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LaMelo Ball has been a lightning rod for criticism throughout his NBA career due to his loose play, seemingly unserious attitude, and deservedly for his dangerous driving. One thing that has been a total myth is his lack of basketball IQ, because inside of his floaty, street ball style is a guy who really understands ball.
A new story from ESPN on the rise of the Hornets this season put Melo’s impact on the team into full focus, especially when it came to the team finding their missing piece. Charlotte seemingly had shooters with their nucleus of Ball and Brandon Miller, but when LaMelo was asked by GM Jeff Peterson about the player in the 2025 class that he liked, there was only one answer.
Although Cooper Flagg was the consensus can’t-miss prospect, Ball was talking up Kon Knueppel to the Hornets GM. Ball had watched Duke play during the season and told Peterson how savvy he thought the forward was. He was struck by Knueppel’s basketball IQ and understanding of the game — impressive even for a five-star prospect. And of course, there was Knueppel’s elite shooting.
This discussion happened before the NBA Draft lottery took place, without Charlotte knowing they would be picking 4th overall. The 19-63 Hornets had the third-worst record in the NBA, which gave them the identical 14% chance to land the top pick as the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards. Despite all this Knueppel was the player that Ball couldn’t stop talking about.
“He’s spot on with those traits,” Peterson told ESPN of that break-of-dawn draft breakdown. “He was very detailed in his evaluation of why he liked him. That was even more impressive that he was able to kind of highlight him because there were some other guys that he didn’t highlight.
“He may have a future in the front office if he wants.”
The Hornets improved to 44-38 this season, good enough to make the NBA Play-In Tournament, and Knueppel is a mammoth reason why. His lights out shooting, and veteran-level ability to play off the screen has paired perfectly with a healthy Ball and Miller this season to transform Charlotte into one of the NBA’s hottest teams,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/lamelo-ball-helped-convince-hornets-185100254.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-14 18:51:00
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