The Charlotte Hornets' fatal flaw has been exposed during their historic losing streak

Offense has been hard to come by for the Charlotte Hornets this month. After opening up February by punching above their weight class and going 12 rounds with the Denver Nuggets, the Hornets' train has completely fallen off the tracks.

In the month of February Charlotte sports an abysmal 101.6 offensive rating. This is the lowest offensive rating in a month (excluding October and April due to their abbreviated nature) for an NBA franchise since the Orlando Magic in December of 2021.

Nothing is going right for the Hornets when they possess the ball.

Two major flaws of Charlotte's roster have exacerbated their struggles: a lack of on-ball creation, and a lack of shooting. The NBA's elite offenses have one, or both, of those traits in spades, and unfortunately, the Hornets have neither.

For a few months the Hornets were able to mitigate their talent deficiencies with elite offensive rebounding numbers, an uptick in pace, and dogged effort on both sides of the ball. In retrospect, those effort-based traits were holding together Charlotte's night-to-night level of competitiveness like toothpicks and chewing gum: they weren't going to last.

Who creates shots for the Hornets?

Outside of LaMelo Ball there isn't a single healthy Hornet that creates shots for themself or their teammates at a high level. There is an argument to be made that Miles Bridges is that go-to secondary creator, but the veteran power forward gets shots up by necessity, not because he is supremely adept at the skill.

Losing Tre Mann for an extended period was a death sentence for Charlotte's long-term scoring potential. Mann's dazzling displays of ball handling coalesced with a soft touch from the perimeter into a efficient package that was key to the Hornets' offensive success.

However, only employing one elite shot creator doesn't necessarily spell doom for an NBA offense. A handful of teams (The Detroit Pistons and the Oklahoma City Thunder most notably) are well-oiled offensive machines that are spurned by a singular engine (Cade Cunningham and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander).

The Hornets have a jump shooting problem

The secret sauce for those teams is that they employ elite perimeter shooters. Both Detroit and Oklahoma City are in the top six of true shooting percentage this month. When Cunningham and Gilgeous-Alexander blow past their defender and touch the paint, they have sharpshooting teammates dotting the three point line that keep opposing defenses honest.

LaMelo Ball doesn't have that luxury, and as team's have figured out Charlotte's fatal flaws, they've been able to key in on the Hornets' singular shot creator and shut off the water from the source.

The Hornets attempt the sixth most threes per game in the Association. Charlotte is chucking up shots with some of the league's preeminent shooting units, but the problem is that the Hornets do not make them.

Charlotte is shooting 34% from long-range on the season, the league's third-worst mark. They've been even worse in February, a month that could be considered the nadir of the franchise's history, shooting 32.5%.

Which active Hornet scares opposing defenses if they get left open?

Josh Green and Seth Curry? Sure, they're both shooting over 40%, but the volume with which they attempt jumpers doesn't make a marked difference in Charlotte's overall shot profile. Nick Smith Jr. has blossomed into a decent scorer of late, but he's still an inefficient, score-first guard that gives up more points than he produces.

It seems like the vision for this Hornets squad was to make LaMelo Ball a true heliocentric offensive hub, but injuries and roster construction have totally hamstrung his abilities in recent weeks. Going forward, Jeff Peterson's goal has to be to acquire high-level playmaking and shooting talent to get his franchise out of the dregs of the league.

The problem with that is that great shooters and ball handlers don't grow on trees, and Charlotte's path to making a meaningful summer acquisition is slim. Any major fix of the Hornets' offense is going to come via one of three avenues: internal improvements, the NBA Draft, or a major, franchise-altering trade.

Wherever it comes from, it has to come somehow, because this ineptitude will have Peterson and Charles Lee on the hot seat before they know it.

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