ESPN’s BPI reveals an interesting Charlotte Hornets prediction for the 2024-25 season

ESPN has released its NBA Basketball Power Index (BPI) for the 2024-25 NBA season. According to the website, BPI is said to be “the best predictor of a team’s performance for the remainder of the season.”

According to the rankings for the upcoming season, the Hornets are -2.4 points compared to the expected average NBA team, good for 23rd in the league. The -2.4 points are made up of -1.3 points on the offensive side and -1.1 points on the defensive side.

The projections also have the Hornets having the 22nd best projection in the league with a record of 37.0-45.0 for the upcoming season, surpassing the Hawks, who are one spot higher in the BPI.

The numbers represent a notable improvement from the end of last season, where the Hornets posted a total of -4.7 points on offense and -2.9 points on defense -7.6 points overall compared to the average NBA team achieved, which is the third worst value in the league.

While the Hornets finished ahead of the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons in the metric last season, projections for the new season also put the Hornets ahead of San Antonio, Brooklyn, Utah, Toronto and Portland.

All four teams directly ahead of Charlotte in the predictions (Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando and New York) at least reached the Eastern Conference play-in games last season, meaning the Hornets are poised for such success could be involved. The Knicks even won a playoff series as a two-seed last season, which is solid company for the new-look Hornets under first-year coach Charles Lee.

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