Lonzo Ball is headed to the NBA, but who wants him? Here are five teams that might select Ball in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Lonzo Ball didn’t keep his future in doubt for very long. Shortly after UCLA lost to Kentucky in the Sweet 16, Ball announced he will be declaring for the NBA draft. Ball has likely known for some time that he would declare whenever his season came to an end. He’s currently projected as the second best prospect by Draft Express and the majority of players would declare for the draft in his situation. He can’t possibly raise his stock any further and he’s clearly beyond the college game. It’s time for him to test himself in the NBA.
As Ball prepares for the NBA there is definite interest surrounding his ability as a prospect. However, there are just enough flaws to make him not a slam dunk pick for every team out there. Here’s a handful of teams that, despite the flaws, will definitely show interest in Ball in the coming months.
5. Los Angeles Lakers
Alright, so this one feels like a little bit of a stretch. The Lakers already have D’Angelo Russell from a recent draft and have spent the last year looking for wing help. Using their high draft pick on yet another point guard would look like a bad pick. However, let’s say the Lakers don’t believe in Russell’s longterm potential or want to run a dual point guard lineup with Ball instead of Jordan Clarkson then maybe this could happen.
Ball has shown at UCLA that he doesn’t necessarily need the ball in his hands to dominate a game and his distribution ability makes him a more “traditional” PG in comparison to Russell. The two could definitely work together better than Russell and Clarkson. This could also be the Lakers choosing to take the best player available if the lottery goes chalk. They’ve spent a long time gathering young assets and at this point of their rebuilding process they might just need to add talent to the roster more than worrying about how they fit in the current scheme.
Of course, Ball also has shown an interest in playing for the Lakers. Well, he himself hasn’t. His attention hungry father publicly proclaimed that Ball would only play for the Lakers so nobody else should draft him. Hopefully there’s mutual interest there otherwise that might get awkward fast. Luckily, if he does get drafted there then he’s willing to buy into the Lakers mystique that the new front office is very interested in rebuilding from the ground up.