Charlotte Hornets: 3 bold predictions for LaMelo Ball’s rookie year
By Josh Wilson
Charlotte Hornets bold predictions for LaMelo Ball: Leads league in assists
LaMelo Ball posted 6.8 assists per game in his lone season with the Illawarra Hawks as a player in the NBL, good for 8.7 assists per 36 minutes. The league’s leading assist man per 36 minutes last season was LeBron James with 10.6.
Ball will have to jump a bit to reach last year’s assist leader in a more talented league with smarter defenses, but he’ll also have the luxury of being able to find more of a rhythm as an NBA player. He played a mere 12 games with the Hawks in 2019-20.
Ball’s preseason suggests he’s quite a ways off from being the league’s assist leader, with just 6.2 assists per 36 minutes throughout the preseason. That said, Ball played just four games and 87 minutes total, so it’s hard to draw too many broad conclusions from that dataset.
The proof was there in the preseason, Ball’s passing is as masterful and as pretty as advertised. In all reality, he probably has the skills to be the league’s assist leader immediately, and the boldness of this prediction relies more on his teammates capitalizing on his passes with made shots.
It will also rely on the Hornets upping their pace, something Ball will force the team into. His ability to grab rebounds and push the ball has set his teammates up for several nice looks. Their 108.13 pace in the preseason was good for the eighth-best in the league throughout the preseason, a far-cry from their dead-last pace of 95.8 last season.
Preseason team stats are not always indicative of what fans should expect in the regular season, though. Last year, the Pacers had a top-five preseason pace (109.62) and promptly fell to 22nd in the regular season (99.41). Keeping that pace up will be to Charlotte’s — and Ball’s — advantage, but it will take a concerted effort to make sure that preseason trend crystalizes in the regular season.
Ball leading the league in assists this year may be a far cry, but hey, these are bold predictions after all!