NBA Draft 2024: Top 3 player options for Charlotte Hornets to pick at No. 6

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Charlotte Hornets have another lottery pick. That's what having a 21-61 record will get you, but even for a franchise that has struggled as badly as the Hornets have in the past decade, this past season was the team's worst mark since they were still known as the Bobcats.

The lottery didn't do the Hornets any favors, as even with the league's third-worst record, the cruel ping pong balls of fate allowed the Hawks, Rockets, and Spurs to leapfrog them in the draft order. This leaves Charlotte picking sixth, but it's not as bad as it seems. Unlike last year, when Victor Wembanyama towered both literally and figuratively over the entire draft, this year's prospect pool doesn't feature a surefire All-Star, let alone an actual alien, at the top.

This could work to Charlotte's advantage, as many of the players the Hornets might look to target could still be available at 6. Most mock drafts right now have French players Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher going in the top two, but Charlotte has never drafted an international player with its first pick before, so that's probably just fine with new president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson. The Hornets have traditionally opted to take American college players, mostly from blue-blooded schools, and whether that has worked out for them in the past or not (hint: it hasn't), those are the kinds of players that will be there at the sixth pick.

The NBA draft combine just recently concluded, and the draft itself is just over a month away. Let's take a look at the top three options for the Hornets when they're on the clock.