Ranking the Most Disappointing Players on the Hornets This Season

While the 2025-26 season was an absolute success for the Charlotte Hornets organization, it certainly was not all positive across the roster. Some players simply underperformed, while others landed here more because of what their season revealed about their near-future fit in Charlotte’s plans.

Here are the three most disappointing Hornets when weighing both criteria.

No. 1 - Tre Mann

Apr 3, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Tre Mann (23) stops to shoot the ball after a pass from forward Xavier Tillman (26) during the second half against the Indiana Pacers at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Definitely an obvious pick to start off this list, but really the only Hornets player who fully fits the term disappointing this season.

According to databallr’s full daily plus-minus metric, Mann ranked among the bottom 20 players in the NBA this season who logged real rotation minutes in terms of estimated impact. Just generally speaking, analytically, Mann was one of the most detrimental players in the league this past season.

For a player like Mann, whose primary additive trait is his scoring, he ranked in just the 2nd percentile among all NBA guards in points per shot attempt, according to Cleaning the Glass, along with a 14.2% turnover percentage, which, for a higher-usage shot-creating guard, is quite poor.

Mann’s efficiency numbers were rough across the board. He posted a 42.8% effective field goal percentage, ranking in the 4th percentile among guards. He shot just 40% on two-point attempts, good for the 6th percentile, and 31% from three, placing him in the 16th percentile. You are just not going to impact winning consistently with those kinds of shooting splits as a scorer.

Also, when looking at the 25-year-old’s impact metrics, it is not hard to see why Mann quickly fell out of the rotation in the second half of the season.

Charlotte’s offensive efficiency differential dropped by 17.2 points with Mann on the floor, and the Hornets scored 8.9 fewer points offensively with him in the game, both per 100 possessions.

Defensively, Charlotte also allowed 8.3 more points when Mann was on the court per 100 possessions, which ranked in just the 5th percentile relative to all NBA players.

Unfortunately for Mann, his production on both ends this season was significantly negatively skewed for Charlotte.

Feels like the best outcome for both sides is parting ways this offseason. Mann is still on the books for roughly $8 million next season before a team option the following year, so it is not a difficult contract to move.

Mann’s play style and the concept of basketball he ideally wants to play just does not naturally fit Head Coach Charles Lee’s offensive system. Mann is not someone who thrives with quick decision-making, and the offense was notably more choppy when he was initiating things for Charlotte.

Just a massively disappointing season for Mann. The front office, fans, and even Mann himself know this was not what anybody expected his past year to look like. Maybe a younger team takes a flyer on him, but it just did not work this season.

No. 2 - Tidjane Salaün

Mar 3, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets forward Tidjane Salaun (31) warms up before a game against the Dallas Mavericks the Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images | Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images

After being one of the least productive rotation players in the league from a numbers perspective during his rookie season, Tidjane Salaün really did show notable progress in many aspects of his game this past year.

While only appearing in 33 games for Charlotte, the coaching staff simplifying Salaün’s role and what he was being asked to do possession by possession, no doubt helped him become more solid in his minutes.

But with that being said, I am seriously concerned about the 20-year-old’s near-future outlook with Charlotte.

Despite the improvements, Salaün’s overall impact is still pointing in the wrong direction. According to dunksandthrees.com’s Estimated Plus-Minus metric, Salaün posted a -3.0 offensive estimated plus-minus this season, ranking in just the 8th percentile among all NBA players. His overall estimated impact per 100 possessions sat at -3.1. So overall, he is still just not positively impacting your basketball club enough to be a rotation player for a winning team.

Lee, like most NBA coaches, values players where you generally know what you are getting night to night, and Salaün can still be very erratic with the ball or when he has to make a decision or read. He has definitely gotten better in that area since his rookie season, but it is still an issue.

The sort of harsh reality with Salaün is that he was the No. 6 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Everybody knew he was going to be a long-term project who would likely spend a few years developing and playing a lot with the Greensboro Swarm. But we also have to be honest about the fact that Salaün still is not close to being trusted with meaningful, impactful minutes for Charlotte. I just don’t see that changing unless we see another leap from him on both ends.

Beyond that, for all the talk about the Hornets needing to upgrade and add more size to the frontcourt, Salaün kind of gets forgotten in those conversations because he just is not viewed as a viable rotation option for next season right now.

It is also likely Charlotte takes another young power forward with one of its top-20 draft picks, or maybe even adds frontcourt help with both of them.

Again, Salaün feels a bit disconnected from the bigger picture of Charlotte’s plans, and ideally, your No. 6 pick from less than two years ago should be firmly in the long-term outlook of everything you are trying to build.

Salaün simply might not fit Charlotte’s current timeline. This is a team trying to compete seriously in the Eastern Conference and push for the playoffs next season.

Still, he is incredibly young and has a real chance to eventually become an impactful NBA player. The disappointment mostly comes from the concern that he still does not appear close to seriously contributing in the rotation anytime soon, which could eventually lead Charlotte to move off him.

No. 3 - Liam McNeeley

The 20-year-old forward by no means had a disaster of a rookie campaign. He showed some promising shooting and shot-creation chops at times, along with some scrappiness defensively, with both the Hornets and the Greensboro Swarm.

While there are definitely areas of his game he still needs to improve, his placement on this list is less about his actual performance and more about him realistically finding rotation minutes next season because, similar to Salaün, if things go well for Charlotte, there just does not seem to be much room for him in the rotation right now.

According to Cleaning the Glass, McNeeley ranked in just the 15th percentile among wings in points per shot attempt and the 14th percentile in effective field goal percentage. Similar to Mann and Salaün, the off-on numbers also point toward him being a negative-impact player on both ends at the moment, which is fairly expected for most late first-round rookies.

Typically, long-lasting bench role players in the NBA need some sort of defining trait or special skill that coaching staffs can rely on every night, and I just do not really see what McNeeley’s is at this stage of his career.

That becomes even more apparent when comparing him to the players ahead of him in Charlotte’s current rotation.

Josh Green ranked in the 98th percentile among wings in points per shot attempt and the 99th percentile in effective field goal percentage. He also shot 43% from three this season, ranking in the 94th percentile among wings, and already has NBA Finals experience.

Fellow rookie Sion James was arguably Charlotte’s primary defensive stopper this season while also bringing high-level IQ, connective passing, and physicality. He made a genuinely positive impact in Charlotte’s lineup all season.

Those are the types of players McNeeley would hypothetically be competing with in training camp for backup wing and guard minutes, and he just does not hang with them right now.

Again, it is important to note that Charlotte holds two more top-20 picks in this incoming draft. At some point, the Hornets are going to have a backlog of developmental young players. McNeeley might just end up being the odd man out in the overall roster-management equation this offseason.

I mentioned in our roundtable last week that McNeeley could make sense as a trade chip if Charlotte looks to upgrade the roster with a move in the trade market. That might ultimately end up being McNeeley’s fate with Charlotte.

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