LaMelo Ball's Offense is Better Than Ever, and the Hornets Are Winning

A little over three months ago, Yahoo's Kelly Iko reported that shortly into his sixth season with the team, Charlotte Hornets' star LaMelo Ball would be "open to a trade" amid frustration with the organization.

Iko's report came out after a 4-11 start for the Hornets, with Ball being in-and-out of the lineup due to an ankle injury, and Brandon Miller being out since the second game of the season due to a shoulder injury.

With questions about how the organization was handling Ball's injury, as well as questions about whether or not there was a bright future for the former Rookie of the Year in Charlotte, Iko's report did not seem too ridiculous.

Until LaMelo opened X/Twitter and decided to post for the first time in four months, responding to Iko's post with a clown emoji.

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

Ball became part of conversations that were all too similar to those with two other point guards he was familiar with: Memphis' Ja Morant and Atlanta's Trae Young. The three of them were members of Team Durant during the 2022 NBA All-Star game, with Ball on the bench while the other two started.

The Hawks eventually did trade Trae Young this season to the Washington Wizards, and the Grizzlies shopped Ja Morant around seeking out a first-round selection, but nobody wanted to bite on the former All-NBA Second Team member.

Charlotte, in turn, never shopped Ball. Instead, they went about sticking to their plan to maximize the number of games he would play in this season after playing in fewer than fifty games in each of his last three seasons.

The Hornets lost their next three games after Iko's tweet. They had fallen to 4-14, and while Ball came out publicly to dispute the claim, was it so far off? A 4-14 start for a team that had not made the playoffs once since Ball was drafted, in fact, has gotten worse nearly every single year, is that the place for someone like LaMelo to stay and sit through the process?

Three months have gone by. The Hornets have gone 24-17 since their 4-11 start, including the team's first nine-game winning streak this century just before the All-Star break. They have catapulted themselves into a potential playoff spot, with a Play-In Tournament appearance all but likely at this point.

Best of all, LaMelo Ball has been the key to unlocking a Hornets team that, over the past fifteen games boast a 12-3 record with the league's second-best offensive rating, 10th-best defensive rating, fourth-best net rating (10.0), best offensive rebound percentage, second-best true shooting percentage, and third-best three-point percentage.

In LaMelo's 1,355 minutes on the court for the Hornets so far this season, he is No. 1 in the NBA in on-off offensive rating (+13.3) of players with a minimum of 200 minutes. Over his six seasons in the league, Ball has continually improved his on-off offensive rating, and last season he was sixth in the NBA with a +10.0.

Similarly, he's 38th in the league in DPM, with his offensive impact being a +2.9. His 2yRAPM has him at the sixth-best offensive impact in the league, and TimedecayRAPM has him with the second-best. To put it shortly: LaMelo makes the Hornets offense go.

It's not just him carrying the load; in fact, it's the team building that President of Basketball Operations Jeff Peterson has done to get here. He's added plenty of pieces with whom LaMelo plays well, such as star rookie Kon Knueppel.

One of the biggest needs surrounding Ball was adding shooters, so naturally, the Hornets found a rookie with the fourth overall pick who is putting up one of the best three-point shooting seasons ever. LaMelo Ball, who has often been compared to Steph Curry, found his Klay Thompson.

Over the last two months, Brandon Miller started to pop as well. He was nominated for Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January, and there was a realistic chance he would be able to make the NBA's All-Star Team this season.

It's added less of a scoring load for Ball as well. He's averaging under 20 points a night for the first time since his sophomore season, though his offensive play is arguably better than ever. What's important is that the Hornets, for the first time since selecting the former Chino Hills star in 2020, are not fully relying on LaMelo's scoring.

Just a season ago, the Hornets were 16-31 with LaMelo Ball in the lineup, going 3-32 without him. Just one year later, they are now 25-24 with him in the lineup, and a 3-7 record without him. They've started to put the pieces together, and for the first time in years, contention is within sight for the Hornets.