Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Watching some more LaMelo tape, and I'm pretty divided on him. I think he has enough raw talent to justify a top 10 pick, but there are so many huge gaps in his game, and some of those gaps have been there for years so it's hard to believe he hasn't been made aware of them yet.
Pros -
- He has really good feel for the game, that's just obvious watching him.
- He's a great passer. Truly awesome vision, creative, has pretty much the whole passing-package available to him. Honestly his most impressive single skill, he's pretty excellent at it and his turnovers aren't even that high given the crazy passes he goes for
- Good frame with height and seems to be decent length, maximises his passing potential because it gives him the ability to see/pass over people
- Has decent feet and quick hands which seem to imply the possibility for decent defense with some work
- Good, ambidextrous handle. He's no Kyrie Irving or anything, but for a guy of his height his handle is definitely solid and he's progressed with it a little during his time in AUS so it's a good sign for future improvement.
- Can pass off the dribble: vital skill for high level passers
Cons -
- Just awful defense, from a man perspective. He's sometimes okay as a team defender, certainly better than he was at the high school level, but one on one he really is just terrible.
- Extremely poor efficiency in the NBL doesn't bode well for that next step up against NBA defenders. 38% from the floor, 27% from 3, 73% FT, for 47.3%TS is extremely poor.
- Low motor, doesn't really look to get involved with the smaller aspects of the game like boxing out or filling lanes in transition.
- Poor decision making at times. Seems counter to his great instinctive passing, but he's prone to taking awful shots that are just unnecessary.
- Avoids contact at all costs: doesn't get to the FT line that much, would rather take a 15 foot runner than hit the hoop
I'll include some clips here of his settling for runners and weird scoop shots and stuff:
The ''amusing'' possession Carlin talks about there is just horrible. Lazily walks the ball up the floor, comes off a screen, has only one defender in front of him and settles for an 18 foot floater with 15 seconds on the clock. That's horrible horrible horrible offensive game.
LaMelo really is an intriguing prospect for me. IMO, you take him if you've met with him before the draft and you're confident that your coach/development staff/etc can really iron out his decision making and fix his effort issues, because if he can really improve in those areas I think his ceiling is pretty high, but if you're just an average programme with mediocre development or a bad coach (I'm basically saying Knicks here) then don't take him lol