When the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick out of UCLA they knew they were getting a pure point guard with court vision unlike just about any player in the league.
The plan was for Ball to come in and immediately make all of his teammates better, playing with an up-tempo pace and getting open looks for everybody.
What the Lakers and many fans might not have known though is that Ball is a very underrated athlete and has the ability to play above the rim.
He showed off that athleticism last Monday night when he posted a video to his Instagram story of him bouncing a lob to himself and finishing with a nice windmill reverse dunk:
@zo wildin in his late night workouts. ???????????? #LakersNation (via @zo)
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Ball had some occasional highlight dunks while he was at UCLA, but his game is more throwing alley-oops than catching and finishing them.
But his underrated athleticism could come in handy as he often gets past his defender easily and penetrates to the rim mainly looking for shots for his teammates.
With Ball’s first NBA training camp under a week away, it is nice to see him in the gym working out, putting all his other hobbies aside to focus on basketball. He has an opportunity to turn around a Lakers franchise that not only hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2013 but has suffered through the worst four-season stretch in the history of the franchise.