Los Angeles Lakers: Biggest things we’ve learned from missing the playoffs

3. Lonzo Ball’s value to this team has been realized

We briefly mentioned Lonzo Ball earlier in the LeBron portion of the article and the impact that Ball has on this team is unprecedented. The Lakers looked lost at times defensively without Ball on the court, who has been the biggest winner of the Lakers missing the playoffs.

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It might sound a bit strange to hear that someone is a winner when his team misses the playoffs but this has benefited him the most. The opinion about Ball, especially in the fan base, has grown positive without him being on the court.

Ball has never been as loved as he should be because of his funky, inconsistent shot as well as his outlandish father that was making headline after headline with ridiculous bold claims. However, since his injury, the opinion has suddenly flipped and fans have noticed how big of a role he truly played on the team.

This is also true to the young core as a whole, although it is more prevalent with Ball. The Lakers did not get a lot of chances to field a team that had Ball, Ingram and LeBron all on the court at the same time.

It isn’t a surprise that when the team was able to field this complete roster is when the team was firing on all cylinders.

This could be extremely impactful for the Lakers future as it might decide which parts of the young core the team wants to include in trade talks this offseason.

If the results from the season mean anything, Lonzo Ball might be close to untouchable as it has become obvious that is true value is more than anyone wanted to admit.