LaMelo Ball Trade Makes Life Way More Difficult for Hornets' First-Round Pick

The Charlotte Hornets just did the unthinkable. LaMelo Ball has been traded for what amounts to Naz Reid and a first-round pick in 2033. They also nabbed some second-round picks (largely worthless) and a few pick swaps (not terribly helpful, either).

In so many ways, this hurts the team. Obviously, from a production standpoint, the team will be much worse off. Look at the numbers. When Ball is on the floor, this is an elite offense. When he sits, it's not good. That's true of all the players he plays opposite. They're good when he's on the floor, and they struggle when he's not.

From a marketing standpoint, no Hornet is on the level of Ball, a true NBA superstar with a large fandom on his own. The Hornets are now significantly less relevant than they were mere days ago.

It makes no sense, either, but I've already covered why. Now that it's alarmingly official, there's another layer to the misfortune. First-round draft pick Christian Anderson is going to suffer greatly because of this trade.

He was drafted to be a backup guard with an elite mentor, but now, he's on his own. Barring the Coby White re-signing, which is incredibly imperative now, Anderson is now the starting point guard. Talk about an unearned promotion.

That may be asking a lot of him in general. Anderson is a good guard, but is he good enough to lead the blistering offense of a potential playoff team? That's what Ball did, and it's now what Anderson must do. It is, to say the least, an unenviable task for a rookie non-lottery pick.

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) reacts after a basket against the New York Knicks | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

But there's an added layer to this. Ask Terry Rozier what it was like replacing Kemba Walker.

And while Ball is not Walker, he was on that sort of trajectory, and he was arguably more talented than Walker. So Anderson is the immediate successor for Ball, again, barring White's potential return, and it's not fair to him, but he will be compared.

He averaged 7.4 assists last season, so obviously, he can playmake. But is he going to be as gifted a passer and creator as Ball? That seems almost impossible, so he's going to pale in comparison.

The Hornets set themselves back with this move, but they've also just shortchanged their first-round pick. They also shortchanged Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller, but that's perhaps a story for another day.

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