Charlotte Hornets report card: How has the team performed at the quarter-season mark?

Let's take stock of the Charlotte Hornets' season as the quarter(ish) mark.

The Hornets have played 24 games in 2025-26 and the results have varied. For the most part, the team has struggled to consistently win games due to a swath of injuries to their star players LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller.

In typical Hornets' fashion, their preferred starting five of Ball, Miller, Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, and Ryan Kalkbrenner, have only played a handful of those 24 games together, making it near impossible to evaluate just about anything thus far.

Assessing the fit of those five has been hard due to injuries to LaMelo and Brandon, but there is a trickle down effect as well.

When the stars sit, roles change, rotations vary, open shots become harder to create; it truly makes Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee's lives much more difficult. The Hornets' brain trust was supposed to used this season to lay the ground work for the future of the franchise, but so far, the supposed foundation has been unstable.

Although that is true, things aren't all bad.

Each of Charlotte's 2025 NBA Draft selections have flown out of the gates. Knueppel, Kalkbrenner, Liam McNeeley, and Sion James have all performed well at times, cementing their status as the league's premier draft haul.

Tidjane Salaün has had encouraging moments, flashing hits of the long-term potential that Peterson and Lee staunchly believed in last summer.

When healthy, LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller still look like true building blocks.

With all of that in mind, the staff at Hornets on SI have given the team a letter grade for their performance at the season's quarter mark.

Albert Böttcher: D

I did not enter the season with high expectations, but it's safe to say that I'm fundamentally disappointed after the first few weeks. I'm now at the point where I genuinely don't believe in this core anymore. Whether it's the constant injuries, the losses to terrible teams, or the consistently inconsistent play, these are just themes that have been prevailing for years, and this season has once again been no different. At some point it's time to accept that that's just what you get from this group of players, and for me, that point has been reached now.

The rookie class has been strong, and I do think that Charles Lee continues to show growth as a head coach. That's as much positivity as I can offer this team right now.

Colin Keane: C

The Hornets haven't beaten any teams with a winning record other than the Toronto Raptors (whom they've beaten twice!). On the other end of the spectrum, Charlotte's dropped games to the Nets, Pelicans, Pacers, and Clippers (all big-time losers right now). Losing back-to-back games to Indiana and the Clips with three days of rest in between was a low point.

Thus, Charlotte's losing to good or great teams and -- for the most part -- getting its wins against the league's worst. Sadly, that's more or less what you would expect from a squad that's been without LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller for a lot of the season already.

It's time to trade Miles Bridges and possibly LaMelo, depending on his market. Maintaining the current W-L rate while shedding pieces and positioning themselves for a lottery pick would be an ideal plan from here on out and garner a better grade at season's end.

Owen O'Connor: C-

The ONLY reason this grade is not in the Ds is because the rookie class is just so good. It looks like the Hornets have hit on all four rookies so far, which is an extremely hard task to do. Outside of that?

Yikes.

LaMelo Ball is unable to stay healthy and when he does he his performance is poor. We haven't seen a large enough sample size to determine whether or not Brandon Miller has made a leap. Miles Bridges looks improved, but is he really apart of the long term plans here? There are still questions about Charles Lee’s coaching abilities.

Had the team been able to stay healthy, maybe things are different.

Schuyler Callihan: D

I expected this team to take a leap defensively, but it hasn't happened just yet. Having three offensive-minded players in the backcourt plays a part in that, but we've seen all three are capable of holding their own at times — consistency is lacking.

Ryan Kalkbrenner has been as good or better than advertised defensively, but having an undersized power forward in Miles Bridges really hurts the interior. Even when healthy, this roster has shown it still needs some help to take that next step and be a true player in the East. Don't be shocked at all if we see Jeff Peterson make some not-so-small changes at the deadline if the overall product doesn't improve.

Zach Roberts: D

It's hard to judge this team since they've not been healthy all that much, but that in and of itself is worthy of a poor grade. The starters have looked both good and bad this year, and after all the growth and progress that took place this offseason, the Hornets are still 7-17 and going nowhere. Kon Knueppel is nice, at least.

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