Lonzo Ball’s development in his third season in the league has been as impressive a jump as anyone in the league this season. Ball is seeing career-best output in points per game, field goal percentage and three-point percentage all while doing it for a team vying for a playoff spot.
Those numbers are even more impressive since Williamson’s debut as the duo and team as a whole has meshed with the rookie forward. In a cruel twist of fate, Ball was playing objectively the best basketball of his career. In the week leading up to the halt, Ball was averaging 20.8 points per game and had a pair of consecutive games in which he hit seven three-pointers.
Alvin Gentry, who has been around the league for a long time, was asked following Sunday’s practice if he had ever seen a player progress as much as Ball did over the last year. His answer was a rather lengthy, but illuminating, one.
“I don’t think I have. I think he’s made great improvements. The one thing I think that really helped him is that he didn’t have any major injuries. He just had a lot of nagging injuries that kind of slowed him down a little bit. I think the one thing is that he is completely healthy now. He feels good about the situation that he’s in. I think the guys believe in him. He makes players better. I think that’s a big thing with being a really good point guard you have to have the ability to make players better. He does that.
“Zion loves playing with him. I think he gets him three or four easy baskets a game, and then I think he’s in a good place, just mentally. I think he realizes that we totally believe in him, that he’s our leader on the floor. He’s really done a great job of accepting that and understanding that. He’s really flourishing at that position right now. We’re happy to have him. I think the one thing that he continues to work on, and he’s done it in our practices that we’ve had here, is that he wants to get better defensively. He wants to become an elite defender. I think he has the abilities to do that, and he continues to work in that direction.”
Ball’s improvement could not have come at a better time for him personally. With potential negotiations upcoming for his first contract extension, Ball finally put the pieces together to prove what he can do. The end result could be him cashing in big time in the off-season.
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