LaMelephant: The LaMelo Ball Thread (#2)

[Bassman]

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Excellent breakdown by this Doctor, who emphasizes that there are differences between a strain and a sprain. Each affects different parts of the body in different ways. Wojo on ESPN says it is a sprain, but expected to miss weeks of time. We will see. In either case this video shows that Melo did not have a player hit him or interact, and the reaction was simply from planting his right foot down on the ball of his foot. The ankle didn’t turn over…in fact there was little movement at all. This, again, makes me think he has weak tendons.

[HornetJail]

just guessing, 4-6 weeks, based on last year, so early january? and our schedule upcoming is rough.

we probably weren't winning many games in December regardless. If that's the timeline and he comes back around the 1st/2nd week of January, I honestly don't think this injury costs us more than 3 wins. Hopefully he'll actually wear his damn ankle braces when he comes back.

[Rich4114]

If this is a 4 week injury, that’s about 10 games. 9 after tonight. But what about all of our other problems?

[JDR720]

Should leave him out until January.

This is the exact same thing as last season when he kept hurting his ankles and we kept bringing him back too soon.

[KingCat]

We are a 9th seed at best with Lamelo playing. This roster has too many holes and questionable coaching to do anything significant, so might as well be careful with this.

Only reason to rush Lamelo back is for the fan's personal entertainment

[fatlever]

So guessing 15 games..missed...
We go 3 and 12. Then we are 8 and 23. Lol. Season over after 16 games.
As a Hornets fan, it feels like our season is over earlier and earlier every year. At least with the Bobcats we used to fight for the playoff seed up until march.

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[amcoolio]

So guessing 15 games..missed...
We go 3 and 12. Then we are 8 and 23. Lol. Season over after 16 games.
As a Hornets fan, it feels like our season is over earlier and earlier every year. At least with the Bobcats we used to fight for the playoff seed up until march.

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Its a direct result of being cheap and empty in the front office. Nothing is going to change until money is spent on infrastructure and basketball savvy people are brought in. Hornets are Oakland A's level of poverty, I'm surprised they didn't fight LaMelo on his max

[JMAC3]

So guessing 15 games..missed...
We go 3 and 12. Then we are 8 and 23. Lol. Season over after 16 games.
As a Hornets fan, it feels like our season is over earlier and earlier every year. At least with the Bobcats we used to fight for the playoff seed up until march.

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Its a direct result of being cheap and empty in the front office. Nothing is going to change until money is spent on infrastructure and basketball savvy people are brought in. Hornets are Oakland A's level of poverty, I'm surprised they didn't fight LaMelo on his max

I agree and disagree, we were probably going to be bad no matter what the FO did if LaMelo missed over a month. I think signing one more depth piece on a MLE type of deal we probably are closer to 7-9 but we are probably losing 70% of our games with Melo out no matter who we signed. Delon Wright or Aaron Holiday aren't keeping this team in the playoff hunt if Melo misses 15-20 games.

Same with a 3rd string center, I don't know how much having Blake Griffin or Nemias Queta is really leading us to more wins with the current state of this team. It is not as if we are losing a ton of 1-2 possession games that those type of moves would have swung the win totals.

[fatlever]

its a sad state when your entire season rests on one very injury prone player to not get hurt, but that's who we are
i dont know if i can take 5 more years of melo missing 30+ games a year while eating up 40% of our cap
dude's gotta get those ankles figured out

[wilson115]

Or the FO could have gotten the player they handed a $200M contract a competent back-up to ease the load on those ankles.

[SWedd523]

its a sad state when your entire season rests on one very injury prone player to not get hurt, but that's who we are
i dont know if i can take 5 more years of melo missing 30+ games a year while eating up 40% of our cap
dude's gotta get those ankles figured out

15 games before fats went full doomer.

Is that a new record?

[yosemiteben]

I actually think that's the right perspective. Melo is our franchise player, if he can't stay healthy then we are not where we thought we were in the rebuild. We've got to find a way to get him to stay healthy, and from reading that article about Steph it seems like it's going to start with him taking personal accountability for how he works on his body. That explanation of Steph's work ethic in building his body and balance was very impressive and I really hope Melo commits to something like that.

[Rich4114]

Most of this roster needs to hit the weight room. That will help a lot IMO.

But trades are where this team will drastically improve. Along with a better head coach. Back in the OG Hornets days, Bob Bass was dealt **** hand after **** hand and turned what he had into better teams somehow. We have a lot of talent on this roster, you’re going to have to part with some of it to get different talent back that fits better with what’s left.

LaMelo is the centerpiece. He was historically good his last 10 games. Barely got to play with Miles back. Has to find a way to protect those ankles. Maybe it’s wearing different shoes, which might be difficult given his Puma contract. Maybe Puma needs to redesign the shoes for him.

[Liver_Pooty]

Most of this roster needs to hit the weight room. That will help a lot IMO.

But trades are where this team will drastically improve. Along with a better head coach. Back in the OG Hornets days, Bob Bass was dealt **** hand after **** hand and turned what he had into better teams somehow. We have a lot of talent on this roster, you’re going to have to part with some of it to get different talent back that fits better with what’s left.

LaMelo is the centerpiece. He was historically good his last 10 games. Barely got to play with Miles back. Has to find a way to protect those ankles. Maybe it’s wearing different shoes, which might be difficult given his Puma contract. Maybe Puma needs to redesign the shoes for him.

I disagree. I don't think we have a lot of talent at all.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Most of this roster needs to hit the weight room. That will help a lot IMO.

But trades are where this team will drastically improve. Along with a better head coach. Back in the OG Hornets days, Bob Bass was dealt **** hand after **** hand and turned what he had into better teams somehow. We have a lot of talent on this roster, you’re going to have to part with some of it to get different talent back that fits better with what’s left.

LaMelo is the centerpiece. He was historically good his last 10 games. Barely got to play with Miles back. Has to find a way to protect those ankles. Maybe it’s wearing different shoes, which might be difficult given his Puma contract. Maybe Puma needs to redesign the shoes for him.

I disagree. I don't think we have a lot of talent at all.

I think we have four really intriguing pieces in Melo, Miller, Mark and Miles (who is a 75% chance of leaving in the offseason).

A solid glue guy in PJ and a couple of overpaid veterans who are NOT leaders in Rozier and Hayward and the rest of the roster are fringe NBA players at best. Maybe Nick Smith Jr and Amari Bailey have a chance of becoming something valuable but the rest of our youngsters are very meh at best.

[KingCat]

Most of this roster needs to hit the weight room. That will help a lot IMO.

But trades are where this team will drastically improve. Along with a better head coach. Back in the OG Hornets days, Bob Bass was dealt **** hand after **** hand and turned what he had into better teams somehow. We have a lot of talent on this roster, you’re going to have to part with some of it to get different talent back that fits better with what’s left.

LaMelo is the centerpiece. He was historically good his last 10 games. Barely got to play with Miles back. Has to find a way to protect those ankles. Maybe it’s wearing different shoes, which might be difficult given his Puma contract. Maybe Puma needs to redesign the shoes for him.

I disagree. I don't think we have a lot of talent at all.

I think we have four really intriguing pieces in Melo, Miller, Mark and Miles (who is a 75% chance of leaving in the offseason).

A solid glue guy in PJ and a couple of overpaid veterans who are NOT leaders in Rozier and Hayward and the rest of the roster are fringe NBA players at best. Maybe Nick Smith Jr and Amari Bailey have a chance of becoming something valuable but the rest of our youngsters are very meh at best.

10 maybe even 5 years ago this is a top 10 most talented roster in the league. Unfortunately for us, the talent pool in the NBA has just gotten deeper and deeper and our FO has just not been able to keep up. We, like all teams have a few really good pieces, but don't have the depth to do much with it.

[JMAC3]

its a sad state when your entire season rests on one very injury prone player to not get hurt, but that's who we are
i dont know if i can take 5 more years of melo missing 30+ games a year while eating up 40% of our cap
dude's gotta get those ankles figured out

It is a star driven league and it pretty much the same with 20 other teams. If Atlanta lost Trae Young, Mavs lost Luka, Pacers lost Hali, Philly lost Embiid etc etc those teams would be a bottom 10 team. Indy has good backups in Nembhard and McConnell and they still woudn't be in the playoffs so it is hard for me to really think us having a bad backup is some huge swing factor.

[Chapelchilla]

I think most us saw that back up PG was gonna be a huge issue if/when Lamelo got hurt and that the first 10 would be tough with no Miles. Add in the Terry/Nick/Cody injuries and there is not enough veteran depth to cover for that. I am trying to look at the bright side and figure we can use the season to develop Miller and Mark further while tanking it out for another high pick.
Many folks here have wanted us to tank for awhile and perhaps unintentionally we have now had a 4 year tank Process. Looks like we will keep the Jones 1st rounder for sure so adding a big combo guard or wing who can D it up is quite possible. Having that core 4 of high lotto picks with PJ, Nnanji and the Nicks is a decent start if we can redeploy the Hayward/Terry/Miles/Martin money correctly over the next 2 seasons. Get a good back up PG and some meaner good leader type vets. Bring in some Euro's, whatever.
Gotta pick a good GM and coach this offseason too. Hopefully the new owners go all in on a makeover of the front office and in operational investments (medical trainers/hotels/player development staff etc).
This season shouldn't be wasted even if we stink. Trade Terry/Hayward/Miles (if we are not GOING to keep him) ASAP and let the kids play.

[yosemiteben]

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[fatlever]

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Out of the boot!

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