Don't let Hornets' record distract from LaMelo Ball's impressive run

The Charlotte Hornets may be 5-9 on the young season and appear to be destined to miss any and all forms of postseason play, but that does not mean that there is not something worth watching when they take the court. The particular aspect in question that is worth watching? The impressive performances of star point guard LaMelo Ball.

Over his last nine games, Ball is avearaging 32.2 points, 8.7 assists, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.4 steals while making 49.1% of his field goals and 43.6% of this three-point attempts. Ball has scored 25 or more points in every contest and over 30 in seven of those games.

The scoring output alone is not the only thing that is worthy of garnering a ton of attention, but it is how and where Ball is scoring from that demands recognition. Ball has made multiple threes in every game during this stretch, including four or more in seven contests, including making eight in a loss to the Knicks last week. The eight made threes in that loss appears to actually be the beginning of a run inside a run for Ball, as he is currently averaging 6.3 made threes per game on a 47.5% conversion rate over his last three games.

It always felt like this was the type of performance the Hornets would be able to get out of Ball, but his flat start to the beginning of this season was a bit concerning. The good news is that Ball was able to put the 14.6 points he was averaging on 29.7% from the field and 27% from deep behind him to get to the level everyone knew he was capable of.

While the Hornets may not be able to accomplish anything noteworthy as a team this season, that does not mean Ball's effort is going to waste. This is an organization that needs to establish its foundation for the future and hopefully become somewhere that players want to come to and not be the facilitating team in multi-team trades that results in stars going elsewhere. Ball playing at a high level and raising the performances of his teammates helps their cause, and it should lead to better results down the road.