2020 NBA Draft
This year, the Charlotte Hornets entered draft night with one, top-three overall draft pick and two second-round picks, one at No. 32 and one at No. 56. They had no intention of trading their No. 3 overall pick in the draft as they knew that one of Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman, or LaMelo Ball would fall their way and they would be able to draft one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class.
With all three of those guys having NBA starter and All-Star type potential, the Hornets really could not go wrong with taking any of those three players and they ended up with LaMelo Ball from Chino Hills, CA. LaMelo Ball, the younger brother of Pelicans’ point guard Lonzo Ball, has had quite the journey to the NBA and is not your typical high school to college to NBA prospect.
Ball was ranked 21st on the ESPN Top 100 2019 Recruiting Class Rankings and was originally committed to play at UCLA where he older brother had played, but after the NCAA ruled him ineligible for profiting off of apparel while playing AAU and high school basketball, LaMelo Ball went to Lithuania and played for pro team Prienai of the Lithuanian Basketball League. He played in 8 games in Lithuania and then decided to sign with the Illawarra Hawks of the National Basketball League in Australia.
While in Australia, Ball and his manager, Jermaine Jackson decided to purchase the Illawarra Hawks, the team Ball was at the time playing for. While playing in Australia, LaMelo also donated one month of his NBL salary to victims of the Australian bushfires that rampaged throughout the country.
After his wild, crazy journey, LaMelo Ball now finds himself in the NBA on the Charlotte Hornets with big expectations placed on him. A lot of NBA executives thought Ball was the best and most polished NBA prospect entering the draft and should be one of the best players on the Hornets at the start of the season.
After drafting LaMelo Ball No. 3 overall in the first round of the draft, the Hornets drafted Vernon Carey Jr. from Duke at #32, then Nick Richards from Kentucky at No. 42 (via trade with Pelicans) and finally Grant Riller from Charleston at No. 56. Richards and Riller will likely spend a lot of time in the NBA G League this upcoming year, assuming there is a G League season and will be two prospects the Hornets look to develop for the future. Vernon Carey Jr. on the other hand is a player who can give Charlotte some solid rotation minutes early on in his rookie season.
In one season with the Duke Blue Devils, Vernon Carey Jr. was named the 2019-20 ACC Freshman of the Year, was named to the 2019-20 All-ACC First-Team and was a consensus All-American. In 31 games before the eventual COVID-19 shutdown, Carey averaged 17.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and shot 57.7% from the floor.
Vernon Carey Jr. is a more traditional big man in the sense that he does not play outside of the paint too much, but has great footwork in the low-post and is an aggressive rebounder. One of his main strengths is he uses his size to his advantage and is a very stocky center. You know that one guy who is always playing pick-up basketball who is not fat but is just so much bigger than everyone else on the court? Yeah, that is Vernon Carey Jr. in a sense that he out-muscles a lot of his opponents.
The Charlotte Hornets will have to work with Carey a lot in his rookie year about staying out of foul trouble, as he has a tendency to reach over opponents a lot going for rebounds, and work on floor spacing that way the paint is not too crowded. Behind two veteran centers in Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo, Vernon Carey Jr. will have time to learn and polish his game as the season goes on.
Overall, the Charlotte Hornets had one of the better draft classes in the entire NBA and should be thrilled they have LaMelo Ball as their point guard of the future. With Devonte Graham and Terry Rozier as well, the Hornets have plenty of options for ball-handlers in the backcourt and plenty of depth at the guard positions.
