[8] At midseason, the team traded center Elden Campbell to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for point guard Kenny Anderson, who had previously played for the Hornets back in Charlotte during the second half of the 1995–96 season.
[9][10] The Hornets won their final five games finishing third in the Central Division with a decent 47–35 record,[11] and qualified for the playoffs as the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
[16] A six-game defeat to Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference First Round knocked New Orleans out of the playoffs.
[17][18][19] Following the season, head coach Paul Silas was fired,[20][21] and Anderson signed as a free agent with the Indiana Pacers.
[22] For the season, the team replaced the city name "Charlotte" with "New Orleans" on their primary logo of a hornet bouncing a basketball,[23] and got new uniforms, adding yellow to their color scheme of teal.