Ball, Hampton Learn NBA Draft Lottery Fate

NBL20 Next Stars LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton are closer to finding out their NBA fate following the Draft Lottery.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will select first in the 2020 NBA Draft, followed by the Golden State Warriors at two, the Charlotte Hornets at three and the Chicago Bulls rounding out the top four.

Following his season with the Hawks, Ball sits within the top five picks on most mock drafts, with ESPN indicating his draft range is 1-3.

After the lottery concluded, ESPN's Jonathan Givony had moved Ball up to #1 from his previous #3 position on their mock draft.

Ball averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game in NBL20, including back to back triple doubles in his final games with the Hawks.

More on LaMelo Ball's fit with the Timberwolves below via ESPN..

A backcourt of Ball and D'Angelo Russell might be one of the worst defensive pairings in the league, but to speed up their rebuild, the Timberwolves need to continue to stockpile star power. No one in this draft class has more of that than Ball. His size makes him easy to pair with another guard, and teammates will love his tremendous passing creativity and the way he empowers others. Ball does not turn 19 until the end of August, leaving considerable room for him to improve his perimeter shooting and defense.

When it comes to RJ Hampton, ESPN lists the athletic PG's range as 10-20 with a number of teams in the mix to unlock the former NZ Breaker's potential.

Prior to the lottery, ESPN had Hampton going to the Boston Celtics with the #14 pick, however in the most updated mock draft Hampton sits at #19 going to the Brooklyn Nets (pick via Philadelphia).

In 15 games with the Breakers, Hampton averaged 8.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game with a season-high 18 points coming against the Taipans at the end of October.

The full results of the NBA Draft Lottery are below:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBADraftLottery?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBADraftLottery</a> order is complete ?<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/Timberwolves?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Timberwolves</a> have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft! <a href="https://t.co/J3B5tpekRS">pic.twitter.com/J3B5tpekRS</a></p>&mdash; NBA TV (@NBATV) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1296612791261048832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>