New York Knicks: Could drafting LaMelo Ball in the 2020 NBA Draft be the answer?

A name frequently mentioned next to the New York Knicks is the 2020 NBA Draft prospect LaMelo Ball. Is the young point guard the fallen angel for the struggling franchise? Here’s a look.

In a world of recently polarizing NBA Draft prospects – a world that includes the likes of Kristaps Porzingis, Joel Embiid, Bol Bol, and Michael Porter Jr. – LaMelo Ball might stand the tallest amongst them all.

The 6-foot-7, 181-pound point guard has been a hot topic of conversation between “draft heads” for years now. Some might be inclined to think of when he committed to UCLA as a 13-year-old, or when he infamously dropped 92 points in a high school game back in 2017.

Others might recognize him for his off-court ventures. Such as being the brother of Lonzo Ball – or perhaps more controversially, being the son of LaVar Ball – and even starring in his family’s own “reality show” titled Ball in the Family. While the reality show is still up and running, long gone are the days of LaMelo just being “the youngest Ball brother who calls his shot from half-court.”

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Since then, LaMelo has taken his basketball talents across the globe; from the Lithuanian Basketball League to the National Basketball League of Australia (while the competition of the former was rather questionable, the competition of the latter is up to par).

He’s no longer the young kid who’s trending on the internet for doing something wacky on a basketball floor; now he’s a legitimate, elite basketball talent – and he might be the top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, potentially. This all seemingly has happened at the perfect time. Because while LaMelo’s rise has been transpiring in front of everyone’s eyes, as has the long fall of a once-great NBA franchise: the New York Knicks.

It’s been since 2012 that we’ve seen the once storied Knicks franchise in the playoffs (when LaMelo was 11 years old). The franchise was arguably at it’s darkest historically when Carmelo Anthony was shipped off to Oklahoma City in 2017 (the year of LaMelo’s 92 point game).

Since that time, while LaMelo was proving himself as a potentially transcendent player to the critical masses (recently winning the Rookie of the Year Award in the NBL despite only playing a few weeks), the Knicks were stockpiling lottery picks in the mold of Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina, and RJ Barrett. And like in some sort of “media-frenzy fairytale,” come 2020 it seems like these two might cross paths: the ascension of LaMelo and the dissension of the Knicks.

Outside of their shared knack for media attention and crossing timelines, the two have other sources drawing themselves to each other. One of those sources is the new Knicks President, Leon Rose. Leon Rose co-heads the CAA (Creative Artists Agency), an agency of players like Joel Embiid, Chris Paul, and of course… none other than LaMelo Ball.

For that reason, it should not come to much of a surprise if LaMelo stands atop the Knicks big board come the 2020 NBA Draft. And given their projected high odds at obtaining a top pick, the chances of seeing LaMelo in a Knicks uniform seems extremely high at the moment. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

On the surface, the paring of LaMelo Ball and the New York Knicks seems like a match made in heaven. Is that truly so? Or is it all one big fallacy of good fortune?

Unlike many of the other prospects atop the 2020 NBA Draft, LaMelo’s outlook on the court seems pretty easy to grasp. His game has been seen at multiple levels; from high school to playing with grown men in the NBL (in Australia).

His tenure in Australia (where he played for the Illawarra Hawks) was unfortunately cut short recently (he left the team after being sat with a foot injury), but fans were treated to enough games of his to get a solid grasp on his skill set.

The first thing that sticks out when watching LaMelo is his extraordinary playmaking ability. He displayed that in Australia by averaging 6.8 assists per game in 31.3 minutes per game (while only averaging 2.5 turnovers per game) during his tenure with Illawarra. Considering he was his team’s go-to scoring option and ball-handler, that’s very impressive.

To further elaborate on LaMelo’s gripping presence on offense, for Illawarra he had a 26.7 percent usage rating and a 36.9 percent assist rating (which is how many of his team’s made shots he assisted on). That means 64.4 percent of Illawarra’s offense was all thanks to LaMelo.

So impressive that an NBA scout recently told (subscription required) ESPN’s Jonathon Givony that he saw shades of Luka Doncic in LaMelo’s game.

That’s certainly high praise, perhaps too high; it’s a little dramatic to compare any prospect to one of the best players in basketball. It still speaks to just how great LaMelo is at creating an effective offense. Whether if it’s for himself or for his teammates, LaMelo generates buckets at a super high rate. His handle is tight and sharp; the speed in which he can shift left and right or change the pace with a quick hesitation move is mesmerizing.

He’s just a hard player to stay in front of; whether it be in an isolation situation or him commanding the pick and roll (he can slither around set screens with ease), he can open up an offense all by himself. At times double teams can’t even slow him down thanks to his great ability to thread the needle between two defenders.

It feels like basketball is a book that he’s read backward at this point in terms of breaking defenses and dishing the rock. This is only truer when he’s going coast-to-coast in transition, where he can kill running defensives with great outlet passes and impressive full-court speed.

The way he can drive offensive plays all by himself brings up an interesting point esteemed analyst Rashad Phillips once said regarding NBA point guards.

"“Let’s talk NFL terms: point guards are like superstar quarterbacks, the Trae Youngs the Ja Morants, those guys are like Patrick Mahomes.”"

LaMelo’s handle and playmaking ability force you to ask the question: is there a chance LaMelo joins that heralded group? Could he be the “superstar quarterback” for the New York Knicks? That cannot be answered with certainty. Because as great as LaMelo’s playmaking and IQ are, he’s a polarizing prospect for a good reason; he has flaws.

The base of those flaws lies in his inefficiency. During his 12-game stint in the NBL, LaMelo shot a pretty abysmal 37.5 percent from the field and an even worse 25 percent from 3-point land. On the other end, he struggles with defensive effort and focus.

But LaMelo does stand at 6-foot-7 and possesses natural defensive instincts in terms of being a help defender. And his shooting stroke, while flawed, is still very smooth and flexible. It could be molded to be more consistent like we have seen with Lonzo’s jumper this season.

The NBA has become a pull-up point guard league though, and considering the ridiculously high usage and assist rating discussed earlier (64.42 percent), it’s fair for Knicks fans to demand more from his jumper, given that he heads to New York.

But it’s also fair for Knicks fans to look the other direction and be enamored with his potentially generational basketball vision and IQ. That’s what makes LaMelo such a polarizing prospect though. You can look at him one way and see him as the answer to everyone, then you look at him another way and he’s just one big question mark.

Knicks fans might view him as their “franchise quarterback” who they can build an offense around, or they might view him as yet another inefficient shot chucker alongside Knox and Barrett. The Knicks have already gone on the record of saying they have their eyes vastly peeled for a point guard prospect come the 2020 NBA draft. The addition of Leon Rose points all arrows to LaMelo.

A betting man would be smart to test the over/under odds of LaMelo suiting up in a Knicks uniform come the 2020-21 NBA season. But a betting man would be foolish, in contrast, to wager on if the paring actually works out in the end.

One thing is not worth betting on though, because it is a thing of certainty. And that is the fact that the rumored LaMelo/Knicks pairing truly feels like a match made in heaven, whether for better for worse. And that is truly entertaining.

It’s been a while since the Knicks were entertaining. And the Knicks being entertaining is a very good thing, for everyone involved. So in that sense, perhaps LaMelo Ball is the answer for the Knicks. Time will only tell about all of the other questions and concerns.