I'm Convinced LiAngelo Ball is Good Enough to be in the NBA

Everybody knows about the Ball family. They are one of the faces of basketball today, as much as many hate to admit it. When I say the family I mean the whole family too, Lavar is just as influential as his sons who are in the league. However, one son has received the short end of the stick throughout his entire career, but now he is finally getting his shot.

pc: via Twitter

Whenever we watched the Chino Hills team that bolstered all three Ball brothers back in high school, we were all focused on Lonzo and LaMelo. Lonzo of course being the stud that he was, he would go onto be the second overall pick just a couple of years later. Melo of course would blossom into a great player too, following an odd route to the league before getting picked third overall himself in 2020. The brother that got no love on the dominate Chino Hills team was middle brother LiAngelo Ball. He was a stumpy guy who would knock down the corner three consistently, and he played good defense on opposing team's best players, but his lack of flashiness and highlights did him no justice.

LiAngelo committed to play for UCLA, the same school Lonzo had attended for one year, but that would soon fall apart. He was a part of a scandal that involved him and a few of his teammates stealing from a store in China, which got them kicked off the team for good. He then took his talents overseas to play professionally with LaMelo, basically all over the world. In recent years he had returned home to train for a possible run to the NBA.

He got lucky that his younger brother Melo had blossomed into the rookie of the year, and a player who many believe will be a multiple-time all-star in his career. The Hornets want to assure they have Melo for the long term, and this may have gotten LiAngelo his shot on the Charlotte Hornets summer league team. Since then, he has played very well in his time with the Hornets' summer league squad, causing some people to believe he may actually get his shot in the NBA.

It was reported that the Hornets are very interested in LiAngelo, and that is all I need to hear to assure me he is going to get his shot. He has been knock down from three all summer league, and he looks incredibly strong out there. He has been snagging rebounds at a very high rate for his height, which has to be a direct result of his physical strength. All in all I think he has played well enough to sign a two-way deal with a team, no matter what his last name is.

The other way I am looking at it is that it would be a very smart move to secure LiAngelo in order to make Melo as happy as possible in Charlotte. We saw this in Milwaukee when the Bucks signed Giannis' brother to sit the bench, and they just won a championship. This may be the new strategy for small market teams, when you draft a transcendent player, make sure to sign their siblings too.