LaMelo Ball: 2025-26 Season Review

While the NBA Finals are in full swing with the New York Knicks looking like they might secure their first championship in over half a century, the Charlotte Hornets are in the thick of the offseason. The NBA Draft is just 16 days away, with free agency and Summer League to follow.

Given that we’re still in a little bit of a quiet period in the first half of the summer, I wanted to look back on what was unquestionably a breakthrough season for the Buzz Boys, and examine exactly how each of the Hornets’ starters performed over the course of the campaign.

As I write this on 6/7 no less, let’s begin with the man who’s introduced to the Spectrum Center crowd by PA announcer Shawn Parker as “one of one, in the Hornets #1,” LaMelo Ball.

No one in their right mind would deny that 2025-26 was a wildly successful season for Ball. Above all else, he finally kicked the injury bug and was able to remain on the court for the vast majority of the regular season, playing in 72 games, the second most games played in a season of his thrilling career.

That alone was a win. And his availability clearly led to more on-court success for Charlotte. In fact, it’s not a stretch at all to say the jump this team took simply doesn’t happen without Ball.

It was evident that the coaching staff was being intentional about working with Melo to develop a plan to manage his minutes, in order to ideally have him healthy during the closing minutes of close games, when he was needed most.

Strategically limiting his minutes throughout games, and even bringing him off the bench in three contests (which was ultimately a short-lived experiment) led to the Hornets being able to achieve this outcome.

To me, LaMelo should get a lot of credit for embracing the concept of a minutes restriction from the start. He doesn’t get labeled as a team-first guy by many in the national media, but taking this kind of mentality this past season says everything about what truly matters to him.

And honestly, I thought there seemed to be an overall more mature and poised aura from Melo all season long in 2025-26. It started at media day in September, when many of his answers to questions felt deeper and more personable.

From there, the maturity flowed right over to the hardwood. We saw Ball’s typical fun and freewheeling style of play become just a touch more refined and intentional — a sign of him coming into the year with a full five years of NBA experience, no doubt.

LaMelo was about as efficient shooting the ball this past season as he was the season before. But he saw a considerable uptick in three-point percentage that contributed to him finishing second in the league in made threes overall, just behind Kon Knueppel for first.

Speaking of the Hornets’ star rookie, what Ball had during Charlotte’s campaign last year was what he had been missing in the three previous seasons — a supporting cast that was not only superbly talented, but also healthy as well.

After Brandon Miller returned from a month absence in late November, none of the Hornets’ starting five missed extended time for the remainder of the year (I’m not counting Miles and Moussa’s suspensions following the Detroit brawl).

This allowed Melo’s talents to truly shine for the final 80% of the season. His passing prowess was on full display when he had guys running the floor in transition, making cuts in the halfcourt and putting themselves in perfect position for Ball to generate scoring opportunities.

Put simply, his otherworldly offensive skill was the single biggest driving factor in Charlotte’s offense becoming what it became from around December onwards last season. Brandon Miller played at a very high level, Knueppel far exceeded expectations, and others did their part. But LaMelo Ball sat at the center of it all.

There are still some occasional gripes from the Hornets fanbase regarding Melo’s defense. But we’d be being disingenuous if we said there weren’t real moments of success in that department that raised our eyebrows in 2025-26 as well. For Ball, it’s just about consistency and putting it all together.

LaMelo truly did a lot to silence some of his biggest detractors and doubters during this past season. Staying healthy for the whole year while playing incredibly high-level basketball and producing wins tends to do that.

The bottom line is this: LaMelo Ball is approaching his athletic prime, finally healthy, and leading a Hornets team that for the first time in his career is genuinely built around him rather than leaning on him. That's quite a dangerous combination. The best basketball of his career may very well still be ahead of him, and given what we saw this past season, that's a positively thrilling thought for fans in Charlotte.

Will Eudy covers the Charlotte Hornets for The Eudy Report. Follow for credentialed Hornets coverage year-round.