LaMelo Ball is stretching the limits of basketball

You might be wondering what you just saw. A player trying a one-legged fadeaway from 29 feet that's blocked only to come flying out of nowhere to jump between two defenders to tip pass it back to an open teammate. And this would be the craziest play for most players this season. Only for Lamello Ball, it's a totally normal part of the experience because he's a chaotic genius who pushes the limits of basketball like possibly no one in NBA history. We recently talked about Ball's innovative shot attempts in our video on the evolution of three-point shooting, where he's taking drifting threes from the parking lot or falling out of bounds with a tippy-toe Dirk Nowitzki fade, but that only scratches the surface of his experimentation. He's out here throwing one-legged half-jump fakes from three, and look at the setup on this one, where he steps back and upfakes off his front leg instead. And make no mistake, this is totally a travel, but how often have you seen someone in this position on their toes only to uncoil for an instant three? If we tracked insane plays per 100 possessions, Lamello might have more by himself than the entire league combined. Take this Larry Bird homage in Milwaukee from behind the backboard falling out of bounds, and that one rolled in, so against the heat he tried a similar shot while double-teamed, but it rolled off the top of the backboard before clanking off, and this was two scoops of crazy because his teammate is wide open for a layup in the paint. Then there's this revolutionary idea against Atlanta, where he's stuck, so he passes it off a teammate to restart his dribble, and I don't think he ever really let go of the ball here, but yes, you are allowed to do this and generate a fresh dribble, and we've seen other players do it off an opponent's back, but I've never seen anyone try it off a teammate. Then 30 seconds later makes this insane tip pass to an open shooter, and when Miles Bridges short arms this delivery, a normal player jumps up to catch it, but Lamello sees an opening to Superman himself and touch pass it over Trey Young to a now open teammate. Then there's this sequence against the Pistons, where he completely loses the dribble, gets it back with 6 seconds on the shot clock, and goes to the old spinning shot put from half court, and he's trying to spin into his defender here to draw a foul, and you can see that two-handed catapult he uses to generate so much power, and we know if he wants to sharply spin away from a defender he can, but here he bangs into his man to save the possession before comfortably draining a leaning 40-footer. He'll also try a ton in just 6 seconds, going with a late pick and roll here, only to jump into this audacious pass, then pick up the loose ball with 7 tenths left, and just flick it in off one leg. What the actual s***. I have no time to cook while watching all this footage, and takeout is expensive, and that's where I need Factor. They're the sponsor of today's video, and they deliver chef-crafted meals to your door that you can grab from the fridge and heat up in 2 minutes in the microwave, or my move is to stick them in the oven for about 5 or 6 minutes, the chicken gets all moist. It's basically instant takeout, but cheaper. And I love how they have options like Protein Plus to power me while I work, plus there are gourmet options if you want something a little special, like this beautiful seafood bad boy with the vegetable and it's all creamy. They're also owned by one of our favorites, Hello Fresh, that we've worked with before, and we have a discount for you. Head to factor75.com or click the link below and use our code 50GREATDAY to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first Factor box. That's code 50GREATDAY at factor75.com to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. Now, where was I? Lamellos had flair in his game forever, but there's also an abundance of creativity for an NBA star. He's guarded by Giannis here, throws a ridiculous crossover just to pick it up and finger roll at home, and he stops the dribble early like this to avoid the shot blocking Lopez at the rim, but there is another level here, which is to turn the corner and go off the wrong leg for the finger roll, and Lamello's always doing crazy stuff with his feet, like this drive against the box where he literally jumps on his one step to shoot, and this is so off-rhythm Lopez isn't ready to contest. He's actually improved his strength and balance on his drives since he came into the league as a 19-year-old, and at 6'7 with his ball handling and quickness, he's been more effective penetrating and has a higher free-throw rate. And he has all kinds of tricks up his sleeve to put pressure on the rim and finish around defenders there, like contorting his body in the air in all kinds of preposterous positions. I mean, he kind of looks like Aaron Gordon jumping over the mascot when he's all folded up like that. Here's some vintage Mello madness, splitting the double and then contorting around and under Evan Mobley, but these shots are hard, and sometimes there's a delicacy to genius, making life more difficult than necessary, like trying to finish a putback in one motion instead of coming all the way down. Or plowing forward in transition into multiple defenders when one teammate or maybe two teammates are open near the basket. To me, LaMelo is way too good of a passer to telescope on scoring this much, but this is part of living on the edge between chaos and creativity. It's easy to forget how big he is for a guard because his actions are so quick, and he plays with the throttle on the floor at almost all times. But that also means very makeable passes can get away from him sometimes, and at other times it's almost like he's overly excited to see the play unfold. He brings it up here and sees something, so he gets the left foot ready to throw a 60-foot pass on a rope, but in a nearly identical situation, he doesn't organize his feet, whipping it off the right foot right out of the gym. In the 50 years we've tracked turnovers, LaMelo is 8th all-time in giveaways right now, averaging nearly 5 every 75 possessions. When we adjust for how often he has the ball in his playmaking, the numbers aren't quite as extreme, but they're still not great. Sometimes he's also a step ahead of his teammates, spotting Josh Green for a layup here, but Green is on autopilot heading to the corner, and it's a turnover for ball. Here's an after-time outplay where there's some confusion about the setup, Green goes to set a screen, and I think ball just goes rogue. At least Josh was certainly confused here, and then Melo decides to yank a floating three with 13 on the clock. Sometimes ball has the shot selection of a drunken sailor, just bombing all kinds of maniacal deep threes early in the possession. More than half of his triples are from 27 feet or beyond, by far the highest rate of deep shots ever. And LaMelo is actually making the 5th most threes per possession in the entire 3 point era, trailing 4 Steph Curry seasons, only he's actually attempting threes at a higher rate than anyone, launching a whopping 14 threes every 75 possessions, more than double his rate as a rookie. Now because he's some kind of basketball wizard, ball's making all of these crazy threes at 36%, so it's not obvious how much he should throttle back these attempts. Gunning really early in the possession doesn't seem ideal, and he could dial back some of the long ones, where he's just under 32% over the last 3 seasons. But there's also some meta value in playing this far out. That's classic LaMelo to back way out for the much longer shot, but he can do stuff like back it out and pretend to pick up the dribble, and because he'll pull from deep, he freezes Giannis briefly and can get a step for the scoop off the high glass. This interplay between LaMelo's increased driving pressure and his threat to shoot from almost anywhere has generated the 8th highest scoring rate of the three-point era, and among 23-year-olds, only Michael Jordan's nuclear 1987 season led to more points per possession. Notice how far out the Bucks big men are to chase him off the line here, then his ball handling and silky strides do the rest. And this is pure mad scientist dancing with the big man so the drive can set up a fading three, and LaMelo sells this fake so hard that he doesn't pull the dribble back with his left hand, but lets it bounce up into his right hand before that dirk fade from 30. The only player I can think of who had this much skill and creativity while regularly flying too close to the sun was the one and only Pistol Pete Maravich. Back in the 70s, Maravich was practically a globetrotter out there, trying crazy passes or throwing up a wide variety of shots. We only have a handful of Maravich games available today, but he had a permanent green light and just let it fly from all over the place. And despite being an incredible shot-maker, he desperately needed a three-point line to boost his middling, sometimes below average efficiency. He was also an audacious ball handler for the time, and he'd break established norms like this behind the back into a floating jump pass out of the top of the key. Turnovers were an issue, stop me if this sounds familiar, and his flashy playstyle didn't always translate to effectiveness. Pete's teams were almost never above .500, and the limited signals we have from that era suggest pretty good impact, but not to the degree we'd expect based on his huge box score numbers. In other words, the function didn't always match the form. And Lamelo's in a similar place right now, where there's a ton of brilliance to his game, but even leaving defense aside, there's clearly room for offensive refinement. It's almost like he needs a Charles Xavier to teach him how to control his bright light, and I certainly think a different environment could make the world of difference. His pace, vision, and shooting certainly look like they would amplify great talent, and his off-ball cutting is completely untapped right now. Certain flowers need the right conditions to bloom, and I'm fascinated by what Lamelo would look like in a mature system instead of freestyling next to a bunch of other young prospects. And hopefully we'll get a chance to see that in the near future, because Lamelo Ball is one of the most creative players we've seen in a long time. To support this channel, patreon.com slash thinkingbasketball. That's where we have proprietary stats on teams and players throughout the year. We also have a Discord community, and you can get all of our extra video content over there or sign up on YouTube as a member, where we also live stream the podcast. Thanks for watching all the way to the end on this one. Hope you enjoyed it and that you are having a great day.