minimus wrote:King Malta wrote:Calinks wrote:Lamello is intriguing. It would be really weird though if he is starting caliber. Russell moving to the 2 permanently is probably not what he wants. That also means where does Beasly fit? I'd probably take him if we get the chance, heard too many good things but I really hope we can land a star-caliber 3 or greatly defensive 4.
I think I've already posted this in here (apologies if so), but I got to see Lamelo play in my national league last season and I really don't think he solves that many problems for us.
He was an absolute matador defensively in the NBL and he shot 25% from 3 on a FIBA threepoint line (on a pretty decent volume too). He's very athletic and an excellent playmaker, but he has deficiencies in two areas that are going to be extremely important for us.
What concerns me most is his unimpressive slashing/finishing ability. Combined with his inconsistent jumpshoot it does not give me much confidence in Ball as top3 pick.
It’s interesting, in the three games I watched this weekend (was bored), he consistently got past his man without much issue. His handle really is elite. I wouldn’t pay attention to his finishing much. I could see why he shied away from taking it strong. At 18, his body is underdeveloped and he’s playing against grown men in a physical league. With proper weight training, I think he’ll be a decent finisher/slasher.
His shot is funky but improved dramatically in his final six games vs a real struggle in the first six. That initial struggle should have been expected, as this was his first real games in a long time (blame his dad for that) and it was against grown men. Does anyone remember Trae Young’s shooting struggles in his first summer league? Takes time to adjust to increased competition level. Ball’s team also had no real scorers (Aaron Brooks was injures or coming back from injury), thus Ball had to force some things to put points on the board.
On D, he wasn’t good. Did get steals with anticipation but not great. I don’t know if he’ll ever be good on that end but it should improve with proper weight training and age. He doesn’t even turn 19 till the end of this year.