How Does Anthony Black Fit With the Hornets?

We take a look at the fit between Anthony Black and the Charlotte Hornets.

Anthony Black had a very solid freshman season at Arkansas. He was the steadying force on a team that dealt with injuries to important pieces and inconsistent play on the court. Fellow guard, Nick Smith Jr, was hampered by injuries all season and Trevon Brazile suffered a season-ending injury after a good start to the campaign. We never really got to see what Anthony Black could have done with the full roster around him for the entire season, but he showed everything he needed to in order to cement himself in the conversation for a lottery pick.

His size and length as a primary ball-handler are what immediately stand out about Black. At 6-7 and 185 pounds, he has the frame to play as a lead guard, as well as handle some off-the-ball reps. He does need the ball in his hands constantly to be effective and operate a smooth offense, and his work on the defensive end of the court could have NBA teams extremely excited. Plus, factor in the fact that he will only be 19 years old on draft night and you could really see why the league is so intrigued.

The Hornets landing at the second slot in this year's draft after the NBA Draft Lottery probably indicates that Charlotte would either need to trade down from two or use some of their assets to trade back into the lottery to select the guard from Arkansas.

Anthony Black - Guard, Arkansas

12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.0 turnovers, 2.1 steals, 0.6 blocks

45.3% field goal, 30.1% three-point (2.6 attempts), 70.5% free throw

Everything in these strengths and weakness sections will be looked at through a Hornets-specific lens.

Strengths:

Defensive Outlook

The aspect of Anthony Black's game that excites me the most is his defensive potential. He completed his freshman season in the SEC with 3.4 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. Those are both tremendous numbers for a guard and even better when you consider that he doesn't rely on elite athleticism to make plays on defense. When a driver gets a step on him, he's able to use his length to recover and affect the shot at the rim.

Black is incredibly smart on the defensive end of the floor and can pick out a passing lane a few seconds before the pass happens to intercept it. He has some of the quickest hands I've seen in this class and is constantly poking the ball loose on drives and igniting fast breaks for his team. He is tenacious on the ball and harasses dribblers the full length of the court. Cody Martin is often the guy the Hornets use to bother the best perimeter player on the opposing team, and Black has flashed the ability to do the same. Given the uncertainty around Martin's health going into the season, on-ball pressure is definitely a skill the Hornets need.

To put it simply, Anthony Black is a pest on defense and often frustrates whoever he is going up against. He gives ball handlers very little room to operate freely and is making them uncomfortable at every turn. The idea of a three-guard lineup with Terry Rozier, LaMelo Ball, and Black could really work for Charlotte as Black's length and strength should allow him to guard bigger wings at the NBA level. He shows a tremendous ability to fight through screens and stick with his man. Even if he does lose a step or two in the PNR, he doesn't give up on the play and uses his length to get back in the play and make an impact. He shows tremendous heart on the defensive end of the floor and that is something this team needs, not to mention it should win over head coach Steve Clifford. I love the way he can fit with this current roster defensively and all of his tools should translate to defensive success in the league sooner rather than later.

Passing / Play-making

Anthony Black is one of the best and most creative passers in this class. He can read defenses at a high level and make split-second decisions to find open looks for teammates. I think it's pretty safe to say that he will be popular among his teammates for his ability to get them good shots and increase their scoring efficiency. Black can not only make accurate and timely passes based on the sets that are being run, but he is excellent when things break down during a possession and he can show off his basketball IQ and creativity.

Standing at 6-7, Black has the size to see over defenses and help him make the correct reads on offense. As the NBA continues to size up at every position, having two jumbo playmakers between him and LaMelo Ball would make the Hornets' offense so difficult to defend. The thing that excites me the most about the offensive fit between these two is that Anthony Black has proven he can keep the ball moving and make the right decisions without having the ball in his hands constantly. 

He had a 20.9 usage percentage in college, but I think he could really lower that percentage in the NBA and still display the skills and talents that make him so exciting. Arkansas absolutely needed Black to set up and initiate the offense as the primary, but the Hornets would not be asking him to do that each possession. There are countless examples on film of Anthony receiving a kick out pass from a teammate and immediately making the skip pass to an open teammate or firing the ball back into the paint to an open cutter. He has extremely quick processing speed and can put passes in the perfect spots. He has shown that he doesn't need to initiate the offense each play in order to make stellar passes and keep the ball moving. I feel as though the Hornets had too many possessions the past few seasons where LaMelo would drive and kick out to a teammate on the perimeter and if the shot wasn't there, it would lead to over-dribbling and a bad shot at the end of the shot clock. The secondary creation has not always been there for this team, but Anthony Black could really be that piece to keep the ball moving in those situations and boost the offensive efficiency to a point where Charlotte could compete with the best teams in the NBA.

Given the Hornets' current roster, they are a young and athletic team that loves to get out and run in transition. LaMelo Ball is one of the most gifted passers in transition in the game right now, and Anthony Black has many of those same characteristics on the open floor. You can never have too many good passers on the move to help generate easy buckets for your team, especially when you consider how much more difficult it becomes to defend an offense in transition that has two guys who are that creative and willing to pass. He demonstrates a good understanding of how to mix speeds and angles to hit teammates in stride and delivers his passes just out of the reach of defenders. Mark Williams and Nick Richards are pretty mobile bigs who can keep up in transition, and Black is another guy who can reward them for running the floor with creative passes for easy baskets.

Being able to pass from a standstill is one thing, but having the ability to make quick decisions on the move makes things so difficult for a defense. Black has this ability to make beautiful one-handed passes out of a live dribble to hit cutters or open shooters on the perimeter. Having LaMelo break down a defense and kick the ball out to an open Anthony Black who subsequently beats the closeout with a dribble or two into the paint and flips a one-handed lob up to Mark Williams is something Hornets fans should be dreaming about. Having that secondary creator is so important in today's game.

Another aspect of Black's passing ability that could help the Hornets is his creation in pick and rolls. He can manipulate the defense by varying his speeds and mixing together a string of dribble moves to keep the defense guessing. He can make the pocket pass to a diving roller, the one-handed lob pass, and the live dribble kick-out pass to shooters. The Hornets have some tremendous catch-and-shoot threats on this team, and having Black facilitate and find the open pockets to get the ball to them would be great for this team. LaMelo handles much of this responsibility currently, but it would be exciting to open up some reps for him to shoot off the catch as he shot over 40% on these attempts this past season. Freeing him up to take more of these jumpers is something really exciting to think about.

Rim Pressure / Finishing

This past season, the Hornets didn't really have a player on the perimeter who could attack the basket regularly and finish through or around defenders. Kelly Oubre made a huge jump in this area, but outside of him, there wasn't really a consistent player to put pressure on the rim and force the defense to collapse. Anthony Black is able to get into the paint pretty much whenever he wants out of PNRs as well as just breaking his defender down off the dribble. He is a strong finisher with both hands and it's really impressive how much touch he has on his floater as this young of an age. The floater in the lane is usually a shot type that comes later on in the development of a player, but he has shown he already has that in his finishing bag. He doesn't rely on otherworldly speed or athleticism to get to the basket, but he does mix his speeds so well and uses his length to extend for tough finishes around hopeful shot blockers.

The guard from Arkansas is not afraid of contact and will go right at bigger defenders and try to finish through them. He has the strength to not be altered off of his path and the finesse to make tough finishes. He can get to the rim going in either direction and convert with either hand. One of the major improvement areas for the lead guard in Charlotte is his finishing and frequency of drawing fouls to effectively use his elite free-throw shooting. Anthony Black has flashed the ability to add this skill to Charlotte's offense and he boasted an absurd .578 free throw rate last season at Arkansas. For comparison, LaMelo's free throw rate is at .200 for his career thus far. He converted 70% of his free throws in his freshman season which you would like to see improve but just getting to the line that frequently is an incredible skill to add to the team.

Arkansas didn't have the best spacing this past season which just makes what Black did against a packed defense all the more impressive. There weren't really any knockdown shooters the defense was worried about, so they were able to completely collapse on Anthony when he would drive. The fact that he was able to convert so frequently and get to the line so often says a lot about his potential rim-finishing in the NBA with a team that would have much better spacing. We already discussed Black's passing chops on the move, but when you factor in how effective he can be at finishing in the paint, it will draw even more defensive attention away from Charlotte's shooters.

Weaknesses:

Shooting

The biggest component of Black's game that gives people concern is his shooting. He shot 30% from three at Arkansas on 2.6 attempts per game. He struggled with both catch and shoot jumpers as well as shots off the dribble.

The worrying thing is that his lack of shooting could limit some of the other strong aspects of his offensive game. When LaMelo drives and kicks out to him on the perimeter, defenses need to fear his ability to knock down the shot. Everything we discussed about his secondary play-making off of drive and kicks will be limited if defenses don't feel the need to close out hard on Black on the perimeter. He will have a harder time getting into the paint off of the kicks and those passing lanes won't open up as much if defenders can stay at home on shooters or collapse the paint.

Black was able to get into the paint consistently in college even without a threatening jump shot, but doing that at the NBA level is an entirely different challenge. Videos have surfaced online recently about Black working with Steph Curry's shooting coach this offseason so clearly the desire is there for him to improve in this area. From everything out there on Anthony, his work ethic gives him a real chance to turn this into at least a respectable aspect of his game.

Turnovers

Here is another area where Arkansas' lack of spacing really hurt Black. Defenses were able to pack the paint on this team and play the drives. This caused a ton of traffic around Black on a consistent basis and led to turnovers. He averaged 3.9 assists per game compared to 3.0 turnovers a game. This isn't an ideal assist-to-turnover ratio for a guard, but when you look at the context behind his situation, I don't think it's as bad as it seems.

The 19-year-old guard has a tremendous ability to drive and find passing lanes to open shooters. With the lack of reliable shooters for the Razorbacks, Black missed out on many assists just because his teammates didn't knock down the open shot. With the Hornets, he will have many different options to hit on the perimeter who can consistently knock down the open shot including Ball, Rozier, Gordon Hayward, and PJ Washington. The spacing an NBA floor will provide should limit the amount of traffic around Anthony on his drives and therefore improve his ball security.

Final Outlook

Overall, I believe Anthony Black is a great fit for this current Charlotte Hornets roster. I could get really excited about a potential three-guard lineup with him, Ball, and Rozier. The two current Hornets can threaten defenses with their shooting, while Black can use his craft to get into the paint and collapse the defense. Black slots in perfectly with this team defensively as they are in real need of someone who can apply consistent ball pressure and make life difficult on opposing guards/wings. Black's passing, rim pressure, and defense pair perfectly with what Charlotte already has on their roster, and if he can improve the shooting and limit turnovers, this team would get an incredible return on investment.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the Hornets jumping up to number two in the lottery is probably too rich to take Black at that point. However, if they really are looking at adding Brandon Miller with that pick, they can possibly use some of the other assets they possess to jump back up into the middle of the lottery and grab a guy who will fit in excellently on this team.