With the Pelicans season officially over, we begin our look back at each individual player’s season and recap what we learned and where they stand with the Pelicans moving forward.
Overview
The 2019-20 season was a particularly important one for the Lonzo Ball, even before it started. Coming into the year, Ball had yet to establish himself after his first two seasons ended abruptly due to injuries.
Fate looked to be against Ball after a groin injury sidelined him early in the year, but he finally caught a break with the longest string of games in his career and, in return, he put up the best numbers of any stretch of his career.
But in typical fashion of Ball’s career, his season ended with more questions after a dismal stretch in the bubble played a role in New Orleans failing to make the playoffs. The Pelicans and Ball leave a season with so much learned but head into an off-season with so much more still yet to be answered.
What was learned?
Ball’s breakout begins and effectively ends with his improvement as a three-point shooter. The raw numbers tell most of the story as he went from a 32.9% three-point shooter in his sophomore season to a 37.5% shooter this season.
The more advanced numbers paint similar pictures. Per Synergy, after being just a 19.2% shooter on 73 catch-and-shoot opportunities (third percentile) in Los Angeles, Ball shot 43.4% on those chances (75th percentile) this season. Interestingly, Ball excels most on non-corner threes, shooting 39% on those opportunities this season, ranking in the 88th percentile, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Zooming in on his stretch from the beginning of December through the hiatus, Ball shot 39.5% from range and an even 40% on non-corner three-pointers. He also even got to the rim and finished at a respectable rate in that span, shooting 59% at the basket, ranking in the 54th percentile.
Confidence has always played a particularly big role in Ball’s game. And when that confidence quickly left inside the bubble, it led to his struggles as he shot just 28.1% from range in the final seven games before sitting out the team’s finale.
Ball owned up to his shortcomings on the court but that doesn’t change the fact it happened. Too often this season and in his career, Ball’s play ebbs and flows to extreme highs and extreme lows.
What does the future hold?
Those looking for positives will point to Ball heading into the off-season healthy and able to improve on weaknesses in his game for the first time in his career. Despite how negatively Ball’s season may have ended, he still had a career year and can head into the off-season on a high note overall.
Ball identified the need to improve as a mid-range scorer and around the rim, easily his two weakest areas as a scorer. Ball ranked in the 47th percentile around the rim and 12th percentile in the mid-range.
His switch from Roc Nation to Klutch Sports raised some eyebrows, especially with contract extension talks set to begin in the coming weeks. But New Orleans has welcomed Ball and he has embraced his role there.