Charlotte Hornets fans just got some good news about LaMelo Ball for Saturday's matchup against the Detroit Pistons. According to the team's PR, the young guard has been upgraded to questionable for the contest.

The Hornets are many things, but ‘reliant on LaMelo Ball' is one of them. When healthy, he isn't just the team's best player, he's one of the better players in the entire league. As a rookie, he's averaging 15.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game on an above average PER and solid shooting splits. He has been the clear leader in this season's Rookie of the Year race  despite the emergence of Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton.

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Why? Because Ball's play leads to wins. Both Edwards and Haliburton's teams are comfortably out of the playoff race, while LaMelo and the Hornets are very much in the running for the playoffs in any given year, and are basically guaranteed a spot in this year's play-in tournament between the 7-10 seeds. They were right above .500 when he went down and dipped slightly in his absence, so expect his return to give Charlotte a lot of momentum going into the postseason.

They were in the thick of the playoff race before Boston, Atlanta, and New York started to surge, and once Lamelo is back, they will be a nightmare to face with their army of good-to-great guard play.

These Hornets are poised to be one of the more dangerous teams in the Eastern Conference when the postseason rolls around, and whoever underestimates them is in for a nasty sting.