Will the Charlotte Hornets trade LaMelo Ball this season?
LaMelo Ball has been named the Charlotte Hornets player most likely to be traded this season.
NBA analyst Dan Favale of Bleacher Report believes the Hornets could trade Ball before the trade deadline in February.
Ball has played in 16 games this season. He's averaging 19.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game while shooting 38.6% from the field, 28.5% from beyond the arc and 87.7% from the free-throw line.
The Hornets haven't made the playoffs since 2016. They have had only one winning season since drafting Ball with the third overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Ball is making $37.9 million this season. He signed a five-year, $203 million extension with the Hornets in 2023.
Trading Ball would open up more shots for 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," Favale wrote. "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.
"Perhaps most importantly, whispers about a Ball trade have already surfaced. Jake Fischer shot down the idea of Ball requesting a trade on a B/R live stream shortly after Ball did the same. Still, it's hard to remember the last time chatter like this arose without resurfacing. Paired with the logical possibility Charlotte would prefer to orient itself around someone else, it's pretty easy to imagine more talk of a move ahead of the February deadline."
Ball doesn't have a no-trade clause in his contract, so he can't stop the Hornets from trading him. The one-time All-Star has career averages of 20.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game.
Charlotte will miss the playoffs again this season. The franchise might as well trade Ball and get some assets in return and rebuild around Miller and Knueppel.