30 NBA Players in 30 Days: LaMelo Ball
Day 11 of our 2023 NBA season countdown brings us to Charlotte, where today’s focus will be the youngest of the Ball brothers, LaMelo Ball. The extremely polarizing young star from Chino Hills, CA and the Illawarra Hawks is entering his third season after an impressive season this past year with the Hornets. He will be eligible for his rookie contract max extension after this season, and I’m sure he is looking forward to being the first ever player drafted by Michael Jordan to get that type of deal. The contract could be up to $202.5M for five years, and I’m sure everyone expects Ball to get that deal as long as nothing catastrophic happens during the season. He is Charlotte’s only shining star, and could be the franchise’s best player ever since it was introduced to the NBA in 2002.
There have been a couple really impactful events that have occurred since the end of the Hornets’ season when they were blown out for the 2nd straight year by a different team this time, the Cavaliers. One of them being the firing of head coach James Borrego and Steve Clifford was hired to take his place. Does that sound familiar? Clifford was the coach of Charlotte from 2013 to 2018 before coaching Orlando for 2 years. From the top of my head, I cannot recall a time where this has happened, especially for a team that has been stuck in mediocrity for a long time. Another impactful event involves another rising star for the Hornets, Miles Bridges. The young forward was charged with domestic violence for allegedly assaulting the mother of his two kids in front of them. I can’t really speak anymore about the situation, but Bridges did not report to training camp because he has a court date this Thursday. According to the New York Post, “Should Bridges be found guilty of the charges, he could face up to 11 years, eight months in prison.” Bridges had a breakout season last year and this situation is very sad to hear from all perspectives. How do these events affect this upcoming season for Ball?
The Hornets as mentioned before have been a laughing stock in the Eastern Conference, even when they were known as the Bobcats (just a horrible NBA team name as well), they were always pretty much at the bottom of the league, besides a few decent years making the 1st round of the playoffs. With the two big changes from now having a “new” coach and losing his best teammate, Ball has to become an even bigger star in order to carry the franchise to relevancy. He’ll still have most of the teammates he’s used to with Gordon Hayward (if he’s healthy), Terry Rozier, and PJ Washington, but other than Bridges, the rest of the roster are mostly young rookies or 2nd year players or NBA journeymen like Kelly Oubre Jr. If the Hornets are serious about making a move to be relevant in the East, or to get Ball a quality co-star, they need to make it fast. We are seeing how quick some of these players want to leave a small market team, and even with his max extension coming up, the commitment from Ball can diminish with each passing year without success.
