Charlotte Hornets: Breakdown of LaMelo Ball’s start to his Hornets career

Can these issues be mitigated?

One thing I wanted to emphasize in this piece is that LaMelo Ball probably won’t win rookie of the year. His poor shooting mechanics and lack of physical strength limit him as both a shooter and slasher and it will likely take until the end of his sophomore season to iron out bad habits like shot selection and picking his dribble up too early. I actually don’t think LaMelo will even be a positive player until his third year at the earliest, where he’ll hopefully be strong enough to absorb more contact at the rim(and miss fewer bunnies).

But that doesn’t mean LaMelo can’t try to iron out bad habits right now, such as picking his dribble up too early. Melo taking that extra dribble doesn’t always lead to good results in the short term due to Melo’s poor finishing at the rim and general lack of strength. That said, developing this skill bodes well for Melo’s future as he inevitably gets stronger and absorbs contact better. Even in his rookie year, Melo can make good things happen driving hard to the rack, excelling at the lay-down pass to a big man on the baseline.

Melo is hardly the first young point guard to struggle with this specific issue. This is an issue Melo’s older brother Lonzo has, and continues to struggle with; on a brighter note, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s young star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander used to have a similar issue, as perfectly elucidated by @polarfall on Twitter(if you are a basketball nerd like me, Polar is a MUST follow).

So there’s definitely cause for optimism, especially with Melo’s game-by-game improvement in all facets, best manifested on the defensive end (which we won’t breakdown in this piece, but I’ll again quote Joseph Nation here).

That eagerness in itself is a major step-up from 2 years ago at SPIRE:

And 3 games into the season, Melo’s anticipation is starting to shine on the defensive end.

A key task for James Borrego is finding ways to involve LaMelo in the half-court even when his shot isn’t falling; and actually, Borrego’s playbook already incorporates a variety of sets that can utilize LaMelo’s playmaking.

To start, we have the good, old pick and pop, which works best with Cody Zeller, Miles Bridges, and PJ Washington when playing the C position; in that case, a slower big man is more likely to be guarding Cody/Miles/PJ, and defenses won’t be willing to switch this action for fear of that slower big man being drawn out of the paint and being blown-by off a closeout.

Shallow pick and rolls work very well with Miles Bridges and Jalen McDaniels who are adept at slipping screens, and they really utilize LaMelo’s instantaneous decision making. Miles and Jalen are already playing a few minutes with LaMelo so hopefully, we see a lot more of these as the season progresses. This action works the best when Miles or Jalen or whoever is playing the SF or PF position when defenses are more likely to switch and thereby liable to being caught out by an aggressive slip to the basket.

You then also have the “delay 45” action, in which you can use Ball as the passer coming off the handoff diming up one of the Hornets’ various smart off-ball movers making the
45 cut.”(Monk, Martin twins, McDaniels, Bridges all work here).

You’ve got “Spain PnR” where one of the Hornets’ guards, whether that’s Terry Rozier, Devonte’ Graham, or Malik Monk, set a backscreen for the big man screening for Melo.

To counter when teams are sagging off Melo, you’ve got plays as simple as running a handoff for a shooter like Devonte’ or Terry, or more complicated ones like this beauty that gets Malik attacking downhill.

Simply surrounding Melo with scoring talent also works due to Ball’s “floor general” game. In some of the above clips we’ve seen LaMelo and Miles Bridges really start to build a strong connection, but this connection can be built in the half-court too because of Bridges’ strength scoring out of the post.

Using LaMelo in the pick and roll as a diversion before swinging the ball along the perimeter, can allow Hornets slashers like Miles Bridges or Malik Monk to attack tilted defenses.

The main thing I want to see more of from the Hornets is using LaMelo to come off more pin-downs and handoffs. Zeller’s absence really complicates this, as the Hornets’ motion offense that ran through Zeller incorporated many of these concepts that allow LaMelo to get downhill with momentum without having to beat someone off the dribble.

The intention is to 1. Improve Ball’s decision making in the paint by increasing his number of reps in the paint, and 2. Help Ball realizes how impactful he can be when he penetrates, and therefore encourage him to drive deeper into the paint off the dribble more.

Using LaMelo in various actions on or off-ball will help the rookie expand his game, which again bodes well for the future and makes Melo a more versatile player. James Borrego has promised to use LaMelo in more diverse sets, but as of yet, this has been unrealized by JB.

To conclude, James Borrego is well placed in terms of personnel to diversify the Charlotte Hornets offense’ enough to help Melo contribute to the offense every single night, whether he’s hitting shots or not. But Hornets fans need to cool their jets on Ball.

He’s an exciting, charismatic, and genuinely unique player whose rookie year mixtape will be preserved in all Hornets’ fans’ “favorites” playlist on YouTube; but he’s also a heavily flawed player likely to struggle heavily with finishing in the paint and general scoring in his first two seasons.

Not making an all-rookie first team, or even the second-team wouldn’t matter if it meant Melo hustles on defense and stops picking his dribble up so early. Melo’s efficiency not hitting league-average levels until his fourth year wouldn’t matter if it means he’s not scared of taking contact from 7 footers at the rim.

With Melo, Charlotte Hornets fans need to trust the process. It seems the organization is invested in his development(which is more than can be said for how they’ve approached the development of some of their younger players over the years), and if we keep the faith for at least 3-4 years, that faith will be handsomely rewarded.