Ball Watching

Yes, I'll admit it, like so many others, I've become hooked on the whole Lavar/Lonzo Ball saga. I find the whole thing fascinating. Don't get me wrong, I think some of the behavior exhibited by the Ball patriarch is appalling and completely unacceptable, and I find myself rooting against Lonzo Ball and his brothers with every fiber of me being, but I almost wonder if Lavar Ball isn't some sort of evil marketing genius. How much of his behavior is just an act? Is he smarter than we all give him credit for? He's obviously glommed onto the idea that louder is better, and the more absurd you are in what you say, the more press you get. And here we are with a man who's getting tons in free advertising, and has become a household name on the strength of his brash approach, and on the talent of one of his son's who's played one solid season in college and has had intermittent success in the NBA thus far. It's crazy and it shouldn't work. We shouldn't be rewarding people for this type of behavior, right? We shouldn't be promoting pulling kids out of high school, and getting coaches fired, and degrading women, and bigotry, and so on. And yet, here I am talking about it, and feeding the beast. And even knowing this, I don't want to stop. With that said, I'll probably be posting Lonzo Ball updates a fair amount because I'm interested. If you're not, I apologize in advance.

Anyhow, don't look now, but the Lakers have started off a four-game road trip with back-to-back wins over Philadelphia and Charlotte, and now at 10-15 are just two games behind the Utah Jazz in the race for the 8 seed in the West. Lonzo's contributions? A solid 10 point, 8 rebound, 8 assist effort in the win over the 76ers that included the game winning assist, and a 5 point, 5 rebound, 9 assist effort against the Hornets. Through 25 games, Ball now averages 8.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 7.1 assists. Here are the lines for some of the league's other rookie guards that came out of the 2017 draft, i.e. not Ben Simmons.

Donovan Mitchell - SG - Utah Jazz - 13th Overall Pick - 17.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 apg

Dennis Smith Jr. - PG - Dallas Mavericks - 9th Overall Pick - 14.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 4.0 apg

De'Aaron Fox - PG - Sacramento Kings - 5th Overall Pick - 10.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 4.0 apg

Frank Mason III - PG - Sacramento Kings - 34th Overall Pick - 8.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 3.2 apg

And Ben Simmons, your 1st overall pick in 2016, now healthy:

Ben Simmons - PG - Philadelphia 76ers - 1st Overall Pick 2016 - 18.0 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 7.7 apg