The Buzz is back? Inside the Hornets' turn from league punchline to playoff hopeful

THE SUN WAS still hours away from rising over the Manhattan skyline, but a lively LaMelo Ball was up shortly after 4 a.m., delivering perhaps his most important assist for the Charlotte Hornets on this crisp morning in April 2025.

Ball and Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson were on their way to the renowned Hospital for Special Surgery for the point guard's season-ending arthroscopic surgeries on his right wrist and ankle. As their town car cruised up the near-empty New York City streets, Peterson asked Ball for his input on some potential lottery draft targets. The point guard's attention turned toward a highly touted Duke prospect.

Although Cooper Flagg was the consensus can't-miss prospect, Ball was talking up Kon Knueppel to the Hornets GM. Ball had watched Duke play during the season and told Peterson how savvy he thought the forward was. He was struck by Knueppel's basketball IQ and understanding of the game -- impressive even for a five-star prospect. And of course, there was Knueppel's elite shooting.

Ball's astute scouting report was before Charlotte even knew where it would be drafting. The Hornets learned in the draft lottery a month later that they would have the fourth pick, which they eventually used on Knueppel.

"He's spot on with those traits," Peterson told ESPN of that break-of-dawn draft breakdown. "He was very detailed in his evaluation of why he liked him. That was even more impressive that he was able to kind of highlight him because there were some other guys that he didn't highlight.

"He may have a future in the front office if he wants."

A year later, Ball is having the most successful season of his career. And Knueppel, whose historic first season could lead to Rookie of the Year honors, has been a revelation and the perfect player to unlock Ball's and the Hornets' potential.

Ball and Knueppel have formed a Hornets 3-point shooting duo of the future that has a new-age Splash Brothers feel to it. Charlotte has been perhaps the best story of the NBA season and authored the most surprising turnaround with a potent starting five that includes the emerging Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate. The Hornets won 44 games after totaling just 19 wins a season ago. Only the Spurs have had a bigger turnaround this season.

"Nobody's thinking that playing Charlotte is going to be an easy walkover game," Knueppel told ESPN. "Which it has been the last couple years."

After averaging 60 losses over the previous three seasons, Charlotte has its buzz back for perhaps the first time since Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning were whipping the Hive into a frenzy and the Hornets looked like a team of the future back in the '90s. At the controls is Ball, who is not only healthy but also is trying to prove that he's a winning point guard and not all flash. And the young talent that Charlotte has collected is blossoming and determined to show the Hornets are no longer a punchline.

The Hornets could've succumbed to an early rash of injuries and a 4-14 start, but instead they are two wins away from snapping the NBA's longest current playoff drought. After nine years of postseason-less basketball, Charlotte can end the futility by advancing out of the play-in, which begins Tuesday night with its game against the 10th-seeded Miami Heat.

Since Jan. 2, the Hornets have gone 33-15 with belief-building -- and at times convincing -- wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

"We just continue to change the narrative," guard Coby White, who was a key trade acquisition at the deadline, told ESPN. "Before, people weren't serious about Hornets basketball. Sports analysts made jokes on TV. A lot of guys in the locker room were offended and took that to heart. So you see the way that they play -- they're tired of that narrative here.

"Now I think the world is starting to see how serious Hornets basketball is."

WHEN THE INDIANA PACERS were making their stunning run in the Finals against the Thunder, Bridges, Ball and Miller texted each other.

"'We can do that too,'" Bridges told ESPN of what they said to one another. "We kind of modeled our game after that. We want to get out and run like this."

Indiana lost Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tendon injury and lost the Finals in Game 7. But the Hornets saw the possibilities of running an up-tempo offense with an improvising point guard who can pass and shoot. Last season, Ball and Haliburton were first and second, according to GeniusIQ, in jump passes per game, which can create movement in a random offense and be difficult to defend.

Head coach Charles Lee -- who also adds a Boston flavor to the Hornets' offensive style from his time as a Celtics assistant under Joe Mazzulla -- can often be seen signaling a playcall with a steering wheel gesture to his team. It's fitting since the Hornets want to play full throttle with constant movement; they lead the NBA in double on-ball screens per game and points per game off those actions this season, according to ESPN Research.

"They gave the blueprint for a lot," Knueppel said of the Pacers. "We might not have like the superstar, All-Star, All-NBA guy, but we got a lot of good players. When we play fast and we have a bunch of guys that can really contribute, it's just a good style for us."

In their second season together, Peterson and Lee set a different tone in camp with a move that was unlike the Hornets of the past. Charlotte waived veteran guard Spencer Dinwiddie in October just three months after signing him to a one-year, $3.6 million deal. The Hornets instead kept veteran Pat Connaughton as a locker room presence, making a financial choice that the franchise might not have done in the past.

"Of course Spencer's talented, a great guy," said Bridges, the longest-tenured Hornet who has been with the club since entering the league in 2018. "But they kind of went with Pat because Pat has a ring, has been around great playoff teams, has a great voice. We just need those type of guys in the locker room.

"I didn't think we were going to cut [Dinwiddie]. It was definitely eye-opening."

Even though the Hornets lost 14 of their first 18 games, including a seven-game slide, the locker room was able to stick together and not fall into old habits despite injuries to Ball and Miller.

"When I first got here, sometimes it was hard for guys to fight through those moments of adversity," Lee told ESPN. "I felt sometimes guys were like, 'Ah, we're the Hornets. Here we go. We're injured again. We're going to lose the game.' And there was almost like this defeated attitude when adversity hit."

But Lee saw a different attitude this season. Once Ball and Miller got healthy and Lee turned to a starting five of Ball, Miller, Knueppel, Bridges and Diabate, the Hornets took off. They shockingly destroyed the Thunder in Oklahoma City, 124-97, on Jan. 5.

"After the game, we were like, 'Why can't we do this every game?'" Bridges said. "Ever since then, we had the confidence that we could beat anybody."

They pummeled the Utah Jazz 150-95 for the second-largest win in franchise history five nights later. They later beat the Lakers in Los Angeles by 18, won at Denver by 23 and went on a nine-game winning streak and another six-game streak in late February through early March. Those six straight wins came by 15-plus points, tied for the second-longest streak by that big of a margin within a season in NBA history. Since Jan. 1, Charlotte owns the top-ranked offense (120.7 ORTG) and fifth-ranked defense (110.2 DRTG).

"Similar to OKC, you have a bunch of guys all bought into a role," the Philadelphia 76ers' Paul George said. "They play an ego-less basketball ... They're all kind of shining together."

Like most young teams, Charlotte still has difficulties pulling out close games and is just 10-18 in clutch-time games, when the scoring margin in the last five minutes is within five points. The Hornets also have to show they can handle physical and bigger teams. They viewed a recent three-game home stretch against the Knicks, Sixers and Celtics as a major test against teams with playoff-tested stars.

They wasted a 15-point lead and lost 118-114 at home to the 76ers -- who had Tyrese Maxey, George and Joel Embiid back together -- in a game that had a playoff feel to it on March 28. The next day, the Hornets lost 114-99 to Jayson Tatum and the Celtics, who played without Jaylen Brown. Ball and Knueppel shot a combined 22-for-72 from the field in the two losses.

"That's the next step," White said. "Everything else, you check the box. For us, winning those games in the mud when things aren't going your way ... These are how games are in the playoffs."

The Hornets, though, showed why they can be so dangerous in a 114-103 win over the Knicks on March 26. During a 64-second blitz in the third quarter, Ball and Knueppel combined to hit three deep triples. Knueppel kept popping open off screens for 11 momentum-building points in the quarter.

When Miller threw down a thunderous fast-break dunk with 8:32 left in the fourth quarter to push the Hornets up by 21, the forward dapped up rapper DaBaby, a frequent supporter, on the baseline. The Spectrum Center exploded, with Hornets supporters for once drowning out the large contingent of Knicks fans who always show up.

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That game was one of the Spectrum Center's record 25 sellouts this season. Dell Curry -- the all-time leader in games played for a franchise that once sold out 371 consecutive games from 1988 to 1997 -- called the victory over the Knicks a top-three game for the organization in the past decade.

"Charlotte's been starving," Curry, the current team TV analyst, told ESPN. "It's been hungry for a team to play like this."

Fans have gravitated toward the Hornets for the high-octane offense but also their refusal to back down from a fight. When the Pistons snapped the Hornets' nine-game winning streak in Charlotte on Feb. 9, the two teams got into the biggest brawl of the season, resulting in ejections and eventual suspensions for Diabate, Bridges and Detroit's Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. Lee was also ejected for arguing with an official.

"They were trying to b---h us the whole game, push us while we're down, staring at us," Bridges said. "I feel like we showed the league that we're not backing down from anybody.

"We definitely wanted to show other teams that we're not soft, and we've been doing that."

MONTHS BEFORE THE Hornets led the defending champs by as much as 30 in OKC, Ball knew the Hornets would be a serious problem.

When Knueppel joined the veterans for summer workouts and runs at Queens University in August, the Hornets began to see their potential. He and Ball hit it off immediately. They flashed "incredible synergy" and were able to repeatedly find each other open on the floor, according to Peterson.

"We knew [for a long time]," Ball told ESPN of when he realized the Hornets were going to be this good. "Like I ain't going to lie, in the summer, we saw Kon, we saw everybody hooping. We're like, 'Oh, we got a squad for sure. We just got to put it together.'"

It also did not take long for the two to form a bond off the floor as the Hornets' odd couple.

"Opposites attract," Ball explained.

Ball is a larger-than-life "1-of-1" personality whose voice can often be heard echoing throughout the corridors of the Spectrum Center, where the Hornets also practice.

The buttoned-up Knueppel doesn't show much emotion on the floor. But the rookie says he and Ball are actually on the same wavelength, often shooting sarcastic looks at each other in the locker room as they laugh at or joke about other teammates.

"Kon's more of like a dry humor, almost like 'The Office,'" Lee said. "And Melo's more like 'Martin' or 'In Living Color.' But they crack each other up."

Winning, though, is no laughing matter for Knueppel. Even as a 20-year-old rookie, he has called out the team during film sessions on improving winning habits and even has chewed out vets like Bridges for "bulls-------" like during a game against Atlanta earlier in the season.

"Just bringing a mature approach," Knueppel said of trying to inject a winning attitude. "I think that was something that was important to the organization, just getting guys in here that think about basketball in a way where winning is like the only thing that matters. Ego-less basketball players. That was important to just kind of set that tone."

Veterans and coaches have pointed out Knueppel's laser-like focus on winning as having had a significant impact.

"Kon's a little bit more of an a--hole, but like our a--hole," forward Grant Williams told ESPN with a sincere smile. "But he's a great human being. He's the guy that just keeps it blunt, tells the truth. And then Melo's loud, eccentric, tattooed ... I feel like Kon's a little bit more religious. Just completely random different walks of life.

"But they work so well together."

On the court, the two have been lethal from behind the arc, with Knueppel becoming the first rookie to lead the league in 3-pointers made (273) and Ball finishing second (272). Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the only other teammates to finish first and second in the same season, doing it four times at the height of their 3-point powers.

Averaging 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 42.5% from behind the arc, Knueppel passed Michael Jordan for most games by a rookie with 20-plus points on 65% true shooting with 32 such games.

"People classify him as a shooter, a guy that needs others to create for him -- he's not that," Williams said. "He's a guy that can create his own shot, great footwork, can really get downhill, put pressure on the rim, good finisher.

"But he also knocks down that 3 like I've never seen before."

LESS THAN FIVE minutes into the Hornets' game against the Sixers, Ball hit the floor after taking a sharp elbow to the face from Embiid. The Spectrum Center crowd held its collective breath given Ball's injury history. But Ball has been getting back up repeatedly this season, playing in a career-high 56 consecutive games dating back to Dec. 14.

After missing a total of 141 games over the previous three seasons due to injuries -- the Hornets went 31-110 without Ball during that span -- Ball committed to getting in better shape.

"He's really locking in on his body," Kemba Walker, Charlotte's all-time leading scorer and current assistant coach, told ESPN. "His approach, everyday habits, he's really just been embracing his leadership role. Melo's still learning how to be a leader, how to win. And I think he's finally got it figured out."

Ball, 24, arrived at camp with 12 pounds of added muscle to his 6-foot-7, 180-pound frame. He also has accepted playing fewer minutes and even not starting at times. When the Hornets tried to find a creative way to allow him to play at the end of halves in back-to-back games in January while being careful with his usage after he missed 10 games earlier in the season due to a right ankle injury, Ball volunteered to come off the bench in three games, according to Peterson.

"LaMelo has been so talented growing up that he has been able to get away with some things," Peterson said. "But when you get to this age, are you going to dive on the floor for loose balls? Are you going to be committed to the scouting report? Are you going to get the extra couple hours of sleep? Are you coming in early to take care of your body? And he's doing all those things more consistently now.

"It says a lot to a guy of that caliber, he's playing less. His scoring averages are lower, but the team is having more success."

Ball's scoring is down from 25.2 points per game last season to 20.1 points per game, and his 17.3 shot attempts per game are his fewest since his second season. Ball's assists (7.1) and rebounds (4.8) per game, along with his usage rate, are also lower than a season ago.

Lee isn't afraid to hold Ball accountable and take him out after a bad play. Playing the fewest minutes per game (28.0) of his six-year career and touching the ball less, the point guard's turnovers are down to 2.8, the first time he's under three per game since his rookie season. His 3-point shooting percentage of 36.8% is his highest since his third season in the league.

Teammates say they see a different Ball this season. Bridges said he had never seen the point guard yell at a teammate before this season.

"People only see the flashy moves, the one-leg 3s," Miller, who is averaging 20.2 points and 4.9 rebounds, told ESPN. "I don't think people see a lot of his effort on the defensive side, which changed a lot for him. He's just trying to make everybody better around him. That's why he's our leader."

A year after Ball assisted Peterson with his intel on Knueppel, the two shooters won 44 games -- a career high for Ball. Now he wants to help Charlotte reach the postseason and win its first playoff game since 2016.

"My whole life, I've been a winner," Ball said of what has clicked for him this season and learning how to win. "Just love winning. I just never rocked with losing. I've always been chasing winning, doing whatever I could to win. It's just stuff [like injuries are] going to be unfortunate, not everything's going to go your way and that's how it was before.

"... I feel like I should have made the playoffs [before]. So [this would be] a step in the right direction. But it's not what I'm satisfied with. We're trying to win some championships for sure."