Taking a look at some likely key preseason dates and how they could affect next season’s roster and outlook for the Charlotte Hornets.
Another NBA season is in the books, and the 2020-21 Charlotte Hornets are now in a 30-way tie for first. But maybe it’s disingenuous to call this one “another NBA season.”
With the Lakers besting a rundown Heat team in Game 6 last Sunday for their 17th Finals Championship (or 12th if you’re a Celtics fan), the NBA enters another period of uncertainty that has loomed since the beginning of the famed Orlando Bubble in late July (can’t you already hear “ESPN Films presents ‘The Bubble,’ a four-part mini-series?” You know the voice, there are only three of them).
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While writers and historians tidy up their book proposals for what’s now and sure to retrospectively be the most absurd season the NBA has ever seen, the 29 other teams lick their wounds and prepare their rosters to take a shot at next year’s defending champs.
Barring the unthinkable, Lakers star Anthony Davis seems set to decline his 2020-21 player option to renegotiate a new long-term deal. With four-time finals MVP LeBron James seemingly no worse for his 59,362 career minutes of wear, those defending champs are sure to be next year’s favorites to repeat as well.
New coaches, emerging stars, sleeping giants, and late-season trades have already galvanized the Eastern Conference from top to bottom. With seven of the top ten picks in this year’s draft belonging to the East and win-now orders in place for several teams, the Hornets’ road to the 2020-21 postseason will be even tougher than last year’s campaign.