The Charlotte Hornets weren't aggressive enough at the 2026 NBA trade deadline.
The Charlotte Hornets are one win away from making the playoffs for the first time since 2016. If they beat the Orlando Magic on Friday, the Hornets will face the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the playoffs.
Charlotte turned its season around after the All-Star break and the Coby White trade with the Chicago Bulls helped a lot. However, NBA analyst Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report believes the Hornets weren't aggressive enough at the 2026 NBA trade deadline.
"Coby White worked out just fine as a backup point guard and occasional closer, but he shouldn't have been the Hornets' only major deadline acquisition," Hughes wrote. "This team had the fifth-best net rating, ranking third on offense and fifth on defense, from Nov. 25 to the end of the year. That's a contender's profile, even if it's hard to look at such a young roster and proclaim it ready to compete at the highest level.
"Cautious, marginal moves were a big part of getting the Hornets to this point, so management's relatively conservative behavior is tough to question. But just imagine what the Hornets could do in the postseason if they'd upgraded Miles Bridges' spot in the starting lineup, or if they'd added a floor-spacing center. The future is bright in Charlotte, but more aggression at the deadline could have made the present a lot more interesting."
The Hornets' core is White, LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges. White becomes an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Charlotte would be wise to re-sign the UNC product.
It will be intriguing to see if Charlotte can beat Orlando to make the playoffs this year. The Hornets went 3-1 against the Magic in the regular season.
"My kids told me I'm not allowed to say 'lit' anymore, but I thought that the environment in there was exactly how I pictured it," Hornets coach Charles Lee said of the Spectrum Center crowd during the Miami Heat play-in game. "The support all game from the crowd, the noise, the everything, the drama I think I heard a little bit -- we were glad that we were able to pull this one out for the Charlotte fans, because they have definitely helped us throughout the whole year. And that's the environment that we want to keep having night after night."
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