For Lonzo Ball, his first year in New Orleans was categorically a career-best season. A career-high in points for the third-year guard was the result of a vastly improved jumper. Ball’s three-point percentage jumped from 31.5% in his first two seasons to 37.5% this season.
His improvements have been made all the more impressive by the fact that he was unable to have much of an off-season last summer due to an ankle injury that prematurely ended his 2018-19 campaign, a reoccurring trend during his professional career. As it stands, though, Ball will head into the 2020 off-season fully healthy for the first time in his career.
With an opportunity to work on his game without any restrictions, Ball already has big plans for his off-season.
“Definitely work on the in-between game and finishing at the rim,” he said of areas he’ll focus on in the abbreviated off-season. “I think those are two of the main things that stick out for me. Defensively, I’m not too worried about it. Mostly just offensive stuff.”
Those two areas – the mid-range and the rim – are two of the biggest holes in Ball’s offensive game, and the numbers back it up.
Per Cleaning the Glass, Ball ranked in the ninth percentile among guards on mid-range shots this season, shooting just 26% on 124 attempts. That figure is up from Ball being in the 0th percentile last season when he shot just 20-of-73 from mid-range. Naturally, given his struggles, it was an area that Ball avoided and defenses played him accordingly. Only 18% of his shots were mid-range efforts this year, ranking in the 14th percentile.
According to Synergy, of Ball’s 184 possessions as a pick and roll ball handler, the most common response by defenses was to go over the screen and force Ball into the mid-range area and paint. In those situations, Ball finished in the sixth percentile with 0.563 points per possession.
Ball did improve as a finisher at the rim, though he’s still a long way from where he would like to be. Ball shot 59% at the rim this season, according to Cleaning the Glass, on 163 attempts, 10 more than last season, ranking him in the 46th percentile relative to other guards in the league.
In both areas, Ball made baby-step improvements this season even despite his breakout campaign. If he can become even average in those areas, it would go a long way in opening up his game and the Pelicans’ game as a whole next season.
