The Los Angeles Lakers found their new point guard of the future in the 2017 NBA Draft, as they selected Lonzo Ball out of UCLA with the second overall pick. Ball was fantastic in his only season with the Bruins, earning consensus first-team All-America honors and leading the nation at 7.6 assists per game.
A lot of the knock on Ball during the draft process was on the defensive side of the ball as his skinny frame may not yet be tough enough to defend some of the bigger guards in the NBA.
Ball is a hard worker though and has been at the Lakers practice facility and working out in his backyard with his dad LaVar Ball all summer in preparation for his first NBA season.
LaVar recently commented on Lonzo’s weight in an interview with ESPNLA, saying that he is almost at 200 lbs. and will continue to get bigger and stronger as he gets older:
“Yes, he’s always going to gain weight, he’s only 19-years-old. He’s close to 200 pounds right now. He’s going to grow into a man he’s gonna get that Ball weight later.”
Ball was listed at 6’6″, 190 lbs. at UCLA, so that means he has gained close to 10 lbs. this summer which will definitely help him when going up against some of the premiere point guards in the Western Conference on a nightly basis.
Adding weight is always a positive as long as he is able to stay in shape to run the up-tempo style offense that head coach Luke Walton wants to play with.
While there was some reports of Ball being out of shape when he worked out for the Lakers before the draft, he proved that to be untrue during the Las Vegas Summer League as he was named MVP of the tournament, earning the only two triple-doubles in the league’s history and helping the Lakers win their first ever Summer League Championship.
The Lakers are just over a month away from reporting to training camp so it will be interesting to see what weight Ball comes to camp at.
