{"id":12453,"date":"2025-05-06T04:55:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/12453\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T04:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:55:28","slug":"hornets-notes-ball-nurkic-williams-peterson-miller-bridges-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/12453\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets Notes: Ball, Nurkic, Williams, Peterson, Miller, Bridges, Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, point guard LaMelo Ball<\/a> struggled to stay on the floor this season due to injuries. Hornets head coach Charles Lee believes there\u2019s one way Ball can improve upon his availability, according to Steve Reed of The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to get stronger,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Ball, who only suited up in 47 games this season, doesn\u2019t run away from that notion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely agree,\u201d Ball said. \u201cJust being in the weight room, and everything they\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball, who has four years remaining on his maximum-salary rookie extension, underwent surgeries on his right wrist and right ankle but should be ready to go in training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaMelo is an incredible competitor, and he knows that in order for us to have the best chance to win and get to where we want to go, he has to be on the floor,\u201d president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson said. \u201cWe\u2019re providing every resource, and again, he\u2019s putting the time in and taking ownership in it. We\u2019re happy the season is over in that regard and he\u2019s able to ramp up and have a healthy start to the season next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more on the Hornets:<\/p>\n

Jusuf Nurkic<\/a>, who has one year remaining on his contract, wants to stay with the Hornets. \u201cHopefully, it\u2019s a two-way street and the organization feels the same way, but so far so good,\u201d Nurkic told Roderick Boone of the Charlotte Observer<\/a>. \u201cHopefully, we can build something special for years to come.\u201d Nurkic was acquired from Phoenix in a midseason deal.
\nAs for Mark Williams<\/a>, who was headed to the Lakers until he failed their physical, he isn\u2019t sure what plans the franchise has for him. \u201cObviously, be prepared for whatever,\u201d the big man said, according to Boone. \u201cObviously, this is where I\u2019ve been since the start of my career. At the same time I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s a business, being traded and then coming back for reasons above me. So, yeah, I think it\u2019s definitely understanding the balance of it being a business and enjoying your teammates and people you\u2019ve made great connections with.\u201d
\nPeterson isn\u2019t looking for any quick-fix solutions this offseason to make the team a contender, Boone<\/a> relays. \u201cI will double down on how we\u2019re not going to expedite anything,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to skip steps. I think there\u2019s plenty of examples that we\u2019ve seen around the league and in other sports that when you try to skip steps and go too fast, that\u2019s when big mistakes end up happening and ones that make it really, really hard to crawl out of that hole. We\u2019re going to be patient, diligent, opportunistic, very strategic in terms of how we build it.\u201d
\nA torn ligament in his right wrist short-circuited Brandon Miller<\/a>\u2018s sophomore season, Alex Zietlow of the Charlotte Observer<\/a> writes. The big question surrounding Miller, who only appeared in 27 games, is when will he return? He\u2019s multiple months away from returning to the court but the second pick of the 2023 draft should be a full go for training camp.
\nMiles Bridges<\/a> said that one of Lee\u2019s strengths is his willingness to take input from the players, according to Boone<\/a>. \u201cYeah, before he makes big decisions he asks me or Melo or Brandon, asks one of us how we feel about it,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cHe loves having our input on stuff. So, yeah, he\u2019s for sure a player\u2019s coach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once again, point guard LaMelo Ball struggled to stay on the floor this season due to injuries. Hornets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,970,5087,684,473,3878,685,5088,966,1011,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-12453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brandon-miller","10":"tag-charles-lee","11":"tag-charlotte","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-charlottehornets","14":"tag-hornets","15":"tag-jusuf-nurkic","16":"tag-lamelo-ball","17":"tag-mark-williams","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114459110523506427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}