New Orleans Pelicans: Why Lonzo Ball should be on the trade block
By Nick Alvarez
#2- The New Orleans Pelicans should move Lonzo Ball because he lacks the aggression needed to fix the offense
I wrote about this in my column the other day, and I’m just going to reiterate the point here, Lonzo Ball isn’t an aggressive offensive player. He never was, and he likely never will be.
We’ve seen it from his time at UCLA, to the start of his career with the Lakers, and now with the Pelicans, he’s not the point guard we imagined him becoming. Lonzo Ball is a pass-first point guard in the vein of Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and John Stockton. He was never going to become a dynamic scoring-threat, and shame on anyone who thought that.
That’s why the Pelicans could considering moving Ball at the deadline because he’s not the point-guard that they need on their offense. The Pelicans need a scoring guard who can blend his talents with Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Lonzo Ball is not that.
Other teams could be interested in Lonzo Ball because they need a pure-playmaker, so it might be worth it for the Pelicans to move him to one of those teams. If they do that by the NBA Trade Deadline, then they might be able to see if Kira Lewis Jr. could be that guard for them.
It simply makes sense for the Pelicans to move on from Ball because trading him lets them fix the roster while adding a point guard that fits Van Gundy’s offense better. There’s also one more reason to move Ball though.