EMERGENCY POD: LaMelo Ball Leaving Hornets? | Trade Rumors EXPLODE Post-Report

EMERGENCY POD: LaMelo Ball Leaving Hornets? | Trade Rumors EXPLODE Post-Report

Fresh off of the heels of the last episode, breaking news. Emergency pod time. The Greensboro Swarm have acquired PJ Hall from the Mexico City Capitan. Only it only took Isaiah Moore and an international pick in 2026. I kid. I kid. We got some LaMelo Ball stuff to talk about, folks. Looks like the real deal. Is it the real deal? We’ll discuss it all today. LOH. Hold on. You are Locked on Hornets, your daily Charlotte Hornets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. In a minute, cuz we live. [Music] Emergency pod time. Haven’t had one of these in a minute. Have to do the shot. I have to do I have to do the Shams thing where I’m like I’m on my phone. I’m I’m important. I’m I’ve got texts flying in everywhere. Folks, Doug will tell you his sources in just a moment. That’s Doug Branson. Every hornetsboxcore.com. Also the producer of Yahoo Sports Daily with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fitton. I’m Walker Mail. Listen to me. WFNZ every weekday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Sports Radio 927 FM. Thanks for making Locked On Hornets your first listen. We are free and available anywhere you get your pods daily. And we mean it when we say anywhere you get your pods. Also, subscribe, like, rate us, do all that stuff that you do with your favorite YouTubers. And uh we are on the number one sports podcast network. That’s right. Locked on podcast network is the number one sports podcast network. Speaking of number one. Mhm. Speaking of him. Oh boy. All right. So, let’s just dive right into it. Kelly Eco of Yahoo Sports reported that LaMelo Ball is open to being traded by the Charlotte Hornets. Here’s what he writes with the first paragraph stating this quote. Following the Hornets disappointing road loss to the two and 13 Indiana Pacers, their fourth straight, dropping Charlotte to 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 4-11 record. Strays. Can we focus on the Strays? Yeah. Anyways, uh it’s unnecessary. Unnecessary. We got it. We got it. Star Guard LaMelo. Star Guard LaMelo Ball has grown increasingly frustrated with the organization and is open to a trade away from the franchise. Multiple league sources told Yahoo Sports. League sources say the front office is increasingly hesitant about cementing Ball as a long-term foundational piece and uh has become disillusioned with the 24year-old and is open to moving him. Ball has appeared in just nine games this season due to a right ankle injury. Despite Charlotte’s slow start, there have been a few bright spots, notably in Kipple and Ryan Cochrrener. Last thing here, should both sides decide to explore the trade market in the near future. Ball is still young enough to warrant intrigue around the league, but his albatross price tag may give pause to rival front offices. So, I repeat, Kelly Eco reports that LaMelo is open to being traded and he’s grown increasingly frustrated with the organization. League sources also say that the front office for Charlotte is increasingly hesitant about cementing ball as a long-term foundational piece. Doug, your thoughts? Uh, this feel this felt inevitable. uh things things around LaMelo Ball in the organization, particularly when he uh left with his latest injury uh that cost him several games with the right ankle impingement, an injury, we should note that was supposed to be addressed with, you know, surgical intervention in the off season. Uh there just seemed to be some weirdness around how the injury was being communicated uh when when he was supposed to be back and just the language around it, including from coach Charles Lee. It felt like uh people were, you know, being interrogated by the FBI and they were just being so careful with the language. Um you know, so I don’t I I don’t know. I don’t know what to think right now because this is we should say like it’s only one report, right? We’re not getting mult we’re not getting Shams and and all of the other folks, you know, backing this up yet. Uh we’re very early into this whole process. I don’t think he’s being traded tomorrow. Um and and a lot of this language is uh open to interpretation. I think like both both sides being open to a move is different from one side demanding a move or or one side being, you know, extremely interested in moving that player. So, you know, I I I think when I say it’s it was inevitable, I mean that LaMelo Ball is an extremely talented player that has not been able to stay on the floor and the Hornets have done a lot of losing. They’ve recently expressed interest in not doing as much losing and they also have a rookie class that looks really great right now and there there’s just a sense of like this team needs to move in a direction. What direction is that going to be? Is it going to be with LaMelo Ball or without him? A couple of years ago we would have said it absolutely 100% has to be with LaMelo Ball. He’s too talented. He’s too special. He creates advantages that only, you know, a select few NBA players can. He makes plays that only a select few players can. But then the injuries happened and and that changed everything. So, a couple things real quickly. Let me just, you know, this is one of those episodes, my man. Yeah, just one of those episodes. Just, you know, let me get me Let me get some some juice before before we start. Um, all right. Let me cook for a little bit cuz my thing is this is everything that hit me as we got this report. Doug, um, one, first thing that hit me, this is the first time that anybody of any stature has reported been on the record that LaMelo either wanted out or was open to moving on from Charlotte. Key thing, we’ve heard this before, but from fans, from people that are so in LaMelo’s corner that they want him away from Charlotte because the Hornets haven’t won anything. They’ve speculated and said LaMelo just seems like the kind of guy that would want out. Never have we ever seen anybody of any stature truly go on the record and say there is some validity to this. This is that first time. The other thing is you have to ask, is it true? Kelly Eco, he has written about LaMelo before. January 25th, 2023, when Kelly was with the Athletic, he wrote a piece on LaMelo, kind of profiling him, saying, “LMO ball, an accidental rebuild and the pursuit of happiness.” Not a whole lot of things to note in there. Just kind of LaMelo being the fun-loving guy that he is, really cool to be around, competitive, all that stuff. Nothing in there that I think would pertain to what’s going on right now. To be clear, when we ask, “Is this report true?” LaMelo would quote tweet it about an hour later with a clown emoji above it. So, LaMelo responded. We already got a response from LaMelo. He quote tweeted the article. All we saw from him was a clown emoji. Another question I have is, could this be the Hornets putting this out there? But that would be shady if the Hornets framed it in a way that LaMelo is the one that’s growing frustrated with us. It’s not us. No, no, no, no, no. Even if in this report you can see that the Hornets are increasingly hesitant about cementing ball as a long-term foundational piece. The other thing to note is in this report, Kelly says league sources. I don’t know if I’m taking out the magnifying glass and making too much of this. He didn’t say it’s not team. It’s not team sources. It’s not team sources. That’s exactly right. So when he says league sources and then he gives us some intel as to what other league execs are saying about LaMelo’s value, do they really know? Do they really know? And then to your last point before we move on, when you said it’s not Shams, it’s not Brian Winhor, there is no woge to quote tweet this or back it up. I Kelly Kelly, we deserve to have an emergency pod when Kelly drops something. This isn’t any shade to Kelly Eco, right? We’re here because somebody of stature put this out there. But it feels like when you clear all the hurdles and make it official, it’s not until Brian Winhorse or the player or Sham Shirania puts it out there. And so we’ll see if this thing is backed up. I’m sure people are calling. I’m sure they’re getting to their contacts right here, right now. But we haven’t had the end all beall report on this. I’ll send it to you. Yeah, there are to me there are levels to this thing and I’ve talked often on this show about how Sham’s in he to me is an information marketer in that he he has a lot of connections and a lot of those connections are to uh team representatives and agents. the the two sides of this of this coin here and they all have agendas and they all work those agendas through a a few information marketers. I think the the king of them right now being shops. Yeah. So there So that’s that’s what I mean. There are levels to that. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t other reporters. It doesn’t mean that Kelly uh doesn’t have sources that are telling him things. It’s just if you’re a player and you want to get moved, you know, your agent can can make that h or can accelerate that process or can start that process. I don’t think they’re going to go to Kelly Eco. I think they’re going to go to shops. So, to me, this is the beginning of something and it’s not even necessarily the end of something. It does. To me, this doesn’t uh actually mean that it it will inevitably end in a trade. I just when I say it was inevitable at the beginning of the show, I meant it it felt inevitable that something like this was going to come out. I think I’ve expressed on the show before that I’m surprised it it has taken this long for it to happen. And I think a big part of why it didn’t happen until now has been the injuries because you really you can’t express that frustration uh or at least you can’t be taken seriously to express that frustration when you have been on the floor as little as LaMelo has. And you’re even getting some of that sort of response now of like the hot dog meme, you know, like yeah, why are they losing? Who did this? You know, who’s responsible for this, right? Um so you’re getting that natural response now. Um, so you know, I think we we’ll see if we hear from the team. There are levels to this. This is going to play out. I don’t think it’s going to I don’t think anything’s going to happen in the next week. Although, I will just caution that we live in a post Luca world where anything is possible. So, I’m not going to discount that a week from now a major deal happens and LaMelo LaMelo is gone. Um, but but it would it would surprise me. All right, I got plenty more thoughts. Duh. Coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast on PJ Hall. Yeah, everywhere. It’s a real team, by the way, in case anybody didn’t know. The Mexico City Capitan. Uh, you just gained a new fan. We’ll give you some more thoughts on LaMelo Ball. Is this real? What other things to note? And then we’ll explore. Got to do it. Bill Simmons style. Some fake trades coming up next. L who says no? [Music] Fire up the trade machine, baby. I know. I was looking at it. I was looking at the payrolls all across the league. This episode is brought to you by Quo. 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Very, very, very, very big difference. I understand the sentiment, but I do think just from an NBA standpoint, do you think GMs see what Nico did and feel empowered? I think every I think the fans begging for him to get fired every single game. It was the same thing as Bane putting the back of the fingertips on the NBA saying, “Do you feel in charge here?” because eventually he’s not. And then he got fired. I I I do think that’s at play as we start to figure out just how frequently these stars of the NBA teams are going to get traded. Yeah. I actually wonder like how much of a pulse the ownership group and Jeff Peterson have on where the fan base is. and and and I and honestly I view this ownership group as being more engaging, being more front-facing, uh being more on the ground level of where fans are. And I think uh Evan Hail, the the Super Hornet super fan who helps me with every Hornets’s box score, you know, he shout out, he communicates with Schlotkin. And so I much more so than the distance that Michael Jordan I think by necessity had to create between himself and the media and himself and the and the directly with the fans because he’s Michael Jordan like no one’s no one’s you know rushing uh Schlotkin on the street uh you know to that point Michael Jordan in my whole time being on air or being a part of the media in Charlotte was on air or spoke to media once that I think that was in 2013 or 2014. It happened exactly one time. But anyways, go ahead. To prove your point, right? So I I actually I if if they did have a pulse, I I would I would believe it more so than the previous ownership group. Okay. So I’ll say that and you and I we interact with fans every day. And I’ll just say in the macro over the past two or three seasons and you know five to seven ankle injuries, I have noticed a shift in the fan sentiment between there’s absolutely no way we can get rid of LaMelo Ball. He’s too important. Two, if we get rid of LaMelo Ball, it better be for something amazing to, and I don’t know, I wouldn’t put a percentage on it, but I would say more and more people are saying to me and the Siko satchel and every Hornets box score, uh, anywhere where I interact with fans being like, I’m I’m tired. I’m tired of this. I’m, you know, I think they there’s still a sentiment of like, you got to get something back. But it’s not there’s not going to be effiges of Schlotkin being burnt and beaten with bats outside of Spectrum Center. That’s not going to happen if LaMelo Ball were traded. It still doesn’t release the organization of an obligation when you trade someone of that uh with that kind of contract and that kind of talent to to put your franchise in a position. It’s not such a negative contract that it’s like it’s addition by subtraction. It’s not. And if you think that, you’re wrong. If you like what you’ve seen from Khan Caniple, a lot of that has come from the gravity that that LaMelo creates and the plays that LaMelo directly creates for Khan. Khan is not capable of doing the things that LaMelo Ball does right now. Maybe he will be someday. We’ve been talking about that on the show, but it ain’t happening now. And it would help if you had playmakers to help Khan develop in that way. So, they better if they do something. It it can’t just be, well, we’ll get some picks and kind of figure it out over the next couple years. No, you would just be putting yourself back into the same position that you’ve been in the past 10 years, which is constant resets, constant having young good players that you don’t have enough veterans around to actually develop and you’re just back in the same position again. I don’t want to get to fake trades yet, but immediately you go to teams that might need a point guard or help offensively and I look at the Hornets. If they trade LaMelo, they’re going to need a point guard. We’ll be making the joke, ah, they should get a guy like that. They they should they should get a guy like that. I want to go back to the other point where you said it felt inevitable. I completely understand what you mean and completely agree because I don’t know just people that are in the Hornet sphere that haven’t reported on it but they like us do have a pulse of the fans and they do see what’s playing out because they’re able to make educated guesses and then so those same people at least on my Twitter timeline and what people have been saying they go to Twitter and say feels like it’s been heading this way for the last couple of weeks Now, when you say it’s inevitable, I think that’s kind of what you’re touching on just to just a tad because okay, you’re right. If it feels like it’s been heading this way for the last couple of weeks, it’s probably just a matter of time on who wants to be first with the story. And I don’t say that in a derogatory way towards Kelly Eco. He’s tapped in to the NBA. He has sources, what he calls league sources, which I I think league does matter here. So league sources. So when he says that he multiple too, I think multiple here plural that matters also. So now when you just shoot the bleep with guys in the no and they start talking about LaMelo and now maybe these people that you’ve talked with in the NBA have had conversations with Jeff Peterson, they’re friends with Jeff Peterson, they’re friends with Schlotkin, maybe just Plain, maybe just Schnel, whatever. Right? You talk to mult you hear somebody say something interesting. Now you go check that source with another one and they say something that actually confirms what you heard the first time. Now you got multiple baby. All I need is two. I’m not saying that’s exactly how it played out. I’m saying that this is kind of how it goes because people are checking in like you you can see it feels like feels a little warm in here. Do you see smoke? No. But I smell it. Right. Like you smell the smoke before you see it before you see the fire. feels like people smell it and LaMelo’s trying to put it out with the clown emoji and maybe that’s correct. Maybe it’s not LaMelo saying this. Maybe it is the Hornets just talking with people. Yeah, you know, LaMelo’s kind of getting frustrated with the plan that we have with the injuries. Like, I don’t know. I’m throwing out a whole bunch of possibilities as to how we get here. Here being the first time we’ve ever had anybody of any stature go on the record with multiple league sources and say LaMelo wouldn’t mind being out. Well, so let me clean up some stuff because you mentioned people checking in and it made me realize and you name checked both of the owners and and it made me realize people are checking in probably on this podcast that haven’t been with us for a while. When I say schlotkin, what I’m referring to there is that the Hornets, the Charlotte Hornets have two uh primary governors uh in in Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnull. But it’s a mouthful to constantly say Gabe Plain and Rick Schnull. So we just came up with Schlotkin as a port manto of of those two. A portman two if you will. Uh so that’s what we when we say Schlotkin that’s what we mean to to your point as well there. And just to touch on ownership um they’re at the games in a way where they’re on the court and very visible. Not in the Michael Jordan is sitting close enough to smack Malik Monk in the back of the head kind of way, but in a way. No physical abuse. No physical abuse as of now that we know of. Yeah. Right. They they they say like hello or like they’re they’re around, man. They’re very visible. You don’t as long as you know what they look like, which not as many people do as much as they did MJ, but if you know what each of them look like, you see them around and they’re around the fans. And you’re right. It’s a great point to bring up, Evan, because he did get a hold of a man and and ownership does seem to care a slight degree. I I say slight, these are, you know, but but they’re around. It’s a good point that you bring up and I I do want people to understand that and recognize the significance. Well, look, they have to do what’s in the best interest of both their organization and they they they also have other people in this ownership group. So, there’s a financial obligation as well. So, they can’t just like go on the whims of fans. But to the back to the Nico point is that if you that’s the D if you don’t have the pulse of the fans, it it it can make you make bad decisions too. And so that’s all I meant by that. We should note uh before we move on that the Charlotte Hornets have also tweeted since this whole thing went down about 25 minutes ago. uh they put out a video uh a video clip from the Hornets as a team visiting Khan Canipple’s family house and all getting together and interestingly enough uh LaMelo was the center of that clip eating some food almost getting dunked on by one of K I believe it was one of Khan’s yes his little brother uh almost dunking on LaMelo ball but he is the it’s not just like he’s in one clip he is the face of this clip so I don’t know if this was a scheduled tweet I don’t know if this was on purpose. I don’t know what’s going on here. If we’re getting some communication from the Charlotte Hornets trying to It’s not a clown emoji, but maybe trying to deflate some of these rumors. They have been very online, the Hornets have with some of this and especially you you know how much of a tight-knit group they are. You know, they were I believe they were at Miles Bridges’s baby shower. The whole team went there, right? You’re talking about them being very tight-knit where Mason Plumbley in his however many years in the NBA has never experienced going to a player’s house in his hometown to go have dinner with the whole family. Like they they they appreciate that. They put that out there. They’re open about it and I would say that they’re this is intentional. It it it looks to be intentional and I understand it, you know, trying to quiet it down and maybe there’s nothing to quiet down is their point. Okay. We speaking of obligations, we have an obligation as a podcast to to do some trade, you know, scenarios, you know, just kind of game this out. Have a little It’s a little fun and also a little scary. We should do that coming up. Okay. But before we do this, I I do want to float a theory. And this is a theory and it’s not, you know, I you and I are not reporters, right? We can just like clear that up right now. Do you consider yourself a reporter? I shouldn’t speak for you. No, I don’t. Well, no, I I don’t. Right. I’ve never gone to Twitter. I reported once on Bart Lundy, a Queens men’s basketball coach that went to UL Milwaukee. Bart Lundy. Now, Bart Lundy is a great that’s just a fantastic name. Just great basketball mind. Love him to death. Shout out to Bart Lundy. That’s the only thing I think I might have ever reported on. Anyways, to your point, no, I’m not a reporter myself that apppropo of nothing. Uh Charlotte gets the best names. Like there’s a Biff Poe, right? Uh there’s a Bart Lundy. I mean, just Bart Lundy’s the man by the way. You know what he Hey, all those Charles Lee haters, look at Bart Lundy. It all he does is win games, baby. So anyways, yeah, to your point, no, I do not consider myself to be a reporter. Okay. I just wanted to clear that up as we as we move along this process. But I do have a theory that I want to throw at you. We have you and I have sensed weirdness around this particular injury and getting LaMelo Ball back on the court. And maybe there was frustration on both sides. That happens. You’re talking about humans interacting with humans. Maybe there was frustration. When there is frustration, sometimes that gets shared with other people. And sometimes those other people share with other people and suddenly the narrative gets out of control where maybe there wasn’t there was some frustration there but there wasn’t a story there to be shared until it gets you know two or three levels deep. And so if I’m putting my uh rose tinted, my lamelo tinted uh glasses on here, um you know, m maybe this whole thing is those frustrations boiling over a little bit and maybe now all the sides can come together and get this cleared up and move forward. Um because we can and we’ll talk about this coming up to move LaMelo is not an easy task. If you think it’s going to be easy because you’ve seen the highlights of LaMelo and you’re like, “That’s a special player.” Who wouldn’t want him? The plenty of teams need a point guard. The Clippers need a point guard. Send them back to California. Uh, you know, Sacramento, they’re always looking to do something crazy. Orlando, they can’t put the ball in the bucket to save their lives. They need somebody. Okay. Big contract, lots of injuries. It’s going to be difficult. the the the Hornets uh would I think would ultimately be better off if all of this gets settled in a way that doesn’t necessarily result in a trade. And so maybe that’s part of what what we’re what we’re witnessing here. That Hornets tweet was loud and on purpose. It was they didn’t schedule it for 710. I can tell you that they did not do that. Oh man, LaMelo. It is all LaMelo. And then it says at the very end, you can go check it out. happy. They’re laughing. It’s family. We’re a family. It is. It is family. That it is. The final thing I’ll say too before we move on, Nikkias Duncan said, “I am highly annoyed with the Charlotte news just like, you know, Nikias being I don’t I don’t know if you would call him a reporter, just a hardcore smart basketball mind who really is one of the best basketball minds out there.” He said, “Oh, I couldn’t be more annoyed by the Charlotte News.” lol, you know, whatever that means. He didn’t click. Well, the stray Well, we’ve noticed that this the strays have they haven’t necessarily gone away. You’ve been tracking them uh you know, very very studiously. Yeah. They haven’t necessarily gone away, but they’ve been countered by, you know, good reports about Khan Canipple, um, and and other things about the rookie class and the way that Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee have operated this entire thing. So, yeah, it is slightly annoying now to have to deal with what I think will, you know, I think generally be regarded as like the Hornets messing this up somehow. Yeah. For a bunch of reasons. All right, coming up next on the Locked On Hornets podcast. PJ Hall, let’s get to it. Sorry, I forgot what this whole pod was for. PJ Hall coming up last segment next. [Music] This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. If you haven’t tried it yet, prize picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup, and you can play anywhere Prize Picks operates, including California, Texas, and Georgia. The new stacks feature on Prize Picks is a game changer. You can now pick more on Steph’s points, threes, and assist in the same lineup. Plus, if one of your players leaves early with an injury, the injury reboot saves your lineup from a loss. I love that feature. Download the Prize Picks app today. Use code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on NBA for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup prize picks. It’s good to be right. More Locked on Hornets ahead. Haven’t gone to this part yet. And one of the other things that hit me first outside of just trying to break it down for the people what we should be evaluating, I got sad. I really did cuz I watched the faction that everybody knows about, the LaMelo hardcore stands, right? A lot of the LaMelo stands can’t stand Charlotte. It is what it is. They can’t stand us. They can’t stand some people that talk about it. It is what it is. It’s all good. Melo stands going at it with Hornets fans who really just want the Hornets to be good. Some of them are so done with LaMelo they can’t stand it. Some of them I feel like are looking at it pretty reasonably. Hey man, I just don’t know if this is going to work anymore. This is after all the fourth season of this happening. You kind of chronicled the fan reaction to LaMelo. We can’t get rid of him at any cost. I mean, it it it’s part of the sadness. We can’t get rid of them. All right. If you’re going to get rid of them, then I want all of the picks and all of the pick swaps. Now, it’s it probably just makes sense to hit the refresh button and you can’t hit the refresh button and have LaMelo survive it. So, I varying takes all over the place, but lots of combative nature when all I can go back to is the first year when we were having conversations about LaMelo being an MVP caliber player that was happening. Rookie, Rookie of the Year, immediately good. You’re an all-star the second season and you deserved it. Even if he was an all-star reserve, that happens. Immediate reserve. Deserved to be in the All-Star game. Had moments in the All-Star game. Looked good on a national stage. That was fun. And since then, you know, gets to the playin tournament. You’re moving the right direction with adequate enough talent around you. Now, here we are the fourth season where it’s just not working. And people are arguing about, you know, what a fun basketball player he is. And if we really can’t see this through, if the goal that was set for the Hornets by ESPN.com at the beginning of the season, the goal being, can we watch the basketball team? That’s the goal. Can we watch them? But we can’t because LaMelo hasn’t been healthy enough. So, if we can’t achieve the watching the basketball team goal and then we watch a guy that we had legitimate MVP aspirations about leave with like getting a couple first and maybe some intriguing players. I don’t know what the package would be. Made me sad, man. It would it would be an unfortunate and underwhelming outcome based on where we were when you drafted the rookie of the year third overall. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s it represents the most clear and understandable path to relevancy is LaMelo Ball playing at an all-star level with Coniple, with Brandon Miller. Um, also, you know, sealing out uh that that represents a clear opportunity for the Charlotte Hornets to be relevant. And so, you it doesn’t mean that they can’t be in the next couple of years if they trade. It’s just like they have to get they have to get everything right. And it’s so it’s so rare for Charlotte as a franchise to stumble on a player of his talent level um in in the draft in the way that they did. Um and so to to not see even one single playoff playoff game, one single playoff game, that would be immensely sad. Um, I’ll also say that, you know, to me, if he ultimately does get traded, I don’t think it’s going to be because of the injuries or any even any frustration around the injuries. I think ultimately when it gets reported out, it’s going to be due to frustrations that were not resolvable between LaMelo Ball and Charles Lee and the offensive changes that they’re trying to make and the discipline that they’re trying to install and the and the I think the ascendancy of this rookie class in particular Khan Canipple and possibly Brandon Miller as well. Just all of that not functioning in the way that LaMelo Ball enjoys and that Charles Lee demands. I think those things running into each other would ultimately be the demise of this thing, but I I still don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion. Oh, no. I do not think that at all. We we are still very much so in the information gathering process. It’s just again it’s the first time that we’ve seen something worthy of an emergency podcast. Yeah. I mean it it that so we so we give the people that what but but if it happens if it does happen, how would you rank? I we don’t even need to like talk specific players. Maybe we can do that. We can do that tonight if you want to. I mean, there’s a couple of ideas, but just in terms of the structure of the deal, how do you rank how the Hornets could trade LaMelo Ball in terms of what you think would be best for the franchise? Part of the problem with these types of shows, it’s not that you don’t have enough content. Those are the July and June problems. It’s that I don’t know how to organize all of the content. That’s the issue with this type of show because the reason I bring that up is because I already have this locked and loaded. I I wrote down within a minute’s worth of time after seeing the report about 15 20 different bullet points and I thought all of them were important to note. One of them being what you just asked. What would the Hornets look for? There’s two different ways you can go here. You could either go after future assets and interesting younger players. So, you know, first round picks, whatever the future assets are with reclamation projects that are enticing, injured, really good, younger players and guys that the other team doesn’t love, but is clearly a valuable player, just it’s not working with that team. You could go that route or you could go the route of trading LaMelo alongside a couple of the draft picks that you’ve accumulated in your own trades and then go after an even bigger fish or something really valuable. I you could I don’t think the timeline would work on it, but LaMelo I mean just the crazy one the real crazy one is Giannis is done with Milwaukee. You give him LaMelo in all the picks, right? Like just whatever. So just that kind of idea. I’m not really putting that out there, but it’s out there. So those are the two ways that you would do it. I think much more likely it would be the first scenario that I gave you. It would be future assets, interesting young players, guys that would help you be entertaining and beat the worst teams in the league while also probably not getting to a playoff spot, maybe sealing get to the play end. Does that sound right to you? Yeah. To me, I break it down this way. the the most desirable thing you could do is go to a team and demand three picks, ultimately take back two and like a swap and then maybe some young players a bad contract to make all the money work. And then you do what you suggested at the beginning of the show, which is then in in a year or two, you pivot you four, five, six, however many picks it takes to go out and land your big fish. and say, “All right, we traded LaMelo. It took us a year or two to replace him, but this is, you know, this is what we’ve landed on. This is now the player that this was our ultimate idea. We had this plan from the very beginning when we made the trade. This is what we wanted to do.” To me, that’s like number one. Number two would be uh I guess the idea that you suggested of like trying to go get the big fish now. The downside to that would be the timelines don’t work that you wouldn’t be guaranteed anything and you might be left with nothing at the end of the day and you’ve decimated your ability to actually make something happen in the future and you weren’t even sure about how Brandon Miller was going to hold up body-wise or Coniple was going to develop. Okay, scenario number three which would be the worst of all the scenarios would be the mess for mess trade. So, we’re talking about doubt lamelo jing mess for mess, you know. Are you introducing uh culture problems uh galore? Um or you go what would some other mess for mess ones be? Oh, I got I got one. Yeah. I mean, but the thing is I’m kind of intrigued with it. Uh LaMelo for Zion, right? LaMelo for Zion. Yeah. again. And if the and I don’t see this ever happening if the core issue is between LaMelo and Charles Lee. If that is and if that ends up being the core issue, then that wouldn’t make any sense. And that and that point I would go, does the ownership group, are they on the same page as Charles Lee anymore? If that’s what we’re doing, uh you could go mess for or or just injury mess for injury mess and look at Dallas who Kyrie’s out for a while. They want to win. Cuban says they want to win. They’re not interested in trading AD, but kind it feels like kind of you gotta if you want to win. Uh so you go AD for LaMelo the Hornets. You’d have to give something up, right? I would think. I mean, you’d got to give up two picks, whatever a pick. Like I That’s it. No, and this is the thing though. The value is tough to gauge for AD for sure and LaMelo. I I don’t know what the value is for LaMelo. That’s tough. You’re right. And that’s the all the deals that we talked about. You could throw Trey Young into there. Uh because Atlanta, it looks like they’ve got Jaylen Johnson as a future star. Jaylen’s been hurt. They’ve been winning. So maybe there’s an idea that they could get a pick or something from the Hornets and move. I don’t know. I don’t know that one makes much sense. Well, can can you can you imagine Jeff Peterson telling Can you imagine? There you go. It’s been a while. Can you imagine Jeff Peterson going down to the court and telling Charles Lee, “Hey, we got rid of LaMelo. I know you’ve been frustrated.” If Charles Lee is truly frustrated with LaMelo, hey, we got rid of him. Oh, okay. Awesome, man. Who do we get? Trey Young. Oh my god. Anyways, go ahead. Uh, but so my my ultimate point here is that if if that ever became the case, that’s going to be like months, maybe a year plus down the road, and there are going to be many more of these reports. And LaMelo, you know, really putting the sticks to the Hornets to move move me because I’m not I’m not interested in playing. I’m not interested in doing this anymore. Making a real stink of things. And then that’s when the mess for mess trade. I don’t see this organization doing the mess for mess trade like right off the cut. Like all right, we we just got to go. We’re being impatient. We’ll do whatever it takes right away. I think they’re going to explore every opportunity to make if they even explore a trade at all. They’ll do it in the best interest of the franchise first and try to be as patient as possible until they have no other choice. What about mess and stuff? For instance, let’s get into the actual details of some of this stuff. What about like I’m not saying all these make sense. I’m just having fun. I’m just we’re just asking questions. We’re just asking questions. That’s all we’re doing. Anytime anyone says who says no, the answer is immediate. It’s like who says no? And then like 10 people go well these 10 these people obviously would say no. Um yeah. So okay. So, you were going with mess for mess. What about mess for a little bit of your mess, but if you’re going to we’re going to clean up your mess, then we want some goodies as well. Could you talk Daryl my just good oldfashioned talent acquisition that he’s loved so much and doesn’t really care about positions. So, you put LaMelo alongside Tyrese Maxi and VJ Edgecom, but that’s too many guards, right? So you take on Paul George, Jared McCain, picks one, whatever, and you get rid of LaMelo and Pat Coneton to make all the money work. That’s one I have. Yeah, I think Daryl my would say no to that. I think he would. I I I Yeah, he would. He would. Um Okay, so that’s exactly what Philadelphia needs is another player with an injury history. They would You’d at least be swapping one. Oh, so the same thing with AD. uh this people have mentioned Garland in this conversation too and that’s the same kind of and and John Morant you know it’s a lot of players that can’t stay healthy and it’s like all right we’ve explored every other option nothing works let’s just roll the dice and hopefully uh you know karma will will shine upon us each um the the teams that I had a hard time making it work um Orlando could be done it’ be Jaylen Suggs Anthony Black because Orlando’s offense is still bad. They tried to fix it with Desmond Bane, but it’s still bottom 10. And are are they just done with like with being terrible offensively for the last 20 years? And so like I thought Orlando was off the table, but now they’re still bad offensively. If this continues, then hey, stop playing around. We want Jaylen S. We want Anthony Black. And you can fix your offensive problems. Maybe give us a pick, whatever. Take it or leave it. No. Okay. Well, your offense is still going to be terrible. I hope divisions don’t matter because to me of all the trades, this one makes the most sense. To me, it just because Orlando, not only have they been bad at offense for many years, it just seems like they desperately want to win in that like special way that results in weird trades. uh they just feel like they have a championship window that is opening for them and they’ve got you know Paulo and Fron and they’re just getting it seems like they’re itchy in that way that could open up some opportunity. It’s just are they willing to take on that massive money risk which is going to be the question that every front office asks themselves before they make a deal for LaMelo Ball. Um, so remember the the teams that always made the most sense when we were having these conversations last off season, two offseasons ago, it was always Orlando, Houston, San Antonio. So it’s harder to make it happen with San Antonio in my opinion. Houston, they’re number one in offense right now. I guess we don’t know how real that is. And they have Fred Van Vleet. Do you trust Reed Shepard without Fred Van Vleet this year to where you just don’t need a point guard if you can try that? But again, I I don’t you know, no. All three of those teams, I I can’t see it. Orlando’s the most likely. You for Houston. I mean, they’re number one in offense right now. They don’t have a point guard. Like, and they’re number seven in defense. They’re not going to do anything to mess that up until until it messes up. And that’s why I say like I think this is going to be a longer process. um you know if again if we’re heading in that direction, if a trade ultimately is inevitable, it’s just going to be a process of trying to trying to game this out towards the trade deadline and seeing if like you know if if Houston does um you know hit a huge skid and and could all be traced back to their lack of good point guard play, then maybe that opens something up. Three more points. Uh Kangs Kangs uh Sabonis Sabonis got hurt as this report came out though. So, uh, that was my deal. That was Yeah, I know. That was my deal that made made a lot of sense. Proves your theory that as soon as you speak it into existence, it ceases to exist. So, anyways, if you want them to be true, don’t speak about it. Um, this is the one that I feel like kind of the best about in terms of it happening. Wow. This is the last one. So, who’s a team that’s actually bad offensively, needs to win right now, pretty good defensively, and they’ve got that stuff figured out for the moment, and they would be willing to take on this risk and would fit the kind of style that they might want to play offensively. I went Golden State. Oh, you know what? I I almost said Clippers, but as you were saying that, so when this news hit, I was I was at dinner with the family and I was scroll doing a little bit of scrolling and just kind of thinking in my head. You and I did a little texting back and forth just to kind of get our what team’s thoughts together. And I didn’t type it and so I can’t prove this. I just, you know, you if you want to think that I’m just talking out of my belief, that’s fine. But I did think to myself, wait a minute. Yeah. Would Golden State would Golden State do something like this? I think I think there’s a possibility. I really do. So, here’s what you do. If you’re Jeff Peterson and you’re Schlotkin, you say you you say, “Can you ask Steph if he wants to come home?” Steph says no. Then you move on. Now, the next stage is they want to get rid of Jonathan Kaminga. Yeah. And so now you could go after the draft class that they had a couple of years ago. like both of the guys, Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody, don’t know what the picks would be. Um, the problem is you can’t trade for Kaminga until January 15th because he signed this off season. So, you’d have to wait a little while. It doesn’t seem to be with all of the fun at the Kamemen Nipple household doesn’t seem to be urgent. So, if you still wanted to do this, it would have to be again past January 15th. But the trade would be something to the tune of LaMelo for Kaminga, Moses Moody, picks, whatever it may be. But it would have to happen after the new year and a guarantee that Steph plays his last season in Charlotte, like two seasons from now. That would have to be just a little wink wink. That’s all we need. All right, that’s all that’s all we need. That’s all we need, Steph. Okay, that’ll do it. I don’t know how real any of this is. It was a fun pod, though. Do we even do a podcast? Um, are we in some sort of simulation? Uh, I I can’t answer that question tonight. Maybe if I have a few more light beers, maybe I could answer it then. I do know one thing. Still reality. I do know one thing. We’ll be back next week to talk all about all the developments and uh more Hornets basketball games. should be more clown emojis, more it’s going to be really interesting. I I’m I’m in, man. I’m so This is No, I’m I’m re-energized now. This is re-energizing me. Uh Khan Canipple is re-energizing me. I think we’re in store for the most interesting season of Hornets basketball. I would say even more interesting than the playoff season. it it’s not going to be as successful, but it could be more the most interesting season in in the on the court weird way and not the offthe court weird way, but the most interesting season in Charlotte Hornets uh recent history and I’m I’m I’m glad to uh be potting about it with you, my friend. Well, same here. Like are are the tectonic plates shifting or are they going to stay together? Like that’s why it’s so interesting because we could be moving on to a different era. Like LaMelo has defined an era of Hornets basketball. We’ll we’ll call this when it ends, whenever that is, we’ll call it the LaMelo era and and it will represent all of his amazing talent and all of the shortcomings. Unless they don’t trade him and he works on those shortcomings and leads the Hornets to some kind of playoff game success, then all of a sudden that the the narrative can abs it absolutely has the opportunity to change. Um,

A shocking report suggests LaMelo Ball might be open to a trade from the Charlotte Hornets following a disappointing start to the season. We analyze the validity of the rumors, LaMelo’s social media response, and what a potential blockbuster deal could look like.

Emergency podcast time. A report from Yahoo Sports’ Kelly Iko has sent shockwaves through Buzz City, claiming LaMelo Ball is “open to a trade” and the organization is hesitant about his future as a foundational piece. Walker Mehl and Doug Branson react immediately to the news, dissecting the validity of the “league sources” cited and discussing whether this is actual fire or just smoke from a frustrated camp.

The guys analyze LaMelo’s social media response—a simple clown emoji—and the team’s strategic release of a bonding video featuring Ball at rookie Kon Knueppel’s family home. Is this damage control, or is the report overblown? We look at the timeline of events, the mounting losses, and the lingering injury frustrations that may have led to this boiling point.

Furthermore, if the unthinkable happens, what does a LaMelo Ball trade look like? Walker and Doug fire up the trade machine to explore potential destinations, including a “mess for mess” swap involving names like Zion Williamson or Ja Morant, a talent consolidation with the Orlando Magic, or a move to the Golden State Warriors involving Jonathan Kuminga. The conversation shifts to how a move would impact the timeline of young stars like Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel. Join us for a raw, real-time reaction to the biggest storyline of the Hornets’ season.

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