With the 2018-19 season right around the corner for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson believes Lonzo Ball will have a breakout season.
As we get closer to the start of the regular season for the Los Angeles Lakers, anticipation for what the team will be is only going to increase. While all eyes will be on LeBron James this season, the Lakers have a lot of young players that will garner attention.
One of the players that should be poised for a good season is Lonzo Ball. Entering his second season, Ball had a lot of positives to take away from his rookie season. As a rookie, Ball averaged 10.2 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.9 rebounds per game. Possibly due to the hype surrounding him, Ball didn’t really receive much praise for his solid rookie season.
This offseason, Ball has been focused on getting better entering his second season. One of the things he has done was watching film with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka. Recently, Johnson said that Ball will have a breakout season. Here’s what he had to say via LakersNation.com.
"“He wanted to sit and watch film with me and Rob. He’s starting to understand that he has to be better. He understood that right after the season. He’s going to be ready to have a breakout season and build on what he did last season. I’m excited for Lonzo. He’s going to be fine.”"
While Ball had a nice season, there is certainly room for improvement. The glaring weakness for Ball was his shooting numbers. Despite being a good three-point shooter in college, that was a major issue for him last season. Those shooting woes followed Ball to the free-throw line as well, as he was dreadful from the charity stripe.
To improve his shooting Ball has been working on his balance with his jump shot, which he hopes will help. With the addition of LeBron James, there might be a lot of open jump shots for Ball and his teammates, as teams will be forcing them to prove that they can make them.
While staying healthy will be very important for Ball as well, he is certainly capable of a breakout season. Johnson saw it coming with Ingram last season, and he sees it coming for Ball this season.