LaMelo Ball

[Lipoli390]

I went on line and watched a bunch of prior LaMello interviews. He’s very different from Anthony Edwards. Ball is not a talker and not what I’d call a charismatic character like Ant. But he was not nearly as cryptic in any of the prior interview as he was in yesterday’s introductory press conference. No telling what was going on but I have a theory.

Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.

That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.

Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.

[FNG]

I went on line and watched a bunch of prior LaMello interviews. He’s very different from Anthony Edwards. Ball is not a talker and not what I’d call a charismatic character like Ant. But he was not nearly as cryptic in any of the prior interview as he was in yesterday’s introductory press conference. No telling what was going on but I have a theory.

Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.

That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.

Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.

I think you're right about that, Lip. I agree that LaMelo had to be happy quarterbacking the Hornets to the best record in the East the second half of the season, and is probably still a little shellshocked about the trade. And while he has a public image shaped by flashy play, the TV reality show, and his questionable driving, in actuality he seems to be quite shy and reserved. Yes, it was uncomfortable watching the press conference and a real challenge for the reporters to get anything about of him. But I also saw a sincerely nice guy who is focused on winning here. He'll be more like Jaden than Ant in his press conferences, but he will be quite entertaining to watch on the court.

[Coolbreeze44]

I went on line and watched a bunch of prior LaMello interviews. He’s very different from Anthony Edwards. Ball is not a talker and not what I’d call a charismatic character like Ant. But he was not nearly as cryptic in any of the prior interview as he was in yesterday’s introductory press conference. No telling what was going on but I have a theory.

Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.

That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.

Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.

I think you're right about that, Lip. I agree that LaMelo had to be happy quarterbacking the Hornets to the best record in the East the second half of the season, and is probably still a little shellshocked about the trade. And while he has a public image shaped by flashy play, the TV reality show, and his questionable driving, in actuality he seems to be quite shy and reserved. Yes, it was uncomfortable watching the press conference and a real challenge for the reporters to get anything about of him. But I also saw a sincerely nice guy who is focused on winning here. He'll be more like Jaden than Ant in his press conferences, but he will be quite entertaining to watch on the court.

He will never match this classic:

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f ... A1vFk,st:0

[SameOldNudityDrew]

In addition to the presser, I've watched some interviews with him now since the trade and . . . honestly, I just don't think there's much going on in there and there are some things he's said that are not really a great sign, IMO. Some of those answers honestly reminded me of a middle school student.

He tends to give super generic answers about game strategy and decision making and I don't think he's trying to hide anything from his opponents. I fear he just doesn't think about that stuff, which might help explain his erratic style of play. He's so crafty with the ball, and clearly sets up his teammates well, but if Finch had issues with the team not executing the game plan last year, LaMelo's interviews don't suggest he's going to solve that problem.

I've seen him say he doesn't actually watch basketball games, just highlights. Maybe that was a one-off, but I think it's so important to be patient and dedicated to watching games to really learn and grow, and if he's only watching highlights, again, that's not really a good sign, in my view.

I've seen him totally forget a question a reporter just asked him. It happens, but it really wasn't a surprise when he admitted it (I do give him credit for his honesty in a few situations like that I've seen in interviews). He just kinda seems to be living in his own world inside his head at times.

He had trouble reading Nikola Jokic's name in one interview. I mean, you don't need to be reading War & Peace or anything, but if you struggle to read the name of an MVP in the league, that is a little worrying.

Ok, sorry to throw some negativity out there. But I haven't seen anything in his interviews to impress me, and his new Wolves presser was an opportunity for him to dispell the perception of him and embrace the challenge of playing for a winning team by showing that he's thinking about what specific things he'll want to do and he just didn't make any effort to do that at all.

[FNG]

Drew, I spent way too much time today watching Ball video interviews and pressers, and I have several knee jerk reactions...many similar to yours. They may sound negative, but I don't want them to...they're merely observations based on far too little evidence! Based on what I saw today, I would describe LaMelo as:

-not very intelligent. Not surprising as he didn't really have much formal education at all. He struggles to understand questions sometimes, and when he does answer, his dialect makes his answers somewhat incomprehensible...Joan says he can understand everyone on the team other than Ant, he may have to add LaMelo!

-quirky. He does some things in post-game pressers that nobody else does! My favorite was when a reporter began a question and LaMelo was obviously impressed with his voice. "How do you do that voice, man?". It was charming, really...not offensive.

-not a great student of the game. Rest assured Ball will never have a career in coaching!

-lovable, and popular with his teammates. They love to mess with him when he is being interviewed postgame.

-maybe a little moody...oh,oh. This one might be unfair because it's based on a presser after his most serious car accident. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.

-funny. Not in a witty way, but more in a likable, goofy way. After the trade someone said Ant/Ball pressers would be must-watch TV, and I assumed he was like Ant in personality. As Lip said, he's not. But he's entertaining in an entirely different way. What comes out of his mouth is totally unpredictable.

I was already excited about how Ball is going to fit in with this roster, but now I'm excited we've added him as a character too. He's going to be a lot of fun on the court and off!

[Lipoli390]

I went on line and watched a bunch of prior LaMello interviews. He’s very different from Anthony Edwards. Ball is not a talker and not what I’d call a charismatic character like Ant. But he was not nearly as cryptic in any of the prior interview as he was in yesterday’s introductory press conference. No telling what was going on but I have a theory.

Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.

That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.

Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.

I think you're right about that, Lip. I agree that LaMelo had to be happy quarterbacking the Hornets to the best record in the East the second half of the season, and is probably still a little shellshocked about the trade. And while he has a public image shaped by flashy play, the TV reality show, and his questionable driving, in actuality he seems to be quite shy and reserved. Yes, it was uncomfortable watching the press conference and a real challenge for the reporters to get anything about of him. But I also saw a sincerely nice guy who is focused on winning here. He'll be more like Jaden than Ant in his press conferences, but he will be quite entertaining to watch on the court.

He will never match this classic:

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f ... A1vFk,st:0

That was a great interview! “They’re all bad defenders.” Jaden backed it up.

[Lipoli390]

Drew, I spent way too much time today watching Ball video interviews and pressers, and I have several knee jerk reactions...many similar to yours. They may sound negative, but I don't want them to...they're merely observations based on far too little evidence! Based on what I saw today, I would describe LaMelo as:

-not very intelligent. Not surprising as he didn't really have much formal education at all. He struggles to understand questions sometimes, and when he does answer, his dialect makes his answers somewhat incomprehensible...Joan says he can understand everyone on the team other than Ant, he may have to add LaMelo!

-quirky. He does some things in post-game pressers that nobody else does! My favorite was when a reporter began a question and LaMelo was obviously impressed with his voice. "How do you do that voice, man?". It was charming, really...not offensive.

-not a great student of the game. Rest assured Ball will never have a career in coaching!

-lovable, and popular with his teammates. They love to mess with him when he is being interviewed postgame.

-maybe a little moody...oh,oh. This one might be unfair because it's based on a presser after his most serious car accident. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.

-funny. Not in a witty way, but more in a likable, goofy way. After the trade someone said Ant/Ball pressers would be must-watch TV, and I assumed he was like Ant in personality. As Lip said, he's not. But he's entertaining in an entirely different way. What comes out of his mouth is totally unpredictable.

I was already excited about how Ball is going to fit in with this roster, but now I'm excited we've added him as a character too. He's going to be a lot of fun on the court and off!

FNG - First, you should have left your reference to moody out of your post. You provided the context and that tells us there is no basis for any suggestion that he’s moody. Second, we have no business judging his intelligence from media interviews. Lack of formal eduction? Sure. But we have no idea how smart he is. Finally, how well he interviews is just a semi-interesting sidelight that has no bearing on the impact he’ll have on the Wolves. If IQ is the issue, the only thing that matters is his basketball IQ and apparently Tim Connelly and Finch consider it to be very high. He’s also regarded as very coachable, which belies the suggestion that what we’ve seen from him in interviews reflects whether or to what extent he’ll implement Finch’s game plans. Can he be worse at that than of the guys on last season’s roster who were all really good at interviews?

I thought Derrick Williams and Wes Johnson were terrific interviews - both very articulate and seemingly smart. KG was usually an entertaining interview but not exactly a master of the English language or an impressive conveyer of coherent thought.

LaMello is introverted and sometimes a bit spacey in interviews. He seems to be lacking in adequate formal education and may not be intellectually curious. But he was third in the League last season in offensive plus-minus. I just want him to reduce his shots in favor of more set-ups for his teammates and play at least slightly better defense. Beyond that, I don’t care how he comes off in interviews and I’m not prepared to question his intelligence. Looking back at some of my posts, it wouldn’t be hard to question my intelligence.

[FNG]

Drew, I spent way too much time today watching Ball video interviews and pressers, and I have several knee jerk reactions...many similar to yours. They may sound negative, but I don't want them to...they're merely observations based on far too little evidence! Based on what I saw today, I would describe LaMelo as:

-not very intelligent. Not surprising as he didn't really have much formal education at all. He struggles to understand questions sometimes, and when he does answer, his dialect makes his answers somewhat incomprehensible...Joan says he can understand everyone on the team other than Ant, he may have to add LaMelo!

-quirky. He does some things in post-game pressers that nobody else does! My favorite was when a reporter began a question and LaMelo was obviously impressed with his voice. "How do you do that voice, man?". It was charming, really...not offensive.

-not a great student of the game. Rest assured Ball will never have a career in coaching!

-lovable, and popular with his teammates. They love to mess with him when he is being interviewed postgame.

-maybe a little moody...oh,oh. This one might be unfair because it's based on a presser after his most serious car accident. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.

-funny. Not in a witty way, but more in a likable, goofy way. After the trade someone said Ant/Ball pressers would be must-watch TV, and I assumed he was like Ant in personality. As Lip said, he's not. But he's entertaining in an entirely different way. What comes out of his mouth is totally unpredictable.

I was already excited about how Ball is going to fit in with this roster, but now I'm excited we've added him as a character too. He's going to be a lot of fun on the court and off!

FNG - First, you should have left your reference to moody out of your post. You provided the context and that tells us there is no basis for any suggestion that he’s moody. Second, we have no business judging his intelligence from media interviews. Lack of formal eduction? Sure. But we have no idea how smart he is. Finally, how well he interviews is just a semi-interesting sidelight that has no bearing on the impact he’ll have on the Wolves. If IQ is the issue, the only thing that matters is his basketball IQ and apparently Tim Connelly and Finch consider it to be very high. He’s also regarded as very coachable, which belies the suggestion that what we’ve seen from him in interviews reflects whether or to what extent he’ll implement Finch’s game plans. Can he be worse at that than of the guys on last season’s roster who were all really good at interviews?

I thought Derrick Williams and Wes Johnson were terrific interviews - both very articulate and seemingly smart. KG was usually an entertaining interview but not exactly a master of the English language or an impressive conveyer of coherent thought.

LaMello is introverted and sometimes a bit spacey in interviews. He seems to be lacking in adequate formal education and may not be intellectually curious. But he was third in the League last season in offensive plus-minus. I just want him to reduce his shots in favor of more set-ups for his teammates and play at least slightly better defense. Beyond that, I don’t care how he comes off in interviews and I’m not prepared to question his intelligence. Looking back at some of my posts, it wouldn’t be hard to question my intelligence.

Haha, mine too! I agree that basketball IQ is what we are looking for, and I define that as how you react on the court rather than how you talk about the game. As Drew pointed out, he is not adept at describing the game of basketball. But his on-court success suggests that his basketball IQ is high and his raw instincts are excellent.

And don't get me wrong...unlike his introductory presser this week, I really enjoyed the pressers and post-gamers I watched today. He is certainly unique. But frankly I had to turn on the subtitles to understand what he was saying, and sometimes the closed captions couldn't even pick up his words...Joan has no chance!

Anyway, he is going to be quite entertaining!

[Q-is-here]

I haven't watched a lick of LaMelo Ball, including his press conference. I honestly have no idea what he even sounds like, but based on what you guys are saying he sounds like kind of an empty vessel. I know the Wolves have cranked up the PR around Ball (e.g. "Oh look what a nice guy he is - he is buying lunch for Wolves staff members after his press conference. You see what a nice guy he is!? Really, he's nice!!!).

Aside: I really like Jon K., but he seems like a mouthpiece that the front office uses to help put a spin on things and in exchange he gets great access.

My questions about him more revolve around 1) his health/ankle issues, and 2) is he a playoff riser or dud?

The answers to both questions are unknown for now. He's literally never played in a playoff series.

[Lipoli390]

I haven't watched a lick of LaMelo Ball, including his press conference. I honestly have no idea what he even sounds like, but based on what you guys are saying he sounds like kind of an empty vessel. I know the Wolves have cranked up the PR around Ball (e.g. "Oh look what a nice guy he is - he is buying lunch for Wolves staff members after his press conference. You see what a nice guy he is!? Really, he's nice!!!).

Aside: I really like Jon K., but he seems like a mouthpiece that the front office uses to help put a spin on things and in exchange he gets great access.

My questions about him more revolve around 1) his health/ankle issues, and 2) is he a playoff riser or dud?

The answers to both questions are unknown for now. He's literally never played in a playoff series.

I agree with your first questions regarding the health of LaMello’s ankles. I’m not too concerned about the playoff riser/dud issue. That’s always an issue with any young player because very few 24 year old players have had much if any playoff experience. You don’t know until you know. I get the sense that LaMello is tough-minded and as I see it that’s the key to being a playoff riser. You should watch Jon K’s interview of the reporter who spent a lot of time with LaMello. Going away on his own to Lithuania and Australia playing against adult pros as a teenager and never backing down tells me he’s mentally tough and resilient.

So I think it’s really almost all about his ankles, although I have one additional question - i.e., his willingness to dial back his usage and shot attempts. I don’t think he’s a selfish player, but he’s developed habits playing a certain way for the past six years. It made sense for him to play that way given who his teammates were. But playing with Ant and Jaden on a team with championship aspirations will require him to break some of those old habits to enhance the team’s success. He’s obviously a gifted passer and by all accounts he loves to pass. So I think he’ll be fine, but we won’t know until we see it.