Los Angeles Lakers: Lonzo Ball’s absence shows how important he is for the team

Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball has been sidelined 10 games with an ankle injury and his absence shows how important he is to the team.

Lonzo Ball suffered a Grade 3 ankle sprain 10 games ago when the Los Angeles Lakers faced off with the Houston Rockets. During the 10 contests that Lonzo’s been out, the Lakers have had the 27th rated defense in the league. Let’s examine why Ball is so important defensively for the Lakers.

The Lakers Defense by the Numbers:

2018-2019 DRtg: 109, 12th in the NBA /versus the last 10 games Drtg: 118.1, 27th in the NBA
2018-2019 Opponents eFG%: 51.1, 4th in the NBA/ versus the last 10 games OPP eFG%: 55, 26th in the NBA
2018-2019 Opponents Turnover%: 13.5, 21st in the NBA/ versus the last 10 games OPP TOV%: 11.6, 28th in the NBA
VS Timberwolves: Minnesota scored 120 points
@ Clippers: LA scored 120 points
@ Pacers: Indiana scored 136 points
@ Celtics: Boston scored 128 points
@ 76ers: Philadelphia scored 143 points
@ Hawks: Atlanta scored 117 points

During the first nine games, Lonzo was out due to injury, the Lakers went up against a very difficult slate of games, which included offensive powerhouses like the Warriors twice, the 76ers twice, and the Clippers.

To make matters worse, the Lakers just played six out of the ten games Lonzo’s missed, on the road. And to make matters EVEN worse, the entire team was dealing with the emotional twists and turns of not knowing if they were going to be traded or not.

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I was willing to let their defensive struggles slide over those nine games because of the reasons I listed above, but after watching the atrocious defense the Lakers played against the 25th offensively rated Hawks, it’s become clear that the Purple and Gold really miss Lonzo on defense.

Luke Walton deploys a switch everything defense and when Lonzo is in the lineup, it works very well. But, since Lonzo’s been out, Rajon Rondo’s been averaging 33.6 cringe-worthy MPG.

Lonzo allows players to shoot 56.3% from less than 5-feet from the basket, which is 2nd best on the team, ahead of JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler. Rondo lets opponents shoot 60.3% from inside of 5-feet from the basket, which is one of the worst percentages on the team.

Simply speaking, Lonzo has the size, strength, and athleticism to guard bigger players in the post off of switches, and in fact, he’s the best point guard in the league in these situations. Rondo, on the other hand, is too small to guard bigger players in the post.

The Hawks took advantage of the Lakers “switch happy” defense and consistently made Rondo guard their big’s down low, which he just can’t do.

Continuing on with Rondo, I love to watch “Playoff Rondo,” but now that I’ve seen “Non-Playoff Rondo’ over the last nine games I understand why he’s been on so many different teams over the last few years.

At times it really seems like Rondo doesn’t care at all about playing defense and that shows with his awful 118.8 DEFRTG over the last 10 games, which is 14th on the Lakers. Simply giving Lonzo Ball the 34 “I’m not interested in guarding my man” minutes Rondo’s been soaking up would also work wonders for the Lakers defense.

Every team in the NBA has very smart coaching staffs who are capable of picking apart one weak link in a team’s defense.

In today’s modern NBA there are typically two types of players who can become unplayable, because of their defensive limitations: small point guards like Isaiah Thomas (Brinks Truck IT, not Detroit Pistons IT) or J.J. Barea, and big lumbering Centers like Timofey Mozgov or Jahlil Okafor.

Right now, Rajon Rondo has become a huge weak link for the Lakers. Every time he winds up guarding a big player down low on a switch, at least one other Lakers player on the court is forced to sag off of the opponent he’s guarding to help him, which is then leading to open 3-pointers.

This article is about Lonzo Ball and how important he is for the Lakers, because of the type of player he is on defense and also because he can play the type of switching D that Luke runs, but I also have to mention Josh Hart.

Hart’s been out the last few games, but before that, he was playing injured. Josh Hart, like Lonzo, is a very good low-post defender, who is very capable of guarding big’s down low off of switches.

Over the last 10 games, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been averaging more minutes per game than Josh, because of Hart’s tendinitis issue. KCP has the worst defensive rating out of any Lakers player over the last 10 games at 120.3. KCP, like Rondo, is an awful low-post defender who shouldn’t be playing in Luke’s defense.

The Lakers miss Lonzo more than Hart because Lonzo is a better defender who’s also in charge of stopping the other teams head of the snake. It’s going to be tough for the Lakers to get it done on defense while Ball’s out.

Come back soon Lonzo!