The game moves faster, even as it's clear it's moving slower for Lonzo."īall is already the Association's ninth-best table-setter with 7.1 helpers per game. And there's a strange kind of kinetic energy that emerges when he's on the floor. "His passes look different," Andrew Sharp wrote for Sports Illustrated. He doesn't simply spot uncovered teammates he can pass his guys open. ![]() That might be all he needs, too, since scoring and shooting were never his likely paths to rookie honors anyway.īall has always held an across-the-board appeal -hence, the many Jason Kidd comparisons -but there's never been a question about his greatest gift.īall is a preternatural passer. He's a much better finisher than he's shown, and -provided he hasn't lost confidence -his talent should at least get him to a serviceable shooting level sooner than later. That's Ball's best option to right the ship. Good marksmen can shoot their way out of slumps. "It's in my head, to be honest," Ball told reporters earlier this month. NBA defenders are obviously more challenging, but Ball says they aren't the reason he's struggling. Even with questions about his mechanics, he's the same player who shot 55.1 percent overall and 41.2 percent from three at UCLA. Those are terrifying trends, potentially capable of lowering his ceiling by several stories. Only one has cleared that threshold with a lower true shooting percentage than his 36.8. Only two players have ever logged 2,000 minutes and shot worse than Ball's 31.3 field-goal percentage. He's the NBA's second-worst restricted-area shooter ( 44.0 percent, minimum three attempts per game) and a bottom-five free-throw shooter (46.2 percent, fifth, minimum 20 attempts). He's finished with more points than shots only twice. He's had the same number of games shooting above 30 percent (four) as ones in which he's fallen below 20. It's the sorry statistics attached to the stroke. It turns out the ugliest aspect of Ball's shot isn't his funky form. If the asinine chatter quiets around him, he'll have a better chance of being measured by his production and not against others' projections. It's just that he was billed as being flawless, so any weaknesses are exponentially magnified. Shooting woes aside (we'll dissect those in a minute), Ball has been historically prolific. ( Ben Simmons is also clearing those marks.) If the campaign closed today, he'd join Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only freshmen to average at least eight points, seven assists and seven rebounds. He's also been the youngest player ever to record a triple-double and the sixth with multiple triple-doubles in his first 20 contests. And rather than pin the blame on those responsible for the noise, Ball's detractors are instead pondering if he's a bust. if not the entire hoops world -overnight and then he didn't, critics wanted someone to point a finger at. When people promised he would change L.A. Those expectations were as unfair as they were absurd.īut they've also proved damaging to Ball's reputation. ![]() But in terms of increasing pressure, Lakers president Magic Johnson is right there for anointing the rookie as the franchise's new face before he'd even suited up at summer league.īall turned 20 in October. His carnival-barking old man, LaVar Ball, probably takes the cake by putting Lonzo ahead of Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and everyone on the planet. Instead, it's on the verge of overheating after those around him have seemingly held a contest over who can make the most outlandish Lonzo comment. If handled correctly, Ball's hype train would still be at the station, fueling up on the potential of a 20-year-old point guard with great size and better vision.
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