LaVar Ball‘s dream is to get all three of his sons on the same NBA roster. For years, he proclaimed the Lakers as the future home of the Ball family, but as Magic Johnson and company continue to jockey for cap space to bring in major free agents, he’s maybe coming to the realization that he could have to settle on another location for his family empire to grow.
Ball remains committed to his dream, but as he told Lithuanian reporters recently, if the Lakers aren’t willing to bring on the rest of Lonzo’s brothers, he’ll push out of L.A. and get to a team that will be willing to accommodate LaMelo and LiAngelo.
LaVar Ball on his big plan how he's going to bring Lonzo, Melo and Gelo to one NBA team: “Lonzo will be on his 3rd year and I want let every NBA team know, that Lonzo is not going to resign with the Lakers, but will go to any team, that will take all of my three boys.” pic.twitter.com/GErdXjraYU
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) February 12, 2018
There are a lot of problems with this, namely the fact that this isn’t how free agency works. At all. He says Lonzo will be in his third year when LaMelo is going to come over from Lithuania, and if the Lakers won’t sign him, Lonzo will look to sign elsewhere, which can’t happen.
The Lakers hold the rights to keep Lonzo on team options through his fourth year, and then he’ll be a restricted free agent. The only way Lonzo can force his way out of L.A. is to sign a qualifying offer after his fourth year, play on that (for a lot less money than he’d get otherwise) and become a free agent for his sixth season in the NBA.
Not to mention that LaVar has, once again, taken the liberty of speaking for his son about his future and put him in an impossible position where he’ll now be forced to answer questions about his father’s comments, just as he did when he levied accusations that Lakers coach Luke Walton had lost the respect of his players.
And we haven’t even discussed the fact that there’s plenty of skepticism surrounding whether LiAngelo or LaMelo are even good enough to make it in the NBA. It might be a bit too early to arrive at that conclusion for ‘Melo, who would’ve been a junior in high school this year at Chino Hills before LaVar unexpectedly pulled him out, but several basketball experts have raised serious doubts about LiAngelo’s prospects at the next level.
It doesn’t help that they’re both playing in the farcical Big Baller Brand Challenge games in Lithuania, which essentially amount to friendly exhibitions against inferior talent than they would be facing in the regular Lithuanian pro league, where both struggled significantly against top-level players in their first few appearances.
Add this to the fact that Lonzo himself has betrayed some very real faults in his game during his limited time with the Lakers this season before going down with an injury. Perhaps LaVar can see the writing on the wall in terms of the Lakers’ newfound emphasis on landing top-flight free agents and is simply prepping himself for that reality.
But everything about his strategy for dealing with team management should give organizations around the league significant pause about whether they want to take on the constant headache that accompanies the Ball family, especially if the actual on-court talent isn’t there to override those distractions.
