In his second game of the NBL season, Ball match-up up against one of the top players in the league in Bryce Cotton. Last season, Cotton helped lead Perth to the league title, was named to the All-NBL First Team and was named the scoring champion. Cotton also won the league MVP in 2018 and was the Grand Final MVP in 2017.
Cotton has also had stops in the NBA, China, Turkey and Italy before settling in Australia. To put it mildly, Cotton has been around. That means his words should carry some sort of weight, particularly when talking about the upside Ball possesses after Illawarra’s loss to Perth on Friday.
“Despite how young he is, you can tell the upside he has. He’s already got some game with him but you can see the upside.”
It’s interesting to compare Cotton’s thoughts on LaMelo in one of their first contests to the way Patrick Beverley, a former All-Defense team member himself, treated Lonzo in his NBA debut. Neither is necessarily better than the other but it’s an interesting contrast between the two.
Ball may be struggling through his first two games but he’s also shown plenty of promise. Ball has also went about his business in a way that has allowed him to gain respect from respected veterans like Cotton.
