Lonzo Ball

[Phrazbit]

I'm not sure how this scenario would come about, but hypothetically, who here would take Ingram for the #4?

No, no, no, no, and heeeell no.

As disappointed as we all were by Bender's rookie campaign, Ingram was by many statistical measures the worst regular player in the entire NBA.

Not saying I wouldn't take him, but no freakin way I'd take him in exchange for that pick. If he was in this draft I'm not sure where he'd go but I feel pretty good saying it would be well after our pick.

 

[leclerc]

I'm not high on Ingram either. I would rather we keep the #4 if we don't trade for Porzingis.

 

[devilalum]

There will be an all-star, maybe even an all-nba player picked in the middle of the first round of this draft somewhere. There are just too many intriguing players. The trick is figuring out which one it is.

If I could get odds in Vegas I'd defenitely bet that the 15th player in this draft will NEVER be as good as Leonard.

 

[JCSunsfan]

If I could get odds in Vegas I'd defenitely bet that the 15th player in this draft will NEVER be as good as Leonard.

Let's see. Is that what I said? No. Those are pretty narrow parameters.

Its likely there will be a future all-star, maybe even all-nba, player picked between 10 and 25.

 

[Russ Smith]

Hmm an awful lot of discussion bashing Ball this season and now that he's hit double figures scoring in 4 straight games averaging a shade under 16PPG in those games silence.

He's starting to figure things out, he's both driving more, and he's figured out which spots on the floor he shoots well from and which ones he struggles from and he's setting up in the good spots. As a result he's shooting about 40% from 3 in those games. He's actually been in double figures in 7 of his last 12 games, which is still not that impressive but given how poorly he started, distinct improvement.

He's also added a shot to his arsenal he's now become quite good at going right, pulling up and hitting a 15 footer.

For the year now 9.6 7 and 7 a game, still not great but he's among the best rookies in both assists and rebounds. Still only shooting 34% overall 27.4% from 3 but both numbers on the way up. The weird thing for me is still his FT%, he's still shooting only 50%, he shot 67% at UCLA and frankly I think he shot better than that the last 10 games or so, really odd that he's shooting so poorly from the FT line in the NBA.

He's been playing with a calf issue on both legs for the last few weeks, he said it's like having a knot in both calves, but it sounds like they've worked through it although he's still wearing the compression sleeves on both calves.

I suspect there's lots to his better play but I think a big part of it was the reaction of his teammates when Jamal Murray mocked him at the end of a loss to Denver by dribbling around him as Ball was standing facing the other way waiting for the clock to expire. The Lakers were so incensed by Murray 2 of them ran over and fouled him hard, and Luke Walton specifically called out Murray for being immature after the game and said the Lakers would remember it. I don't think it particularly bothered Lonzo, guys have been taking shots at him all season, but I think the reaction of his teammates, having his back, was a pick me up of sorts.

He's still got a long ways to go, but we're starting to see much more glimpses of the kid that played so great for UCLA last year

 

[Raze]

Hmm an awful lot of discussion bashing Ball this season and now that he's hit double figures scoring in 4 straight games averaging a shade under 16PPG in those games silence.

He's starting to figure things out, he's both driving more, and he's figured out which spots on the floor he shoots well from and which ones he struggles from and he's setting up in the good spots. As a result he's shooting about 40% from 3 in those games. He's actually been in double figures in 7 of his last 12 games, which is still not that impressive but given how poorly he started, distinct improvement.

He's also added a shot to his arsenal he's now become quite good at going right, pulling up and hitting a 15 footer.

For the year now 9.6 7 and 7 a game, still not great but he's among the best rookies in both assists and rebounds. Still only shooting 34% overall 27.4% from 3 but both numbers on the way up. The weird thing for me is still his FT%, he's still shooting only 50%, he shot 67% at UCLA and frankly I think he shot better than that the last 10 games or so, really odd that he's shooting so poorly from the FT line in the NBA.

He's been playing with a calf issue on both legs for the last few weeks, he said it's like having a knot in both calves, but it sounds like they've worked through it although he's still wearing the compression sleeves on both calves.

I suspect there's lots to his better play but I think a big part of it was the reaction of his teammates when Jamal Murray mocked him at the end of a loss to Denver by dribbling around him as Ball was standing facing the other way waiting for the clock to expire. The Lakers were so incensed by Murray 2 of them ran over and fouled him hard, and Luke Walton specifically called out Murray for being immature after the game and said the Lakers would remember it. I don't think it particularly bothered Lonzo, guys have been taking shots at him all season, but I think the reaction of his teammates, having his back, was a pick me up of sorts.

He's still got a long ways to go, but we're starting to see much more glimpses of the kid that played so great for UCLA last year

Ok. But you'll always have to wrestle with the fact that he can't shoot and can't defend AND has the worst demeanor after things go bad. He looks flat out defeated and ready to cry. And I'm not trying to be Scut Farkus here, I'm seriously pointing out that there were times that he looked like he wanted to crawl out of the gym with his head bowed down. His lack of confidence is startling.

The fact that he needed his team to have his back in order for him to excel proves he's mentally fragile.

I didn't think highly of him pre draft, I think even less of him now.

 

[Carolinacacti]

Could you see Ball passing to all the Suns great three point shooters.

 

[Russ Smith]

Ok. But you'll always have to wrestle with the fact that he can't shoot and can't defend AND has the worst demeanor after things go bad. He looks flat out defeated and ready to cry. And I'm not trying to be Scut Farkus here, I'm seriously pointing out that there were times that he looked like he wanted to crawl out of the gym with his head bowed down. His lack of confidence is startling.

The fact that he needed his team to have his back in order for him to excel proves he's mentally fragile.

I didn't think highly of him pre draft, I think even less of him now.

I would dispute it's a fact given how well he shot in college. I think he got off to a terrible start, lost confidence, under incredible pressure, and has started to figure things out now.

He was too passive early in the year, wanted to cry, didn't see that, I saw a kid who was overmatched playing heavy minutes in his hometown for the team he grew up wanting to play for and feeling lots of pressure. He seems to be settling in.

Fox may ultimately turn out better, he's playing better in December too at least he's shooting better, his A/TO ratio in December is 2/2.4, yes more turnovers than assists for the month. Smith Jr has been impressive this year but the reason he slid in the draft was his injury situation, and surprise, Smith missed 6 games in a row in mid December with a hip condition that's now the 3rd leg related injury in his young career. Great athlete, fun to watch, but at least so far the concerns he might have injury issues seem warranted, they have played 32 games this season and he's missed 8 of them, a full 25%, due to injury.

 

[devilalum]

Could you see Ball passing to all the Suns great three point shooters.

Need one of these




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Russ Smith]

Could you see Ball passing to all the Suns great three point shooters.

That's the interesting thing for all his issues, the Lakers are among the NBA leaders in points in the paint, in part because they have guys who can score in the paint, Ingram, Randle etc, and in part because they don't have good 3 point shooters so they go inside. Kuzma has obviously been a godsend for them and has been shooting great from 3 of late but they're really not a good shooting team. Completely different than what Lonzo played in college an outside shooting team with no post game. He's adapting pretty well in terms of running that offense, his whole problem has been shooting.

Given everything he's had to deal with off the court in the last year from his moms stroke to his dad doing one stupid thing after another and then Gelo's shoplifting, I'm glad to see he's actually fought through it. I don't think there's another rookie in the NBA that has had more things off the court to deal with than Lonzo.

 

[Russ Smith]

5th straight game in double digits last night against the Warriors. 24 points, 5-6 from 3, the annoying FT issue still persists, 1-4 last night, had 5 boards 5 assists and 5 To's. He seems to have this crazy situation with Nance Jr every game I watch he makes at least 2-3 perfect passes to Nance who then blows a 3 footer, yet he'll also have 1-2 spectacular lob dunks to Nance.

As I said in the earlier post one of the biggest things he's done is figured out where his spots on the floor are and is setting up there. I think 4 of his 5 made 3's last night were from essentially the same spot on the left side diagonal, it's a shot most players hate but he shot it really well from there at UCLA too.

 

[Russ Smith]

6 straight games with double digits although he just barely got there last night in the loss with 10 points. 11 assists and as always seems to be the case the Lakers missed another 4-5 point blank shots off passes from him. 5 turnovers though.

 

[overseascardfan]

LA has some really nice young pieces: Ball, Ingram & ROY contender Kyle Kuzma. If they indeed land James, he would have a pretty good supporting cast next year.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

LA has some really nice young pieces: Ball, Ingram & ROY contender Kyle Kuzma. If they indeed land James, he would have a pretty good supporting cast next year.

Just read a piece that did a good job of explaining why an albeit talented lakers squad ha a terrible makeup for lebron. Made sense.

 

[Cheesebeef]

LA has some really nice young pieces: Ball, Ingram & ROY contender Kyle Kuzma. If they indeed land James, he would have a pretty good supporting cast next year.

he's not going to a team that is a) still going to be at least a year or two away from competing and b) will have to compete in the same conference as GS/SA/HOU.

 

[Russ Smith]

LA has some really nice young pieces: Ball, Ingram & ROY contender Kyle Kuzma. If they indeed land James, he would have a pretty good supporting cast next year.

I don't know if they're getting LeBron or not but I do think it's interesting what Walton has said all along about Lonzo. He said what made Lonzo a no brainer pick for them is he already plays the way we want him to play, we don't have to teach him our style, and we don't have to run pick and roll or iso's for him like we would have for other rookie PG's(Fox or Smith Jr). What he means is the way Lonzo moves the ball.

There's an article out a day or two ago that says Lonzo leads the NBA in hit ahead passes(more than 30 feet) and leads the NBA in lowest average time with the ball in his hands before he passes it(among PG's). That's how Walton wants to play, move the ball pass it don't dribble.

So then you bring in LeBron and the obvious thing is he's a high usage guy so he fits with Lonzo because Lonzo is not a ball stopper, but does he fit with the move the ball mantra he's a great passer but is he willing to play in that move the ball system or is he going to want to be the playmaker like he is now?

If it were me I'd be tempted to trade Ingram, he simply doesn't rebound well enough for my tastes, when you play him and Kuzma together you get excellent offense but not enough rebounding and right now Kuzma is a much better shooter so I'd lean to him over Ingram.

Randle is not great but he's more of a power player than Ingram. They really need another good shooter on that roster several actually their absence of 3 point shooting is a real issue.

I also think Jordan Clarkson deserves a ton of credit for willingly becoming the 6th man. It had to be hard for him early in the season when Lonzo was struggling and still starting, but now they have a very nice rotation with them and Caldwell Pope.

I don't see them as a huge threat to my Warriors anytime soon but I think if they make the right roster and draft decisions they could be pretty good in a year or two.

 

[leclerc]

The reason why it's been quiet is he got drafted by another team. I don't watch anything but Suns games, except some playoff games.

 

[Ronin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BleacherReport

Bleacher Report
@BleacherReport

Lakers announce Lonzo Ball diagnosed with left shoulder sprain, will miss at least one week

 

[Russ Smith]

The reason why it's been quiet is he got drafted by another team. I don't watch anything but Suns games, except some playoff games.

No people were bashing him for weeks after the season started and he didn't play well. It was on a different thread and eventually there were complaints that Lonzo discussion should be in this thread, not the other thread.

 

[Russ Smith]

Bleacher Report
@BleacherReport

Lakers announce Lonzo Ball diagnosed with left shoulder sprain, will miss at least one week

Yeah I saw it happen in the game last night and was honestly surprised he came back in you could see he was in pain.

Sucks for him in terms of finally starting to play better and now having to sit, but the upside is he also gets to rest his legs which have been bugging him.

So now 2 of the Xmas day games are without a starting PG since Steph Curry will miss the game against the Cavs

 

[leclerc]

No people were bashing him for weeks after the season started and he didn't play well. It was on a different thread and eventually there were complaints that Lonzo discussion should be in this thread, not the other thread.

Okay, I must have missed that. Hope he does well except that he'll always have a loosing record vs Phoenix.

 

[Ronin]

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[Covert Rain]

Is it bad of me to want him to amount to nothing because of his dad’s big mouth?!

 

[Mainstreet]

Is it bad of me to want him to amount to nothing because of his dad’s big mouth?!

Nah. However, I think Lonzo is going to be a good player dad or not.

 

[Russ Smith]

Is it bad of me to want him to amount to nothing because of his dad’s big mouth?!

It's not bad IMO as long as you're honest that's why.

I don't blame him for his dad, he's been the exact opposite of his dad so far in his career.

But I completely get why people dislike his dad so much. I think his dad has effectively ruined any chance of an NBA career Melo had, Gelo had no chance but the dad has made sure he didn't get a free college education either, just terrible IMO.