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NBA Draft: Why LaMelo Ball is the definitive No. 1 prospect in the 2020 class

By Evan Wheeler

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 30: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks in action during the round 9 NBL match between the New Zealand Breakers and the Illawarra Hawks at Spark Arena on November 30, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 30: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks in action during the round 9 NBL match between the New Zealand Breakers and the Illawarra Hawks at Spark Arena on November 30, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images) /
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LaMelo Ball
NBA Draft prospect LaMelo Ball (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images) /

Why LaMelo Ball should be the definitive No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft

Much of the discussion about the 2020 NBA Draft has been centered around who should be the No. 1 overall pick. The theme of this year’s class is there is no consensus No. 1 player and top fives on big boards are all over the place.

But if there were any cohesion amongst scouts and analysts, it seemed to be that the top three players in this draft were viewed to be Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman, and LaMelo Ball. It was viewed that Ball had cemented himself in the top three of this class after averaging 17.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 1.6 steals per game for the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL Australian league last season.

But this appears to not be so certain anymore, given recent rumors and developments about Ball’s stock falling due to poor interviews with teams. This report was echoed by The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor and Chris Vernon on their podcast The Mismatch. O’Connor and Vernon discussed hearing about the poor interviews and workouts for Ball, team’s wondering if he might fall out of the top three and O’Connor gave an assessment of Ball’s skill set that I just personally viewed as wildly inaccurate.

Now that’s not to say O’Connor isn’t right and I’m not wrong on Ball’s potential outlook as a pro. At the end of the day, we should all be more open-minded during this process and the draft is just all of us watching the film, making educated guesses on these players. But I don’t really buy the narrative that LaMelo will fall, even if he actually does, and have viewed the doubts of him as being worthy of the No. 1 pick in this draft as somewhat confusing.

I’ve long believed in him as the best player in this class and hands down the name that should be called first, come November 18th. In this article, I’m going to try to make the case of why this is so apparent to me and hopefully make some more believers in the playmaking ace from Chino Hills.