LaMelo Ball is all vibes | The Ball Briefing
How LaMelo Ball dominates with feel plus thoughts on the Atlanta Dream's new GM and Terrence Ross going for a record
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As the Charlotte Hornets pulled away from the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, LaMelo Ball took a backseat to the star of the night, Ish Smith. Smith dazzled with 11 points in the 4th quarter and this delicious crossover of Kevin Durant as the Hornets won the 4th quarter 32-11 and Ball sat on the bench.
Normally, a coach benching his star for hot bench players would be cause for criticism. However, Ball told James Borrego to ride it out with Smith in the fourth quarter and has a shiny upset win to show for it. Ball’s sacrifice probably wasn’t necessary, as James Harden and the Nets just seemed tired, but it does provide a glimpse into Ball’s ethos as a player. Despite his immense talent and knowledge of the game, his ethos has much more to do with his feel and, dare I say it, his vibes.
Ball certainly understands the game. He knows how to attack defensive tactics, how to force the defense to cover him as he wants, and how to involve his teammates at every step of the process. Here are four plays with LaMelo coming off double screens to show his progression. On the first, the Nets try to switch and Plumlee is wide open on the slip. Next, Patty Mills tries to stick with Ball and can’t stop him. On the third play, the Nets switch guards and stay with bigs only to allow Ball to run right by Harden.
Where the first three plays show Ball’s technical knowledge of the game, the fourth shows his propensity to just do cool fun stuff when the moment is right. Nic Claxton is playing the gap because Brooklyn is out of options at this point. The lob to Plumlee was open and has a high likelihood of success. But Ball just goes over him and hits a tough runner. He has the athleticism to make decisions like this or even compensate for poor decisions.
All of this relies on his feel for the game. Ball understands the rhythm and vibe of a game better than most point guards. In addition to taking a worse shot because it feels right, he’ll pull up from 30-plus feet when the offense needs a break or give his teammates opportunities to shine. Here, he foregoes an opportunity to attack LaMarcus Aldridge to hit PJ Washington off a flare screen while cutting to the basket in case Washington hesitates or misses.
There’s a leadership element to Ball’s style. He knows that PJ Washington needs to get going for this team to succeed in 2021 and that letting Ish Smith cook when he’s hot will boost his confidence down the road. However, Ball just seems to make plays that he enjoys making. He improvises regularly and lets the game come to him. His free-flowing style and versatility allow the Hornets to run plays with a ton of options and variations. Like Lebron James and Luka Doncic, Ball gives his offense endless possibilities and really fun ones at that.
Jeopardy! provides a good analogy to what I think is special about Ball. Most Jeopardy! contestants, such as longest-running champion Ken Jennings, try to attack categories they know from the easiest to the hardest clues and methodically get questions right to yield the big prize. However, some innovative players like to bounce around the board and hunt for daily doubles while throwing off opponents. The show’s highest-earning contestant, James Holzhauer, explained the strategy in 2019: “My approach isn't complicated: Get some money, hit the Daily Doubles, bet big, and hope I run hot.” Whereas point guards like Chris Paul and Courtney Vandersloot methodically dominate like Jennings plays Jeopardy!, LaMelo adds randomness to his game like Holzhauer. Both strategies require immense knowledge, accuracy and technique. But LaMelo and Holzhauer also require a fair bit of magic and/or luck.
Critics of Holzhauer (and by extension, Ball) believe the strategy relies too heavily on luck. But it’s probably not luck if the same guy continuously gets lucky and Ball gets assists with plays like this. It looks like a crazy, flashy, pass attempt but he actually set up Miles Bridges to use Plumlee as a screen.
The Hornets are still building. Bridges’s impressive opening week and Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors are a welcome sign as the franchise looks for ancillary stars as is Gordon Heyward’s health (we’ll see how long that lasts). James Borrego still needs to prove that he’s the right coach for Ball, but the early returns in 2021 are mostly positive. Charlotte finally has a potential championship-level star and, perhaps just as importantly, a player who inspires wonder and good vibes in LaMelo Ball.
Do you have any LaMelo Ball or Jeopardy! takes?
Fast Breaks
The Atlanta Dream finally has a general manager! And a good one at that! Dan Padover, former GM of the Las Vegas Aces, will take over the Dream after winning consecutive Executive of the Year awards. First off, getting any human with a pulse to run the organization will be a massive upgrade from the debacle of last season. For example, the Courtney Williams situation would have been handled immediately under Padover rather than allowed to fester before blowing up. Atlanta is in desperate need of strong leadership and the combination of Padover with new Head Coach Tanisha Wright should provide that. Padover has worked with Wright as a player in New York and as a coach in Las Vegas. Padover is likely getting a raise in both pay and organizational stature in Atlanta. Bill Laimbeer has a lot of authority in Vegas (for good reason) whereas Padover gets to start with a clean slate in terms of coaches, players, and front office in Atlanta. Wright and Padover are both close to unrestricted free agent Tina Charles from their days in New York. Perhaps Atlanta can attract Charles and another star to the A or the front office can try to embark on an actual rebuild with Chennedy Carter and other draft picks. Regardless, Atlanta is in a much better situation now than they were before.
Something special is happening with Terrence Ross. Not good special but special nonetheless. He’s always been an inconsistent, but potentially electric scorer. He settled into a bench role in Orlando with mixed results since 2016. However, Ross has taken his high-scoring but low-efficiency (uhh) style? to an extreme this year. He has been -87 in 104 minutes despite scoring in double digits in three of Orlando’s four games! He almost single handily beat the New York Knicks with 17 points in the fourth quarter and still finished even in plus/minus. This is a flawed stat and Ross is playing with subpar talent off the bench. Still, Ross is on track to obliterate the record for worst plus/minus in NBA history. Dean Garrett of the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets (who?) holds the record with a total plus/minus at -756 in 32 minutes per game. Ross is on pace for -1783 this season.
James Harden is fat. He will need to stop being fat for the Nets to get to the Finals as we discussed on last week’s podcast. Jasmine Watkins has more on this story.
Josh Giddey put up 19/8/7 against the [redacted]-less Philadelphia 76ers. He’s part of a very exciting rookie class that is lighting it up. However, he looks just like Timothee Chalamet and makes me want to watch Little Women every time I see him.
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