LAMELO BALL HAS has already seen the future.
Two seconds earlier, he watched Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen vault over Mason Plumlee to tomahawk a ferocious slam to give the Cavaliers a nine-point lead three minutes into the second quarter. He saw the Cleveland reserves on the bench rise in exaltation, scream hysterically, flicking their white towels. He heard the Quicken Loans Arena crowd roar its approval.
Still, optimism flows from the eyes of Ball. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees it: Miles Bridges sprinting down the middle of the floor.
Before the Cavs' reserves can even sit down, Ball hurls the ball 80 feet down the court over all five Cavaliers and directly into the hands of Bridges. It's a Sunday afternoon pass on a Friday night, one that's thrown in what seems like a different time and space.
Less than four seconds after Allen picks himself up off the floor following his throwdown, Bridges drops the ball through the opposite hoop with a reverse dunk.
"He really is a basketball savant," says Charlotte Hornets' teammate and 12-year veteran point guard Ish Smith. "You watch him make these calculated-risk passes, and I'm like, 'How did he even think about throwing it like that?'"
Sheer chutzpah.
A 20-year-old with nothing more than an abbreviated NBA season on his résumé has the audacity to stunt the opponent's momentum with a pass that couldn't possibly have a success rate leaguewide of greater than 10%. Tracking platforms with probability scores -- eat your heart out. For the second consecutive game to start the season, the Hornets are behind early to a middling opponent. And for the second consecutive game, Ball is poised to drag the Hornets by the scruff of their necks back into the contest.
Ball has already solidified himself as one of the league's most dangerous transition players, as demonstrated by the number of times in the first week Charlotte's possessions in the open court were stymied by quick fouls by a hapless defense. If the NBA wisely decides to clamp down on the plague of "take fouls" that halt fast breaks, it could just call it the LaMelo Ball Rule.
Asked how many possessions he'd like to play in transition in a 100-possession game, Ball responds, "A hundred."
"It's fun being out there on the floor with him because he's not afraid," says Hornets forward Gordon Hayward. "If you cut and get open, he'll throw it to you. He's not afraid of that turnover. A lot of players hold back on those kinds of plays -- a baseball throw, an underhanded pass, threading the needle. He doesn't."
Ball isn't defensive about anything -- it's simply not in his nature. But he's well aware of the question, one posed internally by a Hornets front office that nabbed him No. 3 overall, about his capacity to organize the brand of pick-and-roll offense that commands today's half-court game, especially in high-stakes situations.
"I feel like you get that from just hooping," he says. "You learn when to pick your spots -- knowing when to stay in the play, knowing when to break the play. You just play basketball. I feel confident coming off any ball screen. Any action like that? I'm solid."
For the Hornets, Ball represents their best chance ever to have as the face of their franchise a high wattage talent who can truly change the fortunes of the organization -- a player who can maximize the potential of his teammates and draw national attention to what remains among the NBA's most anonymous franchises, and one of its most futile.
But this is the NBA's highest of high-wire acts. Everything that could go right with its prized new franchise cornerstone; Charlotte could get a full, healthy season from Hayward -- their multipurpose star free agent who came in with Ball during the past offseason; young contributors like Bridges and P.J. Washington could make jumps and add to production provided by Terry Rozier, who has been a revelation since arriving from Boston a year before Hayward. Ish Smith could pace a fun second unit, and coach James Borrego could fully Spurs-ify the operation.
And yet, still, the experiment might fail.
THERE'S A CERTAIN flavor of anticipation that imbues an organization a season or two into a rebuild if its armed with a player of Ball's caliber -- provided he's the real thing.
Ball's potential is the single most important variable in determining the Hornets' ceiling. Become an All-NBA point guard, and Charlotte should be a regular tour stop on the playoff circuit for years. But if he's merely very good, it will be difficult to break out of a suddenly crowded East, where in addition to the current powerhouses planted atop the standings, teams like Atlanta, Detroit and Orlando all share the same belief that a young, dynamic high-lottery guard can elevate them to relevance.
What Ball has shown the Hornets from his first hours as a Hornet has inspired them. Borrego recalls the first night after the draft last November when Ball arrived in Charlotte. The team's brass took him and a group that included his trainer and agent to Morton's The Steakhouse. Ball pounded his steak, then looked up at the table and said, "Let's get to a gym."
"It's almost 11 [p.m.], he's just hammered his steak and he wanted to get his work in," Borrego says. "By the time he and his team get to the facility, it's almost midnight. The next day, we looked at the cameras from the gym -- he was there until about 2 [a.m.] He hasn't been in town for a day, and that's where his focus was. His care factor about his craft is off the charts."
From the moment he slides their team cap onto his smiling head on draft night, that team has about seven years to persuade him to stay -- and every team faces a different degree of difficulty in making the sale, because some elite young stars are looking for any reason to stay, while others are looking for any reason to leave.
One Sunday over the summer, Ball found himself defended by a 13-year-old in a game of backyard 3-on-3. Some NBA point guards might extend a middle schooler their mercy, especially if the kid is the boss' son. But Ball doesn't temper his competitiveness. As he sizes up his teenage combatant, Ball delivers the trash with a smile.
A crossover to the hole elicits a shimmy from Ball, one returned when his teenage competitor drains a shot. Throughout the late afternoon, the shimmy fest escalates to levels of benevolent absurdity. Something that those who delight in amusement when they hear about the pro baller not pulling punches in the sweetest exhibitions against the most adoring minors can never understand: There's no such thing as turning it off.
Once the afternoon Carolina heat thickened to a stew, LaMelo, his brother LiAngelo -- Gelo to everyone present that afternoon -- and a friend jumped into the Borregos' pool, where they continued hooping with the Borrego kids under rules modified for water.
On the surface, there's nothing odd about the scene -- a confident LaMelo and his brother playing backyard camp counselor. But Ball is a budding NBA superstar, one whose fame predates his arrival into the league. Drafted by a small market 2,000 miles away from his home, he'd be well within modern-day NBA custom to spend his summers back in his native Southern California, where much of NBA royalty makes their offseason.
Yet here LaMelo is here of his own accord, binging on pizza and lemon pepper wings. Having lived his adolescence publicly as the basketball world's most famous baby-of-the-family, he's spending a few hours as the charismatic big brother. It's a role he plays effortlessly in a scene that offers him so much familiar appeal. It's a place where he wants to be.
For the Charlotte Hornets, that want is everything. Two years after they parted ways with their franchise point guard, Kemba Walker, their new one climbs back into his fluorescent yellow Lamborghini Uris with Gelo and his friend to return to his new home, so he can be at the gym bright and early the next morning. And an organization that hasn't won a playoff series in the 18 seasons since its rebirth will fling open those doors to him.
"I use an expression that certain players -- there's a little gold dust sprinkled. Melo's clearly got that." Mitch Kupchak, Hornets GM and president of basketball operations
A year into his career in Charlotte, it's easy to forget that Ball was one of the mystery guests of his draft class. An NBA sophomore who played minimally and poorly in Lithuania, then inconsistently and unremarkably in Australia, is uncannily crushing his graduate-level classes after floating through his prerequisites in a fog. For Charlotte, it's nothing less than the best-case scenario -- a reigning Rookie of the Year who returns in his second season with more advanced skills. Despite growing up under a microscope, questions swirled around his pro potential.
When Mitch Kupchak, Borrego and Hornets assistant general manager Buzz Peterson went to watch Ball's pre-draft workout near Ball's home in Chino Hills, west of Los Angeles, they wanted to be reassured he could drain open shots, as well as create them. The workout was fine, certainly enough to ward off any severe anxiety. So when Ball fell to third after the selections of Anthony Edwards by Minnesota and James Wiseman by Golden State, the Hornets nabbed him.
Nearly 10 years after missing out on Anthony Davis, despite being the favorite to score the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NBA draft, the basketball cosmos balanced the scales in Charlotte's favor.
But as the old Hornets in New Orleans illustrated, luck guarantees pressure, not success.
SUCCESS REQUIRES ELITE talent, particularly in a small market where the June draft provides the most fertile soil to harvest a star. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they did little to nurture the land.
Since the Hornets were reconstituted as an expansion franchise in 2004 (then the Bobcats), they've selected and retained the following players in the top 10 of the draft: Emeka Okafor (2), Raymond Felton (5), Adam Morrison (3), D.J. Augustin (9), Kemba Walker (9), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2), Cody Zeller (4), Noah Vonleh (9), Frank Kaminsky (9) and, less than one year ago, Ball (3rd).
That procession of picks produced only two All-Star appearances -- Walker, during his final two seasons of his Charlotte tenure. Over those 17 seasons, the Hornets qualified for the playoffs only three times and were swept on two of those occasions. In the 2019-20, the team ranked 27th in attendance based on capacity, and 23rd, 28th, 22nd and 22nd in the four previous seasons.
No unifying theory exists for why certain franchises succeed and certain ones fail. But those around the NBA who have come through Charlotte over the past 15 years, a strong consensus emerges about why, in addition to its drafting missteps, the team has perpetually found itself near the bottom of the standings:
Money.
Each player, coach, front office employee and staffer has an example that portrays the organization's unwillingness to spend. A few remember the story of NBA journeyman Damien Wilkins, who toward the tail end of his career in 2016-17, caught on with the Hornets' G-League team in Greensboro. In addition to turning in a productive season on the court, Wilkens impressed coaches and executives in the organization with his influence over the younger players. For this reason, executives sought to invite Wilkins to Hornets' training camp the next fall. Though the cost to have Wilkins in camp was minimal -- approximately $10,000, according to sources -- the request was rejected by those who manage the purse strings because the 37-year-old Wilkins wasn't regarded as part of the team's future. When the front office pleaded with the business side of the operation to consider the value of Wilkins' professionalism in camp, it was rebuffed.
Though it's been standard operating procedure in the NBA for decades to extend playoff bonuses to assistant coaches, the Hornets were very late to the practice, not instituting until Steve Clifford's tenure as head coach in Charlotte in 2013. From assistant coaches to training and medical staff, compensation in Charlotte had not been competitive, according to sources familiar with league compensation packages, making it difficult to either acquire elite personnel or retain those who demonstrated excellence. Sources say that staffing was typically done on the cheap, with as few bodies as possible.
The practice facility inside the team's home arena, the Spectrum Center, houses a single court with six baskets. Coaches and executives who have spent time in Charlotte say that talk of a new facility more in line with the modern training centers was one of the enduring features of being around the Hornets. "Wait 'till next year" was a popular refrain. One assistant coach joked that if he needed to use the restroom during practice, the concourse of the arena offered the most convenient one, unless he wanted to make a long walk down to the locker room.
Those who have been part of the organization are quick to praise owner Michael Jordan for his warmth toward basketball operations staff and players, managing partner Curtis Polk for his shrewdness and vice chairman Fred Whitfield for his well-rounded knowledge of the larger basketball world. But they quickly rue Polk's powerful influence over resources and see him as more intent on protecting the pocketbook of Jordan, whose financial affairs he has managed closely for years, than building a first-class NBA franchise.
"He really is a basketball savant. You watch him make these calculated-risk passes, and I'm like, 'How did he even think about throwing it like that?'"Ish Smith, Hornets teammate and 12-year NBA veteran
Jordan has long relied on close associates and family to staff the organization's management team. Polk came up in the business under David Falk, Jordan's longtime agent. Whitfield is an alumnus of Nike Basketball and Jordan Brand. Brothers Ronnie (executive vice president and COO) and Larry (director of player personnel), as well as nephew Justin (scout) all serve in the organization. Jordan also keeps a number of fellow University of North Carolina alums close, including former teammate Peterson, the team's assistant GM and Kupchak. One veteran of the franchise referred to the Hornets as a family-and-friends jobs program.
There's a poetic irony about Jordan's reluctance to spend on the franchise, his critics say. He has a principled belief that today's NBA players shouldn't require any more amenities to win than he did. The constant requests for round-the-clock meals, massage therapists, training and development staffs larger than the entire 1990s Bulls' organization and upgraded facilities are almost an affront to the competitive nature of pro basketball.
The very quality that made him the most dominant player in the history of the game has also held the Hornets back.
The only antidote might be a player in a Charlotte uniform whose stage presence and intuition can satisfy Jordan's towering standards. Perhaps that's a charismatic point guard who can thread needles in transition wearing a blindfold, is built for public scrutiny and -- though it's early in his career -- envelops himself in joy for the game, a commodity in increasingly short supply in an era of discontent.
Sounds like a job for LaMelo Ball.
AFTER BEING FIRED by the Lakers midseason in 2017 amid a power struggle in ownership, Kupchak landed with the Hornets a year later. In a league where technocrats dominate front offices, Kupchak is a member of the old guard, a career NBA big man who graduated into management. Though he's not regarded as an innovator, Kupchak might possess the most important skill a Hornets' lead basketball exec needs: the trust of Jordan.
While the Hornets are hardly big spenders (to wit, Kupchak and Borrego are paid considerably less than the median president of basketball ops and head coach respectively), the two lobbied to beef up development and training staffs, as well as meals for players, both at home and on the road. Jordan doesn't oblige every request -- the Hornets are still behind most of the NBA in infrastructure and staff salaries -- but he has begun to open his wallet, even for amenities he never dreamed of having during his career. In a year of austerity, the Hornets laid off no employees during COVID, issued no furloughs and executed no pay cuts.
There's anticipation: The Hornets have sold 2,200 new season tickets this year, a number that places them in the top five in the NBA.
Borrego, who recently received a contract extension, has high favorable ratings from both management and the roster. A problem-solver who enjoys grappling with the cost-benefit analysis of decision-making, yet has a devotion to the big picture, is determined to balance the intuition of Ball with the structure a young team needs for maximum execution on both ends.
"It's a team that's young -- and enjoys that it's young," says resident oldster Smith. "So the culture is being created before our eyes. It's getting built now. [Borrego] is trying to establish that level of consistency that they had in San Antonio."
Among the regular rotation, Ball is both the youngest player -- and its most vital. It's a combination that's both exciting and daunting for a young team trying to compete with the savvy graybeards who tend to play deep into the postseason. Yet most moribund franchises that ever got serious about winning started with youthful jolt -- Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo ... Michael Jordan.
FOR ALL OF his flair in transition, Ball led Charlotte to its first two victories of the season as a half-court practitioner. On opening night, the Hornets trailed by 23 points in the second half to Indiana. In a flash, the Hornets ran off a 24-0 spurt in the third quarter. The comeback wasn't fueled by full-court passes or Showtime-style breaks, but by workaday pick-and-roll actions between Ball and Plumlee: sucking in the defense to generate an open weakside look for Bridges; creating space for Ball to drain a step-back 3; Ball floating a gorgeous alley-oop to Plumlee while going left toward the sideline.
The Hornets eked out an improbable 123-122 win. In 20 minutes, Charlotte turned a potential crisis of morale into a catalyst for the most successful opening week in franchise history.
Ball alone can't rescue the Hornets, but early signs point to a young core that's improving. Entering the season, the health of Hayward might have been the factor with the highest variance to the Hornets' success.
By Kupchak's own admission, the Hornets were "lucky" to be the 2017 All-Star's chosen destination in free agency in 2019. Hayward says there was a surfeit of ball-dominant players in Boston, and Charlotte represents an opportunity to function as the kind of playmaker he envisioned being in the prime of his career.
"You can't have too much talent, but we almost had too much talent," Hayward says of his Celtics teams. "There were like seven of us that were really good, talented, offensive players. When I decided to come here it was a chance to have a bigger role and feel like I could maximize my potential as a player."
Often an afterthought in the Celtics' attack -- even when he was healthy -- Hayward wanted a situation that would maximize his potential, something he felt didn't happen in Boston. In the early going, the Hornets have utilized him in the middle of the floor and as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, where he can operate as a decision-maker and create opportunities for himself to shoot over defenders. In addition, he's working out of the post and igniting the Hornets' drive-kick-swing game.
Even as Hayward has posted a gaudy true shooting percentage of 61% and stabilized its late-game offense, he hasn't been Charlotte's best combo forward this fall -- that distinction belongs to Bridges. In Game 2 in Cleveland, Bridges not only was the recipient of Ball's touchdown pass, but Charlotte's most dynamic player. During the Hornets preseason, coaches and teammates were eager to tout fourth-year wing Bridges as a breakout candidate -- and Charlotte's prognosticators have looked prescient. The southpaw was everywhere, with six field goals in the fourth quarter alone. He drained a couple of 3s above the break. He opportunistically roosted at the dunker spot to catch a drop pass from Washington.
Two days later in Brooklyn, Bridges would put the final touches on his Eastern Conference Player of the Week campaign. Having trailed by 10 in the first half, the Hornets staged a run in the third quarter, with Bridges filling the lane on the break to muscle a layup high off the glass with his off hand over LaMarcus Aldridge to tie the score -- and one. Bridges' free throw gave Charlotte its first lead since midway through the second quarter.
Curiously, Ball was nowhere to be found on the court in the fourth quarter, but he was the first body off the bench to greet backup point guard Smith, who in tandem with Bridges, propelled the Hornets' second-half dominance with 11 points, four assists and a friggin' blocked shot on Patty Mills at the basket. Smith is a whirling dervish, a 6-0 guard with rec-center moves who lives a second ahead of the rest of the world, including the title favorites on their home court in the fourth quarter. With the same confidence he conveyed throwing an 80-foot pass in Cleveland, Ball graciously ceded the role he loves to a player with infinitely less upside but every bit the will.
"I've got to give Melo a ton of credit," Borrego says. "He said, 'Ride out Ish. Ish is hot. Ish is rolling. I trust it, let's go.' And that's just maturity on his part. He could have easily wanted to get back in that one, but Ish delivered tonight."
This is Ball's intriguing contradiction. Nothing about his comportment, social media feeds, sartorial style or bravado would suggest an earnest humility. We fetishize the cantankerous competitor who can't bear to sit, even for a moment. Ball harbors no insecurity, no intuition other than the recognition that the value of a supporting cast recording a high-leverage save far exceeds whatever 1-of-82 satisfaction he'd derive from finishing the game.
The Hornets returned home Sunday night 3-0 for the first time in franchise history. After the Hornets dropped a wildly entertaining game to Boston in overtime, then split their next two, Ball assembled a 29-point, 9-rebound, 7-assist performance in a 125-113 win over Portland, replete with some signature flourishes: Trailing by three in the third quarter, Ball snaked between Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic up high, unleashed a stutter-step dribble, planted near the foul line, cradled the ball like Julius Erving, then twisted counterclockwise and, while falling away from the basket, scooped the ball up off the glass for a layup against a recovering Nurkic. Ball commandeered the kind of plodding, 95-possession half-court game that didn't figure to be his bailiwick. More importantly, Hayward is playing some of his best ball in ages, and Bridges has solidified his candidacy as the favorite for Most Improved Player.
And they're still waiting on the return of Rozier, who was regarded by many around the NBA as a consolation prize -- and an expensive one -- when the Hornets offered Walker considerably less than the five-year supermax. Charlotte acquired Rozier with a 3 year/$57 million deal that was panned at the time, but one that proved to be a value.
Hayward, Bridges, Rozier and the platoon of young role players must produce at the top of their range to ensure the Hornets' success. But those 2,200 new ticket holders, the new investments in the club, that youthful exuberance that Smith believes can build a culture -- all of it is built on faith in Ball.
"I use an expression that certain players -- there's a little gold dust sprinkled," Kupchak says. "Melo's clearly got that."
Creating magic requires a magician.