Cavs: Why not take a chance with signing LiAngelo Ball?

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LiAngelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images /

Cavs fans, do you remember when the Ball Family was on top of the world? In 2017 Lonzo Ball became the first of the family to be drafted into the NBA. He was the second overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2017 NBA Draft. As a freshman at UCLA, Ball led the nation in assists and won the Wayman Tisdale Award as the best freshman player in the country. Right around then, we started to hear from Lonzo’s father, LaVar Ball, about how his sons would be the best players in the league when they all get there.

Let’s fast forward to the present day, when Lonzo just signed a 4-year, $85 million contract with the Chicago Bulls. His younger brother, LaMelo, missed half of the season with a broken wrist, but still won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2021. Right now it seems as if LaVar may have been right all along. However, there is one more Ball brother in the family, middle son LiAngelo Ball.

Before the 2021 Summer League, the only thing LiAngelo was known for was getting arrested in China for shoplifting. This event happened as he was on a college trip with the UCLA basketball team. He was looking at a hefty fine, and possibly 3-10 years in a Chinese jail. Instead he was soon released from custody, and was suspended indefinitely from UCLA.

“Gelo,” as he is known, withdrew from UCLA and his family decided he and LaMelo were going to Lithuania to play and prepare for the 2018 NBA Draft. Gelo was a long-shot to be drafted but still entered the draft. He was, unsurprisingly, not drafted and signed with the Junior Basketball Association, a league created by his father. He played for the Los Angeles Ballers and put up eye-popping numbers. During a game versus the Seattle Ballers, he scored 58 points, had 11 rebounds, and contributed 6 assists. However, he was not making any progress towards making the jump to the NBA.

LiAngelo played in the 2021 NBA Summer League and hopefully the Cavs were watching.

Luckily for LiAngelo the Charlotte Hornets, who Lamelo plays for, allowed each player to bring a workout partner to their Summer League Camp. The Hornets were impressed with Gelo, and gave him a spot on their Summer League Team. In his summer league debut, he played sixteen minutes and scored an impressive 15 points. All of his points came from behind the arc.

I’m not going to overreact about Summer League basketball, but Gelo was very impressive. Over the course of the summer, Ball averaged nearly ten points per game, while also adding in 1.6 steals per game. In my opinion, he looked a lot better than the Cavs’ first-round pick Evan Mobley throughout summer league. In fact, he outperformed a lot of first-round picks in Las Vegas. With the Cavs desperately needing wing help along with more three-point shooting, why not take a chance on Gelo?