Lonzo Ball’s reaction to getting cut: “I don’t feel like I’m playing as bad as people are saying…I’m the scapegoat right now.”
Me leaving the YMCA after chucking 3s in pickup for 2 hours
You keep throwing it. They just stopped passing to you because they didn’t want to make the other team feel bad.
If you pass it I’m probably gonna chuck it
If you DONT pass it, then I’m definitely gonna chuck it.
I was shit in high school, if I ever touched the ball I launched it cause I didn’t get many opportunities. I once went 2⁄2 from 3 immediately after getting subbed in, did an ice veins celly then sat the rest of the game
I was a Wade stan in highschool and also the “team manager” for the basketball team. Just wanted to get out of school early for the away games.
I played in the last game during garbage time and let the post-fades fly. Didn’t make shit, but I got em up lmao
Team manager not game manager
The worst archetype of “player”
I was 4ft 10 playing high school basketball in a Scottish village. We all sucked ass
This is giving me the Jamaican Bobsled team vibes.
Coming soon to a theater near you: Bagpipes and Ball. The story of KingDave46
Coach told me once, when a was a wean “Laddie ye cannae shoot fer shite, the feck ye thinkin?”
And a took it personally.
Amazing Grace plays on the bagpipes as bricks rain down upon the rim
Luck of the Irish
Scotland and Ireland are very much two different things
My familys from Cleveland
Don’t let them try to put you down king. Shoot that shit
That’s definitely not the worst
I had to play behind the coaches son, one game in middle school, we were blowing a nearby school out like 30-2 type shit and I got subbed in, went 6 for 6 from 3 in like 5 minutes of play, we were up by 40+ at halftime, I’m having the game of my life and the coach sits me the rest of the 2nd half lmfao said I was playing “too good” and didn’t want to rub it in the other team?! Im like “ayo I get 10 minutes at best in a tough game and you can’t even play me in a garbage game to get my confidence on 110 ?!!” lol
Lol this has been my mantra for pickup for a long time. I never really thought about it, but yeah the less you pass me the ball the more likely I’m putting up a shot the next time I get a rebound.
I didn’t come here to do cardio, there’s treadmills in the gym for that.
Lol, I hated playing with people like you
I did the same except I immediately committed a flagrant foul, did the Mutombo finger shake and then got sent to the bench for (almost) the rest of the year.
HAHA in middle school we used to scream like howler monkeys after any pinky fingertip blocked shot
GET THAT SHIT OUTTA HERE
I suck at ball but some randoms asked me and some friends to play a quick game. I started 3⁄3 on 3s and they had a dude basically guard me like I was Curry for the rest of the game. I’ll never forget it
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
“Bruh you missed 100% of the shots you did take”
So you mean there’s a chance??
That’s when you inbound it to yourself off the wall. Walk it up and jack it up. 2k pg style
Me fighting for minutes on my rec league team in the lowest tier possible because coach doesn’t understand my iso game
Coach, I watched an hour long compilation of Iso Joe highlights. The bag is deep.
Fax
For me, its chucking 3s and getting blocked by the 5’10 guys who play like Robert Covington (I’m 5’7)
Shoot ‘till you’re hot, then shoot ‘till you’re not
Let’s not tell flylow orange when the next pickup game is next week
“They’re jealous of my game”
They don’t understand the offball gravity and spacing you provide by being attempting those 3s. Keep it up king
Ball is life, ball is my wife
I’ve never been a Lonzo hater and he was 100% not the only problem on the Cavs early in the year but he played some of the worst basketball I’ve ever seen this year
Last ten games he’s averaging 3/4/2 in 15 MPG on 31% shooting.
Not great
Stats looking like biblical dates
LOL
I’m letting you know right now that I am stealing this for future use. Excellent work.
Lonzon needs some air Jesus
Lonzon
More like Lonzoff amirite
Incredible, Mr. Triple Single is now Biblical Dates
I wish I could give you a award
Lonzo 3, 4:2
Oh this is good. Well done!
Small sample bro, look at what he did for the season:
4/4/4 on 30%.
Nvm, look at last season:
8/3/3 on 34%
NVM look at the couple of seasons prior to that:
DNP
But he’s the scapegoat right now
Bronny been better
Big Bronny brand.
back to triple single lonzo, time is a flat circle
His shooting percentage actually improved over those ten games
31% because he’d hit a 3 or two when the game was out of reach
Star Trek Stardate 342.15.31
I was the biggest lonzo lover, genuinely thought his play before his injury was the reason the Chicago bulls had the #1 seed until he went down. He was incredible both ways and I figured if we got a bit of that, he would’ve been an incredible addition to our team.
He was awful for us. I wanted to give him more leash and every time he got it, it just got worse and worse. I hope he can figure it out but he needs to be realistic with himself
I’m a huge Lonzo fan and have been since his UCLA days, and man injuries just absolutely killed his on court ability. The reality is that Lonzo was never a great half court floor general and his finishing was always kind of garbage, so his game necessitated athleticism and speed a lot more than people realized.
He basically found his groove as a 3&D player who was also a dynamic connector. I watched some of his minutes on the Cavs, and boy, he basically couldn’t shoot, couldn’t defend, and his athleticism was just totally gone. Then you factor in his sub par dribble and non-existent finishing and… yikes.
Dynamic connector is probably underselling it, he had really beautiful passing, type of guy who genuinely passed teammates open. When his shooting was improving it was really exciting because his athleticism made him a great defender, he just needed to not be a total flat tire as a shooter. With the Bulls he had briefly basically fixed himself
Seems like a decent and spirited guy, I wanted to see him succeed and enjoyed watching him in basically the same way as I did for Marcus Smart
I’ll always be impressed and give him credit for seemingly recreating his shooting form in a summer. From the wackest form to perfect form pretty much
If anything just goes to show how tight the margins are in the NBA. You lose a step and it’s over for low to mid tier guys. Also, I think it also represents how much game time matters with respect to regaining flow especially for a guy like Lonzo.
yeah, genuinely feel bad for Chicago – they’ve built two solid teams post-MJ that’ve collapsed b/c of injuries.
Love Deballzach as much as the next guy, but that team was never going very far
Deballzach? LOL
Yup, that team feasted on bad teams and had a lot of luck late in games. That team’s ceiling was the second round.
yeah, perennial 2nd round exits if healthy
Controversially, I think Vuccimane just wasn’t a playoff caliber starting center for the bulls. 6’9” only shooting 50% having to anchor Zach and Demar is a tall ask.
Oh no what a shame we didn’t see a 2nd round exit!
I dont think anyone completely pinned on him anyways.
“The Cavs are bad because of Lonzo”, was not something that was said.
You get your standard knuckleheads that shit on players but no reasonable person thought lonzo was the issue.
people definitely celebrated the games we won with Lonzo sitting
He might be confusing “I’m physically able to play” with “playing well”
I’ve always been a lonzo hater and I called him trash since day 1
Then you were wrong on day 1 lol
He was just right a little early
If your argument is that “Well a player eventually became bad,” then you can be a hater for basically everyone and then claim a W when father time gets em lol
Wilt couldn’t do anything on the court after 1999. Even I could beat him then!
Yeah, it’s like the financial “gurus” who constantly say a recession is coming. Yeah, eventually they’ll be right, but you can’t give them credit for predicting 13 of the last 2 recessions.
Then you have some players like Melo. Couldn’t get a team for over a year, haters kept bashing everything about him, claim he’s super finished, and…turned out he just needed to get in shape, most of criticism about his locker attitudes turned out to be over-exaggerated, and he had decent resurrection arc in Portland.
Hey, that milk you just bought is going to spoil…At some point!
Then you were completely wrong since day 1. Up until this season he was in the 65th percentile or high in the NBA for on/off metrics. He was +5.2 and +4.6 his last two season prior to his injuries. And last season he was +9.3 in almost 800 mins. He was a very effective player. Knees just gave out.
Bruh I didn’t even realize he was active in rotation! Where da highlights at?
Where da highlights at?
His Cavs highlight reel is so short it would fit on a 3 1⁄2” floppy lol
I lived through the floppy era, but ngl I forgot how little is 3.5 inch floppy :(
Whoa hey now, a 3.5 inch floppy is a perfectly respectable size! It’ll get the job done
How many mb’s can that baby hold?
1.44MB. Like it literally could not hold a single picture of Lonzo Ball taken by a modern cell phone camera
I can’t remember which game it was, but I remember him shooting back to back corner 3s off the side of the backboard. He was going to shoot another but it got blocked.
Turns out not having knees is a detriment to effective basketball
Only seated ovations at the Cavs team dinners for sure
Not enough people ITT shitting on him know:
keep circlejerk hating tho thats 99.5% of the sub these days
The dead person must have sucked at basketball.
Lmfao i cannot w these mfs bro
That’s all well and good, I have no doubt his injuries are the main reason for his fall off. But that doesn’t change the fact that he was absolute ass on the court and was every bit as bad as people are saying
And knowing all this context makes his performance any better how? It makes teams wanna pay him more money out of kindness of their hearts, yeah?
his entire meniscus + cartilage was replaced with a dead person, a cadaver knee.
Damn, what did he do to his knee again for him to require all of that?
The Brandon Roy career path fr
Too many guys’ career path.
To use an older example: Penny Hardaway was All-NBA first team in year 2 and was on the same team the following year alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone and David Robinson
He’s one of the ultimate what ifs when it comes to knee injuries.
Roy was so fun. I still remember him beating our asses on Christmas Day when I was in college.
Lonzo gave them to Kawhi
Lonzo Ball this season is shooting 30% from the field
He’s just missing shots. The problem is he’s being paid to make more than 1⁄4
I mean it was only a 2 year, 20M contract. Thats a below average salary in the nba and he’s playing at a below average play.
10M a year is just around the average salary and players on a vet min can put up better stats than those
Yeah, this is the issue. Those stats are benchwarmer-level, not role player-level.
It’s below the average, but almost double the median. He isn’t paying twice as good as a median contributor
The averages are heavily skewed by max contracts
On wide open looks too, he passed out of anything contested
And that was when he would actually shoot…. There were a few games where he looked afraid to shoot the ball. I really wanted this to work out, but I don’t know that he still has it.
And was only taking open 3s.
No he wasn’t the only reason the Cavs started out so poorly but just an absolute 0 threat on offense. Of guys who teams were actually hoping to get something from maybe only Dillingham was worse.
He was a dud from 3, and was afraid to attack the hoop so he never took shots around the hoop. Just an all around abysmal player
Hey that’s actually 31% THANK YOU VERY MUCH
30.1
My man, what. Dealing with injuries some things can be overlooked but you’re averaging 30% from the floor. 27% from 3. 67% from the line as a guard. 43% TS. Your defense has dropped significantly on top of that. If you don’t feel like you’re playing that bad, you need to raise your standards.
I mean it’s extremely difficult to make the nba.
If you lose 10% or more of your speed, athleticism or anything. You could go from potential all star to end of bench rotation in a heartbeat.
That’s why there’s only like 3-5 total NBA players who get more than 5 minutes a night who are both over 33 years old and not atleast been 2 All Star.
Clarifying: almost every nba player who gets more than 5 minutes a night is either under 33years old. Or a multiple time all star.
Kemba Walker is a great example of this. All Star to basically out of the league in two seasons
Yup. You need to adjust well to your decline. Some players like LeBron managed to. Some never did.
“Some players like LeBron”
There are players in their prime that would love to have LeBron’s current athleticism. He is very much an outlier. But with that being said, it doesn’t mean he didn’t have to adjust from being insanely athletic to what he is now. He also had to adjust to old man aches and pains.
Who are those players you are mentioning? Andre Drummond, Nic Batum, idk how old Marcus Smart is but that’s a hell of a stat
This is who Lonzo is. He shot very similar to this his rookie year. Not much better the year after. His 3 point shot bumped up but it’s back down and I don’t reckon it’s going back up
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1r92v3m/slug/o6aey3b
oh, a Lakers fan talking out their ass isn’t surprising it’s expected lmao.
He fixed his shot with us. fully. point blank. end conversation. 43%. 110⁄260 made 3s before he went down.
Then his knee straight up exploded. He doesn’t have NBA knees he has literally a dead mans knee in him rn, but yeah “this is who he is” FoH honestly lol
As a Cavs fan, I was super excited to add him to the team at the beginning of the season. I thought he would add a playmaking and defense element to our bench which would help.
Honestly, he was just awful all season. It was painfully obvious to the point you could hear fans groaning on the broadcast. I hope he gets back to the way he was playing before.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but as soon as we got Okoro for Lonzo, I celebrated my ass off. Lonzo played some great ball for us, but after the injury, it was over. Now he’s done absolutely nothing on the Cavs while Okoro is a starter in Chicago. It was a great deal, even though we still suck.
What do you think of Okoro? I wanted him to do great so badly here. He would kind of “figure it out” for a stretch of games, then he would get a minor injury for ten games, and when he would come back it was like reteaching the man to be aggressive again. A fun player, but very frustrating at times because the athleticism and mobility is there to be a really good slasher.
He’s pretty decent and, in terms of OUR team, definitely getting minutes. Our team is loaded with guards right now, so even prior to the deadline, he was starting a lot. Our team’s best forward is Matas Buzelis, but as our starting Small Forward, Okoro is a decent fit. He has flashes of brilliance. He had a 20-point game against Miami recently, 24 against the Pelicans in December. Even then, though, his assist game is pretty poor and he can’t really rebound. I wouldn’t call him an essential piece (we suck) but we’re worse as a team when he’s out and a massive improvement over what we would’ve had with Lonzo if we kept him this year.
Hope y’all like Okoro. He wasn’t what we needed when we needed him, but fuckin’ A Cavs fans loved him. Great locker room presence, seems like just a solid dude all around.
The first game we had against y’all this season when Jarrett, Don, Dean, and Garland all came over to say hi to Okoro, and Ice just started clowning Jarrett for his High School Musical wedding dance? That warmed my damn heart.
We’ll always cheer for Ice when he comes back to Cleveland.
When I saw him at the United Center recently, he was great. Rough game, but he was still high-energy and interacting with the fans. I know that the Bulls sucked even prior to the deadline, but it was a fun team. Okoro, Vuc, White, Huerter, Giddey, Buzelis, and Ayo were really fun to watch together. Sucks that most of them are gone now. We have a game tonight and he should be playing. Coach is out, but I’m hoping for Okoro to put on a good performance.
I’m a Lonzo Ball truther man, I was on the forums SWEARING TO GOD he was Curry with a 40 inch vertical. In spite of my fandom, I gotta admit he is washed like yesterday’s laundry.
He’ll have to go play in Puerto Rico or China and ball out if he wants to even sniff the NBA again.
Honestly I’d just call it a career if I was him. $120m in career earnings is nice af
I think he will figure out how to play, even with his limitations. It took Derrick Rose and Shaun Livingston years. Lonzo is big, still has amazing vision, can defend and rebound, and he was a better shooter in the past. I miss who he was before the injuries, but he’s a really smart player. If he can stay healthy, I think he’ll bounce back into being a better player
His knees are done. Career over. Prior to injury in Chicago the bulls were a good team because of Lonzo
A Ball family member not taking responsibility? I’m SHOCKED
Lonzos like the most normal ball family member lol I think he deserves some benefit of the doubt
And hes been a good teammate
And he was a good friend.
And we will always cherish his memory
It’s sooo haaaaaaaard to say goodbyyyyyye to yesterdaaaayyyyyeeeeee
Taking responsibility for what? He said he’s playing shitty but not the reason why theyre losing games. Both are correct. He’s 11th in minutes for the Cavs, do you think they’d be a lot better if he had never played?
Yes, I do. The net rating with him on and off the court was massively different. He was chucking while shooting something like 33⁄27 and a defensive liability.
yes, they would’ve replaced his minutes with CPJ who’s better
As much as I dislike that family, you can’t ask an athlete to not believe in themselves. That’s suicide.
Bruh, I am not s fan of Lavar, LaMelo, or LiAngelo, but Lonzo genuinely seems like a good dude and have seen nothing but good things about him from teammates and non-basketball people. Fucking LaMelo just hit a person’s car and damn near totaled it after a few years of videos coming out of him speeding and driving like a dick outta the stadium.
A redditor not being able to make it through a minute of conversation before leaving a judgemental comment? I’m NOT.
Dude was atrocious for Cleveland. Not bad. Atrocious.
We had to give Utah (2) 2nd round picks just to unload him in that trade to get him off the books
I love Zo but when people are complimenting the Bulls FO for trading you at the right time it might be time to take a long look at your career.
One of the most incompetent and shitty front offices made a good trade for a broken player. I honestly do want Lonzo to bounce back somehow. He played great ball for us while he lasted. But it’s not looking great.
And he’s the humble one
What exactly does this mean? He can’t be confident in his abilities? Elaborate
How healthy was he? I feel like that was the biggest problem the Cavs had all year was just having guys reliably available
He was seemingly healthy and available to play all year other than resting on some B2Bs. He just looked like a shell of himself in 80% of the minutes he was in and teams would hunt him to rally back or take the lead. I was happy to give him a chance for his high bball IQ, but watching him play was painful, especially when we have very talented young guys behind him, like CPJ and Proctor, vying for those minutes to get better and more experience.
He’s as healthy as a guy with a spare knee can be.
That last part is why I’m still weirded out by people acting like this wasn’t expected.
Pretty healthy, most of his missed games were coach’s decisions/DNPs. I think he’s only missed 4 games due to injury/injury management this year.
So, played 35⁄51 games, including 12 DNPs and 4 games missed due to injuries.
Felt like he was healthy. Was just garbage whenever I watched him.
How’s the saying go? Elite athletes are the last to know the talent is gone. Something like that.
Shooting line of 30-27-67 and he’s claiming he’s being scapegoated? What a bum
You know the Ball family ALL TALKERS
Shooting 30% from the field and being arguably the worst defensive player in the league…
When a person’s self-image is stuck in the past and hasn’t adjusted to reality yet…
He’s become that bad defensively? Those early Pelicans years he was one of the best defensive guards I’ve seen.
I honestly think we would’ve played better 4v5 than having him on the court at some points this season
I’m a Luka fan and Lonzo plays better defense than Luka lol
Lonzo just still being in the nba was a huge success story and honestly something that was cool to see after his health issues. He also was playing some truly awful basketball and not meaningfully contributing to winning
He’s ass.
This sounds like when you get fired for sleeping in the break room lol. “I shouldn’t have been asleep, but I don’t feel like we lost money just cuz I was sleeping”
Wizard candidate
he should give up his nba spot for someone worthy. there so many better players than him in NCAA currently.
Yeah, why don’t you give up your dream job after sacrificing your knee cartilage.
He was no scapegoat. He stinks though unfortunately.
It hurts people to admit, but he was a bust. Especially when you look at the people that were picked after him. He was touted as some generational PG and ended up becoming a serviceable backup at best.
100% Agree.
Even if he had perfect health he was never making an all star team, he was like a budget rondo.
Elite role player/Decent starter but that’s a bust relative to his draft posotion
He got hyped up like he was the next Jason Kidd. He’d be lucky to have a late career surge like Shaun Livingston.
He’s cooked.
Cartilage replacement is major major surgery, and he wasn’t that good beforehand, and his value was based on athleticism.
He’s cooked
Worst qualified shooter in the nba this season
Me after I feed on league of legends
Can’t shoot and can’t defend. His IQ is still there, but it’s a make or miss league. The other team makes shots against him and he misses what feels like every 3 he takes
No one is blaming Lonzo for the Cavs performance. He just sucks.
He was definitely not at the root of our problems this season, but he sure as shit didn’t help. His job is to help.
Adding Harden, Schröder and Ellis in the rotation instead of Ball and Hunter with Garland sidelined has completely awakened the Cavs season for me.
Having two point guards who couldn’t really play made it clear the Cavs were headed for a play in/First Round exit.
For all of Harden’s postseason shortcomings, his availability makes him an upgrade over garland immediately, and Schröder was already better than Ball.
He was a overhyped backyard legend and wearing them BBB’s probably ruined his career
I know the game is more than stats but they have to count for something and with that being said, Bronny has better stats than this guy.
Bro is 6’6 and shooting like 30% near the rim lmao zero touch
A gambling site sponsoring a player that sells that bag and completely forgetting how to play basketball lol. You know them boys are desperate
I like Lonzo and realize that his knee injuries absolutely screwed him up. Most people don’t even fucking walk after what he went through, let alone play basketball.
That being said, he looked like the worst player in the league when he was out there at times. He’s absolutely washed. Can’t shoot, no agility, no lateral movement, and slows everything down. He was a net positive for opposing team’s defenses. That’s insane.
I wish him well but he needs to hang it up.
Guys like this… it’s never their fault, ever, for anything. Pathetic.
Good example of being in denial.
Who’s going to sign him? He’s been linked to GSW by speculation…
Who’s more delusional than an NBA player?
Redditors probably
Turns out, it wasn’t the shoes afterall.
He could probably still play, if his jumper wasn’t broken. It was teeth baringly cringy when he was taking shots by the end. Like it was painful as a fan every time he went up.
Dude was chucking up bricks game after game. He doesn’t attack the hoop due to his injury and fear of reinjuring it. He’d occasionally make a good pass or alright defensive play, but otherwise he was a meh defender. Literally just a negative at both ends, along with Hunter on an otherwise great team
Players always think it can’t be them
Dude had three knee surgeries and missed two years of action. I believe he’ll be better in time. But no one Cavs traded at the deadline was the scapegoat
I see Zo being Shaun Livingston 2.0 and winning multiple championships late in his career
I get you gotta have confidence in yourself at all times to be a pro but my god was he putrid for the Cavs. Just planet fitness levels of chucking
This family is incapable of taking responsibility. Their father really failed them.
Lol this whole family is full of morons.
It was wild to me how much people were clowning the Bulls for the Okoro-Lonzo trade. Like dude had a mystery injury and hadn’t played in two years AND was making $25m, like maybe the Bulls were correct to get that contract off their books for a guy who, for all his faults, was presently capable of playing the game of basketball?
Like ya, I’m hurting the team, but I’m not hurting the team THAT much
Well, Lonzo can finally say he’s a goat, just not the goat he was hoping for.
What’s the stats say?
I went and saw the Cavs play the Blazers on December 3rd. Lonzo went 1-9 from the field, 1-8 from 3. Everyone in the arena audibly groaned every time he pulled up for 3.
I’m not the worst player is as much as an admission as I’m shit