NBA Draft 2018: Potential Landing Spots for LiAngelo Ball If He Goes Undrafted
LiAngelo Ball's decision to declare for the 2018 NBA draft, as Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday, will test his father's speak-it-into-existence approach like nothing before.
According to Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman, "Not one scout Bleacher Report has reached out to thinks Ball has a chance to play in the NBA anytime soon."
The most charitable takeaway from that scouting perspective on LiAngelo is the "anytime soon" qualifier—something even LaVar Ball seems to understand. Back in February, he told Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas:
"I want all my three boys to play for the Lakers. ... If they don't take Gelo this year, I bring back Gelo here [Prienai in Lithuania] to play with Melo for two years. Lonzo will be on his third year, and I want to let every NBA team know, that Lonzo is not going to re-sign with the Lakers but will go to any team that will take all of my three boys. That's my plan."
For a guy who doesn't form fallback plans...this sure sounds like one.
If LiAngelo doesn't get drafted, where might he wind up aside from back in Lithuania for two more seasons?
The G League Option
Perhaps LaVar's threat about Lonzo leaving the Lakers forces the team to do some damage control. Rather than drafting LiAngelo, the Lakers could add him to their G League roster. That would keep him in the theoretical pipeline and possibly appease LaVar enough to keep him quiet for a while (probably not, though).
If the organization is already fed up with LaVar sowing discord by questioning head coach Luke Walton's grip on the locker room, adding another Ball to the mix, even at the G League level, doesn't seem worth the trouble.
LaVar's threat also rings somewhat hollow, as the Lakers still will have team control over Lonzo throughout the timeline of his father's daring plan. There's no leverage here, and the Lakers have no incentive to keep LaVar happy.
It's by no means a foregone conclusion that LiAngelo could compete at what amounts to the minor league level. He was a bench player at UCLA and a 3-star high school recruit. Just for the sake of comparison, Ian Baker played nine games for the South Bay Lakers this season, averaging 2.4 points per game on 30.4 percent shooting.
As a senior at New Mexico State in 2017, Baker was the WAC Player of the Year and an Associated Press honorable mention All-American. It isn't a perfect one-to-one comparison—Ball is a wing and is several years younger than Baker, a 25-year-old point guard—but you get the idea: The G League isn't a joke. Talented players struggle to compete there.
The—Squints Incredulously at Hastily Constructed Website—JBA?
Perhaps the fact that LaVar announced open tryouts for his experimental Junior Basketball League a day before his son declared for the draft isn't a coincidence.
While LiAngelo landing in his father's fledgling (and potentially nonviable) league feels like someone handing his kid a cushy associate's gig at the firm where he's a partner, you have to like the fit.
The JBA's tryout disclaimer says players must be between 17 and 19 years old and cannot be a nationally ranked collegiate prospect. LiAngelo is 19 and has never once been confused for a blue-chipper. Perfect! It's like the league was made for him!
Whether the league ever exists is the larger question.
LaVar has been reaching out to recruits for weeks, trying (and failing) to pull potential collegians into a professional, paying league. If LiAngelo winds up here, he'll at least have the luxury of getting all of the shots he wants.
Playing in a league without enough bodies to fill out a roster of teammates (or field an opposing one) would sure make it easy to get open looks.
Moving Down a Level...Technically
If the JBA doesn't appeal to him, perhaps LiAngelo could consider the Chinese Basketball Association. If NBA scouts aren't convinced by what they've seen from him in Lithuania's LKL—the 11th-best league in the world, according to ESPN.com's Fran Fraschilla—a move to the CBA, ranked 12th, may help him juice his numbers and get noticed.
Success against softer competition might build LiAngelo's confidence, perhaps to the point he'd be ready to skip right past the LKL in a few years and take a crack at the eighth-ranked Adriatic League!
This'll work so long as LiAngelo didn't do anything dumb in China like, say, getting arrested for shoplifting.
The CBA presents a problem much like the one the G League does. While it's easy to conclude the competition is suspect based on guys like Jimmer Fredette, Jared Sullinger and Terrence Jones performing well there, it's vital to remember those guys were dominant college talents, reasonably effective NBA players at some point...or both.
LiAngelo isn't on the same level as NBA washouts killing it in China, which means he'd have to be comfortable going over there (if anyone would take him) and riding the pine. For someone with NBA dreams, that doesn't seem like the best strategy.
Run It Back
With options limited by his game and baggage (both self-created and handed down from his father), a return to Lithuania seems like LiAngelo's best bet. His father can manage the environment and narrative there, and he's scoring 15.7 points per game on 45 percent shooting from deep in his first nine games with Vytautas Prienu.
"He's shot it well in Lithuania," Wasserman said. "But it won't be enough to make up for his inability to pass, rebound or defend, not to mention the character concerns raised from the shoplifting incident. Continuing to build up his game and brand in Lithuania may be his best move, assuming he goes undrafted."
Perhaps another year or two in the LKL would foster development and help him build confidence. More than that, LiAngelo's willingness to stick it out in a decidedly unglamorous spot and do something the hard way might signal to scouts that he's serious about basketball and not just part of his father's publicity-generating machine.
Ball's declaration, though about as consequential as Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy by screaming it out loud, makes sense from one standpoint: He has nothing to lose. If he isn't going back to college, why not declare for the draft? This is basically a "you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take" situation.
And if we've learned anything about the Ball family over the last few years, it's that they're more into volume than efficiency.
Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference, Cleaning the Glass or NBA.com unless otherwise specified.
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