The LaMelo Ball Problem

LaMelo Ball has been one of the most polarizing basketball players in the world for nearly a decade now. He likely always will be, from his early high school days, when his electrifying style drew both ardent fans and audacious critics, to his rise as one of the biggest names in the NBA, but there’s a clear problem with the discourse surrounding his name.

The LaMelo Ball Problem

Injuries

LaMelo Ball has been one of the most injury-prone players in the league over the past few seasons. In his first two seasons, he was available for 81.8% of all games, playing in 126/154 games. In three seasons since, he’s only been available for 42.7% of games, playing in 105/246 games. For the totality of his career, he’s only been available for 57% of games. That’s an ineffable amount of games missed in a five-year career, let alone three years. In the last three years, he’s fractured his wrist and his ankle once, and he’s sprained both of his ankles a myriad of times, while dealing with soreness in other areas.

This season, he was available for 47 games. Which is only the third time in his career that he’s played in more games than missed in a season. To say that LaMelo has been injury-prone would be an understatement; this alone is a huge reason why the discourse is so bad.

There’s also a belief that LaMelo’s injuries recently have been somewhat exaggerated by the Hornets as a scheme to deliberately lose games. And that stems from the games he’s missed because of joint soreness and/or “injury management.” Losing games would increase the Hornets’ chances of garnering a high pick in the draft lottery. In the first three months of the season, LaMelo was listed as “questionable” five times and was later upgraded to “available” in four of them. At the start of the new year, the Hornets had a record of 7-25. That placed them at 14th in the East, one loss away from 15th, which is last. So, after January 1st, 2025. LaMelo Ball was listed as “questionable” in eight games, and only played in three of them.

On Court Performance

Ball has undoubtedly been one of the better point guards in the NBA since entering. But, in the last two seasons, he’s arguably been top five at the guard position. When healthy, that is. Since October 2023, LaMelo has averaged 24.8 points per game and just about 7.6 assists per game. That’s a five-point jump in points and a one-point jump in assists. Granted, a huge reason why the points have skyrocketed is simply because he’s had no choice but to score more. Charlotte has dealt with some serious injuries outside of Ball, including Brandon Miller this season. Going further in-depth, 59.6% of LaMelo’s made shots were unassisted this season. That’s among the highest numbers in the league.

Moving the focus to this season solely. LaMelo’s final numbers are immensely skewed by the slump he entered midway through the season. Partially due to nagging wrist and ankle injuries. In the first 20 games of the season, Ball averaged an absurd 30 points with 7.5 assists. In the final 27, LaMelo averaged only 21.3 points with 7.3 assists.

According to PPB Stats, in the first two months of the season, the difficulty of Ball’s three-point attempts was lower than his career average. After December, those numbers went from lower than his career average to 37% higher than his career average. LaMelo’s 2024-25 season as a whole was a rollercoaster. From starting as a top 10 player, to not even making the All-Star game. But this season for Ball doesn’t tell us much aside from the fact that he can’t be the only ball handler on a winning team, just like everyone else in the league.

National Media

The media coverage and the fan discourse of the NBA are by far the worst of all major North American sports, but that could be another story in itself. There’s a strong narrative going around that strongly indicates that Ball isn’t a winning player or that his play style can’t contribute to a winning team. Speaking of which, they are subjective takes that hold no true foundation to support them. The NBA has a big ‘hot take’ problem, where fans and even analysts spew the craziest takes possible for engagement, views, and attention.