2. Lonzo Ball- PG
As this list nears its conclusion, we finally get to who is one of the most underrated players in the NBA, Lonzo Ball. Not to say he is better than some of the other severely underrated players, such as Kris Middleton or Josh Richardson, but the way he is viewed by the masses is as far from the reality as anyone.
Due to the fact that he can’t score worth a damn and has a horrendous jump shot, people seem to think he is not good. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, he is currently good at just about every aspect of the game besides scoring, and he isn’t even close to meeting his potential.
The Lakers entire identity as a team last year was due to the play of Ball. To the point that when he missed time, the offense was horrendous, making them almost unwatchable. The offense flows through Ball, but he is not very ball dominant.
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Despite what many believe, he doesn’t need the ball in his hands much to be effective, making him the perfect point guard to play alongside superstars such as LeBron James. This is due to the fact that he sees the floor and makes decisions as quick as anyone in the league, to the point where sometimes it seems that he does not want the ball– but really he just knows when to keep it moving.
In his rookie season, he had a modest usage rate of 20.7 percent (47th percentile), per Cleaning The Glass. Despite this, he was in the 81st percentile of all point guards in assist percentage, 28.9 percent. This combination of low usage but high assist rate placed him in the 93rd percentile of assist to usage rate ratio, that being 1.42.
Even as just a rookie he was already one of the most efficient playmakers in the NBA. This will continue to rise as he becomes a better pick and roll operator, which was a weakness of his last year.
On top of being a top-tier playmaker, he ranks near the top of every defensive and rebounding metric for the position. He is in the 91st percentile for block percentage, 83rd percentile for steal percentage, 75th percentile for defensive foul percentage, 96th percentile for defensive rebounding, 91st percentile for offensive rebounding, and his team gave up 3.9 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the court (82nd percentile.)
For what he lacks in scoring, Ball impacts the game is just about every other way to make up for it.
The only problem that could arise next season is with his shooting, specifically spot up. Last season Ball was a streaky shooter. He began the season with a horrendous 25 game stretch in which he shot 25 percent from three, then followed that up with a 15 game stretch in which he shot nearly 40 percent from three before getting injured. Once he returned he went through even more ups and downs with his shot. This inconsistency is no surprise due to his wonky, at best, mechanics.
With the arrival of LeBron James, his shooting begins to matter more than it did before. James is unstoppable one on one, leading many teams to help off of someone in order to double him in the paint. With Ball’s track record teams will likely start the season helping off of him, leaving him wide open on the arc, very often.
This will make it essential that Ball is at least a passable spot up shooter. This will serve to keep the defense honest and prevent them from helping off of him, creating more driving lanes. Last season, Ball shot 33 percent on catch and shoot threes. This isn’t a horrendous number, but it is definitely below average. He must get this number up to at least the league average or the offense will suffer.
The bright side is, this is very possible. For one, he will get a lot of wide open, well-executed shot opportunities from James. This will set him up as well as you can possibly ask for. But more importantly, he will likely be a better shooter overall by the time the season begins.
Ball had surgery done to repair his nagging knee injuries at the start of the offseason. This will likely hamper his potential offseason development as he will have to take time to let the knee fully heal post operation, preventing him from training as hard as he may want. But there is one thing he can still do that doesn’t require much lateral movement. Shoot.
With his shot being an obvious point of emphasis for him it is safe to assume he has put a lot of time and effort into improving his shot this offseason.
Even if he does not fix his shot, he is a great pairing with LeBron James due to his defensive ability against the elite point guards in the west and his top of the line playmaking ability without the need of high usage. But if he does fix his shot, he will be the perfect compliment to the King.