CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sitting on the bench in expensive sweatsuits and watching all the action unfolding in front of him isn’t exactly how PJ Washington would have preferred to spend the past two weeks.
A hyperextended left elbow suffered Nov. 3 sidelined the Charlotte Hornets big man, an injury extensive enough to keep him out of the past seven games. Although he has practiced twice this week, he’s still not quite ready yet. So that number will extend to eight when the Hornets (9-7) host Indiana (6-10) on Friday night in the finale of their four-game homestand.
Until he’s back on the floor, Washington will be doing the same thing as everybody else: waiting to see what LaMelo Ball has up his sleeve for an encore following up on the string of remarkable outings he has turned in of late.
“LaMelo, he’s just a great player,” Washington said Thursday. “He can dominate passing the ball, he can dominate rebounding the ball, he can dominate scoring the ball. Not too many guys in this league can do that at the point guard position. So for him being so young and already being able to do what he’s doing is just great.
“His future is bright, and he’s only going to go wherever he wants to go. So for him, I’m glad he’s on my team. Fourteen assists (Wednesday) night, I think he had 17 rebounds the other night and he can score with the best of them. So just being that young and doing all the things like that is unheard of.”
Ball is a walking — or running in his case — potential triple-double nightly. He’s averaging 18.8 points, 7.5 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game.
With his knack for scoring, ability to anticipate opposing passes and fearless approach to wiping the glass, he’s finding a variety of avenues to leave his mark on the action. It’s even raising an eyebrow or two with his coach, signaling the 20-year-old’s steady improvement in less than a full calendar year with the franchise.
“I saw the steals watching his film pre-draft,” James Borrego said. “He gambled quite a bit. He was in passing lanes quite a bit. That was his instinct there. So that didn’t surprise me. I think the rebounding, especially going to get 50-50 balls against 7-footers in traffic, I didn’t see as much of that on film.
“I did see some of the passing-lane stuff, though. I thought that would translate. We’ve had to pull him back doing that a little too much at times. But I think the 14 assists, that doesn’t surprise me as much the 17 rebounds the other night did. For a point guard, you don’t see that too often. I don’t know the last point guard that had 17 rebounds. That’s been the biggest surprise for me.”
Los Angeles’ Russell Westbrook accomplished it most recently, hauling in 19 against Indiana on May 8 while he was with Washington. Ball hasn’t reached that number just yet, but it could be a plateau he can climb up to given his knack for crashing the glass.
“He be stealing rebounds sometimes,” Washington said with a laugh, “but for the most part when he does get rebounds we push in transition and we make something happen. So I think just being with him is just great. He does everything on the floor that you want a point guard to do. He makes winning plays, he gets his teammates involved and he’s doing it at such a young age. So like I said, it’s unheard of.”
To help cut back on some of the errors that plagued him early in the season — like foul trouble and turnovers — and also show him where he’s excelling, Borrego meets individually with Ball at least twice a week. That’s if the schedule permits with travel and other factors. Working with Ball closely weekly is among the many tasks on Borrego’s to-do checklist.
The two have their personal film sessions for around 20 minutes where Borrego goes over some of the finer details with Ball. Having that time together is critical to Ball’s development.
“It’s really about decision-making,” Borrego said. “That’s really it. ‘What are you seeing here? What are your reads here? What are you thinking on this play offensively, defensively?’ Some of it is accountability, some of it is simply, ‘You are in the right position, you are not in the right position.’ I show him positives, I show him areas of growth. It’s not all areas of concern for me.
“I like to show him as much positive as I show him areas of growth. That’s important for a young guy. They’ve got to see themselves doing things well, and he’s doing a lot of things very well. So I want to honor that and I want to show him those clips as well.”
That includes when Ball’s gambles pay off. Even if it causes a cringe or two occasionally.
“Then you look the other way as a coach and you feel good,” Borrego said. “But then there’s times you can’t overdo it. And that’s something I’ve learned. I remember watching Manu (Ginobili) do the same thing with Pop (San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich). And at times you want to pull your hair out and in the next breath he’s making the play that wins the game for you.
“So it’s the balance and I think Melo, him understanding time, score, situation, ‘When I might be able to take a chance.’ I think right now I’ve got to err on (being) a little more solid right now, especially in our halfcourt defense. Not taking too many chances. But what makes him special is his instinctive plays.”
And as Ball learns when to be aggressive and the appropriate occasions to fall back and be more conservative, it will push his ascension to even greater heights.
“I’m trusting him right now,” Borrego said. “A lot of these conversations happen in the game. If he’s doing it too much or there’s too extreme of chances. ... If he is throwing into double coverage too much, that can be a problem. There’s going to be instances throughout every game where he’s going to go try to make plays. And I’m OK with that. We just can’t have them at the wrong time and have too many of them.
“And it’s that balance I’ve got to walk with him. Again, I’ll watch film with him (Friday) morning. We’ll look at his decision-making, on the ball, off the ball. And it really just comes down to his decision-making. And I can see him thinking about it out there anytime his instinct wants to go make more plays. But I see growth from him going, ‘Now is not the time.’ So that’s important. As long as he’s aware of it, and we are growing, and we address it in the game or postgame, he’s only going to get better in that area moving forward.”
