Comparing three NBA mock drafts for the Hornets
By Ben Handler
The second half of the NBA season is underway, which means many teams and fans are thinking about the playoffs. But it also means that some teams and fans have one eye on the upcoming NBA draft.
Suffice it to say, the Charlotte Hornets are one of those teams. Following their loss Friday night to the Warriors, Charlotte is 14-42 and holds onto the fourth-worst record in the league.
Sure, they’ve been playing a lot better lately and there’s a chance they could climb ahead of a team or two. But this team is headed to the lottery and likely will pick in the top 5 or so.
Some may argue that there’s no such thing as a bad time for mock drafts, and it has truly become a year-round thing for many across the industry. But now that we are only weeks away from the end of the regular season, it feels like an appropriate time to start taking a closer look.
In this day and age, almost every major media outlet hires draft experts and churns out mock drafts left and right. For this exercise, I’m going to focus on three of the largest and most reputable current sports media companies: ESPN, Yahoo Sports, and the Ringer.
Beyond being three large, well-known names in the sports media landscape, they’ve all put out mock drafts (or updates) fairly recently, and they each have the Hornets selecting a different player with the fourth overall pick.
So that gives us a chance to take a look at three different prospects who may be available to the team with a high pick coming up in the draft, and start to get an idea of what options the team will be looking at.
The actual draft order will be determined by the NBA draft lottery, which will take place on May 12th, but for the sake of these mock drafts, these sites all used the current standings for the order, which leaves the Hornets at fourth. Without further ado, here’s a look at who three different outlets predict the Hornets will take with their first pick in the 2024 NBA draft.