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The 2021-22 Charlotte Hornets Are On Route To Set An Insane All-Time Record In The NBA
After years and years of mediocrity, if even that, the Charlotte Hornets have been on cloud nine ever since they drafted LaMelo Ball.
Ball entered the league with a lot of doubts hanging over him as the #3 overall pick, but he hasn’t been messing around and has been silencing all his doubters ever since.
The Charlotte Hornets aren’t contending anytime soon, but they can look forward to their future as they got a promising future with players like Ball, Bridges and Rozier. Their young core paired with some more experienced talent in Gordon Hayward and Kelly Oubre Jr. also helped the team to become one of the most balanced scoring threats in the league.
You see, Bridges leads the team in scoring with 19.5 points per game, just edging out Ball, who’s averaging 19.3 points per game this season, for the team lead. But it doesn’t stop there. Rozier is third with 17.5 points per game and Hayward fourth with 17.2 points per game. Kelly Oubre Jr. rounds of the top 5 scorers of the team with his 16.6 points per game, making him the highest scoring 5th option in NBA history, according to information collected by Redditor BetweenTheBuzzAndMe:
The closest I’ve been able to find are:
1957-58 Celtics (five players over 16.5! Sharman, Cousy, Heinsohn, Russell, Ramsey), along with a bunch of other Celtics teams from that era that perennially had several players averaging right around 15. Watch out Ramsey, the T$unami Papi is coming for your crown.
1959-60 Celtics actually had 4 players over 18, possibly making Bill Russell (18.2ppg) one of (if not the) highest scoring 4th option ever. Pace was otherworldly back then, and the Celtics averaged nearly 25-30 more possessions per game than any modern NBA team.
2019-20 Raptors (five players over 15.4- Siakam, Lowry, VanVleet, Powell, Ibaka)
1973-74 Buffalo Braves (five players over 15.2- McAdoo, McMillian, DiGregorio, Heard, Smith)
In the brief time that the 2018-19 Philly 76ers had Embiid, Simmons, Redick, Butler, and Harris, Ben Simmons’ 16.9ppg for the season (16.8 when all five were on the roster together) actually becomes the record. However, this roster only existed for 28 games, and Embiid, the leading scorer, missed over half of them and the five man unit only played a total of 10 regular season games together if I can count correctly. But definitely an honorable mention.
