“LaMelo Ball and Nikola Jokic led their teams in points, rebounds, assists and steals!”: NBA fans laud the Hornets and Nuggets stars for their stellar contributions

LaMelo Ball is in the middle of an All-Star campaign right now, while Nikola Jokic is the reigning NBA MVP.

The Charlotte Hornets are fighting for a play-in berth once again this season. However, the major difference in their lineup has been the improved play of one LaMelo Ball.

The Ball brother had his doubters when he came into the league a year back. They’ve since long been consigned to an insignificant corner of the internet, made to eat humble pie as LaMelo displayed a cerebral understanding of transition play at an All-NBA level even as a rookie.

LaMelo basically ran away with Rookie of the Year honors last year. But James Borrego has much higher standards for his young gun than the average NBA fan. He’s held Melo accountable to a great degree, helping him cut out a lot of his needless turnovers.

Melo still has a long way to go before he becomes a true MVP candidate. But he’s already displayed growth in all aspects of his game. He’s become noticeably bigger by adding muscle on his shoulders. Melo is using this size to great effect to become an effective rebounder.

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LaMelo has improved his rebounding average from 6.1 per game to 7.5 this year. Consequently, he’s also begun leading the Hornets in this category.

LaMelo Ball could become the youngest NBA player to lead his team in 4 stat categories at this rate

A Twitter user noticed this uptick in his rebounding and found it fit to make a thread out of it.

LaMelo Ball and Nikola Jokic are the only players in the NBA leading their team in Points, Rebounds, Assists, and Steals per game. pic.twitter.com/dhOSNJFgA4

— Israel (@iohandles) December 26, 2021

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Nikola Jokic is the only other NBA player currently leading his team in 4 different categories. Giannis has basically made this stat his very own over the past 5 seasons and change.

LaMelo Ball looks likely to elevate himself to that level of statistical production in the near future. While MVP talk for the 20-year-old is too premature at this point, he clearly projects as one in the near future.

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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