Andre SnellingsESPN
"I ... (mess) with your soul like ether
Will ... teach you the king you know you
Not ... 'God's Son' across the belly
Lose ... I'll prove you lost already" -- Nas, "Ether"
Lonzo Ball played his first NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday and walked into the arena wearing a sweatshirt with his face on the cover of Nas' iconic "Illmatic" CD cover. He was continuing his trolling of Nas and his fans, that he began back in September by saying, "Don't nobody listen to Nas anymore ... real hip-hop is Migos, Future."
This irritated several people, including ESPN's Chauncey Billups, but the hip hop legend got the last laugh on the night with this Instagram post after his home team, the New York Knicks, defeated Ball's Lakers in overtime.
This was a fun sidebar exchange, but let's take a closer look at the Big Baller Lakers rookie from a basketball perspective. Ball has been widely panned for his broken shot and putrid shooting percentages, and for good reason. His 32.7 percent field goal percentage and 48.6 percent free throw percentage are shockingly bad, and we're almost a third of the way through the season.
However, I've been consistently very supportive of Ball and believe his potential to be huge. While I recognize how terrible his shot has been, I also quietly marvel at what he's been able to accomplish thus far with that broken shot. He's still an excellent distributor who does a good job creating team offense, even without being an offensive threat himself. That's difficult to do. He's also done a great job using his size on defense, grabbing rebounds and contributing solidly in both steals and blocks.
The first comp that I made for Ball when I watched him play in the Las Vegas Summer League was NBA legend Jason Kidd, and I think it's the obvious comp to make. So, let's take a look at this comparison between 20-year old Ball to date, and the rookie season for 21-year old Jason Kidd:
Jason Kidd: 11.7 PPG (38.5 FG%, 69.8 FT%, 27.2 3FG%), 0.9 3PG, 7.7 APG, 5.4 RPG, 1.9 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 3.2 TO, 33.8 MPG
Lonzo Ball: 8.9 PPG (32.7 FG%, 48.6 FT%, 25.8 3FG%), 1.2 3PG, 7.0 APG, 6.9 RPG, 1.4 SPG, 1.0 BPG, 2.5 TO, 33.1 MPG
Both were/are, frankly, terrible scorers at this point in their careers. Ball is slightly worse, but considering how low his free throw volume is, there isn't a huge functional difference between the two as scorers. I also submit that Ball's shooting is unsustainably bad ... I don't think he could continue to shoot this poorly long-term, even if he wanted to, and he almost has to improve even by accident.
But with that said, check out the other categories. Kidd was always known for his stellar passing ability and defense, but Ball actually looks slightly better than the rookie Kidd was in those areas in the box scores. Ball has the better assist/TO ratio on similar volume, he's rebounded more and turned in more combined steals and blocks with a tangible presence in each, than Kidd did as a rookie. And remember, Kidd was the co-Rookie of the Year for that season, tied with another NBA legend in Grant Hill.
So, in summary: Ball's arms may be too short to box with a hip hop legend in Nas, but his rookie season compares very favorably to the first season of an NBA legend in Kidd. His shot may be broken, but the rest of his game gives Ball an extremely bright future in both the actual NBA and fantasy basketball.
Tuesday recap
Box scores
Highlights:
Kristaps Porzingis, New York Knicks: 37 points (14-26 FG, 4-5 FT), 11 rebounds, 5 3s, 5 blocks, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 TO
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: 28 points (8-16 FG, 11-12 FT), 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 block, 1 3s, 2 TO
Jimmy Butler, Minnesota Timberwolves: 38 points (15-33 FG, 5-5 FT), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 3s, 1 steal, 1 TO
Taurean Prince, Atlanta Hawks: 24 points (8-10 FG, 6-6 FT), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 3s, 2 TO
Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets: 28 points (11-19 FG, 2-2 FT), 4 rebounds, 4 3s, 3 assists, 1 block, 2 TO
Lowlights:
Brandon Ingram, Los Angeles Lakers: 5 points (2-12 FG, 1-1 FT), 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 TO
Andre Drummond, Detroit Pistons: 5 points (1-4 FG, 3-4 FT), 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 6 TO
Tyler Ulis, Phoenix Suns: 10 points (3-8 FG, 4-4 FT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 TO, 32 minutes
Tuesday takeaways
Yesterday, we had an internal debate about whether to start LeBron James or Porzingis in DFS for the night. The answer was to start both, with Porzingis topping 30 points for the 10th time this season while LeBron turned in a career-high 17 assists as part of his usual monster stat line.
Embiid had missed two straight games coming into Tuesday, one of which was unscheduled, thus sparking some concern due to his injury past. He put that concern to bed with a massive near-triple double in which he outplayed Karl-Anthony Towns head-to-head and then dominated overtime on his way to a career-high 39 minutes played.
While Embiid was the dominant force in the middle of for the 76ers, the Timberwolves had the more dominant perimeter player with Butler outclassing Ben Simmons on the night. While Butler was scorching, Simmons was held to 7 points, 8 assists and 7 turnovers.
Prince (available in 71 percent of leagues) celebrated his debut in the "Rest-of-season fantasy basketball rankings" with a monster game against the Cavaliers. Teammate Kent Bazemore (available in 51.1 percent of leagues) was also strong with 20 points, 8 boards, 6 3-pointers, 5 assists and 4 combined blocks and steals.
Murray (available in 60.1 percent of leagues) was one of my favorite rookies to watch at the 2016 Las Vegas Summer League, and he is starting to show why with performances like this. He's more shooter than distributor, and likely always will be, but that can still lead to strong results.
Ingram's shot was off Tuesday, but the rest of his game remained solid. Consider it just an off night, as he had scored between 18 and 21 points in four straight before struggling against the Knicks.
Drummond's offense has fallen off the table this week. Tuesday's effort marked his third straight single-digit scoring effort, as he has shot only 4-of-18 from the field total and averaged only 6.3 PPG during that stretch.
Ulis was solid in his first game after Devin Booker went down, but in his last two games, he has averaged only 7 points, 2.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds. This has left the door for Mike James (available in 90.7 percent of leagues) to threaten to retake the primary point guard job, as he has averaged 21 points, 3.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds off the bench in those same two games.
Injuries of note
Kawhi Leonard made his season debut on Tuesday, after sitting out the first third of the season with a quadriceps injury. He was on a minutes restriction that capped at 21 minutes, and he may continue to have that limit for the next few games, but otherwise looked solid as he worked the rust off.
Will Barton left the game late with a back injury and didn't return. Consider him questionable moving forward, until more information is known.
Dwyane Wade missed Tuesday's game with left knee soreness. It doesn't sound serious, but keep an eye out for his availability on Thursday.
Willie Cauley-Stein returned to the court after a multiple-game absence due to a back injury. He came off the bench and played 30 minutes with 13 points, 6 boards and 2 assists. Still, for at least one game, Zach Randolph continued to produce well with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal in 28 minutes as the starter.
Analytics advantage for Wednesday
The LA Clippers at the Orlando Magic feels like a game in which a lot of fantasy production could go up on the board. Both the Clippers and Magic are bottom 10 in the NBA in almost every defensive category. They are bottom 10 in points allowed (Magic 28th at 110.8 points allowed/game, Clippers 21st at 107.2), assists allowed (Magic 29th, Clippers 24th), field goal percentage allowed (Magic 24th, Clippers 22nd) and 3 FG% allowed (Magic 21st, Clippers 26th). They even allow strong opposing defensive numbers, including rebounds allowed (Magic 29th, Clippers 20th), opponent steals (Magic 20th, Clippers 26th) and opponent blocks (Magic 18th, Clippers 22nd). There is plenty of fantasy opportunity in this game for both teams.
Top players to watch tonight
Anthony Davis has missed four of the Pelicans' past six games with a left adductor injury, including their last game, against the Rockets. However, he played the two games before that and exploded for 29 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists on Sunday. He is listed as questionable to play on Wednesday, and his availability (or lack thereof) will have a big impact on not only his own production, but also that of teammates DeMarcus Cousins, Jrue Holiday and E'Twaun Moore.
Paul George was traded for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis during the offseason. George returns to Indiana for the first and only time this season to face the Pacers, and he does so with a team that is struggling and buzz in the media that the Pacers won the trade. Will George try to prove a point and have a big game, perhaps to the detriment of a team that's built for him to be a sidekick to Russell Westbrook? Will Oladipo continue to explode the way he has been, this time showing up a former team? Stay tuned
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