Charlotte Hornets: NBA power rankings roundup, week 6 edition

After Monday night’s loss, the Charlotte Hornets will enter Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers with a 7-10 record. Since our last roundup of the power rankings, the Hornets have won one game and lost two. Their game last Wednesday versus the Washington Wizards was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.

Like our last recap, Gordon Hayward has continued to dominate for the Hornets. In his last three games, Hayward has averaged 32.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and two steals per game. He’s been impressive, but his play has only helped lead the Hornets to one victory.

The Hornets finally got Cody Zeller back this past week; h played his first game since the season opener against the Chicago Bulls. Since returning, he is averaging 6.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

LaMelo Ball also had something change this week, as he received less playing time. He only received 22 minutes per game, lower than the 26-minute average he got last week.

The Hornets have also given up a lot of threes as of late. In their last three games, Charlotte has allowed teams to finish with 15+ made threes a game.

Bleacher Report: 19 (Last Week: 19)

"The upcoming week is going to be a gauge for how good the Hornets actually are as they host the Indiana Pacers twice and the Milwaukee Bucks once after finishing their miniseries with the Magic."

ESPN: 24 (Last week: 22)

"Sunday’s win over the Magic offered a reminder of why the Hornets decided to give Gordon Hayward a four-year, $120 million deal, as the swingman scored 39 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dropped in the winning bucket."

CBS: 19 (Last week: 18)

"Cody Zeller saw his first action since breaking his hand in the first game of the season, averaging 4.5 points and five rebounds in just under 13 minutes per game."

NBA.com: 23 (Last week: 19)

"Still, as has been noted in this space previously, they’ve been incredibly fortunate in regard to the strength of the offenses they’ve faced. Only one of their 16 games has come against a team (Brooklyn on Dec. 27) that currently ranks higher than 12th offensively."

The Hornets have had an up-and-down week. They lost to the Bulls and Magic, while also beating the Magic only once. With this week’s 1-2 record, it’s understandable to see why the Hornets’ rank dripped.

The best ranking that the Hornets received this week was from Bleacher Report, where they did not move them from last week’s rank of 19. However, Bleacher Report did note that the Hornets will face some tough teams this week.

The Hornets have only beat a couple of teams this year who are sitting in the top-8 of the Eastern Conference. Charlotte faces the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday and Friday, and the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.

If Charlotte wants to continue to climb the ranks, they will need to fix mistakes that continue to plague the team and come out strong against these playoff-caliber teams.