As Charlotte reportedly shops its All-Star guard, a blockbuster swap for Jabari Smith Jr. could redefine Houston’s backcourt—if the Rockets are willing to sacrifice their prized young core.
Following all of the excitement from the 2026 NBA Draft and the incoming rookies, there were also some headlines about more veteran players in the league. One that caught my eye was LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets reportedly being on the trading block.
I find this to be pretty surprising considering I just claimed that he was more than likely untouchable last week. While pondering Jabari Smith Jr. trade ideas here on Roundtable, I previously thought sending him to Charlotte would be implausible.
With that assumption going completely out of the window, what would a swap of former 3rd overall picks look like?
Ball, being an All-Star and two years further in his career, is making over $40 million for each of the next three seasons. Compare that to Jabari’s $24.4 million average across five seasons and you can see the difference.
According to Spotrac, all it would take to make the trade work is any of the players with a 10-15 million dollar salary. For the Houston Rockets, that means Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Steven Adams, or DFS. Potentially even a sign and trade with Tari Eason, but that could be pretty complicated.
Charlotte would obviously prefer the young assets, while Houston would prefer to lose older vets. I wouldn’t want to give up either of the young guards though, personally.
Three of those four guys were top five picks so it would hurt to see any of them go. Especially after already trading Jalen Green. It would feel like giving away a lot of your rebuild for LaMelo Ball if that were the case.
He’s more talented and accomplished than any of them, sure, but he arguably has more concerns too. Aside from never leading the Hornets to past the Play-In Tournament, he’s also pretty injury prone. Those two are probably related.
Despite clearly being Charlotte's best player for most, if not all of his career, last season was only his second time playing 70+ games, per Basketball-Reference. He only played in 47, 22, and 36 games in the three prior seasons.
He’s definitely being shopped when his value is high, so I’d warn Rafael Stone and Houston’s front office to be cautious if they’re interested.
In reality, he doesn’t seem like an Ime Udoka type of player so I’d be a little surprised if the Rockets were to pursue this move.
Ideally only do the deal with Jabari Smith Jr. as the centerpiece since they already covet him, but don’t throw in other young assent. Make sure to limit the future draft picks too. I think that’s the only way I’d be okay with it, and it would still be an odd move.
