The Hornets played their first games of 2026-27 and lost more than they won. The opener came Oct. 6 at home against the Nets, a 90-124 loss — Liam McNeeley led with 14 points, Grayson Allen had 13. Going in, Coby White had already been diagnosed with a left calf strain (Day-To-Day as of Oct. 5), and Kylan Boswell was Day-To-Day with a right knee issue from the same day. On game day, Brandon Miller showed up on the injury report with a leg issue, PJ Hall was cleared, and Christian Anderson went Day-To-Day with a left ankle issue.
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The one win came Oct. 11, a 105-90 home result over the Bucks. Miller led with 18 points, Naz Reid had 16. Miller was cleared off the injury report the same day. Grayson Allen went the other way, landing on Day-To-Day with a right knee issue.
The losses resumed after that. Oct. 14 at the Celtics was a 93-114 defeat, with Royce O'Neale scoring 9 and Tidjane Salaün 8. Oct. 16 at the Grizzlies was a 98-117 loss — Hannes Steinbach had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Miller added 15. Christian Anderson was cleared on Oct. 14. Moussa Diabaté went Day-To-Day with a right elbow issue on Oct. 16.
The roster kept turning over. Wyatt Fricks, who had joined the team Sept. 29, was gone by Oct. 16. DaJuan Gordon and Latrell Wrightsell both joined Oct. 15; Gordon lasted one day before leaving the roster Oct. 16 alongside Fricks and Pat Connaughton — Shams Charania confirmed the Connaughton move was a waiver. A day later, on Oct. 17, a report said the Hornets had waived both Wrightsell and Jarkel Joiner.
The Brandon Miller extension conversation, open since Sept. 18, still has no terms attached. An Oct. 6 report grouped Miller with Wallace, Towns and Davis under an "Extension Notes" roundup, but it gave no numbers for any of them. The Grant Williams and Kon Knueppel hamstring injuries, both flagged Sept. 25, have gone silent — no report since has given either player a status update or a return date.
Charlotte also kept showing up, unexplained, in roundup reports about other teams' business: a Southeast notes piece Oct. 8 grouped the Hornets with the Heat and Magic, an Eastern notes piece Oct. 12 grouped them with Haliburton's Pacers and others, and an Oct. 15 "Minor Moves" report tied them to the Rockets, Hawks, Jazz and Nets. None of the three said what the Hornets' end of it was.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 18Still open since Sept. 18, with an Oct. 6 report naming Miller among four players getting "extension notes" coverage but giving no terms.
Both went Day-To-Day Sept. 25 and neither has had a status update or return date reported since.
An Oct. 17 report said both were waived, a day after Gordon, Fricks and Connaughton all left the roster on Oct. 16.
A third unexplained "moves" report, this one Oct. 15, tagged the Hornets without ever saying what the move was.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Moussa Diabate (11.7 wins without him), Brandon Miller (8.5 wins without him), Grant Williams (4.2 wins without him), Kon Knueppel (3.9 wins without him) and Coby White (3.5 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Fri, Oct 23; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Eastern Conference · 81 games leftNext 5: vs Heat0%vs Wizards100%at Pistons100%at Wizards100%vs 76ers100%opponents win 80% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
28 days on the recordEarlier on the record24 more days · back to Mon, Sep 7
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Charles Lee enters his second season as head coach, inheriting a roster built around Brandon Miller, the No. 2 pick in 2023, and Kon Knueppel, now in year two after averaging 18.5 points as a rookie. Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale, Naz Reid, Moussa Diabaté, Coby White and Dennis Schröder round out the core. Last season the Hornets went 44-38, with the NBA's 5th-ranked offense and 11th-ranked defense, good for the league's 8th-best net rating at plus-4.9. Charlotte carries a payroll of $170.6 million against a $165.0 million salary cap, over the cap but under the $200.4 million luxury tax, with Reid ($23.3 million), White ($22.8 million), Allen ($18.1 million) and Miller ($15.1 million) as the biggest contracts. The Hornets hold their own first-round picks in 2027, 2029 and 2030, a swap arrangement for 2028, a 2027 second conditional to Oklahoma City and a 2030 second protected to Boston. The talk all month has centered on churn at the bottom of the roster — Jarkel Joiner, Latrell Wrightsell, Pat Connaughton, DaJuan Gordon and Wyatt Fricks have all cycled on and off the roster, with Connaughton, Joiner and Wrightsell waived outright.
Identity and rivalries138 words
The Hornets lean toward the fast end of the pace scale, playing at 97.59 possessions a game last season, an up-tempo identity built to get shots before a defense can set. Charlotte sits in the Southeast Division, where Atlanta has been the team's sharpest recent foil — the Hawks ended a Hornets play-in trip 132-103 back in 2022. Boston carries its own thread now: Charles Lee arrived as head coach after serving as a Celtics assistant, and Charlotte once sent Terry Rozier to Miami for Kyle Lowry at the trade deadline, a swap that still colors how fans view games against the Heat. What's at stake in each of these games right now is proving last season's turnaround was real and not a product of an easy schedule, with every divisional matchup a chance to make that case.
Home, owners and numbers114 words
The Hornets play at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, the arena fans still call the Hive, which opened in 2005 and was known first as Charlotte Bobcats Arena and later as Time Warner Cable Arena before taking its current name in 2016. Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall bought the majority stake from Michael Jordan in a $3 billion sale the NBA approved in July 2023. The rafters carry Bobby Phills' number, retired in 2000 and rehung in Charlotte in 2014 after his death, Bill Russell's No. 6, retired by the league in 2022, and Dell Curry's number, retired March 19, 2026. Hugo the Hornet works the sidelines, backed by the Charlotte Honey Bees cheerleading squad.
What they are chasing113 words
The Hornets are off to a rough start this season, with just one win through their first several games, and the most immediate thing they're chasing is simply finding footing on a roster that keeps turning over by the week. The bigger question is Brandon Miller's extension, a conversation that's been open since September 18 with no reported terms attached. Right behind it is health — Grant Williams and Kon Knueppel both went down with hamstring injuries on September 25, and neither has gotten a status update since. Fans are also left guessing at what several unexplained "moves" reports tying Charlotte to other teams actually meant, including one as recent as October 15.
The long view510 words
The Charlotte Hornets began play in 1988 as an NBA expansion team owned by George Shinn, one of four expansion franchises awarded that cycle along with Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and Orlando. The name came from a contest, tracing back to British General Cornwallis calling Charlotte "a hornet's nest of rebellion" after the 1780 Battle of Charlotte. The team wore teal and pinstriped uniforms designed by Alexander Julian and played in the Charlotte Coliseum, which seated almost 24,000, the largest arena ever to serve as a full-time NBA home. The Hornets lost their opener 133-93 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on November 4, 1988, then beat the Los Angeles Clippers 117-105 for their first win, finishing 20-62. Despite losing seasons early on, the Coliseum sold out 364 consecutive games and led the league in attendance eight times total.
The franchise's first sustained success came with Larry Johnson, the 1991 first overall pick and 1992 Rookie of the Year, and Alonzo Mourning, taken second in 1992. In 1992-93 the Hornets went 44-38 for their first winning record, upset the Boston Celtics in the first round, then fell to the New York Knicks. After a 50-32 season in 1994-95 ended in a first-round loss to the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte traded Mourning to Miami for Glen Rice, Matt Geiger, and Khalid Reeves.
Rice became the top scorer, and the roster turned over again in 1996: Johnson went to the Knicks for Anthony Mason, and on draft night the Hornets sent the rights to 13th pick Kobe Bryant to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac. That group produced a 54-28 record, the franchise's best to that point, though the Knicks eliminated them in three games. A 51-31 season in 1997-98 reached the second round before the Bulls stopped them again. Rice was later traded to the Lakers for Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell, and the Hornets made the playoffs in 1999-2000, 2000-01, and 2001-02, reaching the conference semifinals twice under coach Paul Silas. Falling attendance under Shinn led the NBA to approve a move to New Orleans for 2002-03; that team later became the Pelicans in 2013.
Charlotte got a replacement expansion team, the Bobcats, for 2004-05 under owner Robert L. Johnson, who paid a $300 million expansion fee and became the first African American majority owner in U.S. major pro sports since the Negro leagues. Bernie Bickerstaff was the first coach and GM, and Emeka Okafor, drafted second overall, won 2004-05 Rookie of the Year. The Bobcats opened 18-64, then moved into Charlotte Bobcats Arena in year two.
Michael Jordan bought a minority stake in 2006 and took a majority position on February 17, 2010. In 2013 the franchise reclaimed the original Hornets' name and history, returning as the Charlotte Hornets for 2014-15. Jordan sold his majority stake in August 2023 to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, keeping a minority share. As of 2026, the Hornets remain the only NBA franchise never to win a division title, and one of two teams, with the Pelicans, never to reach a conference finals.