HOUSTON — Shortly after the final buzzer sounded in the Hornets’ 109-99 road triumph over the Rockets on Thursday — their eighth straight win and ]

And it’s not simply that the Hornets are winning games, it’s who and how they’re blasting through opponents that has the league at attention now. Despite falling to Detroit last night, they’ve won nine out of their last 10, taking down Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers — otherwise known as the top five teams in the Western Conference. We’re talking about a Charlotte team that had a 27.5 win total projection in October, according to BetMGM, folks. They’re now 25-29 as a play-in team and just 5.5 games back of sixth. None of this is normal. 

All roads lead back to Lee, the former Bucks and Celtics assistant that arrived in 2024 with a fresh set of ideas and implementation tactics. During the preseason, Lee preached about the changes he wanted to see with his players, reducing individualism and adhering to a collective concept. More player and ball movement, encouraging drive-and-kicks, paint touches and, most importantly, a barrage of 3s. 

“You definitely gotta have the groundwork,” guard LaMelo Ball told Yahoo Sports. “For anything to build up to the top, you have to have that bottom row solid and together, you know?”

The proof is in the pudding. The Hornets have effectively eschewed shots at the rim and midrange (26th and 24th, respectively, in rim rate and midrange frequency) in favor of a full-out perimeter pile-on. Of Charlotte’s field goals, 45.2% come from behind the arc, which ranks third in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass. 

“It’s very important that we all trust each other and believe in one another,” Lee said. “Completely committed to trying to do all the right things that are going to help us build winning habits. It’s not just me, it’s my staff, the front office, and I think the players end up carrying it out. They hold each other to a high standard and, collectively, that’s what’s helping us elevate.”

What gives them the edge, though, given their evident offensive profile, is how deliberate the Hornets are. A quick glance at their roster, particularly their starting five, could leave one to assume that this is a fast-paced team that plays to their athleticism. But according to Second Spectrum, Charlotte is just 25th in pace. It’s near-impossible to get them to play at any other speed.

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The Hornets are 23rd in average time to shoot per InPredictable, a number that drops to 29th after forcing opponent turnovers, 26th after a defensive rebound and dead last on offensive rebounds. This team plays at its own tempo, grinding down the shot clock until the best shot is taken. By the time Charlotte takes a shot — they’re fourth in effective field-goal percentage during this span — opposing defenses are typically worn out having been forced to track a flurry of half-court movement. The Hornets lead the league in distance traveled on offense, up from fourth last season. 

None of this, however, comes as a surprise to Lee. Before arriving in Charlotte, Lee had already built a reputation as one of the brightest minds in the game, obsessed with winning and improving at the margins. It’s not an uncommon sight to see Lee during a timeout yelling with a clipboard in his lap, urging more from a group already on its way to victory. The 40-year-old is never satisfied, having seen what it takes to win — with two championships on his résumé with Milwaukee and Boston. That respect factor extends to Ball, the leader of this young group, and, in turn, the rest of the roster. 

It’s difficult to envision many head coaches who could get the buy-in from a team’s star player who has been benched multiple times and removed from the starting lineup altogether on a few occasions. But Lee has proven to be unafraid of tough conversations, and he and Ball have been able to move on from prior frustrations — when Ball’s future was potentially in question after a rough start. They’ve built a stronger bond because of it. 

“We all got a good bond,” Ball said. “Me, him, the coaches, the players, everybody. The whole staff. We just feel like one big family for real.”

That buy-in from Ball has become a top-down effect. Lee’s insistence on sharing the ball has resulted in drops in field-goal attempts from the likes of Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges — and increases in true shooting percentages for the latter two (Ball’s has remained the same). A significant chunk of that is tied to the presence of rookie Kon Kneuppel, the sharpshooting phenom with playmaking and shot creation chops having a historic rookie season, but the Hornets work because everyone touches the ball. They’re not tied to a heliocentric system as they have been in the past. Charlotte is league average in terms of passes and assists per game, but ranks in the top five in secondary assists — the pass before the pass. 

The offensive empowerment from Lee distilled to those four creates a system where adding in Moussa Diabate, an elite, athletic, two-way force (who is a terror on the offensive glass) yields a juggernaut. There’s a unique blend of on-ball creation, off-ball relocation, athleticism and floor spacing. According to PBP Stats, that lineup is a monstrous +146 in 230 minutes together on the floor, scoring an eye-popping 143.1 points per 100 possessions while holding opponents to just 109.3 points per 100 possessions. Consider this — of the top 20 five-man groups in on/off differential, the Hornets’ five is the only one that has played at least 300 possessions together. Every other one is operating on a limited sample size. Cohesion and connectivity. 

Miller’s improvement in his third season also cannot be understated as a high-volume wing learning how to create value at both ends of the floor. Charlotte is +6.7 in his minutes, 82nd percentile among wings. Ditto for Diabate, who is swallowing nearly 15% of the Hornets’ missed shots, 91st percentile among bigs. The team corrals around 38% of its own misses with him on the floor — phenomenal.

Given the style of play under Lee and the Hornets’ future flexibility — Charlotte owns all of its first-round picks for the next seven years — it’s not a stretch to suggest that this could become one of the most attractive destinations over the next few years. From a financial standpoint, as an over-the-cap, under-the-tax team, the Hornets also will head into this summer armed with their full mid-level exception and a number of movable contracts — in the event that another superstar (Giannis?) becomes available. Who says small markets have to be boring? 

“It feels good,” Lee said. “As an organization trying to build winning habits, be obsessed with daily improvement, it shows that all the work you’re putting in everyday is going towards something. We’re glad that we can start changing the trajectory of where we’ve been before.”