Lonzo Ball is reportedly on the trade block for the New Orleans Pelicans, but he should not be discarded so quickly.
Lonzo Ball is one of the NBA’s most polarizing players. Some games, he looks like every bit of the no. 2 pick he was in the 2017 draft. Others, he resembles an end-of-the-bench point guard who is unreliable from three and is shy attacking the basket.
The truth about Ball right now is actually somewhere in between, although I would wager much more towards the positive end of the spectrum.
The former UCLA guard is not going to put up 27 points and 8 assists every night like he did against one of the best teams in the league. This was a season-high for him and Ball had only scored more than 25 points in a game thrice in his career prior to his outing against Milwaukee.
I think it’s important to highlight that in the wake of one of his best ever games because Ball is especially prone to receiving criticism when he doesn’t stuff the stat sheet. I find that unfair, but not unwarranted. It is indisputably true that Ball has plenty of shortcomings.
Four seasons into his NBA career, Ball still does not look completely natural as a half-court point guard, although he has greatly improved in that respect. He was always fighting back against time after not running traditional offenses in high school or college.
Ball also is not aggressive at all going to the basket, only averaging a smidge over a free throw per game—unacceptable for a starting point guard, really. I guarantee you that, at least once per season, you’ll hear a commentator say some variation “if only Ball attacked like this on a regular basis” after a strong take to the rim. He showed this weakness against the Bucks, as seen in the clip below.
Ball does not enjoy playing through contact. He has the chance to go hard to the rim in transition and possibly draw a foul on Brook Lopez. Instead, he shrinks at the last second and ends up getting blocked by the Milwaukee big man. This is a sequence that Ball often repeats, partly because his numbers at the free-throw line are abysmal (under 50 percent in his career).
Yet, I think that because the parts of Ball’s game that need to improve are so amplified, the areas where he actually has become better are often ignored.
It’s important to note that these improvements are yet to show up on the stat sheet consistently and that progress definitely is not linear. But if Ball stock was being sold in this volatile and trendy stock market, then I’d definitely get in on $ZO because it will go up in time if you look at what’s going on between the lines.