CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It’s been two years since Kemba Walker first experienced the NBA playoffs, but the Charlotte Hornets point guard says the feeling is all too familiar as he prepares for his second series.

“It doesn’t feel much different,” Walker said. “Of course we’re a different team and stuff like that, but it’s been a while -- what, two years since we’ve been? Same feeling for me.”

Same opponent, too. The Miami Heat, in the final playoff run of the "Big Three" era, bested the then-Bobcats in four games two seasons ago en route to a fourth straight NBA Finals. Charlotte, the NBA’s 24th-ranked offense at the time, averaged just 92 points a game in the only playoff sweep that year.

Much has changed since. LeBron James is gone. Chris Bosh, for the time being, is as well. The Bobcats' brand and its tangerine, toothy cat have been dispatched to the land of ironic festival wear.

The Hornets and the Heat are now equals, having finished with identical records (48-34), split the regular-season series and been given the slimmest odds of any first-round series by ESPN’s Basketball Player Index.

Kemba Walker says he feels like a different player than the one who faced the Heat in the playoffs in 2014. Raj Mehta/USA TODAY Sports

Walker, meanwhile, has long been the Charlotte player to whom your eyes are drawn on the court. Now he not only has the sort of statistical profile to fit his star-level charisma, but he very well also could be the most dynamic player in a series that features superstar luminaries like Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Amar'e Stoudemire.

The 25-year-old sees a difference there.

“No question I feel like a different player,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of attention on me, of course. There was attention on me last time as well; they blitzed me a lot in the last series, last time we played those guys. We’ll see what they do this time.”

It will be a tougher decision this time around. Unlike in 2014, when it was a bottom-five team in 3-point attempts starting five sub-.350 shooters from behind the arc, Charlotte has very much learned to love the long ball. Only three NBA teams fired up more 3-balls on average this season than the Hornets, who have pieced together a top-10 offense for the first time in coach Steve Clifford’s three seasons with revitalized role players for its more stretchy, versatile approach.

The Hornets’ most-used lineup of Walker (career-high 37.1 percent from 3-point range this season), Courtney Lee (39.2 percent since a deadline trade to Charlotte), Nicolas Batum (34.8), Marvin Williams (career-high 40.2) around big man Cody Zeller has the sixth-best net rating of any five-man unit in the NBA this season with 300 minutes played or more.

The extra space has allowed Walker to jitterbug in space like never before. In addition to an improved long ball -- including a 44.4 percent success rate from the right corner, up from 11.1 last season, and 38.1 percent on 139 shots at the top of the key, according to NBA.com/Stats -- the fifth-year former UConn standout is also shooting a career-best 59.8 percent from inside three feet, per Basketball-Reference. Overall, his career-high 20.9 player efficiency rating ranks seventh among point guards, just below Isaiah Thomas and ahead of Kyrie Irving and John Wall.

“I’d say the biggest part is the under. Last year, as good as he was, [defenders] would always go under his pick-and-rolls," Clifford said. "So, basically when they go under, they’re saying go ahead and shoot a 3-point shot off the dribble. And when they do it now, he’s drilling it, with no hesitation. What it does is -- especially whose pick-and-roll game is as good as him; he’s so quick and good with the ball -- he’s constantly now at the big, because they’re going over the top, and he gets separation and it opens up his whole game.

“And the other part of it, too, is he’s playing with more space on the floor. There’s more shooting with him.”

Clifford also said you can find Walker before every game beginning his warmup with assistant coach Steve Hetzel at the rim, like Steve Nash used to.

“They have their little thing that they do -- different flip shots and finishing shots,” Clifford said. “It’s really helped him a lot.”

The improvement wasn’t enough for an All-Star nod (even though Walker’s teammates still readily cape for him). In fact, the Hornets are the only team this postseason without a single player who’s played in an All-Star Game.

“Nobody cares, man, honestly,” Walker said.

Fair enough.

But in the playoffs, where star power is often the almighty cudgel, being the best player in this series may make all of the difference.