Phoenix Suns Draft: 2020 NBA Mock Draft 1.0

#3: Minnesota Timberwolves:  LaMelo Ball | Point Guard | International

Like most audience members of the basketball world, you probably first saw LaMelo Ball on YouTube when he was a 15-year-old goofy-looking punk who spent his time on the court jacking up 40-foot 3s, not playing any defense, attempting fancy passes for the sake of his highlight reels, and cherry-picking his way to a bunch of points.

He may not be the that reckless of a player anymore, but a large part of me wonders what his draft stock would be if his last name wasn’t Ball. If I were a GM, I wouldn’t invite the drama that comes with drafting a Ball brother into my franchise, but since I’m just a goober with access to a blog, I’ll have to look through the eyes of actual general managers.

Ball has tremendous size to be the caliber ball-handler he is. At 6’7″, he possesses elite ball control and passes the ball with more deftness than haters (like me) give him credit for. The team that drafts him is going to wind up on Sports Center a lot for some of his insanely spectacular assists, dribbling, and long 3s, but what won’t be on ESPN is the myriad of times he attempts the spectacular play and comes up empty.

Ball shot just 37.5 percent from the field for New Zealand’s Illawarra Hawks (a team that he subsequently purchased at 18 years old…weird), including just 25 percent from 3 on a laughably-high-for-that-low-of-a-percentage 6.7 attempts per game.

Still, if the efficiency improves, Ball has all the showmanship of a star, and for a team looking for more star power to go along with D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns, LaMelo could form that team’s big three.