Lonzo Ball Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Woj: Davis May Only Sign Extension With Lakers

January 29th, 2019 at 10:18am CST by Arthur Hill

League sources expect Anthony Davis and his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, to inform the rest of the league that he only plans to sign an extension with the Lakers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

That means Davis would be just a short-term rental for anyone else who tries to acquire him. He has a $28.75MM player option for the 2020/21 season and can become a free agent next summer.

The Pelicans won’t rush into a deal, Wojnarowski adds, writing that it will take an “overwhelming” offer to get Davis out of New Orleans before the February 7 trade deadline. The Lakers plan to try to reach that standard, with trade talks between the two teams expected to begin soon. L.A. is in position to offer a max contract in free agency this summer, but sources say the team would give that up to acquire Davis. The Lakers are willing to part with draft picks and some combination of young players Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball in their trade proposal.

The Celtics, who have been collecting assets in hopes of making a deal for a star, are reportedly among the teams willing to take the risk of trading for Davis without a guarantee of a long-term arrangement. Sources tell Wojnarowski that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has been calling the Pelicans for more than a year to let them know of his interest in Davis. There is also a tight bond between Davis and Kyrie Irving, who would be virtually assured of re-signing in Boston if Davis becomes part of the team.

Although he doesn’t identify them, Wojnarowski adds that several other teams are considering a deal for Davis, even if it’s only for the rest of the season. They could use him to make a run at the title, then flip him for other assets this summer.

Lonzo Ball’s Camp Doesn’t Want Him In New Orleans

January 28th, 2019 at 8:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Lonzo Ball‘s camp would prefer that the second-year point guard be traded to a third team if talks between the Pelicans and Lakers heat up, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Los Angeles is one of the major players in the quest for Anthony Davis, whose desire to be traded became public on Monday.

Ball’s group would want him to go to a team that doesn’t already have an established point guard, Charania adds. New Orleans has Elfrid Payton and combo guard Jrue Holiday in starting roles.

The thinking among Ball’s people is curious, considering Payton isn’t on any list of elite point guards. The former Magic guard is averaging 9.8 PPG and 5.8 APG in 26.9 MPG.

If a deal was struck between the Pelicans and Lakers, Ball wouldn’t be able to play right away wherever he wound up. Ball suffered a high ankle sprain last week and will be sidelined 4-6 weeks.

Lakers Notes: Ball, LeBron, Young Talent, B. Lopez

January 26th, 2019 at 10:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Lonzo Ball feared the worst when he collided with the Rockets’ James Ennis last Saturday, relays Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register. Ball wound up with a grade 3 left ankle sprain and a recovery time of four to six weeks, but he thought he had a broken bone as teammates carried him to the locker room.

“It happened kind of fast,” he said. “I remember my leg pretty much just going like that and kind of popping out.”

Ball made a bit of progress Friday, getting off crutches and shifting to a walking boot, and now plans to work in the weight room and engage in intensive film study as he prepares to return to the court. He laments the timing of the mishap, which came amid some of his best performances of the season, and the string of injuries that have affected the team in recent weeks.

“You’re asking people to play out of position. You’re asking people to play more minutes than usually they play. And we’ve never really had a full team for the whole year,” Ball said. “So hopefully after All-Star we can all come together and go on a nice little run.”

There’s more Lakers news to pass along:

LeBron James went through contact drills in practice today for the first time since suffering a groin strain on Christmas, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. James’ agent, Rich Paul, said he could return to action now if needed, but is working his way back to being a dominating presence. L.A. is 5-10 since LeBron’s injury and has dropped to ninth place in the West.
The trade value of the Lakers’ young players has declined over the past six months, a Western Conference executive tells Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. Woike asked several league executives and scouts to evaluate Brandon Ingram, Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and Ivica Zubac. They were split on Ingram or Kuzma as the most coveted, with mixed opinions on the other three.
The Lakers don’t have a center who can shoot 3-pointers to keep up with the league-wide trend, but they let one get away in Brook Lopez, Woike writes in a separate story. A move to the Bucks has turned Lopez into a dangerous 3-point weapon who is on pace to take more this season than he did in his previous eight years. He spent last season in L.A. before accepting a modest one-year, $3.382MM offer to go to Milwaukee.

Pacific Notes: Kuzma, Cousins, Okobo, Suns

January 20th, 2019 at 6:46pm CST by Eric Spyropoulos

While many fans and analysts have focused on Lonzo Ball‘s and Brandon Ingram‘s development as the two key young players for the Lakers, so far this season it has been Kyle Kuzma that has provided the most value to the team. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes that Kuzma has emerged as the Lakers’ best young talent, especially in the wake of LeBron James‘ injury.

As Pincus points out, Kuzma has averaged nearly 25 points per game in the 10 games he has played without James, with the Lakers winning five of those contests. While Kuzma has struggled to hit 3-pointers (just 31.3% so far this season), he can score in a variety of ways while also providing another capable ball-handler.

Meanwhile, Ball’s jump shot continues to disappoint, while Ingram hasn’t looked comfortable playing alongside James, a big issue if he plans on being a crucial piece of the team in the years to come.

There’s more from the Pacific division:

While DeMarcus Cousins made his return on Friday and will continue to work his way into a larger role moving forward, Nick Friedell of ESPN points out that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr doesn’t plan on slowing the pace for Cousins to catch up.
As Elie Okobo continues to adjust to life in the NBA, he was able to face (and learn from) his childhood idol Tony Parker over the past week as the Suns faced the Hornets on two occasions. Duane Rankin of Arizona Central writes about how Okobo grew up watching Parker.
The Suns‘ call for public funds to renovate their arena will reach a vote in the upcoming week. As Bob Young details for The Athletic, the team is calling for $150 million in public funds to help make renovations to an arena that opened in 1992.

Lonzo Ball To Miss 4-6 Weeks With Ankle Sprain

January 20th, 2019 at 5:38pm CST by Eric Spyropoulos

Lakers guard Lonzo Ball will miss four to six weeks with a grade 3 left ankle sprain, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. The Lakers also confirmed the injury and timetable in a press release.

Ball injured his ankle in Saturday night’s game against the Rockets and needed help getting off the court. While Ball struggled with injuries in his rookie season (he appeared in just 52 games), he had stayed healthy this season up until this point, appearing in all 47 games the Lakers have played.

So far in 2018/19, Ball is averaging 9.9 points, 5.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, but continues to struggle with his shot, shooting just 40.6% from the field and 32.9% on 3-pointers.

Rajon Rondo was recently cleared for practice and is nearing a return, which will help a Lakers team that has fallen out of the playoff picture due to LeBron James‘ injury.

MRI Planned For Lonzo Ball After Ankle Injury

January 20th, 2019 at 8:56am CST by Arthur Hill

Lonzo Ball could miss significant time after spraining his ankle in Saturday’s loss to the Rockets, writes Bill Oram of The Athletic. The injury occurred midway through the third quarter when Ball collided with James Ennis. It caused an instant momentum shift as the Lakers, who were leading by 17 points, fell to Houston in overtime.

Ball was taken to an area hospital, where X-rays were negative for fractures. An MRI will be conducted to determine the full extent of the damage, coach Luke Walton told reporters after the game.

“He knew it was something big,” said teammate Lance Stephenson, who helped carry Ball back to the locker room.

Oram notes that the Lakers have been cautious with Ball when he has been injured in the past. He was listed as day-to-day when he suffered a knee injury last season, but wound up sitting out 15 games. Ball only played 52 games as a rookie, then had knee surgery over the summer.

“For Lonzo it’s learning on the go,” Walton said. “He hasn’t had an offseason yet to work on his game. So he’s learning while we’re playing during the season and he’s really done a nice job of turning a corner. We’ll see where we’re at, how long he’s out for, and hopefully get him up and running again and playing at the level he was playing at before he got hurt.”

It’s bad timing for the Lakers, who are on the verge of getting LeBron James and Rajon Rondo back from injuries. Ball has been one of the top contributors in helping L.A. go 5-8 without the two veterans, averaging 12.9 points, 6.9 assists and 6.2 rebounds during that stretch, but it appears the team will continue to be short-handed as it fights to remain in the playoff race.

Lakers Notes: Walton, Meeks, Ingram, Ball

January 14th, 2019 at 6:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Controlling owner Jeanie Buss holds the key to Luke Walton‘s future as head coach, Bill Oram of The Athletic opines. If team president Magic Johnson urges Buss to make a coaching change in the near future or at the end of the season, she would have to choose between her loyalty to Johnson and her faith in Walton, Oram continues. There is growing uneasiness about Walton’s job security following a loss to the woeful Cavaliers, making the team 3-7 with LeBron James sidelined by a groin injury. Johnson’s unpredictable, ultra-competitive nature and his concerns about the staff increase the possibility of him pushing Buss to make a move, Oram adds.

We have more on the Lakers:

Free agent shooting guard and former Laker Jodie Meeks is a potential roster addition as the team looks to improve its outside shooting, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. The career 37.2% 3-point shooter worked out for the Sixers on Monday. The Lakers, who have an open roster spot, rank 27th in long-range shooting at 33.5%.
Andre Ingram set a G League record for most career games played over the weekend, according to a G League tweet. Ingram, currently with the South Bay Lakers, played his 402nd game on Saturday. The 33-year-old guard made his NBA debut last season with the Lakers, appearing in two games.
Lonzo Ball would rather lead by example because he’s not as vocal as veterans like James, Rajon Rondo and Tyson Chandler, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN reports. Ball has stepped up his efforts to be a leader with James and Rondo nursing injuries.

Lakers Notes: Playoffs, Walton, Ball, Ingram

January 12th, 2019 at 2:26pm CST by clarkcrum

In an NBA Insiders piece for ESPN, writers Kevin Arnovitz, Chris Herring, Brian Windhorst, Andre Snellings, and Kevin Pelton discuss the Lakers’ playoff chances with superstar LeBron James missing extended time with the groin injury he suffered on Christmas Day against the Warriors.

As one may expect, the consensus among the writers is that the Lakers will still probably make the playoffs, assuming James doesn’t suffer a setback during rehab and miss additional time beyond what was reasonably foreseen.

With approximately 40 games remaining, the general opinion from the ESPN scribes is that James will probably have to play somewhere around 30 to 35 of those games for the Lakers to feel safe about their playoff chances, meaning LeBron needs to be back relatively soon.

In addition to the playoff race, other topics discussed include the identity of the Lakers’ second-best player, whether the team should and/or will make a big trade before the deadline, and where the Lakers’ ceiling stacks up relative to other teams in the Western Conference. The entire article is worth a read.

There’s more from the purple and gold this afternoon:

If the Lakers do miss the playoffs, it will be a “nightmare scenario” for the NBA and its “broken playoff format,” writes Ben Golliver of The Washington Post. The Lakers could potentially miss the postseason with 45 wins while the sixth, seventh, and eighth seeds in the Eastern Conference could all have losing records. Having one of its most popular franchises shut out of the playoffs while three teams in the East make the playoffs with inferior records could be the catalyst for change the NBA playoff system needs.
Sam Amick of The Athletic sat down for an extensive one-one-one conversation with Luke Walton to discuss him working in his dream job as the head coach for the Lakers, the team’s much-needed win in Dallas earlier this week after his challenge to his young players to play with more passion, and the overall challenge of both coaching and playing without James.
The Lakers continue to wait for both Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram to blossom into what a team ultimately expects of players taken No. 2 overall in the draft. But as Mark Heisler of the Orange County Register writes, time is running out. On July 1, the Lakers could potentially trade for the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis, one of the best players in the NBA. And if they do so, both Ball and Ingram may be going to the Big Easy unless they show their worth the rest of the season.

Lakers Notes: Ingram, Ball, George, Robinson

January 5th, 2019 at 7:32pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers are wasting an opportunity to prove they can be successful without LeBron James and may be getting a clearer picture of the value of Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, writes Bill Oram of The Athletic. L.A.is 1-4 since James suffered a strained left groin, and the team learned Friday that he won’t be re-evaluated for another week.

The most troubling game in that stretch was last night’s loss to the Knicks, who have been near the bottom of the East all season. With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Oram writes, Ingram became a one-dimensional player, making just one of five shots, while Ball tried to force passes and committed a couple of key turnovers.

“Brandon and Lonzo right now are our primary ballhandlers,” coach Luke Walton said, “and I think they led us in turnovers tonight. I’m not putting the blame on them, but that’s part of the responsibility of being a point guard, or being a primary ballhandler-slash-playmaker, is taking care of the ball and getting guys going, getting other guys easy looks.”

There’s more Lakers news to pass along:

Ingram may be the next young talent sacrificed in the quest to build a super team in L.A., suggests Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. The Lakers have already parted with D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle to clear cap room, and it may become necessary to do the same with Ingram to have a shot at Anthony Davis. If the Pelicans hang onto Davis and he becomes a free agent in 2020, the Lakers can’t afford the $21.8MM cap hold Ingram would have as a restricted free agent. However, he could turn out to be a valuable trade piece if Davis turns down a supermax offer and New Orleans feels compelled to move him this summer.
Paul George got an unfriendly reception from Lakers fans this week, but he explained that he made a business decision to stay in Oklahoma City, relays Brett Dawson of The Athletic. There was hope last season that George might return to his native Southern California in free agency, but he decided he had a better situation with the Thunder. “The Lakers is one of the best, most historical franchises in the world,” George said. “It is what it is. I’m with another great organization.”
The Lakers gave strong consideration to taking Mitchell Robinson with their first-round pick last summer, but the rookie center believes he’s better off with the Knicks, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. With L.A. hoping to make the playoffs, Robinson thinks he might have spent much of the season in the G League rather than as an NBA starter.

And-Ones: Trade Deadline, Goodwin, Watson, Williams

January 4th, 2019 at 8:16pm CST by Dana Gauruder

There probably won’t be significant activity prior to the trade deadline, according to Keith Smith of RealGM (Twitter links). The biggest trades this season may have already occurred, one source told Smith, because teams are intent on preserving salary-cap space for 2019. Still, some expiring contracts could be moved and there’s always a possibility that a team “might get desperate” and do something bold, the same source suggested.

A front-office member from another team believes many of the trades coming before the deadline could be motivated by trying to stay below the luxury-tax line, even if it results in a talent downgrade. However, that executive also believes that there should be more sellers in a month than there are now. “Some of us will get real about our chances and start moving guys,” the source said to Smith.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Guard Archie Goodwin has returned to the United States to join the G League’s Maine Red Claws, the team announced in a press release. Goodwin most recently played in the NBA during the 2016/17 season, when he appeared in a combined 15 games with New Orleans and Brooklyn. The shooting guard played his first three seasons with Phoenix. The Red Claws acquired his returning player rights in a trade prior to the season. Goodwin lost his roster spot with China’s Zhejiang Golden Bulls to former Spurs guard Brandon Paul in late December.
Lakers guard and former UCLA star Lonzo Ball has endorsed former Suns coach Earl Watson to be the Bruins’ next coach, Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times report. UCLA recently fired Steve Alford and replaced him on an interim basis with assistant Murry Bartow. “I know Earl personally,” Ball said. “I think he has coaching experience in the league. Obviously, he went there, he’s alumni, so I think he’s a good fit.”
Veteran big man Alan Williams is in advanced talks with China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Williams was waived by the Nets this week to allow him to pursue the overseas opportunity. He was on a two-way deal after getting released by the Suns during the offseason. Williams was playing well in the G League but did not make an appearance with Brooklyn.
Forward Okaro White, who was waived by the Wizards last month, has signed with the G League’s Long Island Nets, according to NetsDaily.com. Long Island acquired his G League rights last year. The Nets are not using their available two-way slot on White, according to the report. White made three appearances with Washington this season.