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LaMelo Ball’s draft position in October’s 2020 NBA Draft will be an interesting one to monitor. Given the perceived lack of interest from the Golden State Warriors, it seems plausible that Ball will either be the top pick or the No. 3 pick.
While both DraftExpress and Stadium both projected Ball to go No. 1 overall, The Athletic slotted Ball third overall as did Tommy Beer of Forbes. Beer’s post-lottery mock draft featured Anthony Edwards as the top pick to Minnesota, James Wiseman as the No. 2 pick to Golden State and Ball this to the Hornets.
“Point guard is the one spot on the floor the Hornets don’t need to address, as the team’s two leading scorers (Devonte’ Graham and Terry Rozier) are both PG’s by trade. Still, assuming Charlotte considers Ball the best player available when they are on the clock, it makes sense to get a potential franchise-changing talent and figure out how all the pieces fit later on. Ball significantly boosted his stock in Australia last season, with consistently impressive performances for the Illawarra Hawks before injuring his foot in December. Over his final five appearances, Ball averaged 23.2 points, 9.4 assists, 9.0 rebounds. In the process, he became the first Australian NBL player in the modern era to post back-to-back triple-doubles.”
The Hornets do already have a host of guards in the aforementioned Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham as well as Malik Monk and both Cody and Caleb Martin. While Ball’s versatility would allow him to play next to any of those guards offensively,
The other obvious takeaway of Ball landing in Charlotte is that the team is owned by Michael Jordan, who has been in LaVar Ball’s crosshairs many times in recent years.