Three surprising stats from the Charlotte Hornets’ 2019-2020 season

The Charlotte Hornets have been able to do one thing right recently and that’s keeping the other time off the free-throw line.

Going back the last handful of years or so, the Charlotte Hornets would appear to be very disciplined on the court, even while under two different head coaches. Over the last four seasons, Hornets’ opponents have taken the fewest free-throws in the league, averaging about 19 per contest.

In the three years before that, they were in the top-five in that distinction. That stat alone clearly does not make a team a winner, but it doesn’t hurt as the other teams around the Hornets in that category this year, are all mostly playoff teams, including teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Dallas Mavericks.

That’s a good thing because they’ve not been a particularly great team at the line the last few years, though a few outliers remain, including leading the league in percentage back in the 2016-207 campaign.

It is peculiar that under two different regimes and vastly different rosters, that this same philosophy would still manifest. It’s not a bad one to have and it could all just be one large coincidence, but it’s still a nice factoid.

This season didn’t really go the Charlotte Hornets’ way, but there’s always next year, or so they say. Perhaps the team can generate some new, more positive statistics on the way back to the playoffs.