NEWSLETTER
Due diligence or legitimate interest?
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony earlier this week, LaMelo Ball is expected to meet with each of the teams that hold a top-4 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. The polarizing point guard interviewed with the Minnesota Timberwolves – who hold the No. 1 pick – on Thursday and is scheduled to sit down with the Golden State Warriors this upcoming week. Givony then said, “the expectation is that Ball also will interview with the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls.”
For what it’s worth, I think this has always been the expectation. Any player who is overwhelmingly agreed to be a top-5 talent should be on the Bulls interview list, so all this might really tell us is that Arturas Karnisovas is doing his job.
With that said, teams are allowed only a total of 10 meetings with prospects under the NBA’s current rules, so we can’t undervalue any meeting. The Bulls have been increasingly connected to point guards in the rumor mill, and we did recently see Ball go to the Bulls in The Ringer’s latest mock draft. The idea of him falling out of the top-3 still feels unlikely, but it may be less far-fetched than initially expected, particularly after some of the less-than-inspiring comments from the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell in a recent radio interview.
For a couple of years now there have been question marks around Ball as a teammate. He didn’t get rave reviews from teammates in Lithuania or Australia, and now Bonnell reports that the same can be said about his pre-draft interviews. To be clear, Bonnell also said that he doesn’t necessarily believe this will cause Ball to fall out of the top-3, but that teams further down the top-10 might have reason to believe it could happen. Of course, the Bulls have the first spot outside of the top-3, so having to decide whether or not to pass on Ball at No. 4 could quickly become a reality.
We also have to keep in mind the sheer number of rumors circulating right now. The next 17 days will be full of smokescreens, and this could be one of them. A smart way for an organization to steer opposing teams away from a player is to call out their character. Could these rumors come from a team like the Pistons or Knicks in a last-ditch effort to land Ball? Could it come from the Hornets (which would make sense considering Bonnell’s connection) who want to ensure Ball doesn’t go No. 1 or No. 2?
I’m just not sure any of this will change where Ball goes. After all, NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson did report just the other day that the Bulls believe it would take a move up the draft board to land Ball. I guess this all just continues to show how many different opinions are out there. At the end of the day, the Bulls will have an opportunity to make their own judgment call on Ball if they do, in fact, meet with him over the next couple of weeks.
