{"id":100405,"date":"2024-10-10T10:56:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T14:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=100405"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:56:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:56:11","slug":"hornets-generational-lamelo-ball-preparing-career-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/10\/hornets-generational-lamelo-ball-preparing-career-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets\u2019 \u2018Generational\u2019 LaMelo Ball In For Career Season?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The interest surrounding Charlotte Hornets point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/ballla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaMelo Ball<\/a> has dwindled a little bit.<\/p>\n<p>To that point, the NBA can have 50 stars. However, due to human nature, the attention given to them won\u2019t be distributed evenly. This is partially because the sports world focuses on what players have done recently. As it relates to Ball, he\u2019s missed 106 games over the past two seasons. In that time, point guards like New York Knicks captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brunsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Brunson<\/a> have become the talk of the league.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, while the focus of fans and media has somewhat shifted away from Ball, it doesn\u2019t make him any less talented. At 6-foot-7, he\u2019s a natural playmaker with exceptional vision and dexterity. In fact, he has the third-highest career assist average (7.4) in Hornets history, behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boguemu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Muggsy Bogues<\/a> (8.8) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/knighbr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brevin Knight<\/a> (8.3).<\/p>\n<h2>Hornets\u2019 \u2018Generational\u2019 LaMelo Ball Preparing For Career Season?<\/h2>\n<p>Considering how well Ball\u2019s oldest brother \u2014Chicago Bulls point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/balllo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lonzo Ball<\/a> \u2014sees the floor, it\u2019s worth wondering how much of their point guard ability is tied to nature versus nurture.<\/p>\n<p>Both Ball brothers trained vigorously with their outspoken father, LaVar. Both Ball brothers also attended Chino Hills High School, where they were coached by Steve Baik. However, Lonzo \u2014like Bogues and Knight \u2014isn\u2019t nearly as capable a scorer as LaMelo.<\/p>\n<p>The baby Ball brother isn\u2019t just a fancy facilitator. Like his older brothers, including even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/ballli01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LiAngelo Ball<\/a>, he does have a knack for knocking down long-range jumpers. Yet, he\u2019s also a crafty shot-creator, finesse finisher, and has an aggressive scoring mindset.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, he\u2019s averaged 20.0 points per game in his NBA career. Though the sample size may skew the results, he\u2019s averaged 23.5 points per game over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Best of LaMelo Ball - 2023-24 Hornets Season Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hCYE8i0rSa8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Players who can take over the game as distributors <em>and<\/em> scorers are rare, but LaMelo is one of them. In that vein, he\u2019s in the same category as Los Angeles Lakers forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>, Denver Nuggets center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a>, and Dallas Mavericks guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s generational. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/sports\/charlotte-hornets\/article292969754.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I tell him that all the time<\/a>,\u201d Miami Heat guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roziete01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terry Rozier<\/a> says of his former teammate, per The Charlotte Observer\u2019s Roderick Boone.<\/p>\n<p>Ball needs to take the next step offensively to truly belong in the conversation with James, Jokic, and Doncic. But even with the emergence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/millebr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Miller<\/a>, that\u2019s possible. In that effort, Hornets head coach Charles Lee is hoping to make him a sharper decision-maker. Lee also wants Ball to trust in his teammates, which could lead to cleaner shot attempts and a spike in his percentages.<\/p>\n<h3>Preseason LaMelo<\/h3>\n<p>Through the Hornets\u2019 first two 2024-25 preseason games, Ball is already showing what it looks like when he puts it all together.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LaMelo Ball BALLING \ud83d\udd25 24 PTS, 6 REB, 5 AST vs Heat\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UMhT_bTjb6c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s averaging 21.0 points and 5.5 assists in just 21.2 minutes per game. His efficiency has been impressive as well, with him shooting 44.8 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three-point range.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Ball\u2019s defensive tools are also worth mentioning. This preseason, he\u2019s averaging 1.0 steal and 1.0 block per game. The 2020 No. 3 pick has averaged more than 1.5 steals per game in three of his four career seasons. Though he needs to be more disciplined at this end as well, he\u2019s an event creator who can wreak havoc with his IQ and length.<\/p>\n<p>If he can keep this up for an entire season, he might have his best year yet. However, the goal is to have him play that way from here on out. To that point, generational players don\u2019t just stack days, they stack seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The interest surrounding Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has dwindled a little bit. To that point, the NBA can have 50 stars. However, due to human nature, the attention given to them won\u2019t be distributed evenly. This is partially because the sports world focuses on what players have done recently. As it relates to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":100426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1608,62,3],"tags":[49160,823,48967,427],"class_list":["post-100405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hornets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-charles-lee","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-nba-preseason","tag-terry-rozier"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}