Los Angeles Lakers: How Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram compare to other young players

How do two of the youngest Los Angeles Lakers, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, compare to the other players around the NBA that are 21 years old or younger?

Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram have been playing on the national stage with the Los Angeles Lakers for their whole careers, so it seems like they’ve been in the NBA longer than they have.

Both players are still just 21 years old though, so instead of comparing them to every player in the league let’s see how they’ve done this season versus only the players in the NBA who are also 21 years or younger.

Lonzo Ball:

Offense (There are 69 players who are 21 years old or younger who have played in the NBA this season, but only 39 of those players have played meaningful minutes for their teams. I’m only going to compare Lonzo to the other young players who play a minimum of 15 minutes per game):

• Ball leads all qualified players in assist-to-turnovers at 2.48

De’Aaron Fox is 2nd, Markelle Fultz is 3rd, and Landry Shamet is 4th

• Ball leads all qualified players in assist ratio at 30.5

Fox is 3rd and Trae Young is 4th

• Lonzo Ball has an offensive rating of 104.9, which is 21st among all qualified players

Jayson Tatum is 1st and Jamal Murray is 2nd

• Ball has an offensive rebound rate of 3.6%, which is 2nd among qualified guards

Markelle Fultz is 1st

• Lonzo Ball is averaging 9.9 points per game, which is 17th among all qualified players

It’s clear that Lonzo’s much maligned offensive game isn’t actually as bad as most people believe. He’s the best young passing player in the NBA and he really knows how to take care of the basketball as well.

He’s also a very good offensive rebounding guard who has a nose for the ball. His points per game and OFFRTG are in the middle of the pack of young players, which is higher than I’d thought he’d rank.

Overall, Lonzo has done well in every aspect on offense, except scoring, which bodes well for his future, because he already brings a tremendous amount of value defensively.

Defense (There are 69 players who are 21 years old or younger who have played in the NBA this season, but only 39 of those players have played meaningful minutes for their teams. I’m only going to compare Lonzo to the other young players who play a minimum of 15 minutes per game):

• Ball has a 105.3 defensive rating which is 7th out of all qualified players and 2nd among all guards

Ivica Zubac is 1st and Fultz is 2nd

• Ball has a 12.4 defensive rebound rate, which is 1st among all qualified guards
• Ball has a 43.6 defensive field goal percentage (he allows the person he’s guarding to shoot 43.6%), which is 12th overall and 1st among all qualified guards
• Ball is 7th among all qualified players in field goals defended at 11.6 per game and 2nd among guards behind Dennis Smith Jr.

Lonzo Ball is already a great defensive player at the young age of 21. He’s capable of impacting the game on the glass and most impressively he’s tasked with guarding 11.6 field goal attempts per game, which is a very high number for any guard in the league, but he only allows players to shoot 43.6% on those shots.