Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Takeaways from Lonzo Ball's 1st Week
Lonzo Ball hasn't saved the Los Angeles Lakers yet. He also hasn't proved incapable of perhaps pulling off that feat at some point in the future.
Four games into his NBA career, Ball looks like a rookie. He's had ups and downs just like any freshman, only his have been magnified and analyzed by the throng of media and fans who monitor his every move.
There has been worthwhile information to extract, though, if you're willing to dig deeper than the fire-emoji takes. His big league identity is forming, highlighting the strongest parts of his game and where he needs the most work. It's also getting clearer how he's being received by his peers around the Association and how the coverage of his career will be handled.
Week 1 for the rook was invigorating, frustrating and altogether exhausting. But it was also revealing, and these are the top-five takeaways it yielded.
LaVar Put a Target on Lonzo's Back
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It's a good thing Ball is making NBA money, because someone has to pay for the Powerball-sized checks his father's mouth has written.
Before Lonzo had finished his lone season at UCLA, LaVar declared him better than Stephen Curry on TMZ (twice). LaVar later bumped Lonzo over everyone in an interview with TIME magazine (h/t CBS Sports), again before the floor general had even been drafted.
None of this is new to Lonzo. And he can thank his father's carnival-barking for a major marketing lift and the accompanying media frenzy. But Lonzo's peers have heard all the commotion, too. They know there will be a spotlight on any matchup with him, and they'll target the ballyhooed rookie the same way Los Angeles Clippers point guard Patrick Beverly did on opening night.
"Due to all the riff-raff his dad brings, he's going to get a lot of people coming at him, and he has to be ready for that," Beverley said, per Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated. "He has to perform on a stage like this every night. It's not only going to be me. It's going to be a lot of people trying to go at his head."
Ball will learn quickly there are no nights off at the point guard position, which is a valuable lesson for any rookie. But the added heat was unnecessary. He was already the hometown kid tasked with putting this once-proud franchise back on the map. As if transitioning to a big league floor general isn't hard enough, he'll have everyone at the league's deepest position trying to make a statement against him.
The Lonzo Takes Will Be Searing
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If you're at all prone to motion sickness, limit your daily dosage of Lonzo media coverage. It jolts around like an inebriated bumper-car driver, almost rivaling LaVar in exaggeration.
Remember Lonzo's rocky debut—all of the four assists and three points on 1-of-6 shooting it included? Did you check the headlines the following morning? USA Today dubbed it a "Rude Welcome." Maxim said Ball "Got Schooled," while GQ opted for "Got Locked Up." The Washington Post declared Beverley "Made Sure Lonzo Ball Didn't Live Up to His Father's Hype."
That was just from one game—his first as a professional and one in which he also tallied nine boards, a block, a steal and only two turnovers in 29 minutes. But everyone had long since decided the only Lonzo analyses worth throwing around are fireball takes.
When Ball came back with 29 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists the following night, everyone climbed back aboard the hype train. "This was the Lonzo Ball people were expecting out of college," CBS Sports wrote. Ball went from bust to savior in 24 hours. He'll have both labels rained down on him throughout the course of his freshman campaign.
"It's happened before in my career," Ball said, per ESPN.com's Ohm Youngmisuk. "So, I am used to it. I know everybody is going to say everything game by game."
His Floor Game Is Special
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The first thing you notice about Ball is the passing arsenal formed by his selflessness, vision and creativity. His head is always on a swivel, taking mental photographs from every angle. He can always sniff out an opening, whether that player is rolling alongside him or streaking down the opposite end of the court.
"He makes the right pass every time," Lakers wing Corey Brewer said, per Youngmisuk. "He makes passes that some guys can't make. ... There's only a few guys that can make those passes, and they're really good players."
Ball has 36 assists through his first four career games. Since 1983, only John Wall had more (38). But Wall also had 23 turnovers by that point. Ball has only committed 12. That's a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which would have been a top-10 mark last season. This feels like a good time to mention Lonzo can't legally drink an adult beverage until next October.
And he's not just dazzling with dimes. His glass work is arguably more impressive. He has yet to corral fewer than eight boards in a contest and has 36 on the season. That's the third-best rebounding start for a rookie guard since 1983, trailing only Ben Simmons (a 6'10" playmaking anomaly) and Jason Kidd (the most popular pro comparison for Ball).
This is what separates Ball as a player and prospect. He could triple-double any night or double-double without points being one of the categories. The Lakers just hope the latter won't be a regular occurrence.
...But His Scoring Will Fluctuate
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Focusing on Ball's scoring is like watching BoJack Horseman and only paying attention to Mr. Peanutbutter's parts. You might get bits and pieces of the plot, but you won't come close to seeing the complete picture.
Still, point production is the basic challenge of basketball. And it's not something Lonzo is doing with volume or efficiency. He's been held to single-digits three times, shooting 23.1 percent or worse in each of those contests. Since scoring concerns were raised long before his debut, these struggles led to some major questions, which the Ringer's Kevin O'Connor raised after Ball's first two games:
"The three big ones I have are: Can he shoot the three? (Ball is shooting just 25.4 percent on 67 attempts from three, including the summer league, preseason and the regular season.) Can he score inside? (Ball's shooting only 41.2 percent on shots within five feet and has been blocked six times in that area of the court.) And can he create space without a screen? (His handle needs to get tighter, and his first step needs to get quicker to be able to counter bigger defenders in future isolation opportunities.)"
Ball's funky shooting form makes it tricky to get something up in traffic and essentially leaves him without an in-between game. He's not particularly quick or explosive, which limits both his isolation and interior options. He could be a lethal spot-up shooter once the Lakers upgrade the roster around him, but Ball will struggle to be more than a complementary scorer without substantial improvements to his game.
That doesn't lower Ball's ceiling, by the way. Kidd built an airtight Hall of Fame case while averaging 12.6 points and shooting 40.0 percent. But when Ball posts unsightly scoring and shooting marks, it will only feed the fire-take-breathing dragon.
The Offense Is Still Catching Up to Him
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The Lakers drafted Ball with establishing an identity in mind, and that run-and-gun outline is already taking shape.
The action is faster, climbing from sixth in pace last season to second this. The ball movement is significantly improved, with L.A. skyrocketing from 26th to 12th in assist percentage. It hasn't actually produced any efficiency gains—the Lakers have dropped one spot in offensive rating (24th to 25th)—but this is just the beginning.
It's not only about Ball getting comfortable, it's his teammates acclimating to him. That's rarely a fast process with rookies, and this one was stunted by the ankle sprain that capped Lonzo at two preseason games and limited practice time.
"It is much more difficult to execute it as opposed to just saying we want to run every time and we want to be the fastest team," head coach Luke Walton said, per Youngmisuk. "We kind of put that message in our players' minds and now we take a little bit back and [are] executing some of the work that needs to be done to become a good running team."
This is the type of attack Ball was built to quarterback. It maximizes the impact of his rebounding, hit-ahead passing and transition scoring, while masking his challenges in the half court. It could also do wonders for the supporting cast, they just need more time to mature and mesh with the new franchise face.
Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from Basketball Reference or NBA.com.
Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @ZachBuckleyNBA.
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