Four months after LeBron James took his talents to the Los Angeles Lakers, LaMelo Ball enrolled at the SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio.
"Since LeBron left, I brought you a Ball boy," Ball's outspoken father, LaVar said.
As it turns out, the CEO of Big Baller Brand's words could prove prophetic.
After spending the senior season of high school career at SPIRE, Ball is now playing professionally in Australia and will be eligible to be picked in the 2020 NBA Draft. According to recent reports, the youngest of the three Ball brothers won't have to wait long to hear his name called either, as buzz has already begun to build that he could even be the top pick in the draft.
And considering that they're still in the early stages of what will likely be a multi-year rebuild, that appears to be of great interest to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
According to Adam Zagoria of Forbes.com, the Cavs are one of a handful of teams that have already begun to evaluate Ball, who is currently playing for the Illawarra Hawks in the NBL. In addition to Cleveland, Zagoria reports that the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors have each reached out to SPIRE, where the 6-foot-7 Ball averaged 21.8 points, 8.9 assists and 8.8 rebounds last season.
“LaMelo is a 6-foot-7-plus playmaker who sees the floor at an elite level,” Justin Brantley, the academy director at Spire, told Zagoria. “He makes everyone around him better and has shown that his game tends to get better as the level of competition rises around him. He plays above the rim, has more than serviceable range and although his form is ‘unorthodox,’ he shoots the ball well from 3. He has become a more motivated defender and has shown the work ethic, dedication and desire to get better and be an elite guard in the NBA.”
Considered a 5-star prospect during the early stages of his high school career in Chino Hills, California, Ball also spent time playing professionally in Lithuania, as well as for his father's now-defunct Junior Basketball Association before enrolling at SPIRE. While his unique path to the pros temporarily took him off the NBA's radar, he has since re-emerged following a strong showing at the NBL Blitz preseason tournament last month.
"If he keeps this up, I don't see any way he isn't in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick," one NBA executive told ESPN's Jonathan Givony. "He completely changed my perception of the type of prospect he is, and all of the background info I gathered here from his coaches and teammates paint a very different story of what I thought about him off the court as well."
While the Cavs have used top-10 picks on point guards in each of the past two drafts, Ball's size (he's listed at 6-foot-7) could provide him with the ability to play alongside Darius Garland and/or Collin Sexton. What's more is this early in its rebuild, Cleveland has already shown a willingness to value talent over position, as evidenced by its decision to select Garland just one year after picking Sexton in 2018.
"Are we looking for a specific position? No," Cavs general manager Koby Altman said prior to the 2019 NBA Draft. "We're looking for the best talent that we see in this draft."
