The Charlotte Hornets are taking some big risks this upcoming season. They traded LaMelo Ball. As a matter of fact, they traded 40% of the starting lineup that recorded the best net rating in the NBA last year.
That is a huge risk. It’s a mini version of blowing it up that certainly carries immense risk. The biggest risk isn’t that, though. It is, however, related directly to the loss of Ball. The Hornets have no viable backup point guard.
Christian Anderson Jr. was supposed to be the backup to the backup, who was Coby White. Now, both have been pushed up on the depth chart, but Anderson looks like he needs more time in the G League.
He does not look ready to run an NBA offense as the second unit’s facilitator. That’s totally fine; he’s a rookie. It is, however, damaging to a team that doesn’t really have a good backup for when White has to sit on the bench.
The Hornets are gambling that they can survive the non-White minutes with a plethora of options. Anderson, until the G League season opens or if he shows he can stick in the rotation, will be central, but Sion James and Tre Mann will unfortunately factor in.
James had some experience at point guard in his rookie season, but it was not a good fit for him. The Hornets gave him more opportunities to try it during Summer League. It’s still not a good fit, but as we’ve established, they don’t have a lot of alternatives.
Mann is not a facilitator (career 5.4 assists per 100 possessions). He’s also just not a very good player at this point. After showing flashes, he was borderline unplayable last year, and we can’t expect that to change.
The gamble is likely to blow up in Charlotte’s faces. They have plenty of guards: Mann, James, White, Anderson, Kon Knueppel, Grayson Allen, and Royce O’Neale. But outside of the ones mentioned above, there are no ballhandlers or facilitators.
Charlotte is gambling that there is enough creation on the roster to survive the loss of Ball and survive the minutes while White sits. That’s not a smart bet, though, because the Hornets of all teams should know better.
They struggled mightily in the non-Ball minutes last year, so much so that they had to trade Collin Sexton for White to fix the problem. Now, they don’t have Sexton, so the point guard rotation is arguably worse.
As rough as Sexton was as a backup, the duo of Ball and Sexton was probably better than White and Anderson/James/Mann. In fact, it is almost assuredly significantly better, and the Hornets could be in trouble because of it.
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