The Charlotte Hornets showed clear progress during the 2025/26 season, increasing their win total from 19 to 44 and posting the league’s best net rating from January through the end of the regular season.
However, despite that improvement, the team’s playoff drought reached 10 consecutive years, the longest active streak in the NBA, after a heavy loss in Orlando, as noted by Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
Head coach Charles Lee emphasized that the setback should serve as motivation moving forward, even while acknowledging how close the team came to breaking through.
“You’re one step away from being in the playoffs, so I don’t want to discredit that,” Lee said, “but this has got to hurt a little bit. And you’ve got to think about this offseason. When you’re in the weight room, when you’re on the court. What am I going to do to go that extra mile to get even better, because we had a ton of growth this year.
“I don’t want those guys to lose sight of the positives that they did do. I think that the resilience of the team, the competitiveness, the togetherness continue to grow. And we earned an opportunity to be right there. So, ton of good, but that was not our best effort.”
Lee described the season as an important building phase for the franchise and encouraged the group to carry that momentum forward.
“Let this fuel you,” Lee said. “But also don’t take for granted the fact that you guys earned a ton of respect from everyone throughout the league with how hard you played, how well you played. And I think that they also helped build another stepping stone for this organization.”
Hornets Notes: Lee, Physicality, LaMelo, Knueppel, Offseason https://t.co/Ibx61uXykb pic.twitter.com/SJ2cKjplae
— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) April 19, 2026
