Three takeaways from the Charlotte Hornets preseason
By Luke Tucker
The Hornets Will Play to the Final Whistle
As the Hornets’ record (obviously) indicates, they didn’t win much during the preseason. Don’t let that fool you though–Charlotte outscored its opponents 131-100 in the fourth quarter. In the second half as a whole, the Hornets outscored opponents by 15. Surprisingly, Charlotte was outscored by just 13 points the entire preseason, not something you’d normally see from a team people expected to tank.
The Hornets certainly had their share of ugly moments (even prolonged ones) in the preseason, and they will certainly have more during the regular season, however, it would be unwise based on what we’ve seen so far to question the Hornets’ lack of effort. The players seem to be really buying into what Borrego wants to do, as well as team owner, Michael Jordan, maintains the idea that his team isn’t in the midst of a rebuild.
Whether or not the Hornets are in rebuild mode is irrelevant to this discussion, yet Charlotte will be leaning heavily on its young core in the upcoming campaign. Luckily for them, it was often the young players that helped to spur the late-game success.
In Wednesday night’s preseason finale, Charlotte was down 113-97 with just over two minutes remaining in the game. With 40 seconds left, a group of unseasoned players led by Caleb Martin and Robert Franks helped to narrow the gap to just three points. Now, it’s unlikely many (if any) of those players on the floor in the game’s final minutes will make the roster, but that’s not what is important in this context. What is important is that their performance symbolized the no-quit effort this year’s Charlotte Hornets have. The Hornets may not win much this year, but you can bet the youngsters will come to play.