Original title: NBA fans are all shouting for Victor Vinbanyama, but have you seen Pol Ball ? /NBA fans are clamoring for Victor Wembanyama, but have you seen Bol Bol?
Release time: December 16, 2022, US time
Release media: The Athletic
Article author: Mike Vorkunov
Bol Bol It seems indescribable, not so much that he is a basketball player, but a unique experience. He is like Reed Richards (the original name of Mr. Fantastic in the Marvel comics, the leader of the Fantastic Four team, has the ability to change the shape of the body at will) guest player on the court, the NBA so far Best Marvel crossover I've tried so far.
pol pol is 2m 18 with a high waist section and amazingly long arms when he enters the open field he walks like usain bolt running in a 200m race Same corner. It's not that Ball did things on the basketball court that had never been done before, it's just that he did things that didn't make sense.
In Wednesday's game between the Magic and the Hawks, he turned and passed the Atlanta Hawks defender, and then took a long stride to tear apart the opponent's flank and dunked easily to end the game.
last week at Toronto , he dribbled the ball across the court in just five dribbles before finishing with a thunderous dunk. After one quarter, he chased almost the entire court (the basketball court is 94 feet long) again, and shot off O.G. Anunoby's dunk. A few days later, again against Raptors , he drives past Fred VanVleet and cuts into the lane and hits a corner 3-pointer.
In Brooklyn last month, he grabbed the rebound, dribbled it up, and then hit a 3-pointer straight from the top of the key.
reiterated again that he has 2.18 meters. His size combined with his skill set sparked curiosity and amazement among scouts across the league. Ball is an outlier, even in a league full of outliers.
"He's unique." Kevin Durant said after playing him, "He's tough. You can see him getting more and more confident in his game. You know he's almost useless on the basketball court. Can't."
This season, Ball performed well in the Orlando Magic and is a strong contender for the NBA's Most Improved Player. Perhaps more importantly, the 23-year-old has finally found a place for him. In the first three seasons of his career, he played very little time with the Nuggets, and he has scored more points in 29 games with the Magic than he played in the previous three seasons.
In the Magic, Ball has become a key member of Jamal Mosley's long ball-handling corps. He averaged 12.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, and his three-point shooting percentage was 42.6%. Playing alongside Paul Banqueiro, Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter and Mo Bamba up front, Mosley created and found space for him, all with long limbs and outstretched arms. Color and skill.
Ball claims he has been able to do it all. Now, he's just getting a chance to do those moves over and over again, changing preconceived notions about what he can do with his body type. He told The Athletic: "Yeah, I have it all, I just haven't been able to really show it before because I've been sitting on the bench for the past few years. Now they've given me the opportunity and I've been trying to make every It gets better every game and I think that's proven."
as scoutsAnd with fans salivating over Victor Venbanyama and waiting for his debut next season, Ball feels like a mild preview of a Venbanyama. Scouts and executives alike say Ball's problems have always been with him off the court, not with his talent, which had shown little performance prior to this season. He lost his way with the Nuggets. He unexpectedly slipped to the second round in the 2019 draft and has since been benched on a perennial playoff team.
He said he started playing well with the Magic because he was healthy and got a lot of opportunities. Ball didn't get any chances when he was in the Nuggets . In this experienced team, there are two MVPs standing in front of him. His body is also amazing. When the Nuggets traded him to the Detroit Pistons last January, a physical revealed he had injured his left foot. Immediately Pistons declared the transaction invalid, and Ball underwent surgery. Nine days later, the Nuggets traded him to the Boston Celtics again, this time as a three-way deal, and then the Celtics sent him away a month later, this time to the Orlando Magic.
Bol didn't get lost in the rotation, he earned playing time. Even Mosley is still trying to understand Bol's ability, slowly peeling back the layers of Bol's game and figuring out how to exploit it. He gave Bol room to explore on the court and asked him what he wasn't showing. When he asked Ball about that last month, Ball told him he still has his own shooting ability.
Bol once found his style of play in unexpected places. He was always extra tall, but when he was little he was a product of his time. As a kid, his AUU coaches had him play against opponents three grades older than him. There, he wasn't the tallest guy on the court. He developed his ball handling skills and rhythm in that time, and when he went back to play against players his age, he still maintained that skills.
He said: "The skill that I have now, if I only competed in the same age game and I was two feet taller than everyone, I probably wouldn't be able to. I would probably just stand under the basket and go straight up Basket. So I thought it would be good for me (playing guys bigger than me).”
He has been a standout player, not only a top 10 rookie but also the late NBA star Manute The son of Boll , he dominates the league with a height of 2.31 meters. His father is also different. He is a giant with two-way threat. He still ranks second in NBA history in blocks per game. He also has the ability to shoot three-pointers.
Poul Pole made his father's part of his body, not only they wear the same number, but he also has a tattoo on his right calf of a photo of the two of them sitting next to each other, Pole Sr. wearing 10 number jersey, with his arm around his son. He received the photo from a fan in high school and got it tattooed during 's year at the University of Oregon.
That college season was supposed to be a temporary footnote to Ball's NBA success. He only played nine games because of a foot injury he suffered at the end of the season. When he declared for the draft, he was still considered a first-round pick. However, he joined the Nuggets with the 44th overall pick, where he could only sit on the bench. During the NBA playoffs, it was the team's run to the Western Conference Finals.
He didn't play much time in the Nuggets, only played 53 games in more than two seasons. While Ball doesn't miss those days, he doesn't shy away from any questions about that time either. Still, the time he spent with Nikola Jokic did lift him up again.
Ball said he will keep an eye on Jokic, drawn to his distinctive style of play. Bol tries to emulate Jokic and watches his passing and spacing. Occasionally, they would do morning exercises together, which brought some joy to Pol. In those moments, Bol was trying to learn, trying to collect something, trying to emulate Jokic's moves and his run.
"It's very unusual," Ball said, "He can still dribble and shoot, he'll toss and all that stuff. It's very unusualunusual. It's all unconventional. But we're also kind of alike, I'm 7 feet tall and I can dribble, pass and shoot. We play two different games, but with similar skills. ’
Then Poll added: ‘But people say that to me too. In our own way, we're all playing unusual basketball. "
Ball seems to have finally learned how to use his skills. When he sat on the Nuggets bench, he even tried to remember the situation of every player in the NBA so that he could try to prepare for the new environment. Get ready. His wild, outlandish skills shine at times, but not for long.
With the Magic, he gets a solid chance. He averages nearly 27 minutes a night and has a chance to make a difference According to statistics, he spends most of the time on spot jumpers, but he also has about 50 pick-and-roll offenses. In these rounds, his points per round can be ranked in the top 43% of the league.
As the season Going deep, Bol intends to get to the rim more. He used to rely on his floater to get his shots, but now he wants to get closer to the rim. After all, he's 2'18, so he wants to use himself more The height as a weapon. The Magic are willing to space him, let him handle the ball, and are pleasantly surprised by his ability.
Mosley said: "We are still figuring it out, obviously, as the season begins, you look at He, do you think he is the 4th or the 5th? He pushes with speed and space on the break and can make quick decisions. So I think we'll continue to see something different at his size as time goes on. "
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