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NBA Draft: 4 surprise destinations for a sliding LaMelo Ball

By Duncan Smith

WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 12: Lamelo Ball of the Hawks stands during a timeout during the round 15 NBL match between the Illawarra Hawks and the South East Melbourne Phoenix at WIN Entertainment Centre on January 12, 2020 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Brent Lewin/Getty Images)
WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 12: Lamelo Ball of the Hawks stands during a timeout during the round 15 NBL match between the Illawarra Hawks and the South East Melbourne Phoenix at WIN Entertainment Centre on January 12, 2020 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Brent Lewin/Getty Images) /
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NBA draft, LaMelo Ball
NBA draft, LaMelo Ball (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images) /

As the NBA draft process continues, LaMelo Ball’s stock appears to be an early casualty. According to reports, he may be sliding out of the top 3.

Thanks to the restrictions brought about by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we’ve had less movement in the projected top three of the NBA draft than usual. The order has been expected to be some combination of Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, but now that workouts and interviews are actually taking place, that order seems to be shifting in the eyes of some informed observers.

According to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, LaMelo Ball in particular has suffered as a result of added scrutiny. As transcribed by the Lonzo Wire, he recently spoke about this during an interview with 102.5 FM WFNZ in Charlotte:

"“Here is what I’m hearing from the league at large: LaMelo Ball is not performing very well at job interviews. I’ve heard that from multiple sources. He is not improving his perception via job interview. There are people drafting later in the top 10 who were not preparing for the possibility of Ball still being around and, I’m not saying that he will be a top-three pick, I am saying that I know for a fact that there are teams later in the top ten who are doing more research on him because they no longer think it’s a given he will.”"

Dropping from the top three into later in the top 10 isn’t exactly a precipitous free-fall, but it’s definitely interesting to see that teams with later picks are brushing up on at least one prospect they didn’t expect to get a chance at.

On the other hand, holding LaMelo’s interview performances against him doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for those top selecting teams considering his tendencies in interviews are fairly well documented at this point. If his workouts are up to par but his interviews are what they are and drop him in the draft rankings, that’s just more value for teams picking later.

Assuming there are no trades to shuffle things up, let’s take a look at four teams that should be preparing to draft LaMelo Ball if he does indeed slide.

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