Los Angeles Lakers: Imagining Bill Simmons’ star-studded starting lineup
Point Guard: Lonzo Ball
In his piece, Simmons suggested that Ball would come off the bench while Brandon Ingram would be the fifth starter. In my opinion, though, I believe Ball is worthy of the starting gig. The Lakers are already heading treating him like the face of franchise, so why not stick with it?
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As we’ve seen through the early parts of the Summer League, Ball has the tools to be an elite facilitator. He’s already perfected the outlet pass, and does a great job of finding his scorers on the wing when driving into the lane. It also appears that the cherry-picking his brothers did at Chino Hills High have helped him develop some impressive full-court passing skills.
Imagine the damage he could do feeding players like James, George, Wall and Cousins. Those four are all offensive dynamos, using their own unique skill sets to carve up opposing defenses. With a legitimate facilitator like Ball in the mix, they’d have little trouble getting open looks on a nightly basis.
On top of that, playing alongside weapons like that would certainly help Ball’s development as a scorer. Not only would he be learning from some of the best in the game, but he’d get plenty of open looks with the defense focused elsewhere.
I’m not sure if Ball would like watching his status on the team change so drastically after one season. However, if it got him a couple of rings, I don’t foresee him having too many issues with it. I can’t say the same for LaVar Ball, though.