Los Angeles Lakers: Lonzo Ball looking good in the early going
Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball has been great thus far in training camp.
The Los Angeles Lakers began training camp this week in high spirits. There is a new energy surrounding the organization with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka taking over the front office. On the court, exciting is brewing thanks to the youthful roster that has been put together.
One of those youthful players fans are excited to see is Lonzo Ball. Ball was the Lakers’ selection with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He played locally at UCLA and comes with high expectations.
Ball has already been dubbed the face of the franchise by Johnson. His father, LaVar Ball, is always pushing him to be the best that he can be. Ball is undoubtedly talented, as we saw that in the Las Vegas Summer League.
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The Lakers went into the Summer League with a ton of buzz. They were listed as co-favorites to take home the title, and that is exactly what they did. Ball was the best player in Las Vegas, as he took home the MVP award despite missing two games.
Winning is something Ball is used to. He is a culture changer. At Chino Hills High School, Ball, and his brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo had an undefeated season that resulted in a championship Lonzo’s senior year. At UCLA, Ball helped turn a 15-17 team into a Sweet 16 participant in the NCAA Tournament.
The Lakers are hoping that he can bring that same culture change to their organization. If the early results are any indication, those wins should come shortly.
The Las Vegas Summer League was a success, and reports are stating that training camp is going well for Ball so far as well. Head coach Luke Walton has praised Ball’s work thus far in his first training camp.
Luke Walton: "Lonzo's been great. ... He's leading, he's giving effort, he's coachable."
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) September 28, 2017
That leadership has been on full display during the intrasquad scrimmages. Ball played alongside Kyle Kuzma, Vander Blue, V.J. Beachum, Thomas Bryant and Corey Brewer and things went very well.
Ball led the team to an undefeated 3-0 day. It is an impressive feat as Ball is the only player guaranteed minutes for the regular season right now. Beachum and Blue are playing for a roster spot, Brewer is expected to play a mentor role and Kuzma is facing a logjam at power forward.
That didn’t stop Ball from leading his team to victory, something he was very happy about.
"“(The scrimmages) were pretty fun for me,” Ball said on Thursday. “My team won, so I had a pretty good time. Everybody’s in here competing, getting after it, and it was fun.”"
It is great to see a team made up of some of the Lakers younger players doing so well. Ball has shown that he can produce no matter who is on the court with him, dominating with high draft picks and undrafted journeymen alike thus far.
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The next step will be seeing how Ball and his young teammates do in a real game. The first chance we will have to see that will be Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Lakers’ first preseason game.