The Los Angeles Lakers down to their last 10 games of the NBA regular season and Lonzo Ball will watch every one of them from the bench as he continues to work his way back from an ankle injury.
Ball still hasn’t been cleared to resume full basketball activities, but he’s doing more work on the court than he was just a few weeks ago. Thanks to Kyle Goon of the OC Register, we know that Ball is doing limited on-court during the Lakers’ practices. Here’s video of Ball getting shots up during shootaround on Friday.
In his sophomore season with the Lakers, Ball shot 40.6 percent from the field, including 32.9 percent from behind the arc. While that’s a notable improvement from his freshman shooting splits, he still has quite a bit of work to do this summer, so it’s good that he’s getting a head start.
However, the main area of shooting Ball should work on this offseason is his free-throw shooting. For the second season in a row, Ball shot under 50 percent from the free-throw line. In fact, this season, Ball had the worst free-throw percentage (41.7 percent) of anyone that attempted at least 20 free throws this season. That’s not ideal.
Whether it’s from the field or the charity stripe, shooting needs to be a point of emphasis this summer for Ball, especially if he’s going to spend another season alongside LeBron James in Los Angeles.
