LaMelephant: The LaMelo Ball Thread (#2)

[GoBobs]

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/sources-lamelo-ball-open-to-a-trade-away-from-hornets-215320741.html

league sauces

Following the Hornets’ disappointing road loss to the 2-13 Indiana Pacers — their fourth straight, dropping Charlotte to 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 4-11 record — star guard LaMelo Ball has grown increasingly frustrated with the organization and is open to a trade away from the franchise, multiple league sources told Yahoo Sports.

League sources say the front office is increasingly hesitant about cementing Ball as a long-term foundational piece, has become disillusioned with the 24-year-old and is open to moving him. Ball has appeared in just nine games this season due to a right ankle injury.

So is he mad that he has only played 9 games? Or, is he mad that he has been terrible in most of those games.

I mean, you are supposed to be the guy, how can you complain if you are not doing your part? The timing of this seems strange.

[UNCNYC]

Before the start of the season he still had value but for some reason I think it will start to go down soon... Trade him for 2 first if HORNETS are lucky to get that and run

[Walt Cronkite]

I personally hope this is nonsense, but if it's true, it's hard to fault either side for wanting to move on. I think LaMelo is immensely talented and has been the closest to my personal preference building block player archetype in franchise history, so it would be a bummer, but as Swedd has pointed out many times, you can't just keep doing the same thing every year if there is something fundementally flawed at the root of the team building.

[MPM]

remove duplicate elements

[Rich4114]

I think nationally if you don't really pay attention to the Hornets but you check their record and box scores, injury list, etc. you can easily come to the conclusion that LaMelo and the team would be willing to part ways. And of course that could be the case, on the surface it wouldn't be a huge surprise especially if LaMelo is ready to win now. But the team continues to say and act in such a way that is basically "we're not trying to win right now, we're just trying to develop our young players and see what combinations work (and get another lottery pick in a stacked lottery)". Then you have LaMelo echoing that sentiment recently, emphasizing how he's willing to be patient saying it takes time and he wants to be here.

So reading into the details, I get the impression he is on the same page as the org and looking at this as long term. Thus sitting out extra games, mins restriction, weird lineup choices, blowing games they have won, etc. It's still NOT what I would do if I were running the org. I know for the new regime, this is just the second year of losing. But to us (and LaMelo really), it is much much much longer than that.

[fatlever]

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[Bassman]

Article on same subject/comments posted to ESPN:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47050392/lamelo-ball-denies-hornets-frustration-love-being-here

Reality is, they’d better get this figured out or the hell coming down from fans will be even worse. It won’t matter what is said…change will be demanded.