why is Lamelo Ball ranked 18th in his class?

[Hersh]

dude is garbage and I can't see the hype

 

[Ohene]

Dude is 6'5" and isn't even rim grazer status when attacking the rim. Not particularly long despite his height, on top of lacking lateral quickness and explosiveness which makes him a huge defensive liability. He's actually NOT a good shooter, and you'd know this if you looked up his percentages throughout his career thus far, but part of this is also due to the fact that he has possibly the worst shot selection in basketball history. Turnover prone, bad decision maker, and quite frankly should actually be lower than 18 and would be if his last name wasn't Ball.

well said. the lack of athleticism, lateral quickness and effort on d are worrying. id be interested to see them FG% stats though

 

[SpacelySprockets]

Play some defense

his on ball defense left much to be desired and one of them big baller players sauced him a couple times in the game.. a chasedown block doesnt make u a great defender

thats like saying lonzo is a great defensive player because he got 5 steals playing the passing lanes

zion cant shoot jumpers, cant shoot freethrows, all he can do is drive and physically impose his will against way smaller players, when he dribbles he looks down at the ball like a 5 year old, hows his IQ? does he make his teammates better? he's literally showed no other skill besides dunking.. when he gets to the next level and is playing against guys his size he's not always gonna be able to have his way getting to the paint.. then what will he do?

 

[Jparker]

His name and fame supersedes his talent. When I watch him play the only thing that stands out is the fact that he takes more shots than everyone else. If it wasn't for lonzo and lavar he wouldn't even be ranked high.

The entire family had a class rank before Lavar opened his mouth

 

[SpacelySprockets]

Zion looks like a man amongst boys on the court

LaMelo is just one of those boys

one of those boys who had a more impressive statline than him including more rebounds and dont even bring up the shot attempts because he didnt start bricking until the end of the game chucking up shots trying to come back

lamelo is more skilled than zion and has shown he can do more than one thing unlike zion

 

[O.T.I.S.]

18th???

Where tf did you find that?


He's ranked 8th to ESPN

LaMelo Ball - Basketball Recruiting - Player Profiles - ESPN

He's also a 5 star recruit, 95 scout grade, #1 at his position, #2 Regional, and #2 in the state at his age

Stop hating

Edit:

Oh ok, so you talking about in Rivals for 2019...

First, Rivals is definitely outdated. They don't even have his height right. Then, he's only 6th in guards and the only player thats 6'4, 155lbs. Next, he's also technically not even supposed to be in that class. he's supposed to be in the 2020 graduating class.

So basically, his shyt will improve. He's still a 5 star recruit across everyones board.

 

[Michael's Black Son]

That D1 reality check is gonna be big for this kid and the middle brother.

He at least has time to get his shyt in order but will be at UCLA right along with his brother, who I can't see leaving before three years. If anything, use the other 2 brothers to pull recruits into Westwood since people will tune in now on the strength of the Ball name alone

 

[KingJay]

Zion is a legit talent though.

His handle is elite for being as big as he is. He's fast, agile, explosive as fukk and can bang on anyone but even more impressive is his control when finishing. Dude be looking like a 6'8" Kyrie out there with some of his finishes but he's doing them ABOVE the rim. And unlike Lamelo he actually has defensive potential. He's a great rebounder and even displays some court vision but plays on a pretty trash team (better than Melos but trash for a dude who is considered no. 1 in his class, I mean Melos sandlot team almost beat them ) His jumper is so so right now but those things come with time.

At 6'7"-6'8" his handle really isn't anything special. At an NBA level he's a SF right now. If he grows to 6'10"+ now we're talking because right now he's closer to an undersized PF than a wing. His jumper doesn't look good either, he needs some work on his mechanics.

 

[10bandz]

He at least has time to get his shyt in order but will be at UCLA right along with his brother, who I can't see leaving before three years. If anything, use the other 2 brothers to pull recruits into Westwood since people will tune in now on the strength of the Ball name alone

the middle son probably gonna play 1 year no matter what. If hes not NBA bound they might steer him in another career. Rumors around town say he's being set up to be an actor/model

 

[ISO]

thats like saying lonzo is a great defensive player because he got 5 steals playing the passing lanes

Lonzo was good defensively at UCLA and will grow to be a great defender in the NBA

 

[MikelArteta]

38 points ten assists 9 board

 

[CHICAGO]

THE KID IS ONLY 15 YEARS OLD
AND STILL GROWING.


HES GONNA EVENTUALLY
PUT ON SOME MUSCLE
AND BECOME A MONSTER.



​

 

[MercuryHayes]

Thread gonna be funny in 3 years

 

[SpacelySprockets]

We have people in here really arguing that defense isn't important for a guard in defense of a kid who literally chases the ball around the floor at best and doesn't cross half court at worst. I guess nobody should play defense at all basically.

He's not even a savvy, passing lane defender. They run a full court diamond or half court trap and he just so happens to be ahead of everyone else every time there's a turnover

This isn't even a comparison to the NBA guards; Lamelo plays opportune spots in zone and presses and NBA guards play man.

I never said its not important but dont act like not being good on defense is some unforgivable offense that will prevent him from translating in the nba like james harden isnt horrible on defense, infact besides john wall and chris paul who are some defensive minded superstar point guards

it doesnt matter if its man or zone, if u dont play D u dont play D.. btw lamelo was getting a bunch of steals that game so that passing lane analysis is lazy, he was also playing defense helping trap zion and denying him the ball, kinda hard to do that sitting on the other half of the court waiting for your team to get possession

 

[MoneyTron]

Thread gonna be funny in 3 years

Exactly. Kid is 15/16 years old. In 2 years he'll probably gain another 2-3 inches/20 pounds. Its very obviously that he's still growing into his body unlike a Zion who is pretty set already. Not to mention overall skill improvement. He'll be a problem.