Next generation: Young American starlets

Hoops punters in New Zealand cannot get enough of NBL Next Stars RJ Hampton and Lamelo Ball. Nor, it seems, can NBA draft pundits who have clearly been impressed by the pair’s exploits thus far Down Under.

Highly respected ESPN NBA draft analysts Jonathan Givony (whom the Breakers use extensively as a scout) and Mike Schmitz have gone all-in on the pair of 18-year-old US starlets playing their trade in Australia’s

National Basketball League under its Next Stars programme.

The pair went head to head for the second time this season in Auckland on Saturday night and neither the occasion nor the turnout disappointed. For the second time this season at the same venue, the Breakers’ Hampton helped his team defeat Ball’s Illawarra Hawks, with the Kiwi club backing up October’s runaway 103-72 victory with a more hard-fought 91-79 victory that snapped a five-game losing skid.

With nearly 17,000 fans attending the pair of games at Spark Arena (Saturday’s attendance was a regular season record of 8474 for the Breakers), Kiwi fans have clearly been energised by the prospect of watching these future NBA stars showcase their talent and stellar upside.

ESPN’S latest 2020 mock NBA Draft also indicates that the pair are doing their prospects no harm at all with their decisions to forego the ‘‘one-and-done’’ year in college and prepare for the NBA with a season playing pro hoops in Australasia.

Givony and Schmitz have both inside their top five in their latest mock draft ahead of the 2020 annual allocation of young NBA talent.

They have Ball – younger brother of New Orleans Pelicans star Lonzo – as their projected No 1 pick in next year’s draft, ahead of the highly touted Anthony