Before electronics took over, before the Y2K hysteria and worries about computers making things more difficult in everyday life, there were certain staples of youth.
Such as participating in games that required social skills mixed in with ingenuity, sprinkled with a dose of luck. Ones like musical chairs, blaring tunes while hopefuls plotted their landing spot, carefully eyeing the place they wanted to plop down once dust settles and things are quiet.
That analogy is what the Charlotte Hornets are currently facing as they speed toward another fruitless season, extending the NBA’s longest playoff drought to nine years, while keeping an eye on the prize. And it’s why Monday night’s outing against the Western Conference’s cellar-dwellar may wind up being one of the season’s biggest games.
Not because the Hornets edged the Utah Jazz 110-106 at Spectrum Center, but because Charlotte’s latest victory was more about May 12 and the reverberations will likely be felt inside a conference room at the McCormick Place Convention Center off the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago.
That’s where the NBA Draft Lottery will be held, the event a longtime and well-respected front office executive referred to years ago as a “convention of losers.” The winner of this batch featuring those with failed 2024-25 regular seasons gets a rather notable prize, though, even if he’s not quite at the phenom level of Victor Wembanyama.
But Duke’s Cooper Flagg isn’t too shabby and he’s been the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming June draft for months, a consensus that only grows with each stellar performance, particularly in the NCAA Tournament while helping guide the Blue Devils to the Final Four in San Antonio this weekend.
“I think he has a chance to be great,” fellow Duke product Mark Williams said after posting 18 points and 13 rebounds against the Jazz. “Obviously, for Duke he does a little bit of everything for them. Defensively, does a great job, offensively is the engine. Finding his teammates, attacking the basket, taking a lot of the right shots, rebounding — you name it.
“So, I think for them he’s definitely one of the keys, and as far as his future I think the sky’s the limit for him.”
Flagg’s potential has some teams quietly and carefully maneuvering in a way that won’t draw the suspicion or ire of the NBA’s head honchos in the glass offices in New York. Tanking is frowned upon and it’s why the NBA altered the odds in 2020, attempting to rid the league of any sort of repeat of dark times like “The Process” in Philadelphia, when the 76ers kept purposefully making losing moves to gain better position in the draft.
Now, the three teams that finish with the worst record are each handed 14% odds of securing the top selection in the yearly draft, all so one team doesn’t unfairly try to tip the scales in its favor. That context is a necessity to explain why the Hornets faced an opening-game lineup Monday night featuring Isaiah Collier, Brice Sensabaugh, KJ Martin, Johnny Juzang and Duke product Kyle Filipowski, evoking a line from the movie “Major League” featuring the hilarious Bob Uecker.
“Who are these guys?”
Utah tossed its 46th different starting five of the season out against the Hornets, undoubtedly looking to keep from gaining any ground in the race for the bottom three. Utah is tied with Washington for the worst record overall, posting only 16 victories, and the Jazz are now three games below the Hornets in the loss column with six games remaining.
Charlotte’s defeat in New Orleans on Sunday night could turn out to be ridiculously large in the grand scheme of things because only one game separates them with the Pelicans in the standings, and the team that finishes with the fourth-worst record has a 12.5% of grabbing the No. 1 pick.
So, over these final seven matchups, beginning with Wednesday’s tilt in Indiana, the Hornets stand to lose in the odds game if they, uh, win too much. The thing they’ll have going for them is their schedule. All but one of their final games — with the exception of next Wednesday in Toronto — are against teams fighting for postseason berths or potential seeding.
Indiana, Sacramento, Chicago and Memphis won’t be rolling over and the lone wildcard is Boston given the Hornets finish the season with a pair of matchups against the Celtics and who knows how coach Joe Mazzulla will play things.
New Orleans threw up the proverbial white flag while the Hornets were squaring off versus the Jazz, shutting down South Carolina native Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum for the rest of the season. Subtle moves like that — akin to Hornets’ star LaMelo Ball ending his season early to have surgery on his right wrist and right ankle — are going to be the norm over the coming days.
The race to capture the Flagg is heating up and ready to explode. And as another disappointing season nears its conclusion, one featuring 38 different starting lineups for Charlotte, the Hornets are tiptoeing on a balance beam, teetering on the brink of putting themselves in the best position possible to get a game-changer.
But in true fashion, nothing is ever easy for the Hornets, and properly stumbling down the stretch will probably be a bit too much to ask. The other three teams hovering around them in the overall standings are certainly going to do their part to purposefully struggle.
Will the Hornets do the same and follow suit? Whether they can secure a versatile cog like Flagg and possibly put an end to their playoff-berth malaise in 2025-26 could depend on it.
The Charlotte Observer
Roderick Boone joined the Observer in September 2021 to cover the Charlotte Hornets and NBA. In his more than two decades of writing about the world of sports, he’s chronicled everything from high school rodeo to a major league baseball no-hitter to the Super Bowl to the Finals. The Long Island native has deep North Carolina roots and enjoys watching “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” endlessly.