After an awful NBA Summer League debut in which he shot 2-for-15 from the floor, rookie point guard Lonzo Ball of the Los Angeles Lakers put on a show against the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. Ball was all over the floor on Saturday making plays every time he touched the ball leading to his first triple-double with the Lakers logo across his chest.
The UCLA product made everyone at the Thomas & Mack Center forget about his debut and put a smile on the faces of Lakers fans. Ball showed off his incredible ability to get his teammates involved with remarkable court vision while also doing a little bit of everything against the Celtics.
As usual, Lonzo’s father, LaVar Ball, was in attendance to watch his son play and had yet another bold statement to make about his the upcoming season. LaVar believes the NBA Rookie of the Year award is Lonzo’s to lose, as he said on the ESPN broadcast via Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports:
“Rookie of the Year? It’s already a done deal,” Ball said. “I got the trophy already. Hey, Rookie of the Year — how could he not be?”
Although Lonzo has a good chance of coming away with Rookie of the Year honors, the 19-year-old will have his fair share of competition for the reason season award. Ben Simmons will be in the running for the award after sitting out all of last season, and Markelle Fultz will be a threat while playing alongside the versatile forward in Philadelphia.
Along with Simmons and Fultz, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics looks like a legitimate candidate for the award as he’s put on a show during Summer League.
Only time will tell if Lonzo and outshine the rest in the quest to be named the league’s best rookie over the course of the 2017-18 NBA season.