{"id":202478,"date":"2026-06-26T14:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=202478"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:03:51","slug":"3-star-trade-targets-for-the-hornets-post-lamelo-ball-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/26\/3-star-trade-targets-for-the-hornets-post-lamelo-ball-era\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Star Trade Targets for the Hornets In Post-LaMelo Ball Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last 24 hours have been a tumultuous time for Charlotte Hornets fans after LaMelo Ball<\/a> was traded<\/a> to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Losing the face of the franchise is heartbreaking, but the Hornets still have a solid foundation to be ecstatic about.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a truckload of future first-round picks<\/a>, along with a gigantic $40.7 million trade exception (the largest in NBA history), Charlotte has the war chest to make a sizable move immediately. While they have a year actually to use the trade exception, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise at this point if they made another deal very soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are three potential trade targets for the Hornets with Ball no longer repping the purple and teal.<\/span><\/p>\n

3 Star Trade Targets for the Hornets In Post-LaMelo Ball Era<\/h2>\n

Jaylen Brown – Boston Celtics<\/h3>\n

Per Shams Charania<\/a>, the Boston Celtics have been actively engaged in trade talks to move All-Star wing Jaylen Brown<\/a>. There are multiple teams interested in him, and Charlotte<\/a> should be one of them. Don’t forget that head coach Charles Lee coached Brown a few years ago as an assistant in Boston.<\/p>\n

Brown is set to make over $57 million next season. Unfortunately, the Hornets cannot use their $40.7 million trade exception plus an expiring contract like Miles Bridges<\/a>‘ $22.8 million to fit Brown’s massive contract on the roster.<\/p>\n

Instead, they will have to get creative. It would most likely have to include Bridges, Naz Reid<\/a>, and another player to make the financials work. Add in a few first-round picks to the deal, and Charlotte could acquire the five-time All-Star.<\/p>\n

Brown finished the 2025-26 regular season averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists on 47.7\/34.7\/79.5 shooting splits. He was able to carry his team to the playoffs with Jayson Tatum<\/a> nursing an Achilles injury for most of the season. He would immediately vault Charlotte into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The one burning question would be how he fits into the current roster construction. Modern positionless basketball philosophy would say that it could work. Starting Brown next to Brandon Miller<\/a> and Kon Knueppel<\/a> feels like an odd fit, but Lee would figure it out.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Ja Morant – Memphis Grizzlies<\/h3>\n

At first glance, Ja Morant<\/a> doesn’t make any sort of sense as a target for the Hornets. He also wouldn’t fit under the trade exception allowance. So why? The answer is value.<\/p>\n

According to Brian Windhorst<\/a>, Morant is “flagrantly available” in trade talks, but his two-year contract is making teams hesitant to take on the risk. If this is true, there’s a good chance the Hornets could not only acquire Morant’s services, but also additional draft compensation because of the not-so-friendly contract.<\/p>\n

There is a mutual desire between the Memphis Grizzlies and Morant to part ways. Trae Young<\/a> was traded for Corey Kispert<\/a> and CJ McCollum<\/a>. Morant’s trade value is probably lower than Young’s.<\/p>\n

The two-time All-Star has been on a rapid decline, but he could be the perfect reclamation project for Lee. A fresh start could push Morant mentally to become that star player again.<\/p>\n

Sure, it may not work out in the end. But if it does, it would be one of the best buy-lows in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving – Dallas Mavericks<\/h3>\n

Kyrie Irving<\/a> is past his prime and is coming off an ACL injury. Despite that, he’s averaged 20+ points per game in 10 consecutive seasons. He would be one of the handful of players the Hornets could acquire via the $40.7 million trade exception.<\/p>\n

Just like the Morant situation, Irving’s trade value is minuscule with his age (34) and recent torn ACL. However, he could be a solid scorer and facilitator for Charlotte, as he’s arguably one of the best ball-handlers in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Dallas may want to move on from Irving and get younger to build around Cooper Flagg<\/a>, while the Hornets may want to try and remain relevant in a post-LaMelo world.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last 24 hours have been a tumultuous time for Charlotte Hornets fans after LaMelo Ball was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Losing the face of the franchise is heartbreaking, but the Hornets still have a solid foundation to be ecstatic about. With a truckload of future first-round picks, along with a gigantic $40.7 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5878,"featured_media":202511,"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":[1608,7,62,4721],"tags":[4731,48964,1822,450,798,49839,406,823],"class_list":["post-202478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-brandon-miller","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-lamelo-ball"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202478","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\/5878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202478"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202512,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202478\/revisions\/202512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}