On Sunday afternoon, the Charlotte Hornets picked up one of their most impressive wins of the season, as they strolled into Cleveland without LaMelo Ball and beat the Cavaliers in overtime by a final score of 119-111.
Now, Hornets fans are starting to see a future that doesn’t involve the former All-Star point guard.
Are Hornets Fans Done With LaMelo Ball?
After showing flashes of brilliance early in his career, the last few seasons have been incredibly disappointing for Ball. He’s struggled to maintain any sort of consistency and has dealt with a myriad of injuries. After his All-Star season in 2021-22, Ball appeared in a measly 105 games over the next three seasons, averaging 35 games per season.
The Hornets committed to Ball by signing him to a massive 5-year, $203,852,600 contract extension in July of 2023. Fans were hoping this would be the year everything came together for Ball, and the contract would start to look like fair value. Instead, it’s been the opposite.
Ball has been in and out of the lineup due to injury, and is averaging career lows in field goal percentage (38.6%) and 3-point percentage (28.5%).
On Sunday, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype said, “Kon Knueppel has essentially become the face of the franchise… To my understanding, [the Hornets] still want to see what it looks like with LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges. They think if they’re healthy, they could be a play-in team.”
Many Hornets fans online see things differently. It appears as though they’ve run out of patience with Ball.
Trade lamelo ball and build around Kon atp 😂@hornets
— Meee (@BY9ownsatl2) December 15, 2025
One fan took issue with Ball’s approach to winning: “Lamelo doesn’t care about winning like the rest of the Hornets do. Dude just wants to sell shoes to kids and be rich. Anytime he’s not playing, which is quite often, he’s on the sidelines looking like a giant neon LaFrance billboard promoting himself.”
Another fan responded to Scotto’s comments, saying, “Not with Ball. Gotta move him. Addition by subtraction. He’s flashy and can do crazy things but it doesn’t translate to winning basketball and making others better.”
How Kon Knueppel Has Taken LaMelo Ball’s Spot
A big part of the shift in LaMelo-belief from Hornets fans has been the emergence of rookie Kon Knueppel.
The 20-year-old is averaging 19 points per game on insanely efficient .472/.405/.921 shooting splits to go along with 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
The Charlotte Hornets reportedly now view Kon Knueppel as the new face of the franchise, per @MikeAScotto pic.twitter.com/RhPX60ANy2
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) December 15, 2025
One fan said, “This team can’t keep aiming to play-in level. There’s a ceiling to a Lamelo led team. And Kon led team too. Move one from and you decide what type of team you’ll be creating. One leads to unorganized mayhem with last second highlights, the other is organized offense with passing.”
Another fan said Ball needs to go, going so far as to call him a “cancer.”
Whether the Hornets move Ball or not, it’s clear that Knueppel has become the best asset on this team going forward. With Knueppel manning the ship, the future is bright in Charlotte.
