New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball has played his role without complaining
Lonzo Ball came into the league as a pass-first point guard who loved to have the ball in his hands.
This season, he’s been asked to play off the ball as a shooting guard who doesn’t make as many plays and spends a lot of time shooting 3-point shots.
His 3-point attempts and percentage are currently the highest of his career, and since he came back from injury he’s been shooting over 45 percent from long range.
Some of Lonzo’s biggest fans are irate about this (believe me, I hear about it every day) and think the Pels are wasting his talent.
This might be somewhat true and there is an argument that Stan Van Gundy is not getting the most out of Lonzo Ball.
As much complaint as there has been from fans, we haven’t heard a peep from Lonzo himself. He has embraced his role, gotten better in it and genuinely seems like a guy who will do what it takes to win.
Another criteria for guys to put around Zion Williamson is that they don’t have huge egos. Zion and B.I. are the cornerstones of this team and going to be doing most of the ball handling, the so the Pels don’t need players who believe they are the best guy on the team or think they should be getting 20 shots per game.
Lonzo Ball may not like his new role, but he has taken it on without whining to the media or demanding a trade, which shows he has the type of attitude and ego to be the third option on a good team.