Charlotte Hornets: 3 bold predictions for LaMelo Ball’s rookie year
By Josh Wilson
LaMelo Ball’s rookie season with the Charlotte Hornets is highly anticipated
Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball‘s rookie season has been waited on since he scored 92 points in a high school game for Chino Hills. Some said then he’d be a No. 1 overall pick, detractors said there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest he would amount to anything other than a high school legend.
Ball ultimately played overseas for two years, foregoing the classic college experience. He most recently in Australia with the Illawarra Hawks. He displayed a high-level passing acumen and the skills teams are looking for in a young point guard.
All said and done, Ball was a lottery pick, going third overall to the Charlotte Hornets.
With his rookie season slated to kick off officially on December 23rd, let’s take a look at three bold predictions for his debut year. These will be — as the headline suggests — a bit bold and “best-case scenario”, but ultimately not unrealistic for the rookie guard.
Charlotte Hornets bold predictions for LaMelo Ball: 3 triple-doubles
Three triple-doubles would be a pretty impressive rookie season for LaMelo Ball. Last year’s definitive Rookie of the Year, Ja Morant, posted just two in his impressive first-year campaign. The triple-double king himself, Russell Westbrook, didn’t log more than one per year until his third season.
Ball has shown the ability to pull in rebounds, posting 10 in a game in the preseason. Him getting to double-digit assists or points on any given night should be no problem.
How about all three, all in one game? Three times? Why not!
Ball is the type of player that you expect to take over games when he has the opportunity to do so. He has the balanced skill-set to post triple-doubles, and if his team is in a situation where they need him to step up to the plate, you’d expect him to walk into a few triple-doubles this season.
The scoring, quite truthfully, will probably be the toughest part, as his skillset thus far has leaned on unselfishly setting his teammates up for buckets.
For what it’s worth, LaMelo Ball posted 25-12-10 and 32-11-13 triple-doubles in back-to-back appearances for the Hawks last season. The talent level is different, yes, but at just 18 years of age, Ball was the youngest player ever to post a triple-double in the NBL. At 19, you have to expect he’ll post a few triple-doubles in his rookie year.