The Hornets Window is Open... Where Does It Lead?

Two years removed from historical futility and a different team name, the 2014-2015 season begins with a far different outlook. The Hornets boast a returning All-NBA player (Al Jefferson, 3rd team), an infusion of All-Star caliber talent (Lance Stephenson), young draft picks (Vonleh, Hairston, Zeller, MKG, Walker, Biyombo, Henderson) with varying degrees of upside, and a few plausibly useful veterans (Gary Neal, Brian Roberts, Marvin Williams, Jannero Pargo). It's undoubtedly the best team this Charlotte franchise has ever had, and the talent has caught some mainstream attention. So, if you wanted to assume a best case scenario, what would that mean for the Hornets?

Over the last 15 NBA seasons, here's how many opportunities there were to achieve what most fans would call success.

15 championships, 15 losing Finals berths, 30 losing conference finals berths (60 total spots)

Now, since the best players in the game tend to dominate the sport, here's that list without the Spurs, Lakers, and Heat.

3 championships, 10 losing Finals berths, 26 losing conference finals berths (39 total spots)

Looking back at the last 15 years, the rules of the NBA have held pretty firm: every championship team has at least one All-NBA player, 2nd team or better. When your team doesn't have Shaq/Duncan/Kobe/Lebron near their prime, making it to the top is pretty tough. So how far did the other 27 teams get?

CHAMPIONS: '04 Pistons, '08 Celtics, '11 Mavericks

The Celtics added a former 1st Team and 2nd Team All-NBA player in the previous offseason, so that's not the Hornets. Both the Mavericks and Pistons had one 2nd team All-NBA guy (Dirk, Ben Wallace) surrounded by some solid veteran players. That's probably not the Hornets this year or next year, barring a substantial trade or two and a very durable Al Jefferson.

NBA FINALS: '00 Pacers, '01 76ers, '02-'03 Nets, '05 Pistons, '06 Mavericks, '07 Cavaliers, '09 Magic, '10 Celtics, '12 Thunder

The Cavaliers and Thunder possess two obvious differences from this year's Hornets. The 76ers, Magic, and Nets surrounded a singular talent with a very well-matched roster, which could be a best (read: BEST) case scenario for Al Jefferson in the low post. The Pistons and Mavericks were, as before, largely veteran teams.

CONFERENCE FINALS: Blazers, Bucks, Bulls, Cavaliers, Celtics, Grizzlies, Jazz, Kings, Knicks, Magic, Mavericks, Nuggets, Pacers, Pistons, Suns, Thunder, Timberwolves

17 different franchises have reached the conference finals in the last 15 years, and that's excluding the Spurs, Lakers, and Heat. These teams include teams growing into title form, multi-year runs in contention, and borderline NCAA tourney-style surprises. The sheer volume and variety of teams here suggest this is a reasonable target given a 3-4 year window.

In summary, despite the quality and potential of the current Hornets roster, the rarefied air of the NBA Finals is just that - rare. How should Hornets fans feel about the team's prospects with this nucleus, however long it stays together? In short... a title seems extremely unlikely, a Finals berth seems very unlikely, and the conference finals seems a reasonable possibility, but maybe not an expectation.

If all that seems a little too morose, there's always this: can Hornets fans at least expect to get to the 2nd round? Yes. In the last 15 seasons, only one franchise failed to win a single playoff series... the Bobcats. And they're gone.