By Jack Fritz, Sports Talk Philly editor
I'm going to need a live cam on Lavar if the Los Angeles Lakers do indeed pass on his son.
Ever since NBA draft lottery night, the consensus amongst people in the business has been that Lonzo Ball would be keeping his outlier passing ability in Los Angeles to play for his hometown Lakers. Really, it seems like the perfect fit. Lonzo and the UCLA Bruins were like a reincarnation of the showtime Lakers and the logical next step would, seemingly, be to add their floor general to the mix next season.
But a funny thing happened in the NCAA tournament.
With Magic Johnson, the newly appointed Lakers President of Basketball Operations, on hand, Lonzo got absolutely torched by De'Aaron Fox to a tune of 39 points. Obviously, not all of these were scored on Lonzo, but still that had to leave a sour taste in Magic's mouth. The Lakers have never came out and said that Lonzo was going to be the pick at No. 2, it was more just the media connecting dots.
Now today, there's a new report out that suggests that Lonzo would have to wow the Lakers in workouts for him to be the pick at No. 2. This is from Steve Kyler of NBA Insiders:
With reports surfacing that the LA Lakers and former UCLA guard Lonzo Ball have finalized the details of a workout and face to face meeting in LA next week, there is a growing sense that unless Lonzo absolutely blows the doors off, he may not be the Lakers’ guy.
The Lakers are weeks away from needing to make their final decision, but there are many that believe the Lakers could go after both Kansas forward Josh Jackson and Kentucky guard De’Aaron Fox (who made my Mock at 2 this week) with the second overall pick.
Ooo boy! The plot thickens.
A lineup of Russell, Jackson, Ingram, Randle and Zubac isn't a bad little core, but unless the jumper is there for Jackson– who's the star? Fox makes little sense to me and that feels pretty smoke-y unless they're completely done with D'Angelo Russell. They could theoretically take Fox, and hand the keys over to him, then ship Russell off, but I would be surprised. Lonzo and him would have a chance to work, but Fox and Russell I don't see really working.
This, of course, would mean that Lonzo would be there at No. 3 if the Sixers wanted to choose him. Again, I think Lonzo and Ben would work together on the floor and they would develop into one of the most lethal transition teams in the NBA. I would have a hard time passing up on Ball at No. 3, even with the headache of his outspoken father. He fits Brett Brown's system as a pace-and-space, read-and-react point guard, that also showed the ability to stretch the floor all the way out to the NBA three point range. Even though hisshot is funky, Ball shot 34% on NBA range three's last season and he felt comfortable getting that shot off whenever he wanted. Couple that with his outlier passing and yeah, even with the dad, I wouldn't pass up on his talent at No. 3.
You still get the sense this is more of a smokescreen than anything, but it's certainly a discussion worth having.
