Los Angeles Lakers regular season grades: Backcourt players
Lonzo Ball: B-
Defensive Real Plus-Minus: 1.30 (4th)
Field-Goal Percentage Differential: -1.5 (7th)
Defensive Rating: 105.3 (5th)
Offensive Rating: 104.9 (7th)
On/Off Offensive Differential: -2.4 (7th)
Traditional Stats: 10 PPG, 5 RPG, 5 APG, .406 FG%
Lonzo Ball only played 47 games during the 2018-2019 season before an ankle injury sidelined him. While he was on the court he played great defense, smothering opposing point guards and pestering bigs off of switches.
Lonzo finished the season with a 1.30 defensive real plus-minus rating, which was 7th out of all point guards in the NBA. The six PG’s who finished above Ball are all much older and experienced than the Lakers young distributor. Here’s a list:
- Chris Paul: 2.04
- Derrick White: 1.66
- Marcus Smart: 1.63
- Cory Joseph: 1.57
- George Hill: 1.47
- Patrick Beverley: 1.36
- Lonzo Ball: 1.30
Lonzo Ball has shown throughout his first two seasons that unless he suffers a catastrophic injury he’s a sure-fire All-NBA defensive player once he hits his prime. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that, before Lonzo Ball was injured towards the end of January, the Lakers were a top-10 defensive team and then after he got sidelined, they cratered toward the bottom half of the defensive rankings.
Here are the Lakers month-to-month DEFRTG’s:
Pre-Injury:
- November: 103.4 (3rd)
- December: 106.7 (9th)
- January: 107.6 (6th)
Post-Injury:
- February: 116.4 (26th)
- March: 110.8 (19th)
- April: 109.2 (10th)
Furthering Lonzo Ball’s defensive resume is the fact that he ranked 30th out of 195 qualified guards in field-goal percentage differential. He held opposing point guards close to two percentage points lower than their normal average, which in a league dominated by talented PG’s, is very impressive.
Lonzo Ball improved offensively in the course of the 2018-2019 season. During his rookie season, he shot 49% from within 3 feet of the basket and throughout his sophomore season, he improved to 60% from 0-3 feet. His 3-point % also improved going from 30% his first year in the league to 33% through his 2nd season.
Lonzo Ball showed that he’s capable of playing out of the pick-and-roll and that he can finish at the rim, but he still only averaged 10 PPG and 5 APG, which are very pedestrian numbers. He gets a B- because he was a huge difference maker on defense, but he was still a negative on offense.