Charlotte Hornets Nearing Unprecedented Territory in Latest NBA Power Rankings

The Charlotte Hornets are one game shy of .500. That alone should tell you how much they've improved after a 19-win season in 2024-25. It does not, however, accurately say how good this team is.

They've been on an absolute heater lately, and since January 1 (and arguably before then), they have been one of the best teams in basketball. They've got the longest active win streak in the NBA again, and they're surging up the power rankings.

It has been a long, long time since the Hornets were remotely close to a top-10 team in the NBA. They've hardly ever even been a top-10 team in the East for the last decade. They're not there yet, but they're pushing hard for a top-10 spot now.

On February 25, the Hornets rose to 13th in CBS Sports' Brad Botkin's ranking. That was before they went 2-0 and beat the Indiana Pacers and Portland Trail Blazers by an average of 25 points.

Botkin said, "Winners of 12 of their last 15. Played Houston and Cleveland to the wire coming out of the All-Star break. Kon Knueppel is on the verge of breaking the rookie 3-point record." Of course, Knueppel broke the record against Indiana.

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) rests during the first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers | Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

The Hornets did crack the top 10 in Bleacher Report insider Andy Bailey's rankings on February 27. That was before the Blazers win.

Bailey said they are "now 13-3 since mid-January," and with the Blazers' win, they stretched that to 14-3 ahead of tomorrow evening's matchup.

"During this run, and thanks in part to Cooper Flagg missing some time with an injury, Kon Knueppel has made it awfully hard to ignore his Rookie of the Year case," Bailey said. Knueppel has given himself a real shot at the award.

"Beyond an all-around steady game on both ends of the floor, Knueppel is already one of the most dangerous floor spacers in the NBA," Bailey concluded.

The Hornets averaged 11.5 on these two power ranking lists. When the new lists are updated this week, barring a couple of losses that, at this point, would feel quite surprising, the Hornets will undoubtedly be firmly within the top 10.

Even at their best, which was in 2015-2016 when they were the East's sixth seed and 48-34, they weren't really this good. This may be the best stretch of Hornets basketball since the early 2000s, when they actually made the playoffs.