According to a source, the Charlotte Hornets signed guard LiAngelo Ball, who is the older brother of Hornets’ franchise point guard LaMelo Ball, to a non-guaranteed deal on Thursday. This move is making a way for him to eventually join the Hornets G League team.
Ball averaged 10 points, 2 boards and 2 steals in 17 minutes in five games for the Hornets’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League. He is expected to be released from the contract he signed Thursday in the coming days as a launching pad to him joining the Greensboro Swarm for the upcoming G League season, the source stated.
The Hornets organization announced that they signed Ball, but it was nowhere in the teams news release of their plans to waive him and sign him to their G League team.
Over the final days of training camp across the NBA, before the season starts, there are a number of these particular moves on seemingly every roster. The teams are in the process of trying to figure out which players are going to claim those final, precious roster spots, and two-way deals, as well as who they can identify as candidates for their G League teams.
Organizations have to make their final roster cuts, which includes 15 players on the active roster, and two extra spots for two-way contracts. This has to be completed by Monday, October 18, ahead of the season beginning on Tuesday.
It has been a long journey for Ball to get to this point. He briefly played overseas after high school, and in a league his father founded after going undrafted in 2018. He spent some time in 2020 with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s G League affiliate, the Blue, but did not appear in the team’s lone game before the season was canceled.
Ball will get his chance to hone his skills and with a little hard work and luck, LiAngelo may get an opportunity to join his younger brother on the Hornets before the end of the season.
The Athletic first reported that Ball would join the Hornets G League team.
