After watching teammate and friend Brandon Ingram break out last season with the Pelicans, culminating in the Most Improved Player award and a max contract this off-season, Lonzo Ball enters his fourth season in a similar situation with similar goals.
A third season that, by his own admission, was inconsistent saw some of Ball’s highest highs in his career but finished with one of his worst stretches of performances in the biggest games of his career inside the bubble.
But after having a healthy off-season for the first time in his professional career, Ball returns to New Orleans ready to break out.
“I think last season was a good learning lesson,” Ball said. “I think it was full of ups and downs. I think it started off slow then obviously started going way up then it went back down in the bubble. It was my first year here. I’m happy to be here. Like I said, I just want to get things going again and start off on a good note this year.
“I know this was a different type of off-season but, for me, this is the longest off-season I’ve had. I was definitely happy to be able to get that time to work on my game and show what I can do this year.”
From the start of December through March when the league shut down due to COVID-19, Ball pieced together the best stretch of his career. In a 45-game span, Ball averaged 12.7 points, 7.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds while playing 33.8 minutes per game. Most importantly, though, was that he shot 39.2% from three on 6.5 attempts per game.
However, in his final seven games of the season with a playoff spot on the line, Ball mirrored the overall team performance from New Orleans in the bubble, averaging 7.1 points per game and shooting 28.1% from the field in Orlando.
That experience, though, may serve as the final launching pad to his breakout campaign, at least according to Ingram.
“I know for myself that experience, when you go through it all, it makes a better person and a better basketball player,” Ingram said of Ball. “I think him going through everything that he went through and having a chance to actually have a healthy off-season, a healthy end of the season and actually being able to lift and be on the court, it’s going to be a big difference. I know he’s motivated. He’s here every day on time, in his workouts on time, doing everything he needs to become the best player that he wants to be.
“It’s all with the mentality that he has. I can’t sit up here and say he’s going to win anything or whatever’s going to happen but if he has a good mentality every day and he comes in and does everything he’s been doing, he’s going to get something good from it I think.
For Ball himself, while he didn’t elaborate specifically on what improvements he’s looking to show on the court, he did make note of his biggest goal each game.
“I mean, just go out there and do the things I know I can do on the court at the end of the day,” he said. “I believe I’m a triple-double threat every night and that’s what I’m going to go out there and try to do.”
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