Originally Posted by
TheOneOnly2
Being Australian I generally dont pay a great deal of attention to the NBA draft unless an Australian player is projected to go in the top ten but I have an interest this year because LaMelo Ball is an honorary Australian since he played for the Illawarra Hawks in our NBL last year and I am hoping to see him go number one.
We have already had three Australians drafted at number one in Andrew Bogut, Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving. Irving was born in Australia while his father was here playing in one of our minor basketball leagues so while his allegiances are with Team USA he could play for the Australian Boomers if he wanted to because he is an Australian citizen so he counts. Obviously Lamelo is not an Australian citizen but like I said - we consider him an honorary Australian and we will be cheering for him on draft night.
When LaMelo announced that he would be bringing his talents to the Australian NBL instead of playing NCAA there were a lot of LaMelo haters here that were against the idea and I was one of them. Like many Australian basketball fans I didnt rate LaMelo very highly and I didnt think a lot of his father. We had all read the stories about LaMelo and his brother playing in Lithuania and it sounded like some kind of clown show. We didnt want LaMelo coming here and making a clown show of our NBL. But when I watched LaMelo making the announcement on ESPN I decided to give him a chance because he said all the right things about the NBL and he came across as a likeable guy. Before his announcement I had never actually heard him speak - I had just seen mix tapes and read articles about him and his family. I was expecting him to come across as a jerk but he didnt at all.
So I watched LaMelos first few games in the NBL and I was pretty impressed with his ball handling and passing ability. Even though LaMelo was clearly holding his own in the NBL there were still a lot of haters because his team wasnt winning any games and it was obvious that the Hawks were just allowing LaMelo to do whatever he wanted. He had the ball in his hands for the majority of the games and he had poor shot selection and low shooting percentage - especially from three point range. Most were saying that the Hawks were throwing their season away by letting a kid just out of high school run the team and that it was obvious that the priority was to help LaMelo succeed rather than for the team to. And I would agree with that but at the end of the day the best thing for the NBL and Australian basketball was for LaMelos time here to be a success so that the Australian NBL could be seen as a legitimate alternative to NCAA for top high school prospects.
So the best way to influence the opinion of Australian basketball community is to write propaganda on a forum called hoops.com which is basically the main hub for Australian basketball aficionados. It was on hoops.com that LaMelo was receiving the most hate so I would go on there daily and defend him. I had to create a new account to do this because I had been banned from the forum previously. Ha. I went by the name of Alfonso Ball. So the hoops.com forumites would claim that LaMelo Ball would have been fired by now if he was a real import - which was probably true because import contracts in the NBL are not guaranteed and if a top NBL import is brought in and does not perform then he is fired and sent back home to America or where ever he came from but at the same time each team has three import spots and not all imports are brought in to be franchise players, depending on the domestic talent and team needs an import may be brought in to play as a role player but LaMelos role was certainly not that of a role player since the ball was in his hands 90% of the time and the team seemingly existed for the sole purpose of allowing LaMelo to showcase his talents. LaMelo was not a real import - he was playing here on a 'Next Stars' contract which the NBL created to attract guys like LaMelo to out league - he didnt count as one of the three import spots available to the Hawks. So if your franchise import comes in and is a ball hog that cant shoot - and the team cant win a game then yeah its likely that the guy is going to get fired and sent home to America. But I would argue that he was no Nnanna Egwu - who is a low minutes defensive role player import centre that played for Cairns Taipans and Brisbane Bullets and I also argued that if LaMelo was on a good team he would likely be leading the league in assists which was probably true.
But the truth is that it wasnt so easy to defend LaMelo because there was a lot of truth in the criticism he was getting from the haters. The best argument for getting behind LaMelo was the one I mentioned above about how his success was good for the NBL and Australian basketball. Forumites had to agree with this and this argument did sway the forum. I had to convince people that LaMelo was indeed bigger than the Illawarra Hawks and even bigger than our NBL and that his success would help us - if he failed this would hurt us. We want more guys like him to come to our league after all so that the NBL gets as much attention and media coverage as possible - and respect.
So its funny because all the reports you would read from USA on LaMelos time in NBL were overwhelmingly positive to the point that most were saying that he was destroying the NBL. This was not true at all. His stats need to be taken with a grain of salt because like I said - the Hawks are our one of our worst team and they basically let LaMelo do whatever he wanted to do. His stats were more important than the Hawks actually winning games. With LaMelo running the team the Hawks were running dead last the entire time he was here. And even though his stats were decent his shooting percentage was not - especially his three point shooting percentage.
But having said all that its important to consider the fact that NCAA is crap compared to our NBL. NBL teams are far better than the best NCAA teams. So if LaMelo can hold his own in the NBL then its safe to say that he would have destroyed in the NCAA. So even though I dont know a whole lot about Anthony Edwards I would rate LaMelo higher. LeMelo has already played against men in one of the top pro basketball leagues in the world and held his own and I think that makes him more NBA-ready than Edwards and more deserving of the number one pick in the NBA Draft.
Another thing is that LaMelo has a massive following and a team like Minnesota would have to be insane to pass up on all the money and attention that LaMelo is sure to bring the franchise. LaMelo has 650,000 twitter followers and 5.5 million instagram followers. I think its safe to say that LaMelo is going to sell some jerseys.
Some may have concerns about LaMelos father LaVar but when he was in Australia you wouldnt have even known he was here and when the NBL would seek him out for an interview he would say all the right things about our league and country in between pumping up his son of course. LaVar was the perfect guest while he was here in Australia and we all like him a lot. Even though LaVar can be a little over the top at times I believe that he is the victim of the US media - like how he was banned from ESPN for basically nothing. LaVar is a good guy and obviously a good father that loves his sons and wants the best for them. He clearly understands at this point that the US media is constantly out to get him and he has adjusted to that. So in my opinion any concerns a team might have about LaVar if they take LaMelo in the draft are unjustified.
So yeah I got LaMelo at number one. He is the most talented and the most NBA-ready player in the draft. No doubt he has been working on his three point shot. I think that the Timberwolves would be crazy to pass on LaMelo with their number one pick.
Do you guys agree that LaMelo is the clear number one pick for this years NBA Draft?