p>\n

Sacramento Kings<\/p>\n

2023<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

SN AWARDS:Victor Wembanyama Player of the Year<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Joe Mazzulla Coach of the Year<\/a><\/p>\n

When was the last time the Hornets made the playoffs?<\/p>\n

The last time the Hornets made the playoffs was in the 2015-16 season, when Kemba Walker’s 20.9 points per game guided the team to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference at 48-34.<\/p>\n

Charlotte, which was also led by Al Jefferson<\/a>, Nicholas Batum<\/a>, Jeremy Lin<\/a> and Cody Zeller<\/a>, was matched up against the third-seeded Miami Heat<\/a> in Round 1, but the Hornets lost in Game 7 when Goran Dragic<\/a> put up 25 points in a blowout Heat win.<\/p>\n

MORE: Picks, predictions for the 2026 NBA Playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longest NBA playoff droughts: How Hornets can snap record with win over Magic originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[679,24220,7,247,473,329,2985,6274,17234,22397,3096,968,966,189,6,1287,1636,76,3150,46970,477,1677,427,468,669],"class_list":{"0":"post-712523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-al-jefferson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-chicago-bulls","14":"tag-cody-zeller","15":"tag-goran-dragic","16":"tag-gordon-hayward","17":"tag-jeremy-lin","18":"tag-kemba-walker","19":"tag-kon-knueppel","20":"tag-lamelo-ball","21":"tag-miami-heat","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-playoff","24":"tag-nicholas-batum","25":"tag-orlando-magic","26":"tag-playoff-appearance","27":"tag-playoff-contention","28":"tag-sacramento-kings","29":"tag-terry-rozier","30":"tag-utah-jazz","31":"tag-washington-wizards","32":"tag-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116420731518077163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712523","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=712523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}