The Hornets may have gone 0-3 over the past week, but for the first time in over a month, we have a change within the top three. 

Week 20

1) Ryan Anderson, PF – 67 GP, 31.1 MPG, 56.0 TS%, 16.2% DRR, 6.9% TOR, .136 WS/48, 18.9 PER; Last Week: 1

Pretty rough shooting week for Anderson, especially from beyond the arc. He amassed just 41 points on 47 shot attempts, making just 4 out of his 20 three-pointers. He averaged 30 minutes per game in the three contests with 5.3 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a turnover per game in that time. Things won’t get any easier for Anderson soon, as the Hornets’ next two opponents (Boston and Memphis) are among the league’s top 8 teams in three-point percentage allowed.

2) Anthony Davis, PF – 53 GP, 28.1 MPG, 55.3 TS%, 23.1% DRR, 10.1% TOR, 0.146 WS/48, 21.4 PER; Last Week: 3

While this Hornets team continues to lose games, Anthony Davis continues to improve, which many view as the best case scenario for the team’s long-term outlook. He is now among the league’s top 20 players in PER and trails just Andre Drummond (22.4 PER) among rookies. Davis put together another fine week, averaging 16.3 points on 11 shots in addition to 7.7 rebounds in 27 minutes per game. If he continues to improve at the pace that he has over the past month, taking the Rookie of the Year award away from Damian Lillard may still be possible.

3) Greivis Vasquez, PG – 68 GP, 34.6 MPG, 50.1 TS%, 13.6% DRR, 34.9% AR,  12.1% TOR, .070 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 2

Over Vasquez’s past week, he dished out 23 assists, but committed 13 turnovers as well.The team did rely on him pretty heavily for scoring over this span as well (18.7 points on 18 field goal attempts per game), which makes those turnovers not look quite as egregious.  Greivis has been decent but not great in March, and as a result, the continuously improving Davis jumped him in the rankings for the first time since week 10.

4) Robin Lopez, C – 68 GP, 25.8 MPG, 57.5 TS%, 11.6% ORR, 10.4% TOR, .128 WS/48, 18.9 PER; Last Week: 4

Lopez had a bit of a below average week overall, but it was by no means a bad one. He turned in one superb performance (four turnovers aside) against Minnesota, finishing with 20 points on 8-14 shooting and also grabbed 11 rebounds, finally getting the best of Pekovic. His other two games, however, were far from impressive; in them, he totaled just 10 points on 14 shots and a pathetic 4 rebounds in 48 minutes. If someone could teach Lopez how to take better advantage of his seven foot frame and show him how to consistently rebound over the offseason, he could be a legitimate starting center for a playoff team. Until then, though, he simply cannot be seen as such.

5) Eric Gordon, SG – 29 GP, 29.5 MPG, 52.4 TS%, 14.3% AR, 12.3% TOR, .034 WS/48, 15.2 PER; Last Week: 5

Before sitting out on Monday night for his usual back-to-back reasons, Gordon was basically the same Gordon we have been confused by all season. In Washington, he scored 20 points on 17 shots with no assists and three turnovers. In Minnesota, he scored 7 points on 3-6 shooting to go along with 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and no turnovers in 26 minutes. At this point, I’d settle to see something in between with relative consistency by the end of the season. What about 15 points on 11 shots with 3 or 4 assists, 1 steal, and less than 2 turnovers per game, Eric? Is that really too much to ask given your salary?

6) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF – 62 GP, 27.1 MPG, 51.4 TS%, 26.0% DRR, 13.1% AR, 15.9% TOR, .066 WS/48, 13.4 PER; Last Week: 6

After averaging 30 minutes in the first two games of the week, Aminu played just 13 minutes against Golden State on Monday night, while Darius Miller received the rest of the playing time at his position. With the Hornets struggling to score after the first quarter, Monty opted for the better-shooting Miller to try and help the offense (Aminu finished 0-4 in the game). He played decently in the prior two games, scoring 13 points on 8 attempts to go along with 12 rebounds, 4 steals, a block, and 2 turnovers.

7) Jason Smith, PF – 51 GP, 17.2 MPG, 54.4 TS%, 16.6% DRR, 11.6% TOR, .093 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 7

*Out for the rest of the season after surgery on his torn labrum*

8) Brian Roberts, PG – 64 GP, 14.5 MPG, 49.4 TS%, 24.5 % AR, 8.3% TOR, .065 WS/48, 14.6 PER; Last Week: 8

We saw three different  versions of Brian Roberts in the Hornets’ three games this week – an ineffective one at Washington, an impressive one at Minnesota, and a catastrophe vs. Golden State. Overall, he finished with 11 points on 15 shots with 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 4 turnovers. Not Brian’s best week, to say the least. T-Wolves game Roberts (5 points on 3 shots with 4 assists and 2 steals in 9 minutes) could be a serviceable backup guard for most teams, whereas Warriors game Roberts (0-5, 3 turnovers) wouldn’t even cut it for a D-League team.

9) Roger Mason Jr., SG – 62 GP, 18.2 MPG, 57.4 TS%, 12.3 % DRR, 15.5% AR, 11.4% TOR, .056 WS/48, 10.2 PER; Last Week: 9

Rough week for Mason, scoring just 7 points on 3-16 shooting and making only one of his six attempts from beyond the arc. With the latter being his lone true asset, hopefully he can turn things around soon.

10) Lance Thomas, SF – 55 GP, 11.5 MPG, 55.5 TS%, 8.2% ORR, 9.0% TOR, .081 WS/48, 9.8 PER; Last Week: 10

Thomas played 16 minutes in Washington last Friday night, but since then has only played the final minute of Monday night’s game. He didn’t hurt the Hornets on Friday, but he didn’t really help them, either. The addition of Amundson combined with Monty’s desire to give Miller more playing time has directly impacted Thomas’ minutes over the past couple of games, and may continue moving forward.

11) Austin Rivers, SG – 61 GP, 23.2 MPG,  43.1 TS%, 19.9% AR, 11.6% TOR, -0.040 WS/48, 6.0 PER; Last Week: 11

*Out for the rest of the season after surgery on his broken hand*

12) Xavier Henry, SG – 40 GP, 11.6 MPG, 48.9 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 11.4% TOR, .015 WS/48, 8.5 PER; Last Week: 12

Henry has now been held out of every game over the past two weeks, falling out of the rotation for players like Terrel Harris and Darius Miller.

13) Darius Miller, SF – 38 GP, 13.3 MPG, 50.3 TS%, 27.9% AR, 12.7% TOR, .033 WS/48, 6.2 PER; Last Week: 13

Miller played in just one game over the last week, receiving 35 minutes against Golden State on Monday night. Apart from his two turnovers, he played a decent game, scoring 4 points on 5 shots with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block.

NR) Lou Amundson, PF; Terrel Harris, SG

Both of these players should enter the rankings next week if the minutes keep coming.

All season long, these player power rankings will be presented alongside various “advanced stats” in order to more accurately evaluate each Hornets player’s impact (click here for a glossary of the statistic abbreviations). In addition, we also have created a chart with the goal of standardizing advanced stat categories to distinguish the good numbers from the bad ones. Hopefully, these tools give each of you the means to comprehend the advanced statistical metrics used in these rankings as well as other columns throughout Hornets247.com.

For historical power rankings, click here.

All stats were obtained from ESPN.com except for WS/48 stats, which are a product of Basketball-Reference.com.