Hornets' 2025 first round draft pick obligation will define franchise's direction in upcoming NBA season

Matt Alquiza | Sep 22, 2024

Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

The Charlotte Hornets are in a peculiar situation heading into the 2024-25 season. On one hand, it’s long past time for the Hornets to become a serious NBA franchise and try to compete with the big dogs. Charlotte has been waltzing on the treadmill of mediocrity for too long, rarely stepping outside of the league’s middle class. The talented trio of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Mark Williams have a promising head coach in Charles Lee that should bring the best out of them. A full-go at contention in 2024-25 doesn’t guarantee anything in terms of playoff success, but it would be nice for Charlotte to push their chips in and make an earnest attempt at competing for the first time in years. 

However, there is a massive elephant in the room. The Hornets are still young. None of their core trio are over the age of 23. The franchise could still use another young piece or two to develop alongside Ball, Miller, and Williams, and their best shot at adding that piece is through the NBA Draft. 

Said elephant is that Charlotte would send their 2025 first round pick to the San Antonio Spurs if it falls out of the lottery. For a team that still needs to accrue talent to ultimately build a long-term contender in Charlotte, forfeiting this year’s first round pick in a loaded lottery would be a tough blow. Charlotte is too talented to be in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes, but the Hornets picking in the lottery again is not an unlikely scenario at all.

First time General Manager Jeff Peterson and the aforementioned Charles Lee will be forced to make a decision on the plan for team’s stretch run around the All-Star break. If Charlotte is hovering around the 8-10 seed, showing sings of being able to compete with the big dogs in the East like Philly, Boston, and New York, they may opt to forgo their 2025 pick and make a run at securing the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2016.

Or, if the injury bug strikes early and Charlotte is toiling with the basement-dwellers come February, the trade deadline may become a pivot point that ends in Charlotte trading veterans like Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic, and Nick Richards to guarantee one more lottery selection to add to their core nucleus.

It’s an unenviable situation, but a harsh reality that Peterson and Lee will have to face before they know it. Sitting here in September, all signs point to Peterson and Lee opting towards contending this year. Their consistent refrain of changing the "Hornets DNA" leads me to believe that the days of middle class Hornets are in the rear view mirror. Lee's style of basketball should lead to more wins in Charlotte, and a forfeited draft pick that San Antonio will reap the benefits of. Hornets basketball is back in a month, so we'll find out their direction soon enough.

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