NBA SIMS LEAGUE
NSL Insider - Team by Team: Charlotte Hornetsby Shams, updated on Monday, December 01 2025, 04:59 pm EST Team by Team: Charlotte Hornets
Season Highlight: Finishing in the playoffs was their season highlight, it’s a great success to be a team that makes it in without having to play in the play-in. This is definitely great considering how many games Ja missed last year. The other three on their team of KAT, Anunoby and Derozan did a good job of holding down to the court when Morant missed.
Season Lowlight: It’s safe to say the lowest moment of the year was being swept by the 76ers, while the Sixers had a good team, getting swept 1st round isn’t how anyone wants to go, being in the 4/5 matchup just adds insult to injury. It does make it even worse that all the games were lost by 10 points or less, so the games could’ve went their way.
Best Trade: The Hornets trade Draymond Green, Tim Hardaway, 2029 1st rounder and 2029 2nd rounder for Myles Turner, Norman Powell, Daron Holmes, and Pelle Larsson. Considering the breakout that Powell had this was a very good trade valuewise, Powell ended up being traded later, but just taking it one trade at a time this is the best.
Worst Trade: The Hornets trade Jusuf Nurkic, Jerami Grant, Norman Powell, Myles Turner, Chris Boucher, and Daron Holmes for Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Jock Landale, Sidy Cissoko. It was only really a bad trade cause it affected their team layout way too much, it lowered the amount of depth they had a lot going into the year.
Other Notable Trades: The Hornets trade Cory Joseph, Jock Landale, Pelle Larsson, and a 2029 2nd rounder for Al Horford, Kyle Lowry and Malevy Leons. It made sense for a win now move and Larsson has played better for the Heat this year, but there’s no way to know that’d happen.
The Hornets send Kris Dunn for Kenrich Williams and Branden Carlson. Dunn was not as useful as Craig liked so it makes sense to try and improve depth with a move last year. Dunn is on a very good contract though.
The Hornets send Jordan McLaughlin and Al Horford for Caleb Martin. It seems more like a move to recoup a future asset here with Horford having been an expiring. It made sense to do and especially to keep some salary in house for flexibility.
The Hornets send Cody Zeller for Dario Saric. Not sure if Craig had a ransom here considering Zeller was not going to play at all last year and he didn’t have to pay to get rid of his salary either. This ended up being a very good trade considering he was able to get some type of value for a guy like that.
Some other trades happened with the Hornets, with two ways, but there wasn’t much affect with them.
Star: KAT- He was on another level last year and was very valuable on the defensive end of the floor. Making the All-Defensive 2nd team and all league 3rd team. He was surely used in the best way possible last year, the rest of the stars played really well, but KAT is most deserving.
Flop: OG Anunoby- Anunoby did fine, but out of all the players he flopped the most, not taking on as much scoring as he probably should have. With the rest of their bench last year, you didn’t have the highest of expectations for them, but Anunoby didn’t play to what he could and should have.
Free Agency: The Hornets had a pretty successful free agency with Josh Okogie being the biggest get and Chris Boucher coming in as well. Considering they have a full roster too there weren’t a bunch of spots to be filled during FA and it was just perimeter moves.
Draft Grade: At this point in the year there’s a good chunk to show if a pick has been really good and Will Richard especially for being selected 54th is an A+. He’s playing well for the Warriors in the NBA, and is a great pick from Craig!
The Future: The Hornets have a really good mix of young and older guys, they have a much better bench this year in my opinion as well. Craig has really brought the team to being in a good spot over the past year. Morant’s situation in the NBA is affecting the Hornets in a negative way, it could go back to being nothing, but with him being the main star you don’t want to have unneccessary drama happening.
Depth Chart:
PG Ja Morant / Jose Alvarado / Bronny James SG Kelly Oubre / Josh Okogie / Will Richard SF RJ Barrett / Justin Champagnie / Haywood Highsmith PF Pascal Siakam / GG Jackson / Chris Boucher C Bam Adebayo / Jalen Smith / Dario Saric
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