Pat Connaughton Sticks Up for LaMelo Ball, Explains How Real His Desire is to Win

Just when much of the national media was starting to realize that LaMelo Ball is indeed a winning player who cares about basketball, the final week of his season had some pundits going back to their initial thoughts about him.

Obviously, the trip of Bam Adebayo intensified the conversation and probably more so than his two disastrous performances in the Play-In Tournament.

The reality is, the trip was far from malicious and difficult to tell if it was intentional. Sure, he shot the ball poorly against Miami, but it was just one of those nights. He had been on such a heater toward the end of the year that he was due for a bad night. And then the Orlando game, he was bothered by their physicality, just as everyone else on the roster was.

It's like the second Ball has a bad game on the big stage, folks in the national media are eager to slam him for it and dismiss the value he brings to the Hornets.

On Saturday, veteran wing Pat Connaughton was asked about LaMelo and his desire to win, giving an awesome response, showing how much Ball has matured.

#Hornets veteran Pat Connaughton on LaMelo Ball: "His desire to win is real. From the outside looking in I'm not sure anyone knows that. But I'm here to say it, he wants to win at the highest levels...we've got to continue teaching him how." pic.twitter.com/OUfbFWKBzb
— Nick Carboni (@NickCarboniWCNC) April 18, 2026

“His genuine, authentic desire to win and want to win is real. I think from the outside looking in, I’m not sure everyone knows that. But I’m here to say it, obviously experiencing it, he wants to win. He wants to win at the highest level. That’s his goals and he’s willing to do what it takes in order to do it. We’ve got to continue to teach him how and teach the rest of the team how.

“Earlier in the year, we were talking about the back-to-back against the Pacers and Toronto when we had an opportunity to win in one of them, and he threw a lob. He learned from that. There was growth there. There was a game a month later where he didn’t throw the lob. Simple little things like that show improvement and show improvement in the how to win. For him, he’s got all the talent in the world. His desire to win is what’s going to take him to that next level in his NBA career and what’s going to take the organization to the next level.”

Ball has held himself accountable after poor decisions or games, just like he did following the trip of Adebayo. He's not taking nearly as many low-percentage shots as he used to, but that was partially because he had no choice but to. Now, he's got shotmakers around him that spread the floor and allow him to playmake. Of course, every now and then, he'll take a shot that he probably shouldn't, but it's not as big a problem as it once was. Plus, he improved his defense tremendously this season. He cares.

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