When LaVar Ball announced in early January that he was taking two of his sons to Lithuania to play pro basketball, many thought it was just another media stunt designed to keep the Big Baller Brand in the spotlight. He had already taken LaMelo out of Chino Hills High School in October when the coach threatened to curtail his enormous amount of field goal attempts, and LiAngelo had been indefinitely suspended from the UCLA team for allegedly stealing something on their trip to China, so it wasn’t like this decision was all that difficult.
They joined Vytautas, led by an out of the box coach, so pushing the ball fast and shooting a lot of 3’s was already part of their playbook. But it became apparent almost immediately that the Ball brothers were ill-prepared for the rigors of a European pro league. They quickly created the Big Baller Brand Challenge to get the Ball Brothers some experience and confidence, and they excelled playing against low level competition.
However, for the past five games, LaMelo and LiAngelo have played for Vytautas in the LKL — the top league in Lithuania — it’s been a struggle both for them and the team. It speaks volumes that an unorthodox coach like Virginijus Seskus almost immediately had issues with the way LaMelo plays. Losers of their first four games, they only pulled out a win in a game where LaMelo got benched after the first eight minutes.
As you can see, there’s not a lot of movement on offense when the newcomers play. And Melo has been struggling to finish at the rim, despite showing nice moves to attack the close out.
And he’s realizing that athletes at this level are much easier than anything he’s dealt with before, so the nonchalant flips at full speed at the rim won’t go down as easily as he thinks.
Melo is prone to get caught in mid move without much of a plan, and with little time to adjust, ends up tossing up terrible shots which give the other team a fast break, or lead to a bad turnover as he’s going too fast, gets caught up in the air, and has no option besides the charge.
But it’s this attitude that also leads to bad turnovers when he just doesn’t take the time to scan the floor and read the defense.
And the multi dribble isolations out top into a contested 3 don’t go over all that well either, especially when they miss by as much as some of his do.
LaMelo is slowly discovering that older and wiser basketball players know how to play the game, and splitting a pick and roll out here is a lot different than it was in high school. And notice how he often doesn’t sprint back after his own turnover to help the defense contain the break.
In the open court, he’s struggled against the savvy veterans who know how to read his moves and force him into turnovers and horrible off balance shots by simply backing up and not giving him the contact he was expecting. And there are times when his passing is wild and reckless.
The Europeans on defense can also goad him into throwing skip passes that appear to be open, only to pounce on it immediately and head back down court.
LaMelo has shown flashes with his shooting ability — with back-to-back-to-back long, quick 3's without passing the ball. These shots tend to be a bit empty, and it’s the misses that come when the game is closer that only serve to extend the opponent’s lead. Right now, LaMelo is only shooting 30 percent from 3-point land, and that percentage will have to go up if he’s going to justify jacking up contested long shots early in the clock.
LaMelo has been at his best when he’s playing within himself, under control, and makes the easy pass. As he gets more comfortable with the European game, I suspect we’ll see more of the highly skilled play like the perfect timing to take an extra dribble before whipping a left handed hook pass to the roll man for a layup.
But until that time when he matures, we’ll continue to see plenty of “What Is He Doing?” plays, trying to spin back into a double team, or jumping from 14 feet out off the left leg, then double pumping a left-handed floater over the defender when he had a pass for a wide open 3.
LiAngelo has played much better, which is to be expected since he’s two years older than Melo and is bigger and stronger and more mature physically. He’s averaging almost 14 points in just 20 minutes a game while shooting 45 percent from 3, and he’s also shown the ability to get the ball down low and put the ball in the basket strong.
You could argue the biggest issue is with their defense. Having never had to play it in high school, they’ve got some bad habits that are going to make it a problem for them to play lots of minutes at any level. Both brothers tend to give up on plays very early.
So there you have it sports fans. The seemingly never-ending saga of the Ball Family continues as LaVar has brought his reality show to Europe. So far, the results are pretty mixed at best, but this could very well be a great experience for two young men to live in a foreign country, experience a different culture, work on their games as professionals, and grow as human beings. While you may not agree with what LaVar is doing, it is certainly possible that there is some sort of method to his madness.
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