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LaMelo Ball Expected To Miss Rest Of Season With Fractured Wrist

March 21st, 2021 at 7:59pm CST by JD Shaw

Hornets guard LaMelo Ball has suffered a fractured bone in his right wrist and is expected to miss the rest of the season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The team confirmed the injury and stated that Ball will be out indefinitely.

Ball was dealing with wrist soreness and underwent an MRI in San Antonio today which revealed the injury. He’ll seek a second opinion to confirm the diagnosis, with the fracture being located around the area of his thumb, Wojnarowski notes.

Ball has averaged 15.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game in his first NBA season, making a strong case to be named Rookie of the Year. Now that he’ll miss the final two months of the season, it could open the door for Anthony Edwards or Tyrese Haliburton to make a run for that award.

The Hornets are 20-21 and have lost three straight contests. Ball’s injury could affect how the team approaches the trade deadline this week, perhaps reducing the odds of a Devonte’ Graham trade or a major splash for a big man.

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Eastern Notes: Ball, Pacers, Graham, Harden, Brown

March 14th, 2021 at 5:28pm CST by JD Shaw

Hornets guard LaMelo Ball is cementing his case to be the favorite for Rookie of the Year this season, Eric Koreen of The Athletic writes. Most recently, Ball finished with 23 points, nine rebounds, and six assists over the Raptors on Saturday, leading his team to a 114-104 win.

“The biggest thing is he made a couple of plays — I’m not saying we were threatening to cut the game down, but in the 15-to-17-point range — that were not looking good for them and all of a sudden, he zings a no-look pass for a layup or something,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of Ball. “You think you’ve just about got them all bottled up and you’re heading the other way, and he would make a really spectacular pass for an assisted bucket.”

The 19-year-old Ball has averaged 15.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.4 assists this year, shooting 45% from the field and 39% from three-point range. Charlotte currently sits at sixth place in the East with a 19-18 record.

There’s more from the Eastern Conference tonight:

  • The Pacers‘ flight to Denver on Sunday afternoon has been delayed due to a major snowstorm, according to Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. The storm has produced more than 19 inches of snow in Denver, causing the Pacers to remain in Phoenix. The team plays the Nuggets on Monday after a 122-111 win over the Suns on Saturday.
  • Although he’s in a contract year, Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham isn’t complaining about losing his starting spot, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes. In addition to LaMelo Ball‘s impressive play, fellow guard Terry Rozier is in the midst of a career season, averaging 20.3 points per game on 49% shooting.
  • Alec Sturm of NetsDaily examines how James Harden has helped Bruce Brown become a valuable contributor for the Nets this season. Brown, who is in his third NBA season, has started 22 of his 35 contests for Brooklyn this year.
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Michael Jordan Praises LaMelo Ball’s Development

March 6th, 2021 at 11:54am CST by marksuleymanov

In his first NBA season, Hornets‘ point guard LaMelo Ball has put on a clinic of dazzling passes and moves, putting himself at the forefront of 2020/21 NBA Rookie of the Year talks.

Ball’s performance and early development has not gone unnoticed by Hornets chairman and NBA legend Michael Jordan. The former six-time NBA champion told Steve Reed of The Associated Press that the young point guard has surpassed the team’s expectations through the first half of his inaugural season.

“I think ‘Melo has adjusted to the NBA game better than any of us ever thought this early in his career,” Jordan said. “He has exceeded our expectations so far this season.”

In 35 games (15 starts), Ball is averaging 15.8 PPG, 6.3 APG and 6.0 RPG while shooting nearly 45% from the field. The 20-year-old began the year on the bench but a mixture of injuries and his own performance has catapulted him into the starting lineup, where he figures to remain for the foreseeable future.

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NBA Announces 2020/21 Rising Stars Rosters

March 3rd, 2021 at 1:09pm CST by Luke Adams

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the pared-down nature of the NBA’s 2021 All-Star weekend, a Rising Stars Game showcasing the league’s top rookies and sophomores won’t be played this year.

However, the league has still announced the rosters for the event, via NBA Top Shot, naming the 20 players who would have been selected to participate if the game was taking place. Here are those rosters:

U.S. Team:

World Team:

The 20-man group includes eight rookies and 11 sophomores. The 20th player, Porter, made the cut as a sophomore since he missed his entire rookie season in 2018/19 due to an injury — this is technically his third year of NBA service.

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And-Ones: Vaccines, Ball, Trade Candidates, Defenders, All-Star Voting

February 5th, 2021 at 6:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

In an effort to alleviate players’ – and some coaches’ – fears and skepticism about receiving COVID-19 vaccines, the NBA is arranging mandatory meetings over the next two weeks between its top medical expert and all 30 teams, Sam Amick, Joe Vardon and David Aldridge of The Athletic report. Teams felt there was a need to provide information and insight on this issue to its players.

The NBA wants everyone associated with the game — players, coaches, referees and chief front office personnel — to get the shots, not only for safety reasons but also as part of a national volunteering-public relations campaign.

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • LaMelo Ball ranks as the leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year award, according to Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report. The Hornets guard ranks first in assists and steals, second in rebounding and third in scoring among all rookies despite coming off the bench in all but two games. Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton sits in second place for Wasserman, who ranks the rookies from 10-1.
  • With Wizards guard Bradley Beal apparently off the market, there won’t be another blockbuster trade this season to rival the James Harden deal, Tim Bontemps of ESPN opines. Some of the players who could be moved by March’s trade deadline are Lonzo Ball, J.J. Redick, P.J. Tucker, George Hill, Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon, though Hill and Gordon are currently injured.
  • Rudy Gobert‘s contract with the Jazz is a rare case in which a defensive stalwart is compensated like a elite scorer, Aldridge notes in a separate Athletic story. Aldridge takes a closer look at why top defenders are generally not as valued as scorers.
  • Kevin Durant has received the most All-Star votes in the early returns, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. Beal is the top vote-getter among Eastern Conference guards. LeBron James has the most votes among Western Conference forwards and Stephen Curry leads all Western Conference guards by a wide margin.
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Southeast Notes: Butler, Heat, Ball, Isaac

January 31st, 2021 at 5:29pm CST by JD Shaw

The Heat are looking to “right the ship” and improve on bad habits created during the absence of Jimmy Butler and others this month, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel writes.

Butler, who returned on Saturday after missing ten straight games due to the league’s health and safety protocols, poured in 30 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the contest. It was Miami’s first victory in over a week, snapping a five-game losing streak.

“It’s a start,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We just have to continue to forge ahead. Our spirit has been lifted. It feels different than it did two weeks ago.”

Miami has battled COVID-19 and a series of injuries thus far, opening the 2020/21 season with a 7-12 record. The team has upcoming games scheduled against the Hornets on Monday and the Wizards on Wednesday and Friday.

There’s more from the Southeast Division tonight:

  • The Heat and Butler mutually missed each other during his absence, David Wilson writes for The Miami Herald. Butler is coming off a season that saw him average 19.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and six assists per game, leading Miami to its first Finals appearance since 2014.
  • Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer examines whether Hornets rookie LaMelo Ball is ready to make his first NBA start. Ball scored a career-high 27 points in the team’s win over Milwaukee on Saturday, also adding five rebounds, nine assists and four steals on 8-of-10 shooting.
  • Magic forward Jonathan Isaac is embracing the grind of his rehab, working his way back from a torn ACL suffered last August, Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel writes. “I like the work. I like getting in and grinding every day,” Isaac said. “I think most people would think that that’s the hardest part but I take it like I’m out there playing on the court when I’m doing my rehab. This is my game right now. But the hardest part is definitely just being on the sideline and watching those guys fighting and just wishing I was out there with them.”
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Southeast Notes: Ball, Capela, Pierce, Magic

January 24th, 2021 at 11:59am CST by Arthur Hill

LaMelo Ball has made several highlight passes during his first NBA season, but turnovers are cutting into his playing time, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. The Hornets guard has seen his minutes scaled back in the last two games, and coach James Borrego says ball security is the reason.

“If you’re turning the ball over five times in 16 minutes, that ain’t gonna cut it for me,” Borrego said of Ball’s performance in Friday’s loss to the Bulls. “If you’re doing that on the offensive end, you better be bringing something defensively.”

The third player picked in last year’s draft, Ball has experienced an uneven start to his NBA career. He became the youngest player ever to record a triple-double, but he’s shooting just 40.4% from the floor though his first 15 games. Despite the frustrations, his coach plans to be patient.

“He had a stretch where he played extremely well. We need to find that again,” Borrego said. “He’s got to get better, bottom line. He’s engaged, he wants to get better. He’s capable of handling it.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Clint Capela has transformed the Hawks‘ defense, notes Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. An injury prevented Capela from playing after he was acquired at last year’s trade deadline, but his presence in the middle has helped Atlanta improve from 27th to eighth in the league in defensive efficiency. He posted his first triple-double Friday night, which included 10 blocked shots. “I just feel like last year was not really defense,” Capela said. “It was just going and scoring. I just feel now that you have a guy under the rim to challenge every shot or change shots from the opposite team, it just changes everything. It makes a difference.”
  • The condensed schedule is limiting practice time for all NBA teams and it’s especially difficult for the Hawks, who have nine new players on their roster, observes Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta hasn’t practiced since January 13, and that happened only because a game against the Suns was postponed. “We’re all adjusting,” coach Lloyd Pierce said. “I’ve never done this in the NBA, fly to a city and go straight to the gym, and so it does give us some getting used to the arena floor because we won’t have a shootaround (the next day), so it is a different norm and we use it as our way to break the ice a little bit, get some rhythm, and then we have a ton of rest heading into tomorrow’s game.”
  • Salary cap concerns will provide incentive for the Magic to trade Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon before this year’s deadline, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
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Southeast Notes: Wizards, Gallinari, Ball, Heat, Oladipo

January 17th, 2021 at 7:27pm CST by JD Shaw

The NBA still doesn’t know how the Wizards‘ COVID-19 outbreak started, with six players testing positive and four games recently being postponed, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports writes.

The outbreak, which is considered to be the worst of the season to date, has left the Wizards unable to produce the league-required eight players needed to play. As Hughes notes, the team is still unsure of how it started despite an extensive contract tracing process.

“We have players that are out on the floor unmasked during the games,” general manager Tommy Sheppard said. “That’s an obvious thing. They have exposure to each other. Sometimes on the bench, players will pull their masks down and talk to each other, things like that. The contact tracing is very necessary, but it’s also difficult because it could have been anywhere at any time. The fact it hasn’t jumped the wall and it hasn’t extended past players kind of makes you, at least common sense-wise, would make you believe it’s happening in contact out on the court.”

The Wizards’ games against the Cavaliers on Sunday and Monday have also been postponed because of the virus.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Hawks are listing Danilo Gallinari as doubtful to play in Monday’s game against the Wolves, with the veteran forward last seeing action on Dec. 30 due to a right ankle sprain. Gallinari has progressed to half-court individual activities and is now being re-introduced to contact activity, the team announced (Twitter link).
  • Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer examines how much the Hornets truly trust LaMelo Ball and what the team is currently missing. Ball, drafted third overall by the team in the fall, is currently averaging 11.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game off the bench.
  • Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel explores whether the Rockets could still entice the Heat with a potential trade, only this time with Victor Oladipo. Oladipo and Miami have long been linked to one another, with the 28-year-old set to enter unrestricted free agency at season’s end.
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Southeast Notes: Beal, Bryant, Ball, Bamba

January 10th, 2021 at 9:57am CST by Arthur Hill

The Wizards didn’t find out that Bradley Beal wouldn’t be able to play Saturday night until an hour before game time, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. Beal has been placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols because of contact tracing, which normally sidelines a player for seven days, assuming he continues to test negative for COVID-19. He landed there because of a post-game conversation Friday night with Boston’s Jayson Tatum, who subsequently tested positive for the virus.

A source tells Katz the league is still reviewing the Beal situation and hasn’t decided how long he will have to sit out. Washington has upcoming games that could be affected on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“The NBA is really serious about this thing,” Rui Hachimura said. “We gotta (wear) masks on the bench and stuff, those kinds of stuff, and we gotta follow the rules. And we have to be ready. Any time — who knows? — someone (could) get injured or someone (could) get (ineligible). Brad just got called, and he can’t play right before the game. So, someone’s gotta step up and be ready every night.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Wizards may have suffered a significant loss Saturday night when starting center Thomas Bryant had to leave the game after hurting his left knee in the first quarter, Katz adds in the same story. An MRI will be conducted today to determine the extent of the damage, and a source tells Katz there’s hope it’s an injury to the MCL rather than the ACL. “T.B. is a huge part of what we do on both ends of the floor, and he’s been playing big for us,” Robin Lopez said. “… I hope everything turns out OK. I’m not sure what the status is right now, but we love having him on the floor. I love playing with him. I hope he’s OK.”
  • Hornets rookie LaMelo Ball entered the NBA record book Saturday, becoming the youngest player ever to post a triple-double. Sam Amick of The Athletic expects Ball to eventually replace Devonte’ Graham as the starting point guard, but admits it’s a difficult decision for coach James Borrego because Gordon Hayward handles so much of the playmaking for the first unit.
  • Magic center Mohamed Bamba is still playing catchup after the effects of a summer coronavirus case extended into this season, writes Roy Parry of The Orlando Sentinel. Bamba wasn’t cleared for contact work until December 16, and limited practice opportunities because of the condensed schedule have slowed his attempt to get back into game condition.
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Southeast Notes: Young/Collins, Westbrook, Heat, LaMelo

January 9th, 2021 at 3:31pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After Hawks power forward John Collins reportedly voiced his frustration with the way the club has been running its offense through All-Star point guard Trae Young, Young addressed their issues with a measured response.

“I know me and John have set the bar high for ourselves, but we’re still 22 and 23 years old,” Young said of their early Hawks tenure, per Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). “There’s a lot we can get better at. There’s going to be times where we are going to talk and there’s going to be times when teammates are going to talk about what we see.”

The revamped Hawks are currently 4-4, good for the No. 9 seed in the East.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

  • Fred Katz of The Athletic details the Wizards‘ “load management” plan for new starting point guard Russell Westbrook. Washington GM Tommy Sheppard tells Katz that the club’s process for resting Westbrook will be fluid going forward. “We’ve adhered to a schedule thus far and a lot of it just kinda evolves on how he’s feeling, how he’s responding to the rigors of the season,” Sheppard said. “It’s way too early right now to say, ‘OK, well this is how it’s going to be the entire year.’”
  • The Sioux Falls Sky Force, the G League affiliate of the Heat, will not be partaking in the 2020/21 G League “bubble” this season. Miami GM Andy Elisburg addressed the decision, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “For us, just for the quick turnaround, it just became a lot on everyone’s plate, and dealing with the fact that it’s an unusual season, managing the COVID,” Elisburg said. “There’s a lot of different things that were on the plate. That’s where we made the decision.”
  • Hornets rookie point guard LaMelo Ball has had to grow up quickly on the hardwood for Charlotte, per Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Ball’s size and on-court versatility has allowed the Hornets to experiment with intriguing lineups. “I definitely knew I had to rebound,” the 6’7″ Ball said of being played in an ultra-small lineup alongside Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham for the team’s last two contests.
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