LaMelo Suggested the Bench Experiment, Peterson Owns the Minutes Restriction Decision

Keeping LaMelo Ball healthy is the main priority for the Charlotte Hornets.

The difference in production when he is unavailable is jarring from both an offensive and defensive efficiency standpoint. His length, creativity, skill, and playmaking ability are just something you can't replace, and over the years, the Hornets have had too much experience witnessing that.

To try and prevent injuries from continuing to bother the face of the franchise, the Hornets put him on a minutes restriction and even started bringing him off the bench in back-to-backs so that he could be on the floor in clutch time in the fourth quarter.

The Hornets caught hell for it with guys like Draymond Green, who has no idea as to what's going on, making the claim that Charlotte is tanking "right in front of our face" by "benching" him, and fans jumping to ridiculous conclusions that there was some sort of beef between LaMelo and head coach Charles Lee, when it reality, none of that was true.

Earlier this week, Hornets President of Basketball Ops Jeff Peterson hopped on The Kyle Bailey Show on Sports Radio WFNZ to discuss LaMelo's usage.

.@hornets EVP of Basketball Ops Jeff Peterson joined @KyleBaileyClub today as he broke down why they traded for Coby White, and what has been a massive key in keeping this team healthy over the last month.

Full Interview: https://t.co/THJGwxDWcv pic.twitter.com/wsML4UHd5O
— Sports Radio WFNZ (@wfnz) February 6, 2026

“Our medical performance staff, that’s led by Pat Chasse, and he has a team with him…they do a tremendous job. The players are the priority, so everything that the players need on a daily basis, nightly basis, they are making sure they get what they need to perform at their best. I challenged him this year to take a look at…and I know some of the fans don’t love the minute restrictions and things like that, but I’ll be the first to say that that’s on me. I wanted to be creative to figure out how we can make sure that guys are available and that they stay available. So if that means sacrificing a couple minutes here or there or being creative on a back-to-back, that came from me. Every player I’ve ever been around they want to play every minute of every game. They’re players, and they’re competitive, but at the same time everyone has to sacrifice a little bit at times to make sure we can stay healthy and be out there, compete, and give our best chance to win.”

Not only did Peterson take ownership of the decision to place LaMelo on a minutes restriction, but he also went on to say that it was not his idea to start him off the bench. That idea was actually brought up by LaMelo himself.

“LaMelo, he was great about it. He, Charles (Lee), and myself sat down, and it just shows his maturity and his willingness to win…initially, he was the one that said he would come off the bench in back-to-backs just to be able to finish games. So we tried that for a little bit and didn’t have as much success, then we tweaked again. LaMelo has been bought in.”

So yeah, this will extinguish all of the crazy narratives out there about Charles Lee.

The most important thing is that Ball is healthy. This team, while talented, goes absolutely nowhere if he is not part of the equation, so it's wise for Peterson and Lee to be smart and not have him log 35+ minutes per night. And you know what? It's working. During the Hornets' nine-game winning streak, Ball hasn't played more than 32 minutes in a single game and has played fewer than 30 minutes four times.

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