Despite LaMelo Ball clowning new trade rumor, Hornets should still listen to offers

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball is one of the most entertaining players in the NBA. He's marketable, fun, and by all accounts a really nice guy. Melo's also had plenty of stretches in his young career where he's looked like a legitimate franchise centerpiece and winning player.

But he can't stay healthy.

This is something that Hornets president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson simply has to consider if he's serious about building a winner. You can't commit $40 million to an always-injured star and then expect to build a good roster.

This is why Peterson should be listening to any and all trade offers for LaMelo that land on his desk. And no, Peterson shouldn't be overeager to trade Melo, but if a team comes along that is desperate and willing to overpay for Ball, you have to consider it. Getting a haul for LaMelo would be a wise move before his trade value plummets even further.

Listening to trade offers for LaMelo Ball is a difficult but smart move for the Hornets to make

This is a difficult reality for Charlotte, and an ironic one in light of Thursday's shenanigans in Hornets World, in which LaMelo used a single clown emoji to expose allegedly false reporting suggesting his desire to be traded.

🤡 https://t.co/JFzW4alF0k
— Melo (@MELOD1P) November 20, 2025

NBA insider Jake Fischer also pushed back in a big way on the LaMelo rumor, saying with "absolute certainty" that the Hornets are not looking to trade Melo (nor is Melo asking out) because they want to see what their team looks like fully healthy, particularly in regard to Melo, Brandon Miller, and rookie stud Kon Knueppel.

It makes sense that Charlotte's front office wants to see what the team looks like fully healthy; so do the rest of us!

The best outcome for the Hornets is that LaMelo's durability problem diminishes in the months and years to come, and Charlotte develops all of their young pieces (Ball, Miller, and a phenomenal rookie class) into a winner in the next few years.

That would be ideal, but it's probably not realistic. If you're Jeff Peterson, you simply have to realize the gravity of LaMelo's injury history and how it doesn't bode well for the rest of his career. Again, this doesn't mean that you're actively looking to trade Melo; it just means that you would be foolish not to listen to offers coming in.

Plenty of those offers will be a quick phone call and a declined trade request. But if the Hornets see an offer fall into their lap that would essentially mean they are fleecing someone of assets in exchange for LaMelo, they should probably do that deal, move on from the Melo era, and keep building something special around Knueppel and Miller.

- TRENDING STORIES FROM HORNETS ON SI -

LaMelo Ball mock trades: Finding the right split for star guard, Charlotte Hornets

It's already time to have a difficult conversation about 2025-26 Charlotte Hornets

Hornets' Kon Knueppel more impressive than Cooper Flagg to this NBA veteran

What LaMelo Ball's & Mason Plumlee's assignment to Greensboro means for the Hornets