Lonzo Ball is no longer having a historically bad shooting season. The rookie point guard has brought his shooting percentages up to more respectable numbers after a disastrous start to his NBA career as a shooter.
This shouldn’t come as a major surprise, considering Ball was a solid shooter at the collegiate level and it was shocking how poorly he was shooting and finishing early this year. However, those struggles did lead to a lot of discussion about his unorthodox shooting form and whether the Lakers needed to do something about it.
The general consensus from within the organization was “no,” and they were clear that they would let Ball figure it out. That didn’t stop others from questioning whether someone needed to alter his form to make him more consistent. Ball’s funky release looks awkward and when he’s missing it looks downright awful, but as he’s showed recently, it can work for him.
Isaiah Thomas is new to the Lakers, so he’s just now getting to see Ball’s form regularly. While the former All-Star point guard might not like the shot aesthetically, you can count him among those who don’t think Ball needs fixing. Thomas told the Orange County Register‘s Bill Oram that while the shot is “ugly as hell” it’s the one that’s gotten him to this point and he shouldn’t change it.
“It’s ugly as hell,” Thomas said. “It’s an ugly shot, but he’s been successful with it his whole life, so you get to the highest level, there is no need to change it.
“You just got to figure out ways to continue to make it better. He is a gym rat so he is going to continue to get better no matter what and no matter how it looks.”
Ball was once on pace for one of the worst shooting seasons of all-time, so his 36.3/31.9/50.0 shooting split looks worse than the recent reality. Free throw shooting remains an issue, but over the past 15 games (which dates back to early December due to various injury issues) Ball is hitting 43.8 percent of his field goal attempts and 40.2 percent of his three-point shots.
Ball’s shot won’t ever be used on instructional videos, but the rookie point guard has shown the ability to find some shooting success at the NBA level with it. Confidence and comfort may be far more valuable to Ball having success than trying to change his form, and Thomas seems confident he’ll find those things as he continues to work on his game and get more reps under his belt on the NBA stage.
