New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball is going to win over all of New Orleans

Lonzo Ball has gotten the short end of the stick thus far in his NBA career but he is now in a great situation after being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Lonzo Ball was one of the three young, promising players that the New Orleans Pelicans received for trading Anthony Davis. Brandon Ingram seems to have the most promise of the three, but the biggest name of the bunch is undoubtedly Ball.

Ball became a household name while he was in college with UCLA because of his outgoing and oftentimes outlandish father. LaVar Ball turned himself into a marketing machine, saying things that we have all heard dads joke about — but he was being dead serious.

Whether it was demanding that the Lakers draft all three Ball brothers or that Lonzo was better than Stephen Curry, LaVar said a lot. All of this mixed with a funky jump shot that was unreliable and a shoe brand that has plummeting into a laughing stock has drastically hurt Lonzo’s stock.

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That is why this fresh beginning in New Orleans is so impactful for Lonzo Ball. When we ignore all of the noise and evaluate Ball just as the player he is, it becomes clear that the Pelicans received a very promising point guard that could one day be one of the best point guards in the league.

First of all, Ball has all of the fundamental skills to play the point guard position. If you watched any of his action in LA, especially before LeBron James joined the team, Ball showed at a very young age that he could orchestrate an NBA offense.

The Lakers’ offense got noticeably better in Ball’s rookie year from the year prior. They were one of the highest-paced teams in the league and Lonzo’s ability to push that pace and distribute the basketball made that possible.

That is why he became the youngest player to ever record a triple-double, a record that Markelle Fultz has since broken.

Which gets into his rebounding. Ball has elite size for the point guard position and is really athletic. He legitimately has the potential to be the second-best rebounding point guard in the league behind Russell Westbrook as early as this season.

The scoring is where Ball loses a lot of people because of his inconsistencies with his jump shot. First of all, Ball is great at getting to the lane and finishing, so it is not like he is completely inept at scoring the basketball.

Second of all, he is entering just his third year in the league and there are natural progressions that a young player is going to make. Expecting him to come out of college and drop 17 a game when that isn’t even his bread and butter is extremely unfair. But because of his dad, that is what people expected.

It looks like he has a new shooting form that does not include that ugly hitch. If he gets better at shooting, which he should, then there really is no real weakness in his game.

On the other side of the ball, he is elite. Ball has legitimate All-Defensive potential in the next three years. He was a great defender in isolation with his help defense being extremely hard to deal with and annoying for the other team.

He might not be a top-10 defensive player yet, but I guarantee that he will be before he turns 26.

Again, with better shooting form there is no real weakness in Lonzo Ball’s game. If that doesn’t win over New Orleans Pelicans fans then the fun style of play that he plays with will. It is going to be extremely fun to watch Ball push the tempo and hit the myriad of offensive weapons he has around him.

Whether it is finding Jrue Holiday or Brandon Ingram at the three-point line or tossing up a lob to Zion Williamson, Ball is going to be on the distributing end of a lot of highlights that he helped create this season.

If you are still a Lonzo Ball doubter then we are just going to have to wait until the New Orleans Pelicans season gets underway. As someone who has watched Ball a lot in LA, trust me, the entire city of New Orleans is going to love him.