{"id":66738,"date":"2025-08-14T04:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66738\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T04:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:16:09","slug":"1-fix-hornets-star-lamelo-ball-needs-to-make-to-silence-the-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66738\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Fix Hornets star LaMelo Ball needs to make to silence the doubters"},"content":{"rendered":"

LaMelo Ball is one of the better players<\/a> in the NBA when healthy. In fact, it isn’t difficult to imagine Ball contending for an MVP Award someday if he is able to stay on the floor. Aside from the injury element of the situation, how can Ball take a step forward on the floor? There is one specific fix he can make that will change everything. <\/p>\n

He averaged 25.2 points, 7.4 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals per outing during the 2024-25 season. Ball was limited to just 47 games played, however. Still, he displayed his All-Star potential in limited action. <\/p>\n

Ball, however, recorded career-low shooting marks of 40.5 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from deep. His 21.3 field goal attempts and 11.1 three-point attempts were career-highs. It’s no secret that LaMelo is going to have the ball in his hands on a consistent basis when he’s on the floor. The Hornets went 19-63 a season ago and Ball was their best player when healthy. <\/p>\n

Charlotte is hoping to improve sooner rather than later<\/a>, though. Ball’s shot selection is questionable at times. Sure, it’s fun to watch LaMelo make some truly jaw-dropping shots from 40 feet away from the basket. If Ball wants to become a superstar on a good team as compared to a fringe All-Star for a mediocre team, though, he needs to shoot the ball less. <\/p>\n

Does his shot selection need to improve? Probably, but it’s alright to take a few questionable shots per game if you can make the attempts. For example, there isn’t one coach in the NBA or anywhere else who would have told players to attempt the looks that Stephen Curry takes 15 years ago, yet, Curry has made a Hall of Fame career off attempting some incredibly wild shots. <\/p>\n

He makes them, though, and LaMelo is also capable of finding the bottom of the net from deep. This specific fix isn’t strictly focused on his shot selection, rather, it’s shooting the basketball less. <\/p>\n

Ball’s 35.9 percent usage rate was the highest mark in the league last year. The Hornets must find a way to surround Ball with reliable scorers. Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges will help the situation, while 2025 No. 4 overall pick Kon Knueppel could also impact Charlotte’s scoring prowess. <\/p>\n

Ball will see his field goal and three-point shooting efficiency percentages drastically increase if he attempts less shots per game. He will still score at a high level, but he will likely take better shots when he’s not forcing attempts. <\/p>\n

This specific fix could help LaMelo Ball reach the next level. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball is one of the better players in the NBA when healthy. In fact, it isn’t difficult…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-66738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}