The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to add a true difference maker in the 2020 NBA Draft, and LaMelo Ball could be just that.
In this year’s draft, as expected, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be eyeing a franchise-altering player. There are many routes that the Cavaliers could take in this draft but, it seems as if they will look at talent over fit. With the new draft lottery odds, it is uncertain what pick the Cavs will end up with. If they are to secure a top three pick in the 2020 NBA Draft however, there are many options that they could choose from.
One of the most, if not the most, intriguing players is LaMelo Ball. Ball is a very polarizing player and will bring tons of publicity to whatever team drafts him.
Ball played overseas this past season in Australia, posting 17 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game for the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks. The biggest gripes for him has been his poor shooting selection, which played into his shooting percentage of only 37.7 percent, too, and his unwillingness to play defense.
Looking at some positives, Ball is looked at by many as the best playmaker in this draft. Looking at his stats once more, he averaged nearly seven assists per game in his first season as a pro. Ball has amazing pick-and-roll potential and could be one of the best passers in the league at his peak.
All in all, with a top pick, Ball has a huge chance to get drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and if he is, there are a few meaningful goals that he could hit next season.
As a quick side note, according to the agent of prospect Killian Hayes of the BBL’s Ratiopharm Ulm, the Cavs have very little to no interest in drafting a guard in the 2020 NBA Draft, but Ball is reportedly among those in Cleveland’s top tier of prospects. So those comments from Hayes’ agent, with the draft to be in mid-October, could seemingly just be a smoke screen, as KJG’s Dan Gilinsky emphasized.
Moving on, we’ll take a look at the first of two key goals for Ball for 2020-21 if he were to be selected by Cleveland.
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.
Key goal #2 for Ball for the Cleveland Cavaliers: Lead the team in total assists and assists per game
This now-past season, at least from Cleveland’s perspective, the Cavaliers’ leading assist getter was Darius Garland. In 59 games played, Garland averaged 3.9 assists per game and led the Cavs in total assists, dishing out 229 assists in 2019-20.
A funny tidbit about the Cavs’ playmaking is that Garland led the Cavs in total assists with the next closest in Collin Sexton being 30 assists behind, despite Garland playing 6 fewer games than Sexton.
With this in mind, it shouldn’t be too hard for Ball to become the Cavaliers’ leading assist getter. Ball’s selling point has been his elite playmaking ability. Looking at his international stats, he averaged nearly seven assists per game, the second-most in the entire NBL.
He also dished out 82 assists in only 12 games played for the Hawks. To compare, it took Garland 28 games to reach 82 total assists.
As stated earlier, the Cleveland Cavaliers have a plethora of players that would make getting assists easier than anticipated for Ball. For the Cavaliers, playmaking is a huge issue that they must look to fix if they want to get out of mediocrity.
Ball could be the player to turn it around for the Cavaliers and soon enough, we will see if the Cavs have a chance at selecting him in the 2020 NBA Draft. Cleveland is set to have a top six pick, per Tankathon, and Ball will seemingly likely be selected in the top three.