Listen to how happy the Hornets commentators are. Just listen to them. Hearing that broadcast, one would have no way of knowing that the Hornets are the most booty-licious (the bad kind of booty, not the good kind of booty) team in the league, with no hope, no future, just a bunch of crying Jordan memes and a seriously overpaid Terry Rozier. But without all the context of their offseason, and looking only at this game, one could be easily fooled into thinking that they were a rising team with an exciting young core. Which they are definitely not.
Or are they?
Because what just happened in this game is that P.J. Washington, a rookie who had never before stepped on an official NBA court during an official NBA regular-season game, scored 27 points and hit a whole bunch of threes while the home crowd went crazy. With this 1-game sample size, you can definitively say that he’s part of Charlotte’s core, and given that he’s a rookie, it’s a YOUNG CORE.
Not to mention Devonte’ Graham, who spent most of last season missing shots while pulling stray bits of detritus out of his hair. We’re not even going to mention him. He gets his own highlight video later, but you can add him to the YOUNG CORE as well.
But back to Washington. I have no idea, literally none, if shooting and making this many three pointers is something we can expect regularly from him. Did he do this in college? He must’ve at least flashed some shooting ability, because seven triples in an NBA debut is pretty much unheard of. Maybe literally unheard of. Granted, this is the “new” NBA, where everyone and their dog gets to shoot tons of triples without remorse, but still. Hornets fans, I permit you to get slightly excited about this game. Just don’t think about Rozier’s contract.