Pelicans' Zion Williamson: Lonzo Ball 'A Lot More Comfortable' Entering 2020-21

With a day to go before the New Orleans Pelicans tip off their season against the Toronto Raptors, star Zion Williamson spoke to the improvements his teammate Lonzo Ball made this offseason, his first since joining the Pelicans. 

"He's just a lot more comfortable," Williamson said. "He had an offseason to fine tune the things he wanted to work on and I think just him being comfortable, a lot more comfortable, his game really increased from that." 

Ball averaged just 5.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists in six games as the Pelicans crash-landed in the NBA restart.  

Through 63 games for the Pelicans last season, Ball added 11.8 points on 40.3 percent shooting, with 7.0 assists, 6.1 rebounds, 1.4 steals through 32.1 minutes played. 

He showed bright spots of what may come this season—his fourth in the league after spending the first two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, who drafted him out of UCLA with the No. 2 pick in 2017—throughout the preseason. 

Against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, Ball added eight of his 19 points in the first quarter, with eight assists, five rebounds and two steals through 34 minutes as New Orleans earned the 127-113 win. He shot 50 percent from three (3-of-6) while going 7-of-11 from the field. 

He added 12 points, six assists and four rebounds in 31 minutes against the Miami Heat in the Pelicans' preseason opener. 

"This was my first off-season [that] I got to work on some things," Ball said after the game, per Jacob Rude of LonzoWire. "I slowed down and get to my strengths and just worked on my game and I think it’s going to show this year." 

Ball will get a chance to highlight more of what he worked on throughout the offseason when the Pelicans travel to face the relocated Toronto Raptors at Tampa Bay's Amalie Arena on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.