The Cleveland Cavaliers could turn a corner in their rebuild if they landed LaMelo Ball to feature alongside two key playmakers.
A possible number one overall pick this coming fall in the 2020 NBA Draft means more young talent for the Cleveland Cavaliers. In that realm, a name dominating headlines for over a year now is LaMelo Ball.
Ball is predicted to go anywhere from 1-10, depending on how a team feels. If Cleveland, who is set to have a top six pick, per Tankathon, selects Ball, he’ll no doubt see immediate playing time. He’d warrant a considerable amount at that.
With that being the case, Ball should get his share of burn and be able to make quite an impact early on as one of likely the Cavs’ best options to make things happen. More specifically, envisioning Ball playing in Cleveland will include him running with the Cavs’ biggest playmakers I would imagine often.
Two playmaking names Ball with hit the court with would of course be Collin Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr.
A trio of Ball, Sexton and KPJ would have a lot to offer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, so let’s take a look.
An excellent nickname for this group would be the “pace pushers,” and they would a high-powered trio.
Ball’s most appreciated skill is his court vision. Sexton’s on-ball playmaking in the scoring sense has been on full display these past couple years, and he led Cleveland in scoring with 20.8 points per game in year two thanks to his all-around scoring.
Plus, KPJ demonstrated plenty of his scoring skill set as a rookie in 2019-20, and put up a solid 10.0 points per outing often via drives as a rookie bench contributor playing 23.2 minutes on average. Off misses, these three can push the pace of games nightly and/or after receiving outlets from Kevin Love or Larry Nance Jr.
Beyond the pace push, lineups featuring this trio would force growth upon each other. Each one of these players operates best with the ball in hand. This means each player will have the chance to grow off-ball, though.
While Sexton and Porter have shown the ability to cut and slash efficiently, the Cavaliers half court offense could offer something new without Sexton bringing the ball up with scoring in mind. Coupled with that, Porter could begin to ease more into a shooting guard role.
Ball being in the fold may be a needed push for the Cavs’ young core, and while that would seemingly push Darius Garland to the bench, if Ball is available for Cleveland, that might be for the best. That could very well be for Porter/Sexton, too.
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Swinging back to that high-powered potential trio for the Cleveland Cavaliers, LaMelo Ball may not always be the point. At 6-foot-7, Ball has shooting guard size and will draw shooting guard defenders.
Albeit If Ball isn’t the Cavaliers’ offensive engineer at times, he can focus on improving his shot. In his lone season with the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks, Ball shot 37.7 percent from the field, including 25.0 percent from three-point range.
Granted, Sexton may be the one who benefits most from being often on the floor with Ball and Porter. Sexton hasn’t really grown as a passer and it is beginning to diminish his overall value.
With Ball on the Cavaliers, who averaged 6.8 assists per outing in the NBL and has truly rare vision/ability, though, the pressure would be off Sexton in that way.
Heading into year three with a true pass-first point guard, Sexton could run wild and continue on his upward trajectory as a scorer.
Now defense can be put on the back burner more with the Cavs struggling in recent years. Ball isn’t known for on-ball defense and probably never will be. Despite this, Ball offers change. Collin Sexton and Porter are both considered undersized for their positions, well in the instances Porter is at the 3 which would be in this case, and Ball can bring much-needed size to the Cavs defensive unit.
At his height, while Ball does need to get stronger in the near future, the well-known brother of Lonzo Ball will hopefully use size to develop a defensive identity of some kind on the perimeter. Also, on the plus side, when he has seemed locked-in, LaMelo has shown potential to be a solid perimeter defender, and him averaging 1.7 steals shows encouraging team defensive feel at least.
Looking forward, the Cleveland Cavaliers may be in position to run many different lineups with many young players.
If Ball becomes a part of the Cavaliers by way of the 2020 NBA Draft, a trio involving him with Sexton and Porter in lineups would offer a lot excitement and a high-powered group of very talented creators.