James Borrego Says LaMelo Ball Turnovers 'Ain't Gonna Cut It For Me'

[RealGM Wiretap]

James Borrego explained his decision to play LaMelo Ball just 16 minutes on Friday night, citing his turnovers.

“If you’re turning the ball over five times in 16 minutes, that ain’t gonna cut it for me. If you’re doing that on the offensive end, you better be bringing something defensively," said Borrego following their 123-110 loss to the Bulls.

Ball finished the game with 7 points and 2 assists.

Ball, who said he was "rushing a lot of stuff," agreed that he had struggled the last two games.

“Last two games, I don’t think I’ve been doing real well. I’m going to try to amp it up a little next game.”

Via Rick Bonnell/The Charlotte Observer

[Blue_and_Whte]

Good for coach Borrego. To many times coaches are afraid to go after players and call them out.

[dougthonus]

I think this is a fine line. It depends a lot on the attitude of the player. LaMelo is the type that is going to learn through being overly aggressive and calming himself down. You're going to have to live with more mistakes and also some spectacular plays early and hope over time that he balances out.

If you feel like effort is poor, then I agree, you bench him, but I don't think you bench a player like LaMelo for aggressively making mistakes. Look at LeBron, 3.5 turnovers per game, 5.9 assists in his rookie year. Also didn't play defense, and had a ridiculously low 48.8% true shooting percentage. Ridiculously high turnovers, awful efficiency, but learned through extreme aggressiveness.

LaMelo sure as heck isn't LeBron as a prospect, but I think you're not seeing the forest through the trees if you're worried about his rookie season stats. If his attitude is poor, if he's not listening in timeouts or practice, if you feel he's goofing off or doesn't understand the seriousness of what you're trying to accomplish that's one thing (and there's perhaps some history with him to expect that might be happening but not said by the coach). If it really is just punishing him for in game mistakes, I don't think that's really a great approach for a guy you hope to be a franchise player when your team is kind of lousy anyway.

I didn't like LaMelo as a prospect anyway, I was glad he was off the board at #4 when the Bulls picked, because I would have reluctantly taken him then hated everything about it afterwards.

[JonFromVA]

I guess I understand this when Graham has something like a 5:1 A/TO ratio, and Rozier is on the roster too; but when you draft a PG top 3 you need to get him minutes and let him play through his mistakes.

It would be one thing if LaMelo wasn't producing, or Charlotte was a contender, but Ball has already had a pair of 11 assist games and a rook is seeing a lot of things in the NBA for the first time. Borego should want him to be aggressive, and help him improve his recognition.