Examining the Hornets’ strengths is worthwhile as the NBA schedule progresses from trade season to the all-star break, the home stretch, and ultimately the playoffs. Recently, this was demonstrated in a Bill Simmons Podcast episode.
The media tycoon and leader of the Ringer revived his NBA trade value list, a regular piece or podcast. In essence, it’s a ranking of every player in the league determined by their trade value.
Thus, every aspect is taken into account, such as skill, age, contract, upside, and more. Basically, which team would refuse an offer from one team to sign a player for the other straight up? That is the rankings’ main concept.
Simmons included honorable mentions in addition to the top 75 players on his list this year. He included LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, two players for the Charlotte Hornets.
LaMelo Ball ranked #54
Ball was in a category known as “If you tell Woj, I’ll deny it to the death… but I’m listening,” and his trade value was #54, placing him lower on the ranking. LaMelo finished slightly behind players like Kyrie Irving (#53), Scottie Barnes (#52), and Trae Young (#51), and just ahead of Pascal Siakam (#55) and Kristaps Porzingis (#56).
Ball, who has been an excellent offensive player but has battled to stay healthy and hasn’t helped the team win, seems to be ranked fairly fairly. Even the tier’s name seems appropriate. Though Miller’s rise suggests the Hornets are developing around Ball, the front office would undoubtedly have to take Miller into consideration if a team approached with a Godfather offer for Ball.
Brandon Miller ranked #29
Regarding Miller, he ranked #29 in the category “Too young, too cheap, too good…” Please don’t call us anymore. Alperen Sengun (#28), Franz Wagner (#30), and Mikal Bridges (#31) were among the players in Miller’s tier.
Although there is room for debate regarding the ranking, this is still a great performance for the youngster and demonstrates his progress over the past few months. It’s amazing to consider that a player the Hornets selected only eight months ago is regarded as one of the top 30 players in the league in terms of trade value.
It’s more proof that Charlotte made a huge splash with their draft pick and added a real building component that has completely altered the course of the team’s rebuild. They needed something to go right, and they had it all in Brandon Miller. For context, Scoot Henderson, the player the Hornets passed on and the #3 overall pick in the 2023 draft, made it to the “Toughest Omissions” category of the rankings, just outside the top 75.
