Los Angeles Lakers: How Lonzo Ball navigated screens as the ball-handler

Settled for Three

Moreover, when coming off of screens, Ball would often settle for a shot beyond the arc rather than put pressure on the defense attacking the basket when looking to score.

During Summer League, Lonzo Ball took a three off of the screen on roughly 17 occasions. In contrast, he only took around seven mid-range jumpers, as well as seven lay-ups and two floater’s on these types of plays.

Notably, out of the 17 times Ball took a three from a screen, 6 of these were in Game 1 against the clippers where he struggled mightily from the field.

As such, it is no surprise that the UCLA product only hit three-for-17 of his attempts from beyond the arc in these situations, causing the defense to go under screens as they did not respect his shot.

Ball was also one-for-five on threes off screens during his monstrous Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers, getting most of his points attacking the basket, and further demonstrating that he has some trouble shooting from beyond the arc off of screens.

As time progresses, Ball must expand his game and attack the rim more aggressively on picks, which he sparingly did in Summer League, in an effort to put more pressure on the defense and create better looks instead of relying too heavily on the three.

Furthermore, he must also work on his mid-range game which was virtually nonexistent in college as well as in Summer League, as he took very few jump-shots from two-point territory and made only a small number of them.