While the NBA Playoffs are in full swing, now is a good time to recap the fantasy basketball season for all 30 teams.
In the following weeks, we will provide a recap for each team, starting with the team with the worst record and concluding with the NBA champion in June.
Previous Team Recaps: Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards
The Charlotte Hornets are coming off yet another injury-riddled season that resulted in another trip to the lottery and a lot of questions about where to go from here.
A look at the fantasy basketball landscape after the 2024-2025 NBA regular season.
Charlotte Hornets 2024-25 Season Recap
Record: 19-63 (14th, East)
Offensive Rating: 106.7 (29th)
Defensive Rating: 115.7 (24th)
Net Rating: -19.1 (27th)
Pace: 98.22 (23rd)
2024 Draft Picks: 14 percent chance of winning lottery, 33, 34
For the third straight season, the Hornets ended up back in the lottery. Injuries derailed their year once again, with LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Mark Williams all playing less than 50 games. In fact, only Moussa Diabate, Josh Green and Seth Curry met the league’s 65-game threshold for postseason awards. Of course, none of them were up for any, but the entire team was decimated by various injuries. That resulted in just 19 wins, which was their worst season since 2011-12, the infamous 7-59 Bobcats.
This was the first season for head coach Charles Lee, and he wasn’t dealt a fair hand with all the injuries. Still, the makings of a competitive team are there. Ball, Miller, Williams and Miles Bridges are a strong core four, and they’ll add another top pick from a loaded class. They have other solid pieces throughout the roster, but they simply need to be more available from top to bottom if they want to return to the postseason. They last made the play-in tournament during the 2021-22 season, but the last time they made the playoffs was during the 2015-16 season.
Fantasy Standout: SF/PF Miles Bridges
There weren’t many positives in Charlotte this season, but Bridges was both consistently productive and available. Across his 64 appearances, Bridges averaged 20.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.2 threes per game while shooting a subpar 43.1 percent from the floor. The rebounds and assists were career-highs despite his minutes dropping from 37.4 per game during the 2023-24 season to 31.7 per game this past season.
Bridges was the only rosterable player on this team that was available to play in 50 games. The bar wasn’t high for him to be the most impactful fantasy player on this team, and he could’ve been even better if he played as much as he did during the previous season. This was the first season of a three-year, $75 million contract for Bridges, so he’ll continue to be a consistent producer for the Hornets for at least two more seasons. He’s past the point of his career where he’s making drastic improvements, and if they have better injury luck next season, Bridges could see a dip in production.
Fantasy Revelation: C Mark Williams
After missing a full calendar year of games, Williams returned to the lineup in December. He suited up 44 times, which was a new career high for him, and he averaged 15.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks per game, which were also career-highs, despite not seeing an increase in minutes.
Charlotte agreed to a trade that sent Williams to the Lakers shortly after they acquired Luka Doncic, but the deal was rescinded after Williams failed his physical. It was a strange situation, but Williams returned to the lineup after that and was able to play at a high level. He has battled through so many injuries through his first three seasons in the league and has been limited to 106 career games. He missed a handful of games sporadically, but the only time he missed more than two in a row (after he missed the first month of the season) was following the failed trade. Williams will entire the offseason healthy, and if he can have a relatively healthy 2025-26 campaign, he should be in for another big season.
Fantasy Disappointment: SG/SF/PF Brandon Miller
With the amount of games everyone the team missed, it’s hard to single out the most disappointing. However, since other players on the team have the “injury-prone” title already, and Miller’s 27 were fewer than the other standard-league players on the team. His field goal percentage also dropped from 44 percent as a rookie to 40.3 percent this past season. He averaged 21 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.1 steals and 3.9 threes in 34.2 minutes per game.
The insane three-point rate was a fun improvement and a partial explanation for the drop in field goal percentage.The other explanation is that his mid-range shot regressed. After shooting 47.9 percent from the mid-range as a rookie, he made just 30.2 percent of his mid-range shots this past season. The volume was lower, but it was a disappointing development. Miller should bounce back in year three, but a few minor regressions and an early injury derailed his second season after a strong rookie year.
Fantasy Recaps/Look-Aheads
PG/SG LaMelo Ball:
The good news: Ball set a new career high for points per game and played more games than he did each of the last two seasons. The bad news: he only played 47 games and posted the worst field goal percentage of his career. Ball averaged 25.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 3.8 triples in 32 minutes per game.
Aside from points and threes, Ball’s numbers all took a slight hit this past season. Nothing dropped alarmingly, and he played more than twice as many games this season. LaMelo will continue to go early in drafts because of how talented he is but playing 105 games in three seasons is a poor mark. All will be forgiven if he can have a healthy 2025-26 campaign, but it’s difficult to bank on that happening. Still, he is productive enough when he is on the floor to be worth the risk.
PF/C Grant Williams:
Williams’ 2024-25 campaign was cut short after he tore his ACL in November. Prior to that, Williams averaged 10.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.8 blocks and 1.7 threes per game. He made seven starts, but when this team is fully healthy next season, Williams will likely play a reserve role. He is an excellent rotation piece and will provide them with depth down low. However, his fantasy contributions will be limited to when there are injuries in front of him.
C Jusuf Nurkic:
Nurkic opened the season as the Suns starting center, but a few weeks in, it became apparent that wouldn’t last. After some drama with head coach Mike Budenholzer and being dropped from the rotation, Nurkic was dealt to Charlotte at the trade deadline. In 26 games with the Hornets, Nurkic averaged 9.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in just 18.1 minutes per game.
He should enter next season as a decent backup center behind Mark Williams in the final year of his contract. He's still capable of contributing decent fantasy value when he gets the minutes, but last season didn't do his reputation any favors, and it is difficult to imagine any team giving him a starting center job. Still, if he is able to step into a larger role, he can provide well-rounded counting stats for a center.
PG/SG Tre Mann:
It was an excellent start to the year for Mann, and after the first few games, it seemed like he was going to have a case for either Most Improved or Sixth Man of the Year. However, a back issue kept him sidelined after mid-November. Of course, Charlotte didn’t provide much clarity to the severity of his injury, so it was never clear that Mann would be sidelined for the remainder of the year.
During his 13 appearances, Mann averaged 14.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, three assists and 1.8 triples in 24.5 minutes per game. He should have some suitors in restricted free agency this summer, but if he is back with Charlotte, he should play a significant reserve role and supply plenty of offense. He didn’t get many steals this season, but he averaged 1.2 the year before. Steals tend to be a volatile stat, and it could certainly leap back up next season.
SG/SF Josh Green:
After spending the first four seasons of his career with the Mavericks, Green got a fresh start with the Hornets this season. In his first year with his new team, Green averaged 7.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.4 threes in 27.8 minutes per game. He has never been a great player for fantasy hoops, but Green is a young, impactful defender on the wing. That means he’ll play significant minutes, even if he isn’t doing much for fantasy managers. He hasn’t finished inside the top 200 in nine-cat formats through the first five seasons of his career.
C Moussa Diabate:
Diabate signed a two-way deal with Charlotte last summer after playing on two-way contracts with the Clippers over the two previous seasons. Due to injuries to Mark Williams and Nick Richards early on, Diabate took on a larger role than expected and took advantage, which resulted in him earning a full contract that will keep him with the Hornets until 2027.
Diabate averaged 5.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game, but he was much better when he played a larger role. In eight starts last season, he averaged 7.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and one steal per game. He also led the team with 71 games played. Diabate has the potential to be a dominant rebounder, but his outlook for next season is murky with Williams and Jusuf Nurkic ahead of him.
PG/SG Nick Smith Jr.:
Smith Jr. started off his second season playing a small role, but he saw that expand as the season went on, largely due to the Brandon Miller wrist injury. He played 22.8 minutes per game this season and averaged 9.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 threes per game. The former five-star prospect has shown some fun flashes through his first two seasons in the league, but he likely won’t be more than a depth scorer for Charlotte once again next season. The clearest path for fantasy production for him is more injuries to plays ahead of him on the depth chart.
PF Tidjane Salaun:
The No. 6 overall pick last summer didn’t turn 19 until after Summer League and was drafted for his upside. He was considered to be a raw prospect, and that was exactly how he looked. He appeared in 60 games and averaged 5.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists and one triple in 20.7 minutes per game.
More notably, he shot an abysmal 33 percent from the floor. Per Stathead, there have been nine players drafted in the top ten that have played at least 20 minutes per game as a rookie and averaged fewer than six points per game. The only one that shot worse from the floor than Salaun was fellow rookie Cody Williams
Restricted Free Agents: Tre Mann, Wendell Moore Jr.
Unrestricted Free Agents: Seth Curry, Taj Gibson
Raphielle Johnson
