On Jan. 2, Charlotte lost their 3rd straight to fall to 11-23. Typical Queens. They won two, including a reality-testing blow-out of OKC in This Block For Sale, lost two, won, lost, won, lost, won, lost, won, lost. They were 16-28. And then on Jan. 22 in Orlando they blew out Disney. That was the start of a startling nine game winning streak. They beat Phila., San Antone, at H-Town and were 25-28. Loss, win, two losses followed, and then 4 straight dubs. and now they're 30-31.
If we cherry-pick where we start measuring this transformation, we can choose any where. Let's choose Nov. 26 when they got blown out by Mamdani City and sat in their accustomed cheap seats at 4-14. Since then they have gone 26-17.
Charlotte is a franchise resurrected. They are cheaters. They successfully foisted Terry Rozier on Miami knowing that he was under investigation for prop bet cheating. They tried to foist Mark Williams on La-La Lake-Lake but "Laker" staff did their due diligence (Williams failed a physical) and the "Hornets" had to take him back. Temporarily. He has since been successfully trades.
It's caveat emptor when dealing with a sleazy front office, but good guys don't always win, and Charlotte is going to make the play-in at least. They will, this is prediction, not fact, finish ahead of the Miami Hi-Cs. They have two of the most exciting, impactful rookies from the same class last summer in the entire Association. Congrats to Charlotte. For the 29 other teams, beware of dealing with that sleazy front office.
