The Hornets' Dream? Win Now and Hit the Lottery Jackpot

For the first time in years, Charlotte Hornets fans are not thinking about the NBA Draft and keeping track of results around the league for lottery purposes. The scoreboard watching has shifted to seeing how those in the Southeast Division or the Eastern Conference are doing, as it impacts the Hornets' chances of making the play-in and/or the playoffs.

What if the Hornets could keep winning and still receive some major lottery luck?

Before last year, that would have been an outlandish thing to even bring up. The Dallas Mavericks beat the Kings in their first play-in tournament game and then lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, placing them in the NBA Draft Lottery. Their odds of winning the lottery were minuscule, but they did, and it resulted in conspiracy theories of the league awarding them the pick for trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers.

That's a conversation for a different day.

But what if it happened to the Hornets? What if the Hornets continued to play well down the stretch, learn how to play in meaningful games, got a taste of the postseason, and got incredibly lucky on the night of the lottery?

Tankathon released a new simulation of the results, where the Hornets jumped ten spots to secure the No. 2 overall pick and select Duke's Cameron Boozer.

Updated NBA Mock Draft https://t.co/u6zCHZUiJQ

Here's a single simulation: pic.twitter.com/h932lYVzVI
— Tankathon.com (@tankathon) February 15, 2026

Would it be the right pick? What would this mean for the current core?

Boozer is an incredible talent who currently leads the ACC in points per game (22.8) and rebounds (9.9). To nearly average a double-double in a league like that is not easy to do.

The Hornets would be thrilled to land a player like him; however, I think you could make a strong case for BYU's AJ Dybantsa too. He's not as big or as physical as Boozer, but the athleticism is through the roof. He can score it from all three levels at a high clip on high volume. He's currently shooting 53% from the field and 35% from three. To be honest, Jeff Peterson can't go wrong with either one.

What it would do, I would imagine, is spell the end for Miles Bridges in Charlotte. They'll want to slide Boozer/Dybantsa into the starting lineup and can use Bridges' contract to land a big-time center, if they so choose. A core of LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, and Cameron Boozer/AJ Dybantsa would make Charlotte one of the most dangerous teams in the East for years to come.

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