Feb 24, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee talks with guard LaMelo Ball (1) during a time out in the fourth quarter of the game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

NBA insider predicts fairly calm offseason for Hornets with one possible twist

Originally posted on Charlotte Hornets on SI
By Zach Roberts | Last updated May 16, 2025 11:13 AM ET

The Charlotte Hornets have three draft picks, no likely major trades, and no money to spend. All in all, those things are going to lead to a pretty tame offseason. The only chaotic part was the draft lottery, which was chaotic and unsuccessful.

In Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes' eyes, Charlotte ranks 22nd in the NBA for chaos potential this offseason. They don't have a Giannis Antetokounmpo situation, and they're not the Dallas Mavericks. They also have no cap space, so they're not making a run at the top free agents, either.

That said, Hughes isn't ready to rank them last. The Hornets probably won't do much of anything, but what if they did make the blockbuster trade everyone's been considering? Everyone, that is, except the player and the team themselves.

That's right. On the chance that Charlotte does decide to part with LaMelo Ball, the offseason could get wild. "Despite the lack of actual reports suggesting a LaMelo Ball trade is in the offing, speculation about the point guard’s future persists. Part of that owes to durability issues that limited Ball to a total of 105 games over the last three years," Hughes said.

He called Charlotte a "deliberate long-term planner" who might not want health uncertainty with their star. "This team isn’t anchored to Ball’s timeline and could view draft capital and cost-controlled players as a preferable alternative to a maxed-out former All-Star who hasn’t stayed healthy since 2022," Hughes said.

He admitted that this is very unlikely. "The Hornets are operating carefully and won’t chase dangerous, win-now fixes. But the potential for a foundation-shaking trade involving Ball feels real enough to warrant a fairly high ranking by itself," the analyst said.

Trading Ball would be totally unforeseen. As Luka Doncic will attest, no one is truly untradeable. However, everything seems to suggest that this won't happen, so expect a pretty lackluster offseason in the Queen City.