LaMelo Ball trade rumors prove Suns fleeced Hornets multiple times

In news that will come as a shock to absolutely nobody, the latest rumors out of the Phoenix Suns' friends in the Eastern Conference in the Charlotte Hornets is that their franchise cornerstone LaMelo Ball is open to a trade. News that might not actually be a bad thing for that team, as they've got guys like Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel who they should pivot towards.

Suns took advantage of Hornets three times in a year.

With the Ball era in Charlotte surely coming to an end, let us not forget that it was the Suns who recognized earlier than anybody else that the Hornets were there for the taking. Twice ahead of the trade deadline they engaged in deals with them, ditching center Jusuf Nurkic there and finally getting away from the Bosnian disaster.

Yes it cost them a valuable first round pick being broken up in order to get done, but Nurkic isn't even with the Hornets anymore. Instead it is the Utah Jazz who are finding out why the Suns were so eager to let him go. Then there is fellow big man Nick Richards, who plugged a serious hole for a time while Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal were still in town.

He has since become the third string big in The Valley - but for a period last season at least - he was the answer to the Suns' problems. Much more athletic and active than Nurkic on both ends of the court, all it took to acquire him was giving up Josh Okogie and some second rounders. Make no mistake, Okogie is a solid rotation player who is quietly excelling with the Houston Rockets.

But he could never quite be consistent enough in Phoenix to warrant keeping around, and Richards filled a position of need. With Okogie also no longer in Charlotte, this is easily 2-0 to the Suns in deals, but the best was yet to come. A final transaction going down over the offseason, with Mark Williams heading to the Suns.

This one had the potential to blow up in the faces of the front office in Phoenix, and there is still the small matter of paying him as he is eligible for an extension. But outside of not being able to appear in back-to-backs, he has been brilliant for the Suns and a large part of the reason they're above average defensively at this point in the season.

He's been a much better rim protector than expected while he is on course to smash the 44 games he managed last season with the Hornets, to this point the most of his career. A pair of firsts made this a pricey exchange, but right now it has paid off.

The Suns have been picking off the Hornets for a while now to make themselves better, and they should look to see who else they might want to get rid of if Ball does get traded elsewhere to pick up yet more value for their rotation. Who knows, that franchise is stuck in such a malaise that they might even convince them to return a pick or two.