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Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Profile: LaMelo Ball

By Dylan Jackson

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 19: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks gestures during the round three NBL match between the South East Melbourne Phoenix and the Illawarra Hawks on October 19, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 19: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks gestures during the round three NBL match between the South East Melbourne Phoenix and the Illawarra Hawks on October 19, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images) /
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AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – NOVEMBER 30: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – NOVEMBER 30: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images) /

The Bad

LaMelo Ball is not the perfect prospect by any means. His defense is bad – plain and simple. He is awful on that end of the floor, although he has shown some flashes. In Oceania, he struggled with attentiveness off-ball and was shotty at staying in front of his man to begin with. Ball is better when he is around the play although he struggled when it came to rotating assignments and didn’t have the frame to contest against stronger players.

While it is difficult to predict whether he is going to become a league-average defender, I would personally bet on him at least improving slightly. It’s hard not to see a 6-foot-8 lead-guard not being competitive on that end of the floor at all.

Another highly criticized part of Ball’s game is his shot selection. Frankly, it was not good. In fact, it was terrible. He shot less than 40-percent from the field and less than 30-percent from the three-point line in large part due to his shot selection.

And yes, while it was bad, Ball was essentially playing on the 2011 Bobcats of the NBL. His splits may have been more-so the product of a truly pitiful situation rather than him being just a downright bad scorer.

His team (which again, he now owns), recorded three wins and nine losses with him playing. In those games, he led the team in assists ten times, rebounds seven times, and points five times. The Hawks had a point differential of -300 on the season, which is 210 points worse than the second-worst team in the NBL. Without Ball, the team went 2-14, including a ten-game losing streak to end the season.

Again, this isn’t to say that Ball does not need to improve his shot selection: he very clearly does. However, his shooting splits also may not be representative of how he can actually score and may just be a product of him attempting to do too much.

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