The downfall of Lamelo Ball needs to be studied. He went from being the rookie of the year and an all star in his sophomore season, to Hornets fans talking about trading him and leaving the franchise to Brandon Miller all in just 2 seasons.
Even if Charlotte wanted to trade him, his value is at an all time low at the moment.
Besides the problems with Lamelo’s defense and his efficiency, the most glaring issue is that he just doesn’t play games.
Last year he only played 22 games, and the season before that 36.
Sure, when he’s on the floor Ball is great at pushing the pace and his passing ability is elite.
I mean just look at these…
But this on its own doesn’t win you games. In 4 years with him as the franchise player, the Hornets only had 1 play in appearance. A 10 seed in 2022. Other than that, it’s the bottom of the East season after season.
Again, he’s missed a ton of games and the Hornets are a dumpster fire without him but last summer he got a 5 year 200 million dollar extension. All that, and the team is clearly going nowhere.
This season would be crucial for Lamelo in shifting the narrative. A fresh start with a new coach, Brandon Miller only getting better, and with a good defender on the perimeter in Josh Green, all that Ball needs to do is stay healthy, and try to at least get the 8th or the 9th seed in the play-in to secure 2 chances for the playoffs.
Failing to do so could get him in a situation similar to the one that Deandre Ayton is in.
This guy called himself the Dominayton, and for a guy that’s often settling for some weird flip shots at his size, that’s pretty funny. Entering his 7th season, we’ve never seen him consistently be aggressive and assertive in the paint, and it became clear early on that he was far from the best player in his draft class.
Side note btw, this is an absolutely stacked board. Re-drafting might drop him down to like number 6 or something.
When the Suns traded Ayton to the Blazers, I thought that he would be the top dog on this young and rebuilding squad. He would finally get to 20 points per game and people would talk about him in a positive way.
Instead, Deandre went from 18 points per game to 16 and a half, and his field goal percentage dropped a ton from the previous season. How in the world do you do that without a Devin Booker or a Kevin Durant on the team needing the ball?!
Combine that with the fact that he’s missed an average of 25 games per season in the last 5 years and you know you can’t rely on him.
Things have gotten so bad that Portland drafted a center with the 7th pick, and I guess that they’re not seeing Ayton with this team for much longer.
This is the exact same scenario for Zach Lavine as the Bulls have been desperately trying to get rid of him for almost 2 seasons but there’s 0 interest for him. Literally nobody is willing to spend some assets in order to get him.
This is because he’s coming off surgery and has three years and $138 million left on his contract.
The biggest reason however is the fact that Lavine has become the icon for empty calorie stats.
Guys around the league have formed this image of Zach that he gets his numbers but that never amounts to anything. His teams have never won.
Maaan, who knows what things could have looked like if this never happened…
When this happened in January of 2022, the Bulls were 27 and 13- the number 1 team in the East. Unbelievable.
Since then, Chicago went from a contender to completely breaking up the team. Trading away Derozan and Caruso. Again, the only reason that Lavine is the only one left from that core is the fact that no team in the league wants to trade for him. And that’s insane to think about.
What’s also crazy to me is how Jerami Grant could have been a role player on a championship contender, but instead he became a journeyman ending up in Detroit dead last in the east in 2021, then second to last the next year, before going to Portland and being the 13th seed in the west in 2023 and dead last again this past season. That’s 4 straight years of misery for a guy that could have helped a serious team.
Grant is another case of what could have been, if only he was willing to accept being a role player and stayed in Denver.
And sure, he got his 160 million dollar contract from the Blazers, and had a career high explosion of 49 points last season, but what does all of that mean when it’s all said and done…?
Now, if Grant chose this himself and knew what to expect, for Brandon Ingram things really came crashing down out of nowhere.
Ingram was on top of the world in 2022. He battled against the number 1 seeded Suns, and Phoenix barely got away alive in game 6.
All that without Zion? Maaan we thought that New Orleans would be a contender in the coming years.
But Ingram only played in 45 games the next season, and 64 last year. And at times the fit looked bad with Zion. Each guy kind of played better when the other was on the bench.
And then came the team USA debacle.