Hornets shut down star guard for remainder of the season
The Charlotte Hornets are shutting down star guard LaMelo Ball for the remainder of the season as a consequence of his ankle harm, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Thursday morning.
Ball performed in simply 22 contests this yr, averaging a career-high in factors (23.9). However this marks the second consecutive season he’ll play in lower than half of the crew’s video games, and the third time in 4 years he is performed in lower than 70.
After signing a five-year, $260 million contract in July 2023, Hornets followers ought to formally begin worrying about the long run well being of the face of the franchise.
There had been some optimism he’d return shortly after the NBA All-Star break.
On March 4 (35 days after Charlotte’s return to motion after the break) head coach Steve Clifford advised the “Wes and Walker Present,” on WFNZ radio in Charlotte he was optimistic Ball would return, however there nonetheless wasn’t a timeline.
“Melo’s doing increasingly more,” he mentioned. “I really feel like he is getting nearer however he is not fairly there but.”
With simply 10 video games remaining in one other misplaced season within the Queen Metropolis, the choice does make sense. Charlotte is 18-54 and headed for a one more lottery choose within the 2024 NBA Draft this June.
It additionally offers spectacular rookie Brandon Miller (17 PPG) 10 extra possibilities to indicate why the Hornets ought to be his crew in 2024 and past.
Regardless of Hugo the Hornet reacting with dismay to Charlotte choosing Miller over Scoot Henderson with the second choose within the 2023 draft, there are already rumblings from Hornets followers desirous to commerce Ball and hand the reins to Miller.
That is an overreaction at this level.
In at the moment’s NBA you want a number of All-Star caliber gamers to compete for a championship and Charlotte traditionally has had bother recruiting these gamers in free company. After including two gamers with that potential by way of the draft, the Hornets can be silly to not give Ball and Miller one other season to get on the courtroom collectively.
But when accidents value Ball one more season in 2024-25, and Miller continues to excel, anticipate the calls to commerce LaMelo to get very loud.