40. Lonzo Ball
There have already been more than enough words said and written by people far more talented than I about the most divisive player to enter the league in my lifetime. I’m not going to try and duplicate their efforts. Instead, I’ll just spit out a few quick hitters about Lonzo Ball:
- The Lakers regime who drafted him second overall seems to know what it’s doing.
- Ball does not look overmatched in any way by the NBA game. Nothing that happens on the court seems to be too big for him.
- The Lakers, with Ball running the show and getting significant minutes, are not the tire fire some predicted before the season started. They are 15-21 with him and 2-8 without him.
- The small-ball L.A. lineup featuring Ball, KCP, Kuzma, Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram has run teams off the floor to the tune of a +14.6 net rating, albeit in just 96 minutes.
- Players will want to play with a guy that, as ESPN‘s Kevin Arnovitz put it, wakes up looking to pass the ball.
- Lonzo Ball is a 20-year-old NBA rookie.
These are all true statements, as is this: There haven’t been many players in NBA history to put up over 10 shots a game with a true shooting percentage under 45. Ball is on pace to be the only one to accomplish the feat this year, and looking back over the history of other such seasons, there are very few success stories.
On the bright side, since Dec. 1, Ball is shooting 35 percent from deep. That’s not terrible.
Let’s say the shooting keeps trending in the right direction, and all the other stuff we’ve seen only increases in quality and quantity. Does that ceiling warrant him being the 40th most valuable asset in the NBA, ahead of several of the league’s very best point guards?
Probably not. But that is where this list truly is an imperfect science.
Lonzo Ball is the Lakers’ Golden Ticket in human form. If anyone wants into the magic world where chocolate flows from fountains and Magic Johnson‘s smile brings joy to orphan children everywhere, they’re entering with the hope that Ball is just scratching the surface of his untapped potential.
L.A.’s plan since the moment they landed the No. 2 overall pick in the draft has been to sell free agents on exactly that dream. They’re not giving away their lead attraction for any of the guys below Ball on this list, and probably not for a bunch of the guys I have ranked ahead of him.
I just can’t put a 35 percent shooter any higher than 40th. Sorry.