Charlotte Hornets: 2018-19 NBA season preview

Storyline 3: Can the Hornets make the playoffs this year?

The Eastern Conference saw a small shift in power this offseason. LeBron James left for brighter stars and the Toronto Raptors landed one of the best players in the league. The Boston Celtics are healthy once again and are looking to capitalize on their deep postseason run last year. The Process is still working and the Philadelphia 76ers expect to go deeper into the playoffs this year.

The Washington Wizards should be playoff contenders if John Wall stays healthy and the Cleveland Cavaliers could go from playoff lock to missing the postseason, even with Kevin Love still around. The Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers are young, exciting playoff contenders to watch.

That leaves a lot of teams with a lot of questions competing for one or two playoff spots. The Miami Heat didn’t move the needle at this offseason, while teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year, like the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, did. The East has gotten better overall the last couple of seasons and it could be tougher than past years for the Hornets to make the playoffs.