Despite not being one of the teams near the top of the 2020 NBA Draft lottery, the Washington Wizards may be one of the teams that most thoroughly recruited LaMelo Ball during his time in the NBL. While no reports linked the franchise to Ball during the season, a report from NBC Sports Washington revealed that the Wizards spent a fair amount of time scouting Ball in-person.
The Wizards did their due diligence on Ball this season, sending multiple people to Australia to scout him in-person as well as hiring a scout based full-time in the area, NBC Sports Washington was told.
As it stands, the Wizards are ninth in the draft lottery and would need a fair amount of luck to jump up into the range to be able to draft Ball. But there are a couple reasons why the team could be looking at Ball.
The first and most obvious reason is, as mention, simply doing due diligence. Even if the odds are low that Washington moves up in the draft, there’s still a chance. And even if the team doesn’t move up in the draft, the pre-draft process presents one of the few times teams can get a free, unreserved look at players without the fear of tampering charges.
Another potential scenario could see the Wizards deal Bradley Beal in a trade that would net them draft picks, and potentially first-round picks in the upcoming draft. The Warriors, for example, will have a high draft pick and have discussed trading the pick for a win-now piece.
If the Wizards do deal Beal, it could lead to another first-round pick and another chance at Ball.
Washington would be an interesting fit for Ball. The Wizards do have John Wall on the salary sheet for multiple years moving forward, but the former Kentucky product has been out of action since December of 2018 with multiple injuries.
Since, the Wizards have entered a sort of rebuilding process, though they haven’t fully committed with Beal still on the roster. Ball would be the most-touted prospect on their roster but would almost certainly only be drafted if Wall or Beal are not on the roster long-term.
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