LaMelo Ball (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
With the Charlotte Hornets headed towards another lost season, it may be time for general manager Jeff Peterson to trade LaMelo Ball and commence another lengthy rebuild.
LaMelo Ball is having the best season of his career thus far, averaging 30.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. But the Hornets (7-25) are tied with the Utah Jazz for the third-worst record in the NBA and will soon see their postseason drought extend to nine years.
With Ball in the midst of his prime, this is the ideal time for Peterson to maximize on the value of the franchise star. And Ball would have no shortage of interested teams if Charlotte decided to shop him.
Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz proposed a massive trade proposal that has Charlotte sending Ball to Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Keldon Johnson, Malaki Branham, Tre Jones, a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick and two 2027 first-round picks:
“The 23-year-old has enough experience now in his fifth season to become one of the leaders on the team yet is still young enough to grow with a core of Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle and Jeremy Sochan…
Trading Ball now while his value is possibly at his highest may be the best thing for the franchise. Jones, Johnson and Branham are all 25 or younger, and the Hornets pick up three first-round picks in exchange for Ball as well.”
The top 10 in One on One Shooting Talent
1. Cade Cunningham
2. Jayson Tatum
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
4. DeMar DeRozan
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo
6. Zach LaVine
7. LaMelo Ball
8. Kyrie Irving
9. Kevin Durant
10. James Harden— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) December 31, 2024
The Spurs (17-16) are currently in a play-in berth and just two games behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 6 seed in the west. Their rebuild is slowly but surely concluding, so this is an excellent opportunity another young star like Ball to complement Wembanyama.
LaMelo Ball Needs A Change Of Scenery
It’s awfully rare for NBA superstars to stick around long-term on a non-championship contender, and it already feels like Ball’s tenure in Charlotte is starting to wind down. He signed his five-year maximum extension in 2023, but the Hornets had a more promising long-term outlook at the time.
Recent NBA champions like the Los Angeles Lakers (Anthony Davis), Milwaukee Bucks (Jrue Holiday), and Boston Celtics (Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis) had to make a big trade to climb the mountaintop. So teams on the rise like San Antonio should be all-in on a blockbuster trade for a player like Ball.
REPORT: New Details Emerge About Multiple People On The Run After Two Bombs Found Following Terroristic Truck Attack That Killed 15 In New Orleans Before Sugar Bowl
Bourbon Street (Photo via Getty Images)
At least 15 people tragically lost their lives, and at least 30 people were injured after a crazed individual intentionally drove a truck into a crowd at Bourbon and Canal streets in New Orleans on New Year’s Day in what has been described as a terrorist attack, according to the FBI.
It happened just after 3 am, toward the end of New Year’s celebrations and just hours before the expected kickoff of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Caesars Superdome.
The FBI confirmed the identity of the suspected driver of the truck as Shamsud Din Jabbar.
It appears he was not alone in causing chaos in the city.
Investigators in New Orleans on Wednesday found two homemade bombs, per Gabriella Killet of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
