Lamelo Ball by the numbers

[UcanUwill]

He is best example I can think of, of why stats doesn't always mean anything. Rubio was 12 ppg. scorer, had more positive impact on his team than Lamelo scoring 30 a game, fight me. Hornets need to find a fool buyer fast, you will never win with that guy on a team.

Steve Nash never cracked 20 and was an immensely better basketball player.

Numbers lie quite often.

I said this before not too long ago, but to me its wild, because if I ranked players with highest intangibles, his brother Lonzo, at least before injuries, would rank very very high, like maybe even top 10 in the entire league, where Lamelo, I would probably rank him dead last. On paper similar players, PGs with flashy passing, but completely different players if you look at nuances.

[Lalouie]

Never listened to his dad when he preached weight room. Who is gonna get through to him. Yeah it's the hornets, but his headspace is just off.

Sent from my SM-S936U using RealGM mobile app

he'll be a ufa in 2030, when he'll be 28 and a 10yr vet, which means he's beyond help

[uncleduck13]

He is best example I can think of, of why stats doesn't always mean anything. Rubio was 12 ppg. scorer, had more positive impact on his team than Lamelo scoring 30 a game, fight me. Hornets need to find a fool buyer fast, you will never win with that guy on a team.

Steve Nash never cracked 20 and was an immensely better basketball player.

Numbers lie quite often.

I said this before not too long ago, but to me its wild, because if I ranked players with highest intangibles, his brother Lonzo, at least before injuries, would rank very very high, like maybe even top 10 in the entire league, where Lamelo, I would probably rank him dead last. On paper similar players, PGs with flashy passing, but completely different players if you look at nuances.

It’s almost as if they grew up in separate households and were taught the game by separate individuals. SMH. Just two totally different approaches to the game. Melo plays like that spoiled youngest child who was coddled all his life and never held accountable for anything. Zo being the oldest , it doesn’t surprise me that he picked up on all the leadership / winning qualities. He for sure was the best player in the family and easily would’ve had the best career if not for injuries.

[Gary Cokeman]

AAU basketball culture personified.

[Calvin Klein]

He's basicaly a meme basketball player. That's where we are.

[Wargreymon]

He looks like prime Curry but without the rings, MVPs, finals mvp, all nba team accolades, wins, olympic gold medal.

[wade44]

When you think of nba strictly as an entertainment entity you think of this guy right away. He’s a great circus performer but yeah he’s never winning anything

[ChiTownHero1992]

Kemba Walker 2.0....as most people thought years ago when he was drafted...always gonna have decent stats, but will get injured and never lead his team through the playoffs or anything significant

[pipfan]

I do wonder what type of player he would have become if he had been drafted by the Warriors.

Good question-probably A LOT better

He's my least favorite young "star"-seems like a real punk. Love his brother, my current favorite Bull

[GSWFan1994]

Q. What is LaMelo Ball?

A. This generation's Ricky Davis and Andray Blatche's child.

[cupcakesnake]

Lamelo Ball has crazy rare playmaking ability. Super creative, super risky. He's one of the only players who regularly does things that I've never seen before. He's also a decent shooter- or would be- with better shot selection.

He is tough to evaluate in his context. It's a team is injured, and full of inefficient score-first types who don't play defense. With someone like Lamelo, you like him having offensive freedom, but not to this extent where he's often tasked with just doing whatever to produce a shot.

I get the temptation to write Lamelo off as a talented player who isn't really serious enough to be a real competitor or difference maker. I'd like to see him at least once in a more normal basketball environment before I feel like that evaluation has weight. What would he look like if you put him on Houston, or Minnesota. Teams with defense that could really use an aggressive playmaker? I hope we'll get to know.

Everyone is currently singing Cade Cunningham's praises and crapping on Lamelo, but swap those two and I'm not sure much changes for either of their teams (Cade is a way better defender, Lamelo is the superior playmaker).

[JayMKE]

LaMelo has undeniable talent and can be very fun to watch, I’d like to see him in a better environment than Charlotte and see what he could do.

[JayMKE]

LaMelo has undeniable talent and can be very fun to watch, I’d like to see him in a better environment than Charlotte and see what he could do.

[EmpireFalls]

An incredibly talented (but flawed) guard who is being forced into a ludicrously high usage role by a terrible front office. Also is scapegoated and looked down upon by casual fans who don’t know anything about Charlotte except for him. It’s beyond tiresome. I’ll give you a stat - the team has ONE win without him this season. One.

He needs to be a hybrid of on/off ball, in an up tempo system, with lots of shooting and playmaking around him. Like in 21-22 when they won 43 games and he led a great offense. Now we’ve done the opposite, tried to make him into Harden 2.0 or someone like Cade. He’s not a heliocentric player at heart despite the way he’s being used. He’s an excellent spot up shooter and plays great in transition, but he’s not a great rim finisher and he somehow gets no calls, so teams just play super physical with him. His passing is incredible even still. Defense is actually not a catastrophe but he’s weak and doesn’t always lock in.

All the idiots on here blame him for taking shots and don’t watch the team. They cannot create a shot without him. I’m serious. He has some bad habits but I’m trying to tell you, no one else on the team can do anything.

[UcanUwill]

He is best example I can think of, of why stats doesn't always mean anything. Rubio was 12 ppg. scorer, had more positive impact on his team than Lamelo scoring 30 a game, fight me. Hornets need to find a fool buyer fast, you will never win with that guy on a team.

Despite them both being amongst the best passers to ever play basketball, they're very different players. So much of Rubio's impact was defense. He's one of the best guard defenders I've ever seen. When I think of defensive hands and anticipation, Rubio is the first guy to come to mind. He could guard 3 positions, and disrupt everything off the ball, like a calmer Caruso.

Defense isn't quite as mapped out statistically like offense is, so the "stats" will always give us a better picture of offensive output, making Lamelo look like he's on another level just based on the boxscore. Overall though, stats say Rubio is much better than Lamelo, if you're willing to dig into on/off and defensive metrics.

Offensively, these are 2 funny extremes. Lamelo has no fear or conscious when it comes to trying to score. Rubio was terrified of the rim. Rubio's total lack of scoring threat made him focus entirely on playmaking, which he made work, but it was far from ideal and thing that most held him back from being a star in the NBA. Lamelo is taking a ton of shots and operating as the #1 offensive option for better or for worse. Rubio had to find a way to complement better scoring talent, because it wasn't something he could do on any level. Lamelo struggles to score inside the 3-point line... but Rubio is arguably the worst interior scorer of any NBA player ever.

Rubio was definitely very flawed, but for a guy who scored in low double digits on 38% shooting, he is one of the best you will ever find, so I just used that example for extreme purpose. Another thing with Rubio, he was very smart, amazing floor mapper, and not just offensively, he was such a good help defender for a guard, he just knew where to be on the court.

[cupcakesnake]

An incredibly talented (but flawed) guard who is being forced into a ludicrously high usage role by a terrible front office. Also is scapegoated and looked down upon by casual fans who don’t know anything about Charlotte except for him. It’s beyond tiresome. I’ll give you a stat - the team has ONE win without him this season. One.

He needs to be a hybrid of on/off ball, in an up tempo system, with lots of shooting and playmaking around him. Like in 21-22 when they won 43 games and he led a great offense. Now we’re done the opposite, tried to make him into Harden 2.0 or someone like Cade. He’s not a heliocentric player at heart despite the way he’s being used. Defense is actually not a catastrophe but he’s weak and doesn’t always lock in.

All the idiots on here blame him for taking shots and don’t watch the team. They cannot create a shot without him. I’m serious.

Yeah I'm with you on this. If Lamelo was on a different kind of roster, and was still doing this, I'd think the criticism is valid. We've only seen him on very unserious Charlottte teams, so people calling him unserious are missing the forest for the trees. Fans are lazy and like to treat whatever they see as the only possible thing, even when there are perfectly reasonable explanations for why things could easily go differently.

People forget or don't care about the 2022 Hornets, who won 43 games in one of those rare seasons where the East was deeper than the West. They missed the playoffs, but would have made it in the West. The Hornets put a barely okay roster around Ball (injured Hayward, Terry Rozier, pre-scandal Bridges), and they were a top 10 offense. Melo has mostly been injured since then, but the template for him as a foundational offensive piece looked pretty clear.

[Big J]

He reminds me of the kids who used to get sent to detention. All he needs is an old school authoritarian style coach who will put him in his place.

[EmpireFalls]

He reminds me of the kids who used to get sent to detention. All he needs is an old school authoritarian style coach who will put him in his place.

Like Steve Clifford?

[JustBuzzin]

Lamelo Ball has crazy rare playmaking ability. Super creative, super risky. He's one of the only players who regularly does things that I've never seen before. He's also a decent shooter- or would be- with better shot selection.

He is tough to evaluate in his context. It's a team is injured, and full of inefficient score-first types who don't play defense. With someone like Lamelo, you like him having offensive freedom, but not to this extent where he's often tasked with just doing whatever to produce a shot.

I get the temptation to write Lamelo off as a talented player who isn't really serious enough to be a real competitor or difference maker. I'd like to see him at least once in a more normal basketball environment before I feel like that evaluation has weight. What would he look like if you put him on Houston, or Minnesota. Teams with defense that could really use an aggressive playmaker? I hope we'll get to know.

Everyone is currently singing Cade Cunningham's praises and crapping on Lamelo, but swap those two and I'm not sure much changes for either of their teams (Cade is a way better defender, Lamelo is the superior playmaker).

Well said.

If Charlotte can get a Flagg in the draft I think we can seriously start looking at the playoffs starting next season. Bringing back a healthy Miller should also help. We have assets to make trades as well. We have a good selection of future draft picks. Maybe move off from Bridges and get a player who fits with Melo/Miller/Flagg would help. I think we start seriously consider trading Melo if we can't make a playoff run next season.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Modern-Day Pete Maravich