I'll give you that he finished strong in March. He definitely was better than while at UCLA. But taken as a whole season he wasn't good. He started off awful. Finished with flashes for sure. I won't give him a pass til I see consistency.
And Ball's criticism on D was never 'ability'. The guy has length and is agile. It was always heart. I still question that. Many players show flashes only to fade when they have to work at it. Really work at it.
And if we're going to praise his defensive improvement in March then let's be consistent and point out his shooting percentages in March:
FT: 32%
FG: 35%
3FG: 28%
That's utter garbage. 32% FT!?! Hack-a-Ben Wallace shot better than that. Josh Jackson was jeered for his poor shooting this year and never once dipped below those numbers (besides 3FG). And remember Josh wasn't drafted for his shooting percentage, where Ball was praised for his.
You are crediting him in March only. Im crediting him all season.
He was night and day better than at UCLA. I do agree with you on seeing consistency in his defense. We need to see more than one year of him defending well. Again, im looking at the entire year, not just "March".
You can take these stats however you want (because its only one year of data), but they are quite impressive:
Among Point Guards:
91st percentile in BLK%
83rd percentile in STL%
96th percentile in DREB%
3rd in DRPM
3.9 points/100 better defensive with him on the floor (82nd percentile)
He had the same amount of shots per game against him at G as Ben Simmons. Simmons allowed 41.5% shooting compares to Lonzo's 41.9%
Again, take them however you want. Im just saying my eye test is aligning with the numbers, which is usually a good sign.