Would it be wise for the Chicago Bulls to make the move land land California native guard LaMelo Ball with their 2020 first round pick?
The 2020 NBA Draft is still nine months away. We are a full college hoops and NBA season away from knowing how the draft could shake out. The Chicago Bulls tip off their preseason next month against the Central Division foe Milwaukee Bucks. But as it pertains to the 2020 NBA Draft, one prospect that is getting plenty of attention right now is point guard LaMelo Ball.
There’s also no clear candidate for who emerges as the top overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. This is why the speculation could continue as to what yet another member of the Ball family could bring to the table. LaMelo, in particular, is playing basketball in Australia in the NBL. He was one of two very highly touted recruits and 2020 NBA Draft prospects that passed up playing college basketball to choose the NBL.
The other big time 2020 NBA Draft prospect playing in the NBL this year is the talented 6-foot-4 combo guard RJ Hampton. Passing up the opportunity to play for big time blue blood college hoops programs like the Duke Blue Devils and the Kansas Jayhawks to play in the NBL.
However, LaMelo is the one getting more draft hype than anyone overseas right now. Since he has that Ball name attached with him there is going to be a lot of excitement and speculation that follows.
We can look back to the 2017 NBA Draft which included LaMelo’s brother, and the former UCLA Bruins star point guard, Lonzo Ball. In that 2017 draft, the Los Angeles Lakers took a shot on Lonzo at No. 2 overall. That didn’t pan out for the Lakers and Lonzo was already traded to the New Orleans Pelicans along with most of that young core that was in LA.
Coming out of SPIRE Academy in Chino, CA, LaMelo was regarded as the nation’s No. 23 2019 high school prospect. He also ranked as the No. 3 point guard and the No. 1 overall high school prospect coming out of the state of California.
Since LaMelo is a 6-foot-6 point guard with room to grow and he ranked as a top 25 recruit in the nation for his cycle, there is reason to believe that he could garner draft lottery hype if nothing else. But we should halt the hype train right now that he should be the No. 1 overall pick.
The NBL regular season hasn’t even started yet. Any hype that emerged from the preseason should be quickly slowed for LaMelo. We should be paying more attention to the likes of North Carolina point guard Cole Anthony, Memphis big man James Wiseman, and Georgia wing Anthony Edwards as the top prospects in the 2020 draft at the moment.
As this pertains to the Bulls, if they somehow wind up with a shot at the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, there might be bigger issues to resolve. But with the Pelicans landing the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, it is certainly still possible. The flattening of the lottery odds make it so that the Bulls need to be aware of this entire top end of the draft class top-to-bottom.