![\"LaMelo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MixCollage-23-Nov-2025-10-44-PM-2072.jpg\")
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LaMelo Ball is currently being linked to a potential trade away from the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and while the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> were close to making the playoffs this season, close doesn\u2019t count in this scenario.<\/p>\n With a win over the Orlando Magic<\/a> in the NBA Play-In Tournament on Friday night, the Hornets would have punched their ticket and secured the first postseason berth for the franchise in a decade. Instead, they were steamrolled by Orlando and sent home early, again.<\/p>\n LaMelo Ball Suggests Hornets\u2019 Gameplan Didn\u2019t Work Against Magic<\/p>\n To make matters worse, star guard LaMelo Ball publicly questioned the team\u2019s gameplan<\/a> after the game, suggesting that the team waited too long to put the ball in his hands. Ball finished the game with 23 points, and 21 of them came in the third quarter after the Hornets were already down big.<\/p>\n \u201cI just feel like it was just too late, I should have done it from the jump for real,\u201d Ball said. \u201cWe were doing a lot of plays and stuff and getting pushed around and everything. I feel like I should\u2019ve just taken the ball from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n You can\u2019t blame Ball for being honest, especially since we always push for honesty from athletes. At the same time though, it\u2019s not the best look for a star player to be publicly questioning the coaching or the gameplan immediately after a tough loss. And tough it was, at least for Ball, who admitted to being stung by the loss.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously [it] hurt a lot, but I feel like it\u2019s all just learning lessons. You live, you learn, you evolve, and you move on, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n LaMelo Ball\u2019s 2025-26 Campaign Didn\u2019t End on the Highest Note<\/p>\n It\u2019s been an eventful week for Ball, who made headlines for a play in which he tripped and injured Miami Heat<\/a> center Bam Adebayo during Charlotte\u2019s previous Play-In game. There was some speculation that the trip was intentional, which Ball denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all basketball,\u201d Ball said of the situation. \u201cI feel like Bam knows. We never had nothing going on, you know what I\u2019m saying? I never had really [anything with] anybody. Go out there and play basketball. Even [on] the one before, I [saw] him, try to foul him, stuff like that. \u2026 We don\u2019t want nobody hurt in this league ever. So as long as he\u2019s good, it\u2019s helped [ease] my mind a little.\u201d<\/p>\n It will be an interesting offseason for Ball, who was the subject of some serious trade speculation during the season. Obviously nothing ever came to fruition, but it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if such speculation resurfaced over the offseason.<\/p>\n Ball has now played six seasons in Charlotte, and he has yet to play in a single playoff game. The team\u2019s lack of success isn\u2019t all on Ball, but as the star player he\u2019s expected to driving winning, and so far he simply hasn\u2019t done that in Charlotte. As a result, it wouldn\u2019t be the craziest thing in the world if the Hornets thought about moving on.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMichael Kaskey-Blomain<\/a> Michael Kaskey-Blomain is an experienced sports media member covering the NBA and NFL for Heavy. He has been in the industry for well over a decade with previous stops including the Philadelphia Inquirer and CBS Sports. Michael also serves as a Philadelphia 76ers reporter and insider for ESPN 97.3 and an NBA and NFL contributor for The Sporting News. More about Michael Kaskey-Blomain<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Hornets\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty LaMelo Ball is currently being linked to a potential trade away from the Charlotte Hornets. Close only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-713339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-hornets","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116426906346724846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713339","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=713339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}