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Kendrick Perkins Floats Idea Hornets Are Trying to Tank LaMelo Ball’s Value For Trade
The Charlotte Hornets are coming off the most shocking result of the NBA season as they blew out the Oklahoma City Thunder in their home arena, 124-97. Brandon Miller scored 28 points and Kon Knueppel had 23 while LaMelo Ball added 16.
Based on that, you might think Ball is taking a backseat to his two ascending teammates. And according to Kendrick Perkins, the time has come for Ball to ask for a trade. Perkins was on the latest episode of The Road Trippin' Show with Richard Jefferson and Allie Clifton and said that the team now belongs to Miller and Knueppel. He also shared an anonymous text message he had received that accused the Hornets of trying to tank Ball's value so that they could trade him.
"They on this bulls--," said the text that Clifton read on the show. "Let's play Melo about 25-28 minutes a game so his numbers won't be high. So if they trade him they won't be trading a two-time All-Star. They will be trading a player that numbers went down. You see what I'm saying."
It is unclear why making Ball look less valuable would help them make a trade unless he and the person who texted him think that the fans wouldn't accept the team trading a two-time All-Star.
As for Ball's playing time, he started the year averaging 33 minutes a game through his first six games of the season and then he got hurt. As Ball missed six of the next seven games, Knueppel's minutes increased and he's been so good and shooting the ball at a historic pace that his numbers could decrease when Ball came back.
As it stands, Ball is averaging 19.7 points, 7.9 assists, five rebounds and 1.2 steals in a career-low 28.1 minutes a game. While the decrease in minutes has caused his field goal attempts and scoring to decrease, his assist and rebounding numbers have not suffered and he's shooting a higher percentage from three than last season and still taking 8.8 a game.
However many minutes he's playing, his trade value is already in the tank in the eyes of some people around the league. Five more minutes a night probably isn't going to change that.
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.