Do you agree with this ranking?

One analyst thinks Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball is the 48th-best player in the NBA. 

Frank Urbina of HoopsHype ranked Ball 48th in his top 100 players list for the 2025-26 season. 

"Ball is a high-level playmaker with bombastic scoring off-the-dribble ability from all over the floor, with deep range on his three-point jumper," Urbina wrote. "If he can just stay healthy this upcoming season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him outplay his place in this ranking. It wouldn’t hurt if he were more selective with his shot attempts, either, to help improve his efficiency."

Ball played in 47 games for the Hornets last season. He averaged 25.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 7.4 assists while shooting 40.5% from the field, 33.9% from beyond the arc and 84.3% from the free-throw line.

The Hornets selected Ball with the third overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Ball won the 2020-21 Rookie of the Year Award and made the 2022 All-Star team.

Ball will make $37.9 million in 2025-26. He has career averages of 21.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 7.4 assists, which are great numbers, but the Hornets are only 98-133 when Ball plays.

The good news is that Ball took his strength and conditioning very seriously this summer, an NBA executive told Roundtable. Ball looked bigger and stronger in his arms and shoulders at Hornets media day. 

"I heard LaMelo took his strength and conditioning very seriously this summer for the first time since the Hornets drafted him," the NBA executive said. "I don't know if that's going to help him from hurting his ankles again, it seems like he just has fragile ankles, but it's definitely a good sign that he's taking his body seriously."

Ball told reporters at media day that he was in the weight room a lot this summer after talking to Hornets head coach Charles Lee at the end of last season. The playmaker didn't specifically target a body part to work on.

Instead, Ball worked on his whole body. 

"We just seen the little kinks and stuff and knew I had to get in the weight room and get stronger and stuff. So that's pretty much what we did," Ball said at media day. "Just all around pretty much as a whole. They had me doing upper and lower. So everything."