Lonzo Ball, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum and NBA Players Ready for Career Years
Summer in the NBA is for improvement.
It's a cliche for athletes to claim they're in the best shape of their life or that they feel as good as ever, but oftentimes it's true.
Every fall, numerous players return to the league having made impressive strides in their skills or understanding of the game. Two years ago, Victor Oladipo made a stunning transformation from potential role player to All-Star shooting guard, and last year it was De'Aaron Fox and Pascal Siakam who both emerged as vital components of their respective teams.
There are several types of improvement—whether it be the linear, more intellectual brand we expect from young players or the skill-based improvement that is not always as easy to notice. But easily the most fun kind of progression to track is that of future star to right-now star.
Nothing is more fun than watching young players we all love realize their potential in real time, and there are several candidates to fulfill such a promise this year. Let's take a look at them.
Lonzo Ball, New Orleans Pelicans
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OK, get all your jokes out now.
Lonzo Ball is not a star, and he'll likely never meet the league-altering expectations placed on him before the draft. Nevertheless, he's been given a chance to start over in New Orleans—far away from his hometown—and finally looks ready to break free.
In the preseason, Lonzo has been starting in the Pelicans' backcourt alongside Jrue Holiday, and the results have been positive. He's averaging 9.6 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per 36 minutes (yes, it's the preseason, but that has only been done by five qualified players in NBA history: Magic Johnson twice, Nate McMillan, Micheal Ray Richardson, Rajon Rondo and Russell Westbrook). More importantly, he looks comfortable.
It's still surreal that we get to watch Lonzo throw lobs to the most exciting aerial rookie the league has seen since Blake Griffin or LeBron James, and so the Pelicans are must-watch television as long as they have Lonzo and Zion.
Even the smaller-scale stuff seems to be going well. He changed his much-maligned shooting stroke and seems excited about the prospect of learning from Holiday and JJ Redick, two consummate professionals who are both still starting-caliber players.
Lonzo will not be a traditional superstar. But could he be a Draymond Green-type star, one who is not a primary scorer but does everything else on the floor at a high level? No question.
That path to stardom begins this year.
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
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Devin Booker is perhaps one of the most polarizing players in the NBA.
His reputation as a lazy stat-chaser seems to precede him, even though it is a false one. Despite what many think, Booker is readying himself to become an elite player.
Over Booker's four years, the Suns have the worst record in the league. However, he has still improved significantly from year to year as a scorer and ball-handler despite a soaring usage rate and lackluster supporting casts.
With one more season of the same personnel flaws, he might have stagnated, but luckily for Booker, there's a bunch of new faces that could lift him to an even greater level.
Booker's path to breaking out begins with Ricky Rubio. Like Booker, the Spanish point guard has clearly defined weaknesses and strengths, but they neatly complement Booker's. The former Kentucky guard has been a terrible defender and overworked ball-handler, so what did Phoenix do? Bring in Rubio, an elite defender and famously excellent passer. His prowess in those areas can take pressure off Booker and let him be great in other ways.
Add in new sharpshooters Ty Jerome, Cameron Johnson and Frank Kaminsky, and Booker finally has the spacing around him that the Suns have lacked for years.
The Suns are still unlikely to make the playoffs this year, but Booker's potential ascension could make postseason ball a realistic possibility in the coming years.
Clint Capela, Houston Rockets
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The Houston Rockets have boom-or-bust potential this year.
Their floor depends mostly on the working relationship between James Harden and Russell Westbrook, but their ceiling will be determined by role players. These are guys like Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker and, most importantly, Clint Capela.
Despite Daryl Morey's reputation as a brilliant general manager, he hasn't drafted well. However, he nailed one selection, and that was drafting Capela in 2014.
When Capela came over to the U.S. from Switzerland, he was the classic lanky big man who didn't know how to use his limbs. But he was a quick study under Dwight Howard and Hakeem Olajuwon, who helped him grow from raw prospect to productive backup to star center in just five seasons.
Being a rim-running center is not a flashy job. It necessitates an intricate understanding of esoterica like screening angles, player tendencies and situational decision-making, plus a healthy dose of humility and patience. Capela not only has a handle on all of this already, but he's also ready for more.
Speaking to The Athletic this summer, Capela said that he plans on being even more aggressive this year and might even start shooting threes.
Capela might not even need to start extending his range to be a game-wrecker this year. He's improved every year in Houston, and that track record combined with the countless lobs he'll receive from Harden and Westbrook virtually guarantees an even bigger breakout for the big man in 2019-20.
Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls
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After two years in the Eastern Conference wilderness, the Chicago Bulls are ready to compete once again.
Coach Jim Boylen proclaimed on media day that his squad is ready to make the playoffs, and based on the amount of talent on the roster, he might be right.
And leading the offensive resurgence will more than likely be Zach LaVine.
Early in LaVine's career, he was simply a dunker with aspirations to be more but without the accompanying skills. In the 2016-17 season, he took a step in the right direction before tearing his ACL in February 2017. However, after a rusty 24 games in 2017-18, LaVine returned to full strength with a vengeance last year, posting career highs in points, rebounds, assists and field-goal percentage.
And LaVine shows no signs of slowing down. He got Bulls fans hyped this offseason after posting video of a pickup game and told ESPN there's no reason he shouldn't be an All-Star this year.
With the additions of Coby White, Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky and the return of Wendell Carter Jr. from injury, the Bulls have a surprisingly deep roster. Playing with more talent should make LaVine more efficient, and it could indeed bring postseason ball back to the Windy City.
Caris LeVert, Brooklyn Nets
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If Caris LeVert had stayed healthy all the way through last season, then he likely would have already had his breakout year. But alas, he missed three months recovering from a gruesome ankle injury and was rusty after returning.
But now the former Michigan Wolverine is fully healthy and staring at an empty first mate's chair next to Kyrie Irving as Kevin Durant rehabs a torn Achilles.
The Brooklyn Nets defied all expectations to make the playoffs last year, and one of the players who set the tone for them was LeVert. After years of lower-body injuries, LeVert's start to 2018-19 was highly encouraging. Through his first 14 games, he averaged 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game on a 47.5 percent field-goal percentage. The six players who did that for all of last season? Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, Irving, LeBron James, and Nikola Jokic. That's pretty good company.
And though LeVert struggled at first after returning from his ankle injury, he showed extended glimpses of his tantalizing potential again in Brooklyn's playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, playing assertively and efficiently against elite defenders like Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler.
Even though Durant is likely to miss all of the 2019-20 season, the Nets can still make serious noise in the Eastern Conference with Irving and an underrated rotation. But to be their best selves, they'll need LeVert to break out, and from the looks of it, he's ready to shine.
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
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It's still hard to know who the real Jayson Tatum is, as we've already seen three iterations.
He started out as a sharpshooter, leading the league in three-point shooting for several months. Tatum 2.0 was the best one yet, and that's the player we saw in the 2018 postseason. This is the guy many still see, the 19-year-old who helped lead his team to within minutes of an NBA Finals appearance.
Then, we saw another version last year.
To the chagrin of many Celtics fans, Tatum worked out with Kobe Bryant for much of the 2018 offseason, and the Mamba's influence was obvious. Tatum doubled down on an enthusiasm for mid-range jumpers, often at the expense of offensive rhythm.
But after Kyrie Irving's theatrics derailed Boston's 2018-19 season and he subsequently decamped to Brooklyn, most of the Celtics appear to have mentally reset. Tatum is no different.
In an article from ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tatum's longtime trainer, Drew Hanlen, stated that they worked mainly on pull-up threes and shot selection this summer, which is a great sign. Tatum recorded an abominable 39.9 percent effective field-goal rate on pull-up jumpers last year and shot just 32.4 percent on pull-up threes.
This work seems to have already made a difference.
According to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald, head coach Brad Stevens said that he "[sees] a different way, a different assertiveness in the right things. … [Tatum]'s practiced really hard, made a conscious effort to take the right shots and not be any less aggressive. He's still really aggressive."
Tatum is not yet a capable enough creator to be a primary scorer on a good team. But Kemba Walker will need someone to share his playmaking burden if the Celtics want to go far in the Eastern Conference, and it looks like Tatum may be up to the task.
Justise Winslow, Miami Heat
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Like Lonzo Ball, Justise Winslow is not a star yet in the traditional sense. But he's become a better and more interesting player in each of his four seasons with the Heat and seems poised to break out in year five.
When original Heat point guard Goran Dragic went down with knee problems last year, coach Erik Spoelstra started Winslow, an ostensible wing, in the Slovenian's place. He averaged 13.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game to go with a 43.3 percent field-goal rate and 36 percent shooting from three in 31 games.
Dragic is healthy once again, but Winslow deserves to run point.
Unlike Dragic, Winslow is not a score-first lead guard and is an increasingly competent distributor, which will be of utmost importance for a Heat team featuring an All-NBA-caliber wing in Jimmy Butler, a fleet of sharpshooters—including rookie Tyler Herro, Kelly Olynyk and Meyers Leonard—and a rising star down low in Bam Adebayo.
The Heat have respectable players, but they don't necessarily fit well together. Butler and Dion Waiters and Dragic and Winslow overlap skill-wise, as do Olynyk, Leonard and James Johnson. But a dynamic athlete and high-IQ grinder like Winslow has the potential to make sense of the roster chaos and solidify a top-four playoff seed for this group.
