{"id":133703,"date":"2025-04-11T11:41:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=133703"},"modified":"2025-04-11T11:41:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:41:56","slug":"charlotte-hornets-draft-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/11\/charlotte-hornets-draft-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Hornets Draft Mistakes \u2013 They Cannot Miss on 2025 Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets haven\u2019t made the playoffs since the 2015-16 season. They currently have the longest playoff drought<\/a> in the league at eight seasons and counting. They are already eliminated this season, and their drought might continue. The reality is, they have nobody to blame but themselves. This year, the Charlotte Hornets will likely have a top-five first-round pick. But the problem is that throughout their history<\/a>, the Hornets have missed badly on their draft picks. Their draft day mistakes have cost them a chance to contend.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Hornets Draft Mistakes \u2013 They Cannot Miss on 2025 Pick<\/h2>\n

Think about this for a second. The Charlotte Hornets could have had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, Matas Buzelis<\/a>, and Alperen Sengun<\/a>. Yet, they are stuck with players like James Bouknight<\/a>, Tidjane <\/a>Salaun<\/a>, Miles Bridges<\/a>, and other low-level players.<\/p>\n

If we take a look at the last couple of drafts, the Charlotte Hornets definitely miss out on their draft picks. They have been picking in the lottery for quite some time, and they cannot seem to nail a good pick.<\/p>\n

The SGA Mistake<\/h3>\n

During the 2018 NBA draft, the Hornets traded their 11th pick, SGA to the Los Angeles Clippers for Miles Bridges and two future second-round selections. People remember the 2018 draft as the one the Hawks traded Luka Doncic<\/a> for Trae Young<\/a>. But the Hornets might have made an even worse mistake than the Hawks.<\/p>\n

Of course, 10 other teams passed on Gilgeous-Alexander. But the Hornets got him and traded him on draft night. SGA will probably win his first MVP award, while Bridges hasn\u2019t even made an All-Star team.<\/p>\n

James Who?<\/h3>\n

In the 2021 NBA draft, the Hornets selected James Bouknight with the 11th pick. The former UConn lottery pick is out of the league after only three seasons. During his time in the NBA, he never averaged more than 5.6 points per game. He played a total of 79 games, less than a full season. If the Hornets wanted a shooting guard, they could have gotten much better options like Moses Moody<\/a> or Tre Mann<\/a>(ironically, he ended up on the Hornets). Players like Sengun, Jalen Johnson<\/a>, and Trey Murphy III<\/a> were also on the board.<\/p>\n

Another Draft Day Trade Mistake<\/h3>\n

In the 2022 NBA draft, the Hornets drafted two centers, Jalen Duren<\/a> and Mark Williams<\/a>. They traded the former to the Detroit Pistons as part of a three-team deal, and the latter has played in only 104 games over three seasons. Duren has become one of the better defensive centers in the game, while Williams has struggled with injuries and they couldn\u2019t send him to the Lakers this past deadline.<\/p>\n

Drafting the Wrong Small Forward<\/h3>\n

The jury is still out on Tidjane Salaun, a French small-forward who the Hornets drafted with the sixth overall pick in 2024. During his rookie season, he averaged 5.9 points on 33.8% shooting from the floor and 28.9% from behind the arc. While the 2024 NBA draft was not a strong one, they could still have drafted Matas Buzelis who’s shown a ton of upside as a rookie.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Has To Nail their 2025 Draft Pick<\/h3>\n

Looking at the Charlotte Hornets’ draft history and the mistakes they made, they have only two quality players to show off from the last seven drafts. LaMelo Ball<\/a> and Brandon Miller<\/a> are two players they can build around, but Melo is playing in his fifth season. The clock is ticking on the team.<\/p>\n

There will be quality players in the 2025 draft. The Hornets also might get a chance to land the top pick<\/a>. But if that doesn\u2019t happen, VJ Edgecombe<\/a> might be their best option<\/a>. He will bring athleticism, defense, and a motor to a team that desperately needs some life. He will be a natural fit alongside Miller and Ball. To put it simply, the Charlotte Hornets have to go with the safest option with their 2025 draft selection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets haven\u2019t made the playoffs since the 2015-16 season. They currently have the longest playoff drought in the league at eight seasons and counting. They are already eliminated this season, and their drought might continue. The reality is, they have nobody to blame but themselves. This year, the Charlotte Hornets will likely have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,7,62],"tags":[4293,4731,4432,823,49148,1148,1489],"class_list":["post-133703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-brandon-miller","tag-jalen-duren","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-matas-buzelis","tag-miles-bridges","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133703"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133708,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133703\/revisions\/133708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}