LaMelo Ball made his debut for the Charlotte Hornets this NBA preseason, and fans lost their minds. Here are our thoughts on his debut.
LaMelo Ball is the only reason to watch the #NBAPreseason. Change my mind...
— Swarm and Sting (@SwarmnSting) December 13, 2020
LaMelo Ball without even looking at the numbers was super exciting to watch for the Charlotte Hornets in his NBA preseason debut. Every time he stepped onto the court, the announcers along with NBA Twitter praised how he looked. Ball played smoothly with good footwork and even better playmaking and the league took notice.
Three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Jamal Crawford tweeted the following about Ball’s debut:
https://twitter.com/JCrossover/status/1337916633357041664
LaMelo was phenomenal on the boards, he was super aggressive at getting rebounds and it showed on the stat sheet. Ball even tangled up with Rozier fighting for a rebound at one point, and as a fan, you love to see that type of energy. Point guards don’t normally get ten boards per game and the fact that LaMelo got double-digits in only 16 minutes is vastly impressive. Ball was a big reason that the Hornets did so well on the glass, and this impact will be beneficial as the season goes on.
LaMelo, to no surprise, was great at playmaking the entire night. His four total assists really don’t account for the Australian superstar’s skills at passing. Ball’s vision was unparalleled, where got three amazing highlight passes including no looks and behind the backs. Ball made a few really good passes, where Cody Zeller just couldn’t finish or one of the Martin twins bobbled it. Ball had amazing court vision, even to the point where his first assist, an 80-foot quarterback pass, was missed by the Fox Southeast camera crew because it was so incredibly fast.
Ball did, however, really struggle with his scoring. I expected a learning curve as he wasn’t great from behind the arch in Australia, but I didn’t expect him to miss every single shot. Ball hacked up five total shots with zero makes and that can be concerning. One of his misses was a wide-open three but the other four weren’t great shot selections as far as I remember. I’m not frantically worried however because it was his rookie debut and he played a team with good defensive guards, Norman Powell and Fred Vanvleet to name a couple.
LaMelo also tied a team-high with Devonte’ Graham with four turnovers. To his credit, a few of those turnovers shouldn’t be blamed on him as some teammates on an off had a case of the butterfingers, but overall that many turnovers are unacceptable on an efficient offense.
LaMelo Ball overall was……good
Overall, Ball played well and some NBA-debut jitters definitely were factors in the future stars’ first set of minutes. Ball did really good at his playmaking and just needs to get his shot selection together before Charlotte fans hit a panic button. The energy Ball brought to the court was great and the team is lucky to have drafted a guy that brings that aura to the court.