LaMelo Ball Chosen As Hornets' Most Likely to Be Traded

The Charlotte Hornets have been stuck in the same spot for years. They’ve been an “exciting” young team with lots of potential. Unfortunately, at this point, people were expecting some of that potential to become more tangible. 

Much of this is because of the disappointing career arc of LaMelo Ball. While LaMelo often shows flashes of brilliance, his inability to stay on the court and be consistent has made him one of the more disappointing young superstars of his generation. 

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report recently predicted “The 1 Player On Every NBA Team Most Likely To Be Traded,” and he said that LaMelo could be the one Hornet on the move this season. 

“Persistent ankle injuries limited him to 22 games in 2023–24 and 47 games last year. He's already missed time this season and is shooting under 40.0 percent from the field when available. If there's a silver lining, it's that all of his missed games allowed the losses to mount for the Charlotte Hornets. Failure led to high draft picks, which turned into Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel.

Knueppel has played well enough to earn Rookie of the Year frontrunner status through the first quarter of the season, and Miller has flashed star potential when his own injury issues haven't confined him to the pine. That's all to say: Charlotte's future is no longer tied directly to Ball, and that's probably a good thing given his unreliability.”

Now that Charlotte may have another young stud to build around, LaMelo may be expendable. The only question is: how much can they actually get for him?