When you think of well-run organizations, your mind probably doesn't go to the early 2020s Charlotte Hornets. That's for good reason. Outside of their last couple of years, they consistently failed to put talent around LaMelo Ball. No shade, but did people really expect him to win a lot of games with over-the-hill Cody Zeller and Mason Plumlee as his two primary bigs? Sure, he later had Moussa Diabate and Ryan Kalkbrenner, more recently, but that's far from an elite center rotation.
His trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves is not only giving him more talent than he's previously been surrounded by, but the Wolves organization has been top-notch since Tim Connelly and Alex Rodriguez took command. This will certainly help Ball level up even further as a player.
This is LaMelos first time on a team with championship aspirations
Some of the gripes people have with Ball's game are that he plays a sort of unserious or "AAU" brand of basketball. A lot of heavily contested shots and doesn't make winning plays. His team was playing for lottery balls every year of his career except for last season when, not a coincidence, he was the driving force of one of the best offenses in the NBA.
Can you blame him for trying to have some fun on a team that never had any sort of championship aspirations? I don't want to act like I'm consistently dogging the Hornets, but I think even their fans would say the same thing. The majority of LaMelo's Charlotte tenure was surrounded by a lot of incompetence, but the organization seems headed in a much better direction now.
Playing winning basketball might force Ball to tweak his game slightly; he might not shoot as many contested shots, and he'll play more efficiently. Not only is that because of the team's goals, but also due to the talent surplus on the roster.
Ball won't be the number one thing on the opposing team's scouting reports anymore. With so much attention turning towards Anthony Edwards and even other talented scorers like Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, and Jonathan Kuminga, Ball will likely get more open looks than ever before.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Ball had his most efficient and overall best season yet. Maybe the counting stats won't be as high, but he will be a driving force on a team that hopes to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy in June, and that matters more than any box score numbers ever will.
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