The 2019-20 regular season has yet to begin and 2020 mock drafts are already flying around. One has the Phoenix Suns selecting…LaMelo Ball.
The Phoenix Suns have yet to begin play and some enthusiasts are already attempting to project where potential college and international players will be selected in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Of course the Suns are not expected to be a playoff team so it is fair to assume that they will be a lottery team.
Many people do not appear to believe that along with the return of Devin Booker and a year of growth for Deandre Ayton, the additions of Ricky Rubio, Dario Saric, Aron Baynes, Cameron Johnson, and Ty Jones are enough to make this team a decently competitive one in the Western Conference.
Thus, when Jeff Goodman of Stadium Basketball Insider released his way too early (my words) 2020 NBA Mock Draft 1.0, it should come as no surprise that he has the Phoenix Suns picking 5th overall (a placement which of course is contingent upon the lottery itself and not just regular season record).
What did come as surprise however was who he projected the Suns would select: Lonzo Ball‘s baby brother, LaMelo.
The same kid who scored 92 points as a high school freshman in a defensive-less game, and who’s Dad famously took him out of school to train him full-time, then sent him to play professionally in Lithuania, and now plays in Australia with the Illawarra Hawks.
Just take a moment and imagine LaMelo Ball on the Phoenix Suns.
Let it sink in.
LaMelo is only 18-years-old at the moment, and like his older brother, is taller at 6’5″ with the potential to still grow a little bit moving forward.
Goodman personally called him a “tremendous talent” noting both his scoring ability and court vision.
In 5 games thus far for Illawarra, Ball is averaging 12.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game, although shooting a Lonzo-like 12.0% from 3 and only 35.8% from the field.
Seriously, why can’t the Balls shoot…the ball??
Taking the “Ball” name out of the equation, one thought immediately does come to mind: drafting a point guard in 2020 isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility if that player does project to be a franchise-leading starter in the near future.
Sure, James Jones just signed Ricky Rubio, however it is only to a three-year deal which will make Rubio 32 when his contract expires.
There certainly could only be more good than harm for a young point guard to learn under Rubio for at least those two years, potentially setting that player up to take the reigns as late as the start of the 2022-23 regular season when the rest of the young core is still in the early stages of their own primes.
Then again, when was the last time that an American player who forego’d college basketball and played overseas instead, came to the NBA as a franchise-type player?
Sure, it only needs to work once, and the NBA Draft is the biggest crap shoot of all professional drafts as it is, but those players do not necessarily come back any better than they would have been had they played at an American university, and in fact one should be able to make the argument that they are more difficult to scout since there are no shared opponents as there is with the bigger programs in the United States’ university system.
How absolutely ironic too would it be if the Phoenix Suns, who had been tied to Lonzo Ball for a few years now, ended up with LaMelo in the end?
Fans who wanted the franchise to avoid Lonzo simply because of the patriarch LaVar, would probably be stuck listening to even more howling from him as he would then have two son’s in the NBA, the more recent one potentially having even better upside.
This is, of course, just one mock draft, written way too early, and nothing more than that.
Yet one cannot ignore the fact that depending on where they land and who James Jones targets, LaMelo Ball could be a member of the Phoenix Suns at the start of the 2020-21 regular season.
Just think about that for a second.