Los Angeles Lakers: Power ranking the team’s top players after Week 1

2. Lonzo Ball

Part of me wanted to put Lonzo Ball atop this list. Through his first four games, he’s made plenty of “wow” plays and nearly pulled off a triple-double. Unfortunately, the lack of effectiveness as a shooter/scorer soured me on that idea.

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Following his lackluster shooting effort against the Wizards, Ball now owns a 31.6 field goal percentage on the season. What’s worse is he’s connected on only 22.6 percent of his 3-point shots. I appreciate and approve of the confidence he’s playing with when it comes to shooting, but the inefficiency is a definite issue.

With that being said, Ball has still been the savvy playmaker Lakers fans were hoping for. He’s averaging nine assists per game, putting those uncanny passing skills on display on a nightly basis. On top of that, his rebounding has been superb, as he’s currently leading the team with nine boards per game. The scoring may not be there yet, but he’s finding other ways to make his presence felt.

Speaking of which, he’s been a sneaky good defender as well. There have been a few instances of him losing his man, but he does a great job of recovering, looking for opportunities to impact the shot from behind, and is always finding ways to get his hands on the ball.

I want to see two things from him moving forward: 1) Sinking a higher percentage of his shots and 2) Cutting down on turnovers. If he can do both of those things, he’ll be atop this list where he should be.