LaMelo Ball’s first offseason in the NBA will be an important one, as is the case with any rookie following their first season. However, with the 2020 rookie class, it’ll carry extra weight as it will be the first real offseason they will have as NBA players given the short time between the draft and start of the season last winter.
For most rookies, the need to get stronger is one of the biggest tasks of the summer and that will be the case with Ball, as both he and general manager Mitch Kupchak stated during their recent exit interviews.
“All aspects of the game but mostly just get the body right, get the body stronger,” Ball said of what he’s going to work on this summer while also mentioning he’d split his time between Charlotte and his hometown Chino Hills in California.
“Well, he’s got to get stronger,” Kupchak added. “He’s still a 19-year-old kid playing a game where a lot of the big players are 270, 280 pounds. He needs to get stronger.”
Kupchak also discussed Ball’s jumper, which will always have some criticism and opinions attached to it as was the case with his older brother, while also mentioning other skill aspects of his game that could be improved over the offseason.
“I don’t worry about his shooting,” Kupchak said. “That’s something that we felt very comfortable with before the draft. Playing games, decisions, he really hasn’t had consistent coaching in four years, five years, so having a coach year-to-year on the defensive side of the ball that can sit down and look at film from game-to-game, week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year, that’s an area of growth that has to be improved.
“But there’s a lot of good stuff, but to be a great player in this league, every offseason, you’ve got to come back better at something than you were the season before. Clearly, we’re happy to have him, but there’s still a lot of work to get done. The good thing is he is a gym rat – he loves the game, he loves to work. Nothing makes him happier than being in the gym.”
LaMelo’s work ethic is similar to his older brother Lonzo’s. In Lonzo’s lone full offseason of his career, he improved his game to the point of having the best season of his career.
While the results aren’t guaranteed, LaMelo will certainly put in the work this summer and it could lead to a big payoff in his sophomore campaign.
