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Longest NBA playoff droughts: Hornets fail to snap record with loss to Magic
April 18, 2026
Source: Yahoo Sports · Read on source site
Longest NBA playoff droughts: Hornets fail to snap record with loss to Magic originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Contention has evaded the Charlotte Hornets since the days of Kemba Walker.
Despite having some solid talent roll through North Carolina, from LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel to Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier, the Hornets have struggled to remain in playoff contention — until, all of a sudden, they've surged in the second half of the 2025-26 season.
Entering Friday's Play-In Tournament game against the Orlando Magic, all the Hornets needed was one win to break the longest playoff cold spell in the NBA. However, it wasn't meant to be this year.
Here's a look at the NBA's longest playoff drought and the last time the Hornets made the bracket.
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Longest NBA playoff droughts
Because Play-In Tournament berths are not considered a playoff appearance, the Hornets still have the longest playoff drought in the NBA. Charlotte hasn't made the playoffs in any of the last 10 seasons, as the loss to the Magi make it a full decade's worth of non-playoff seasons.
The next team on that list is the Washington Wizards, whose playoff drought is only at at five seasons. The last time the Wizards made the playoffs was in 2021, when a Bradley Beal-Russell Westbrook-led squad was taken down by the 76ers in the first round.
The Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls both last made the playoffs in 2022, while the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings last made it in 2023.
| Rank | Team | Last Playoff Appearance | Drought (Seasons) |
| 1 | Charlotte Hornets | 2016 | 10 |
| 2 | Washington Wizards | 2021 | 5 |
| T-3 | Utah Jazz | 2022 | 4 |
| T-3 | Chicago Bulls | 2022 | 4 |
| T-5 | Brooklyn Nets | 2023 | 3 |
| T-5 | Sacramento Kings | 2023 | 3 |
SN AWARDS:Victor Wembanyama Player of the Year | Joe Mazzulla Coach of the Year
When was the last time the Hornets made the playoffs?
The last time the Hornets made the playoffs was in the 2015-16 season, when Kemba Walker's 20.9 points per game guided the team to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference at 48-34.
Charlotte, which was also led by Al Jefferson, Nicholas Batum, Jeremy Lin and Cody Zeller, was matched up against the third-seeded Miami Heat in Round 1, but the Hornets lost in Game 7 when Goran Dragic put up 25 points in a blowout Heat win.