{"id":122639,"date":"2025-02-07T12:50:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=122639"},"modified":"2025-02-07T12:50:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:50:44","slug":"charlotte-hornets-lamelo-ball-future-with-team-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/07\/charlotte-hornets-lamelo-ball-future-with-team-confirmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets’ ‘Foundational Piece’s’ Future With Team Confirmed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this year’s trade deadline, the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> made a few interesting moves. They acquired Jusuf Nurkic<\/a> from the Phoenix Suns<\/a> and traded Nick Richards<\/a> (ironically to the Suns) separately earlier in the season. However, their most notable move was sending big man Mark Williams<\/a> to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>. The move came as a bit of a shock since Williams is just 23 years old and under contract for another season. However, according to Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh, the Hornets moved on from Williams due to his injury concerns. Furthermore, Haberstroh linked it back to LaMelo Ball<\/a> who, despite still being considered the Hornets’ franchise player, has also dealt with a multitude of injuries in Charlotte. Haberstroh said that the Hornets trading Ball was a possibility. However, it no longer seems like a possibility in the near future.<\/p>\n

“I thought maybe LaMelo Ball could have been traded at the deadline, but from what I was told, LaMelo Ball is still a part of this team\u2019s future. He\u2019s a foundational piece. Mark Williams was not deemed that. I think part of the reason they moved on was the injury concerns. How long can we wait for LaMelo Ball, who has been injured? Brandon Miller<\/a> is out for the season. How much can you wait when the three core players you\u2019re counting on have played a grand total of 16 games together?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

LaMelo Ball’s Future With Charlotte Hornets Confirmed?<\/h2>\n

LaMelo Ball’s Season With the Charlotte Hornets So Far<\/h3>\n

Now in his fifth season in the league, Ball is in the midst of a career year. However, because of injuries, he has only appeared in 31 games. In those games, he is averaging 28.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 1.4 steals.\u00a0Despite his impressive season, Ball was snubbed from the All-Star Game once again.<\/p>\n

Before it was official, teammate Miles Bridges<\/a> campaigned for Ball to make the team<\/a>. Additionally, he called him “the most exciting player in the NBA.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s the most exciting player in the NBA\u201d, Bridges said. \u201cEverybody wants to watch Melo. He\u2019s averaging 29. So, I don\u2019t see why he shouldn\u2019t make it. But even if he doesn\u2019t, that\u2019s gonna be big motivation for him to keep going. But I personally think he should make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he did not make the team this year, there is no doubt Ball will remain a candidate in the future.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

Just a week before the All-Star break, the Hornets rank as one of the worst teams in the league. They are 12-36 and have the second-worst record in the East, only ahead of the Washington Wizards. While not official, it seems unlikely the Hornets will make the postseason this year. The Hornets have not made the playoffs since 2016, and this trend will probably continue. Regardless, the Hornets have a fun team that could compete in the future. In addition to Ball, they have Brandon Miller, Bridges, and Tidjane Salaun<\/a>. A playoff appearance is unlikely this year, but as long as Ball remains in Charlotte, they could reach that level soon.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this year’s trade deadline, the Charlotte Hornets made a few interesting moves. They acquired Jusuf Nurkic from the Phoenix Suns and traded Nick Richards (ironically to the Suns) separately earlier in the season. However, their most notable move was sending big man Mark Williams to the Los Angeles Lakers. The move came as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":101480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[1608,7,2,62,3],"tags":[823],"class_list":["post-122639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-lamelo-ball"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122639","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\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122641,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122639\/revisions\/122641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}