The NBA's new in-season tournament is about to be in full swing and things will heat up fairly quickly on that front. The purpose is to increase a competitive edge between teams with cash prize incentives. Just in case you may have forgotten, both the winning team's players and head coach will receive $500,000, the runner-up will receive $200,000, losing players in the semifinals $100,000, and quarterfinal losing players get $50,000. Some teams begin their tournament on Friday, November 3, but the Charlotte Hornets will start on Friday, November 10 against the Washington Wizards.
Here's a quick look at the Hornets' in-season tournament schedule and some bold predictions for the event.
Who and when are the Hornets playing?
The Hornets start their games on the 10th against the Washington Wizards in game one on the road. Then they have a two-game home stand against the Miami Heat on November 14th and November 17th against the Milwaukee Bucks. They close out the tournament on November 28th in New York against the Knicks.
Bold Hornets predictions for the in-season tournament
Honestly, this is a tough slate of games in East Group B. All though the Miami Heat kicked off the season losing four of their first five games, they're still a threat. They're fresh off of an NBA Finals appearance. Still, that is a winnable game along with the rest of them. The Wizards should be the easiest game on the schedule, while the Knicks game could go either way. Unfortunately, don't have too much optimism in a matchup against the Bucks. A solid 2-2 record is possible for the Hornets as a best-case scenario.
Charlotte needs to turn it around now
Going off the talent that is on the roster, the Hornets have a shot to show out on a bigger stage than the usual run-in-the-mill regular season game. But they haven't played up to par to that talent. They lost three of their first four games of the season and have been struggling on both sides of the ball. Plus, LaMelo Ball still hasn't had any great games yet. As their best player, he is going to have to show up to get this team to advance to the knock rounds of the tournament.
Ball is shooting 30% from the field and 27% from the three-point line. It can't possibly get any worse, right? Ball did just resume basketball activity at the beginning of October since he was still nursing the ankle injury that held him to 36 games in the season before. He has expressed at a few different points early in this season that he is just trying to get back into basketball shape after not being on the court for the bulk of the summer. The expectations on this team are high and for good reason, but in order to live up to those expectations, Ball is going to have to play like an All-Star caliber guard again.
Brandon Miller has looked good
On the bright side, their top draft prospect looks really good. Brandon Miller scored in double figures in all four of his games. He has an early career-high of 22 points and a career-low of 10 points through those first four games. Outside of just filling it up, he has lived up to those early draft comparisons to Paul George or Jayson Tatum.
He has been a solid two-way player for this team early on. Coming away with chase-down blocks and ripping the ball away from careless ball handlers. He's lived up to his draft stock thus far. If he and Ball can get on the same accord, this team can be a sneaky good team in the in-season tournament.
Follow Us
Subscribe