The Hornet’s season came to an end once again with a drastic loss in the play-in tournament. Despite us improving by ten wins from last season to this, the Hornets went in as the same seed and went out the exact same way. Our goal for this season was to make the playoffs and we fell short of that, yet again. This season wasn’t all lows as we were able to celebrate some positives along the way. First, we saw the huge improvement of Miles Bridges who might be on the radar as the most-improved player this year. Secondly, we had an all-star in LaMelo Ball in only his sophomore season.  In addition, we had three top-tier players who averaged 19+ PPG, suggesting one of our most diverse lineups since the early 2000’s. And finally, we had our first winning season since 2015-16. With that being said, here are my HR awards for the Charlotte Hornets this year.

MVP – LaMelo Ball

A few names popped into my head on this one, but the stand out is LaMelo Ball. Who knows where the Hornets would be without Ball. We hear guys post-game every night talk about how he makes them better and how much fun it is to play with him. He also had a sensational season, averaging 20 points 7.6 assists, and 6.7 rebounds per game.

MIP – Miles Bridges

This one is obvious. Despite being robbed of an all-star appearance and of the NBA’s MIP award, MB put the league on notice this season. Bridges went from a pure highlight dunker to an all-around forward who can do everything scoring-wise AND make plays for others. He also showed he can lead a team in scoring (20.2PPG). Leadership-wise, he took a huge step as well and is an asset to the team.

DPOY – PJ Washington

Washington had a very solid year. There were some games where he was by far the biggest leader on the floor, offensively and defensively. He was very distrustful in the paint all year, leading the Hornets in blocks (0.9), and also sometimes played man against the other team’s best perimeter player.

SMOY – Kelly Oubre

In Oubre’s first season with us, he was a reliable shooter off the bench and had some huge games this season. Fans enjoy his charisma and he appears to already have a great rapport with his teammates. He finished as James Borrego’s first off the bench with averages of 15 points (2nd in the league off the bench) and 4 rebounds per game.

ROY- JT Thor

This one is tough because the rookies got very few chances this year to crack the rotation and get quality minutes. I have to give the award to JT Thor because he showed huge promise as a big-time defender for us down the road. I look forward to seeing what lies ahead for him next season.