2024-2025 Regular Season Game 19: Orlando Magic (11-7) at Charlotte Hornets (6-10) - 7pm

[Liver_Pooty]

The one play that stuck in my head tonight in regards to LaMelo...

With about 3 minutes left Ball got the switch he wanted and cooked Cole with this really nice stepback 3 and then he stopped and posed for the crowd and did his little "ice in my veins" thing that he does.

But the problem was that the Hornets, who had basically led the entire game, had blown the lead and the Magic had just taken their largest lead of the night the previous possession.

And that stepback only cut the Hornets deficit from 9 to 6. It wasn't like it was a shot to take the lead or even really get them *that* close. And all LaMelo seemingly wanted to do was get his oohs and ahhs for the stepback, pose for the crowd, and then hit his signature taunt like a WWE wrestler or something.

And like yeah, it was an awesome move and a nice shot, but like where's the sense of situation? It felt like a defensive back celebrating breaking up a pass while his team is down 2 touchdowns in the 4th quarter.

I'm not even some old boomer **** either. I like celebrating and think it's generally good for the game, I just was taken aback by how little Ball seemed to care that his team had just blown the lead and was also in the process of getting run off the floor in the 4th quarter.

Ice in his veins was more important ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I find it hard to believe someone can sit there and watch the Wagner bros every single game and get upset about a dude rubbing his forearm for 2 seconds after a shot. Cmon man, you cannot be serious

Eh bro hop on out of here. Lol. I do like the potential of a solid realgm rivalry. Or rivalry in real life if we can get there. Which we are. Slowly

[Rainwater]

My take on LaMelo: He has the talent to be an MVP-level player. He does not have the smarts, nor maturity, to get there.

Frustrating because he really does have ELITE talent.

Yeah, nobody is saying he is terrible or anything. Dude is uber talented, good player, an All-Star, a scorer. He just needs to be a bit smarter, and he may get there. Just might be a matter of time.

[eyriq]

Hornets seem to have a solid defensive game plan against us.

[3ddman23]

Also.. lets be real guys.

Lamelo is good. Like probably top 5 PG in the league if you twist my arm. He is probably feeling and doing what Tmac was in the same sotuation with us. He is surrounded by plumbers and salesmen and if there is someone good, they probably spend most of their time in the injured list. ( OG magic fans would undwrstand this )

Yes I absolutely see that comparison but as with t-mac when he had more healthy teams what did he do with those healthy team success wise??? Nothing. I love t-mac he is my favorite player of all time and he was incredibly fun to watch. But he didn't win at a high level. This is what a player like lamelo I think will be in the long run(as well as guys like haliberton, trae, d fox, lavine, etc). Unless he joins a way better team where he can be the 2 or 3 best player.

[SHAQ32]

Free Cole
Bench Black

[eyriq]

Cole Anthony > Anthony Black

Free Cole
Bench Black

No

[RookieStar]

Cole Anthony > Anthony Black

Free Cole
Bench Black

No

Bannable posts i agree

[eyriq]

Cole Anthony > Anthony Black

Free Cole
Bench Black

No

Bannable posts i agree

My ban hammer is broken. But I did press the send button with extra force and put on my best mean face

[RookieStar]

Also.. lets be real guys.

Lamelo is good. Like probably top 5 PG in the league if you twist my arm. He is probably feeling and doing what Tmac was in the same sotuation with us. He is surrounded by plumbers and salesmen and if there is someone good, they probably spend most of their time in the injured list. ( OG magic fans would undwrstand this )

Yes I absolutely see that comparison but as with t-mac when he had more healthy teams what did he do with those healthy team success wise??? Nothing. I love t-mac he is my favorite player of all time and he was incredibly fun to watch. But he didn't win at a high level. This is what a player like lamelo I think will be in the long run(as well as guys like haliberton, trae, d fox, lavine, etc). Unless he joins a way better team where he can be the 2 or 3 best player.

Problem with Tmac when he eas with the Rockets was that Shaq / TD / Sac was just waiting for them.

Melo can be a #1 on a winning team. We will see when Williams , Bridges , etc get healthy.

NGL though, he needs to rein in his childish antics and have some accountability. Makes regular NBA fans thinks he is too immature to lead a team.

[Knightro]

I find it hard to believe someone can sit there and watch the Wagner bros every single game and get upset about a dude rubbing his forearm for 2 seconds after a shot. Cmon man, you cannot be serious

I totally get that we're not going to agree on this and that's fine.

Again, I think LaMelo is incredibly skilled. I just don't think he gets it.

I have never watched him play basketball and thought "man this dude is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to win." - and that whatever it takes can manifest itself in a million different ways that aren't "this guy is really skilled at putting the basketball in the hoop."

Franz seems genuinely angry and upset when the Magic lose, ya know?

And Moe Wagner is just a role player. Those guys aren't and shouldn't be held to the same standard as star players.

There's just a level of desire and you could even describe it as desperation that you like to see out of your best players where they put winning above everything else. Fair or not, I just don't really see that from LaMelo.

[Knightro]

You have a game like tonight where the Hornets absolutely could have and probably should have won given how poorly the Magic shot the ball

Obviously I don't know LaMelo personally or anything like that, but my sense is that his reaction after the game isn't likely to be "I'm pissed we lost and want to figure out what I could have done different that would have given us a better chance to win."

I feel like his reaction, at least privately, would skew more towards "I played great at least."

[JF5]

It’s hard for me to understand how someone could watch that game and blame LaMelo other than if you just straight up refused to even observe another player on our team because LaMelo is so captivating, which in that case I don’t blame you. He’s cooking up on a great defensive team that doesn’t have to do anything but try and stop him lol. What do you want him to do, score 100? Feed Taj Gibson post ups?

He reminds me a lot of the Gilbert Arenas/Ricky Davis type player except he's wayyyy more naturally talented than those guys.

LaMelo plays like he's still back in Chino Hills/AAU circuit. He does a lot of flashy moves but he makes a lot of boneheaded decisions. He's the last Ball brother and if you've seen how he is through the myriad of content BBB has had over the last decade and the stories that surround him in the Charlotte area from reports over the last few years he's the quintessential douche who plays by his own rules (which what he was enabled to do since he was a kid).

He's not the type of guy to bring his teammates together for a common goal or make them better, that is Lonzo's role being the big brother having to be the first to go through everything.

Unless his attitude changes and his method of play/actions have more purpose to it he'll be a 2nd/3rd option in a winning situation. Though he has top 5 player in the world talent potential.

I don’t really know what to say to something written both so confidently and simultaneously incorrectly about the guy both on and off the floor and his reputation in Charlotte so I’ll just say, good luck to you guys and I hope we get him some NBA level help so we can start building a rivalry here. I certainly have a lot of respect for Banchero and the slander he gets from guys trying to fluff Chet and it’s disappointing to see similar stuff here about other players but hey, that’s realm. Gl guys

There are years of video of him growing up and acting like a little jerk in a lot of these videos that were produced by the BBB brand/father and his marketing team. He would say wild off the cuff stuff. As a matter a fact he dropped the "No Homo" line a week back on live television which gave him a 100k fine.

I'm not saying he's a bad person. But in all the years I've seen him play. He never seemed serious about playing ball whilst on top of that not having the maturity to actually be focused enough to want to be the best and win. He seemed more worried about putting on a show and making money (which makes sense given how he was raised to be a content machine).

Maybe that changes in 2-3 years as he ages. But we'll see. I'm rooting for you guys to become successful again. I just dont know if Ball can obtain that maturity and BBIQ to be the best he can be.

[KembaWalker]

I find it hard to believe someone can sit there and watch the Wagner bros every single game and get upset about a dude rubbing his forearm for 2 seconds after a shot. Cmon man, you cannot be serious

I totally get that we're not going to agree on this and that's fine.

Again, I think LaMelo is incredibly skilled. I just don't think he gets it.

I have never watched him play basketball and thought "man this dude is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to win." - and that whatever it takes can manifest itself in a million different ways that aren't "this guy is really skilled at putting the basketball in the hoop."

Franz seems genuinely angry and upset when the Magic lose, ya know?

And Moe Wagner is just a role player. Those guys aren't and shouldn't be held to the same standard as star players.

There's just a level of desire and you could even describe it as desperation that you like to see out of your best players where they put winning above everything else. Fair or not, I just don't really see that from LaMelo.

We’ll see what happens, in 2020 he was never supposed to be a good NBA player because his shot was broken, now the story is that he can never be a title winning first option player because he rubs his forearm twice after he hits an ankle breaker step back 30 footer en route to an efficient 44 on the leagues top defense. Not the worst trajectory to be on I suppose. You guys will hold a lot more “serious” players to a lot worse performances than you did LaMelo tonight for the rest of the year

[eyriq]

This tickled me pink

Read on Twitter

?t=npUdwCiUVCBaFjDvpWzafA&s=19

[RookieStar]

I find it hard to believe someone can sit there and watch the Wagner bros every single game and get upset about a dude rubbing his forearm for 2 seconds after a shot. Cmon man, you cannot be serious

I totally get that we're not going to agree on this and that's fine.

Again, I think LaMelo is incredibly skilled. I just don't think he gets it.

I have never watched him play basketball and thought "man this dude is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to win." - and that whatever it takes can manifest itself in a million different ways that aren't "this guy is really skilled at putting the basketball in the hoop."

Franz seems genuinely angry and upset when the Magic lose, ya know?

And Moe Wagner is just a role player. Those guys aren't and shouldn't be held to the same standard as star players.

There's just a level of desire and you could even describe it as desperation that you like to see out of your best players where they put winning above everything else. Fair or not, I just don't really see that from LaMelo.

We’ll see what happens, in 2020 he was never supposed to be a good NBA player because his shot was broken, now the story is that he can never be a title winning first option player because he rubs his forearm twice after he hits an ankle breaker step back 30 footer en route to an efficient 44 on the leagues top defense. Not the worst trajectory to be on I suppose. You guys will hold a lot more “serious” players to a lot worse performances than you did LaMelo tonight for the rest of the year

Revisionist history much? As a NBA fan in GENERAL and a Magic fan in PARTICULAR, Melo was never gonna be as good as he is because he was alwqys injured and couldnt show us casuals what he was capable of. Now his story is the antics that he displays that paints him to be too immature to be part of those guys called " leaders of winning teams "

[Optimus_Steel]

I find it hard to believe someone can sit there and watch the Wagner bros every single game and get upset about a dude rubbing his forearm for 2 seconds after a shot. Cmon man, you cannot be serious

I totally get that we're not going to agree on this and that's fine.

Again, I think LaMelo is incredibly skilled. I just don't think he gets it.

I have never watched him play basketball and thought "man this dude is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to win." - and that whatever it takes can manifest itself in a million different ways that aren't "this guy is really skilled at putting the basketball in the hoop."

Franz seems genuinely angry and upset when the Magic lose, ya know?

And Moe Wagner is just a role player. Those guys aren't and shouldn't be held to the same standard as star players.

There's just a level of desire and you could even describe it as desperation that you like to see out of your best players where they put winning above everything else. Fair or not, I just don't really see that from LaMelo.

We’ll see what happens, in 2020 he was never supposed to be a good NBA player because his shot was broken, now the story is that he can never be a title winning first option player because he rubs his forearm twice after he hits an ankle breaker step back 30 footer en route to an efficient 44 on the leagues top defense. Not the worst trajectory to be on I suppose. You guys will hold a lot more “serious” players to a lot worse performances than you did LaMelo tonight for the rest of the year

Keep rewatching his highlights while you ignore the W/L record…

[SOUL]

Revisionist history much? As a NBA fan in GENERAL and a Magic fan in PARTICULAR, Melo was never gonna be as good as he is because he was alwqys injured and couldnt show us casuals what he was capable of. Now his story is the antics that he displays that paints him to be too immature to be part of those guys called " leaders of winning teams "

I think people aren't describing why the antics bother them though. Nobody cares if Curry is doing the night night thing or Anthony Edwards is talking ****. And LaMelo is incredibly skilled and cerebral playing the game instinctively, it just doesn't translate off court.

The issue is that a lot of people soured on the Ball family with the whole LaVar Ball stuff/Ball in the Family show and Melo still seems like a college dude just having fun in the league and enjoying that aspect of it more than anything.

It's extremely fair to say that sort of personality is not someone you want as a #1 no matter how good they are, but anybody watching any Hornets game seeing who is available or reliable can't seriously put it on him more than the overall talent.

[SOUL]

Keep rewatching his highlights while you ignore the W/L record…

Who would you trade him for if you were the Hornets though, if he's as bad as you think lol

[Knightro]

now the story is that he can never be a title winning first option player

Let’s see LaMelo be the first option player on playoff team before we make any sort of silly leaps to him being that guy on a title winning team, ya know?

The history of the NBA is littered with supremely talented guys who never won anything and *right now* LaMelo is certainly in that group.

[RookieStar]

Revisionist history much? As a NBA fan in GENERAL and a Magic fan in PARTICULAR, Melo was never gonna be as good as he is because he was alwqys injured and couldnt show us casuals what he was capable of. Now his story is the antics that he displays that paints him to be too immature to be part of those guys called " leaders of winning teams "

I think people aren't describing why the antics bother them though. Nobody cares if Curry is doing the night night thing or Anthony Edwards is talking ****. And LaMelo is incredibly skilled and cerebral playing the game instinctively, it just doesn't translate off court.

The issue is that a lot of people soured on the Ball family with the whole LaVar Ball stuff/Ball in the Family show and Melo still seems like a college dude just having fun in the league and enjoying that aspect of it more than anything.

It's extremely fair to say that sort of personality is not someone you want as a #1 no matter how good they are, but anybody watching any Hornets game seeing who is available or reliable can't seriously put it on him more than the overall talent.

Yeah would agree on that. His history as Lavars sidekick plus his recent antics have painted melo as immature as they saw him in that Lithunia stint or WWE cameo.

Still... incredible talent though.