The odds are in from Las Vegas and the Charlotte Hornets are projected to win around the same amount of games that they did last season.
According to Jeff Sherman who is the manager of the Westgate LV SuperBook, the Charlotte Hornets are projected to win 35.5 games in the 2018-19 season. That is the over-under for the Queen City team and people can bet on if they think they will outperform or underperform that projection.
The 35.5 win projection makes a lot of sense for the Hornets who have won 36 games in each of the last two seasons. Charlotte will be looking to break their trend of going 36-46 this season as they hope to improve and return to the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
Based on the projection, the additions of Miles Bridges, Tony Parker, Devonte’ Graham, and Bismack Biyombo weren’t enough to get the Hornets over the hump. It’s also worth noting that Charlotte lost their second-leading scorer and leading rebounder in Dwight Howard and his production could prove difficult to replace.
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After adding LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers are projected to reach 48.5 wins. Some other noteworthy projections are the Golden State Warriors at 62.5 (highest), the Boston Celtics at 57.5 (highest in the East), and the Atlanta Hawks at 23.5 (lowest).
Looking at the Southeast Division, in particular, Charlotte’s expected to finish in third place behind the Washington Wizards (44.5) and the Miami Heat (41.5) but ahead of the Orlando Magic (31.5) and the Atlanta Hawks (23.5).
In the last four years, the Hornets have finished in third place last season, fourth place in 2016-17, third place in 2015-16, and fourth place in 2014-15. They’ve never won the Southeast Division since the division was formed in 2004.
The last time Charlotte won more than 36 games was three seasons ago when they had a surprise season and went 48-34 which was tied for the best record in the division and was good enough for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
What record do you think the Charlotte Hornets will finish with in 2018-19? Will they finish over or under the projected 35.5 wins? If I was a betting man, I would go with the over because I think this team not only got younger but got better and they are looking to compete for a playoff spot this year which may mean that they will have to get at least 40 wins.