Hornets escape bottom 5 in way-too-early NBA power rankings

For the past two years, the Charlotte Hornets have been one of the worst teams in the NBA, and they haven’t really been close to competing for the Play-In Tournament.

However, by hiring Charles Lee, they have seemingly bought into their current core and are determined to do things the right way. They aren’t skipping any steps.

So far this summer, the Hornets have traded for Josh Green, drafted Tidjane Salaun, signed Taj Gibson, re-signed Seth Curry and Miles Bridges to new contracts.

Hornets ranked 25th in recent NBA Power Rankings

Add in LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Mark Williams, and the rest of their core, the Hornets have set themselves up beautifully for long-term success. But it all starts this season.

Charlotte isn’t going to rush anything, but they are going to try their best to make the postseason. With how weak the Eastern Conference is, the Hornets could legitimately compete for the Play-In Tournament.

And with all the moves the Hornets have made this summer, some NBA power rankings are reflecting the potential improvements they have made.

Kurt Helin of NBC Sports recently put together his summer power rankings, a way-too-early list, as the season is still a few months away, and he placed the Hornets in 25th place. They managed to avoid getting stuck in the bottom five teams in the league.

The five teams that Helin believes will be worse than the Hornets are the Detroit Pistons (26th), Utah Jazz (27th), Portland Trail Blazers (28th), Brooklyn Nets (29th), and Washington Wizards (30th).

Luckily for the Hornets, three of those five teams are in the East, and there are a couple of other squads in their own conference that they could outperform next season.

The Toronto Raptors are looking to build something with Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley, but the Hornets could end up being better than them. The same can be said about the Atlanta Hawks, who are in a weird spot after trading Dejounte Murray.

That could leave the door open for the Hornets to sneak into the Play-In, thus outperforming the ranking that Helin handed out to them. That should be their goal.