The NBA regular season is entering its second week. After the first week of games, some teams are scrambling to find answers, while others are jumping for joy at how well things have gone. The Miami Heat are in the former camp, and the Memphis Grizzlies are in the latter.

The Charlotte Hornets are somewhere in the confusing middle. They're 2-1, and if you'd told me weeks ago that the Hornets would come out of a first-week run against the Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, and Miami Heat above .500, I would have been thrilled.

How they got to this point bears exploring, though. It's not as simple as the winning record might suggest. Because despite that 2-1 record, the Hornets have the fourth-worst point differential in the Eastern Conference. They're sixth-worst in the entire NBA.

That is a little skewed, obviously, by a historic blowout at the hands of the Hawks. Losing by almost 50 will do that, especially in a tiny sample size. But the inverse is also true. It's not being skewed by their two wins because they've only narrowly escaped both times.

The Nets are not good, obviously. They're one of the teams with a worse point differential, and they're winless. Beating them by a few points isn't really that impressive. Now, in time, beating the Heat could end up being impressive.

But for now, the Giannis Antetokounmpo era is off to a horrible start. They're also winless, and they have the worst point differential in the East. As much as it hurts to admit, beating that team is not really a good win.

Plus, the how matters, too. How they played in each game matters, and so far, it's been ugly, especially from Brandon Miller. Through three games, here is his stat line:

• 19.3 points
• 4.3 rebounds
• 1.7 assists
• 29.7% shooting
• 20% three-point shooting
• -7.8 net rating
• 4.6 PIE
• 41.1% true shooting

Those are concerningly bad, and they are a microcosm of where the Hornets are as a whole. They haven't been quite this bad, but they have the worst offensive rating in the NBA. They're 18th in defensive rating. They have the fifth-worst true shooting mark in the sport.

All of this, of course, has the injury caveat. This team has been without Coby White, Kon Knueppel, and Grant Williams. Those are important, good players. But since they're seemingly just out indefinitely, this squad is what we're working with.

And this squad, despite the winning record, is not very good.