LaMelo Ball will be back a lot sooner than we expected.
Charlotte Hornets’ star rookie point guard LaMelo Ball was cleared by the team to resume basketball activities following a CT scan on his fractured right wrist showed that the body had done its job healing the area very nicely, the team announced on Monday.
The team also said that Ball had the wrist looked at for further confirmation of a full recovery by Dr. Michelle Carlson at the Hospital For Special Surgery in New York City on Monday, per ESPN.
The Hornets didn’t give specifics on Ball’s exact return date to live games, but there is apparently optimism that the 19-year-old could be back on the floor in the next seven to ten days, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Ball picked up the injury on a hard fall during a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on March 20th and was deemed to be out indefinitely, with many concluding he was done for the year. However, just a month on and the Chino Hills native is already nearing a return.
Ball was everyone’s pick to win Rookie of the Year when he went down, but since many thought that he’d be done for the year, they started to consider other options. If Ball can return and play any significant time down the stretch here, there’s no question that he should once again be the favorite to take the prize.
As for the Hornets, they have managed to remain in playoff contention without one of their top players, currently sitting in eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets and their TV announcers are trotting out the most exciting product in the NBA right now, but that is unlikely to translate into postseason success based on their +8,000 NBA odds to win the Eastern Conference on 888sport.
Ball was drafted third overall by the Hornets in the 2020 NBA draft, but since he hadn’t played in the NCAA, instead earning himself some money playing pro ball overseas, it was unclear how his skills would translate to the NBA game. Safe to say, they translate alright.
The polarizing youngster was contributing 15.9 points, 6.1 dimes, 5.9 boards, 2.0 triples, and 1.6 steals per game on a 45/38/79 shooting line in 41 appearances before going down.
He has also put up seven double-doubles and a triple-double during his freshman campaign in the NBA, a season that has been highlighted by a wild February run during which he put up 20.1 points, 6.7 assists, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.7 triples per game on an impressive efficiency with a 45/40/86 shooting line for the month.
