Not really — but hear me out.
First, LaMelo and Ant are going to be trouble. LaMelo is one of those super rare high-usage guys whose assist-to-usage ratio is over 1. He is setting up teammates more often than finishing the play. And doing that with a 34.1 usage rate is enormous.
And sorry to get mathy — but the ratio of two percentages means that it doesn't net against itself. It isn't that he passes more than he scores. It is simply that the man is a pure distributor.
Now let's look at Ant's A/U… 0.55. The man finishes plays. And he just got handed someone who statistically will hand him the ball on a silver platter.
The reason this was a Naz trade is because he is a genuine connector. He doesn't create, he is more of the guy who keeps the ball moving, makes the extra pass more often than not, clears the lane, does the stuff that greases an offense.
That obviously would be crucial for a LaMelo/Ant collab — so why did they dish him? Because it doesn't matter (according to the analytics). They got rid of a piece that would benefit them but LaMelo and Ant (on paper) should solve the usage collision well enough that it's worth dishing Naz for it.
Now let's look at the Hornets. Naz will fit in perfectly to their offense. He will be able to be the grease for the Brandon/Kon connection. He is about a wash on defense and the Hornets have NO rim deterrence right now, but they do have 5 future first round picks and a cap that would theoretically zero out by the 29-30 season. They shed a ton of usage to spread to Kon and BMill. We should see the Hornets go after a big name rim deterrent this season OR that will be who they're eyeing in the first round next year.
And yeah, I've seen the jokes about how the Hornets' 2033 picks have a bedtime right now. It is funny. It's also real that some of these young kids are BALLING. I saw one U-12 kid hit ten threes in a game.
So maybe they all know something we truly don't? Maybe Naz and some unknown 11-year-old are really the future of the franchise.
Or maybe we are going to see the wildest show on hardwood come out of Minnesota this winter.
—Nate