Los Angeles Lakers: Jalen Rose is right; Lonzo Ball might not be a good fit
By Jason Reed
The dynamic of LeBron James and Lonzo Ball on the Los Angeles Lakers has always been an interesting one; one that might not last for very long.
The Los Angeles Lakers are officially winless in the LeBron James-era. That is, after one game, in which the Lakers lost the extremely fast-paced contest, 128-119.
In fact, this was the fastest game that LeBron James had ever played in during his NBA career. We are only one game into the Lakers season, I am sure that the bar will keep raising as the 82-game season winds down.
This up-tempo roster is a perfect fit for James, who is one of the most dominant players in transition that the league has ever seen. One of the key pieces to this fast-paced tempo is Lonzo Ball, who implemented this change of offensive culture in his rookie season last year.
The spectacle of LeBron James and Lonzo Ball playing together is something that has been looked forward to. Both have such unique playstyles and LaVar Ball has had his own mini-feud with LeBron already.
It is clear that this spectacle may not be a long-lasting thing after just the first game of the season. And while it is absurd to make any guarantees after one game, there were some notable dynamics in play.
One of the dynamics was the seemingly awkward fit that Lonzo Ball is on this team. Jalen Rose pointed this out on ESPN’s Get Up! after Thursday night (h/t Scott Gleeson, USA Today). Everything Rose said made sense.
Being a point guard is hard when you have LeBron James on your team. James is going to dominate the ball most of the time and the Lakers have the mini version of James in Rajon Rondo as well.
The reason why Ball seemed to work out with LeBron is that he did not need the basketball to play his style of basketball. Ball could push the ball up the court with quick passes in transition without needing to be the anchor of the offense.
However, that might not be as good of a fit on paper as it is in reality. With LeBron and Rondo doing most of the ball-handling, Ball is going to be utilized more as a spot-up shooter, something he has been dreadfully bad at after his rookie season.
The Lakers have better options to be a spot-up shooter in the backcourt, such as both shooting guards, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Josh Hart. Ball is a huge asset due to his elite rebounding as a guard but that will be neutralized to an extent with LeBron on the court.
It is just one game and this is more of an assessment of his play style, not his performance in game one. He is still knocking off some of the cobwebs from being injured and is not going to play to full strength right away.
What the Lakers need is a scoring guard, someone like Damian Lillard (who has been connected to the team already) that does not need to necessarily be ball dominant to be successful. Having an elite scoring guard to take the pressure off LeBron is huge in the Lakers’ NBA Finals pursuit.
Next. Six things we would love to see during the Lakers season. dark
Lonzo Ball simply is not that scoring guard and Jalen Rose is right, he does not fit on this version the Los Angeles Lakers.