Two key goals for LaMelo Ball if he’s picked in 2020 NBA Draft by Cavs
By Amadou Sow
Key goal #1 for Ball for the Cleveland Cavaliers: Make an All-Rookie Team
If drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, LaMelo Ball will have a fair chance at becoming the ninth Cavalier in the last 20 years to make an All-Rookie Team, barring Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. make it this year.
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Looking at this year’s NBA Draft, the guard dominance in it suggests that Ball will have some hefty competition as he tries to secure a spot on the All-Rookie Team.
Players in the Georgia Bulldogs’ Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman, who briefly played at Memphis, Hayes, the Iowa State Cyclones’ Tyrese Haliburton, the Dayton Flyers’ Obi Toppin and Deni Avdija of the I-BSL’s Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, to name a few, will all have fair chances at securing a spot on the All-Rookie team as well.
Luckily for Ball, he should play big minutes and find tons of opportunities to score and playmake if he were selected in the 2020 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When it comes to scoring the basketball, Ball would have to share shots with ball-dominant players in Collin Sexton, Porter Jr., Garland, Kevin Love, and Andre Drummond, as Drummond fully intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option for 2020-21.
Looking at this list, it is argued that, by the end of the season, LaMelo Ball could see himself being the third option on this team.
The uncertainty around Drummond’s contract overall, though, is interesting and his time on the team could end up being swift. While Drummond and the Cavs have both reportedly “shown interest” in a potential contract extension, that actually happening in late October does seem to be anything but a certainty with Drummond not being an easy choice to be a long term fit, as Gilinsky alluded to.
From there, Porter Jr. and Garland still have strides to make to improve offensively and we will have to see if they are able to. That leaves Sexton and Love, the two leading scorers for the Cavaliers from this season.
Both of these players have solidified themselves as the go-to players on this team and though it may happen, the chances of LaMelo overtaking one of them as a scoring option doesn’t seem likely next season.
Expanding on what was said above, Ball did average 17.0 points per game on the Hawks, albeit on poor shooting splits. The drafting of LaMelo Ball could also signal the eventual end of Garland as a Cavalier, so Ball would take on those shots and minutes that Garland filled, if he were to be traded by the following deadline at some point.
Playmaking-wise, Ball should find a decent amount of assists on the Cavaliers. If the Cleveland Cavaliers are to re-sign Tristan Thompson, that would give Ball quality big men in the starting lineup and on the bench. The Cavs also have quality off-ball/catch-and-shoot players in Sexton, Love, Dylan Windler (who hopefully will be healthy) and Cedi Osman. Lastly, the Cavaliers have players in Porter Jr., Larry Nance Jr. and Alfonzo McKinnie who all should make for quality slashers.
History suggests that Ball has a great chance at making an All-Rookie team as in the last four drafts, only 25 percent of top-five picks have not made one.
Next up, we’ll highlight the second key goal for Ball in 2020-21 if he were selected by Cleveland in the upcoming draft.