"LONZOBALL" = BASKETBALL REVOLUTION: what to look-for when watching his first game

This is a prepper to get you excited about Lonzo Ball's first game in the NBA. We are going to introduce you to "Big Baller" brand of basketball strategy, so you know what you're seeing when you watch the Lakers play with Lonzo at the helm. Thank us later...

There's been a change in how basketball has been played since the statistical revolution, and that revolution is about to change AGAIN with "Lonzoball". Basketball purists will rejoice, bc altho "Zo" will lead a revolution in how the game is played-- FOR THE GAME not the individual-- he will also shatter the stat-geek's idea of a great player and bring back a Bill Russell style of winning basketball to the City of Los Angeles. LA has something special brewing with the anti-clever draft pick of Lonzo Ball. Bringing Lonzoball into LA isn't just bringing a high draft pick, high caliber player into the city & team, it's bringing a new strand of basketball that harks back to the days of the Great One-- Mr Bill (Celtics). But how? WHAT is the revolution in a game where everyone has already figured out uncontested three-pointers are so valuable? You see, up til now, the "great game" has been hidden behind the headline of "3 pointers rule" due to deservedly star players like Steph Curry whose outside threat is so nasty it's dominated the NBA for 3 straight years of unparalleled basketball. How do you top that? Enter Lonzoball...

Here's a breakdown of how you play "Big Baller Brand" basketball inside the next Revolution, and the ONLY way to know this, is to study the family itself. There's no better way to study the Ball family than watching Lonzo's senior year at Chino Hills HS in California-- playing alongside brother's LaAngelo ("Gello") and LaMelo ("Melo"). Here's a list of what "Lonzoball" or "Big Baller" basketball is, but not in order of importance:

#1 Get in Shape, SERIOUS shape, BASKETBALL shape.

You're not done until you're the guy in the best shape vs all the other guys. Pat Riley espouses this in Miami, Lonzo Ball espouses this in himself and amongst his brothers. Don't let "Zo's" body fool you, he's ALREADY in NBA shape. No, you say, he needs to bulk up. No he does not. Due to his Dad's free-weight workouts, his strength already exists in sinew, hidden but there. It shows in his rebounding and his ability to hoist the long ball with ease. But forget strength entirely, even without it the Balls have an advantage over everyone-- they RUN you rampant with their strategic GAME. The pass is mightier than the dribble. Wanna beat Kyrie, Carmelo Anthony? Make them run their ass off all game-- to exhaustion-- and by the 4th qtr the other team's best player is drained. Bu Lonzo looks like he's coasting out there. We assure you, he is not. What Lonzo is doing, is spending less energy than your best player in quarters 1 thru 3, and much much more energy than your best player in quarter 4. If your team doesn't run after Lonzo's passes in quarters 1 thru 3, your teams will be behind by too much when "winning time" comes along in the 4th. Ever watch a long distance runner plot strategy in the Olympics? Think of the Ball family as doing this when they play: the Big Baller Olympic runner LOOKS like he's coasting in the first 80% of the race, but he's simply moving fast with minimal effort, and THEN he pushes his own limits in the final frame when required. The Balls are outlasting opponents and are in better basketball shape than everyone else, while making giving off the vibe they are not. But how are they doing it?

#2 The Pass is Mightier than the Dribble

Know who's been sorta coasting all game despite no timeouts and constant fast action? The Balls. When Lonzo Ball throws a pass to a teammate, he looks for the longest pass possible which doesn't lead to a turnover. Ball PASSES are rabbits, and other point guard's dribbling are tortoises. But in this Big Baller example, the tortoise don't win bc the rabbit is vigilant. For 3 quarters, Balls are going all over the damn place in a Chino Hills Big Baller game. Every inbound pass is fast, every inbounder take enough dribbles upcourt to see his two wide receivers downcourt-- the ball is going to travel twice the speed of Olympic sprinters down-court out of inbounder's hands. Where's your 5 defenders? If they weren't running full speed after their own made shot, that bucket will be mitigated by an opposing Chino Hills layup before the shot clock has time to get warmed up.
This is why the other team's opposing player can still score a ton of points, yet lose the game to the Big Baller strategy. The Ball family will let a good player spend a LOT of energy to score a single bucket, knowing there will be no energy for defense on the transition, the longer the other team's offense works to make a bucket.
On defense, the Balls typically spend their energy in the half-court, a few lateral steps here and there, a block attempt, and a fight for the rebound, then it's off to the races again. They practically rest-up during defense, while other teams best players spend max energy dribbling, driving, pull-up "hesi jimbos", and all the other stat-padding offensive skills. When Chino Hills beats you, you're lead scorer (Malik Monk for Bentonville HS Arkansas or Bam Adebayo) might have the game of their lives yet still lose the game by 10.
Score 50 on the Ball family and you're going to be tired in the 4th quarter, AND most of your points were mitigated by a quick inbound, 30 yard bomb, and a layup-- or even worse a faked layup and flip back out to open 3-shooter for wide open shots.
In Lonzoball, they don't need to constantly double-team the best player, they are comfortable guarding the weaker offensive players while forcing the other team's top scorer to work his ass-off.
Lonzo is going to have a forward's number of rebounds on your missed shots from inside 15 feet, and a Rajon Rondo amount of assists. Sure, we've all heard about the pass-happy offense, and we admit it's great, but we think it misses the Ball Family point. LOOK LONG. This is important, the long pass is the premium pass bc it shifts the defense more, makes them spend more energy. Lonzo Ball, when you watch him, will constantly try to make the longest pass on the court as his first option, the way a quarterback would look to connect on a 7 point bomb in a single play, rather than go for the easy 6 yard pass. Talk about spreading the defense, sure, but making the defense move the maximum number of steps while defending is the goal.
In transition, even after a quick inbound pass, watch Lonzo look for the cherry-picker every time. Lonzo isn't skimping on those passes like other premium players might-- to pad their own numbers in the half-court. He's looking to make you run whether the cherry picker has a shot or not. You wanna get the turnover in transition? There's only one way against the Ball's: Run your ass off. And that brings the opposing players back to #1 on our list. Who's in the best basketball shape to go 40 minutes and running the court in max efficiency? In runner-parlance, THE BALLS ARE DRAFTING ON YOU all goddam game!

#3 Long Passes >> Short Passes
See #2, we've already talked about the Balls' making the longest pass possible, particularly bc it makes the defenders work harder than the offenders. Hell, if you let the Ball's cherrypicker score, the inbounder and the long-passer (Lonzo typically) are both taking a break on the defensive side of the court while YOUR defense runs to prevent the easy bucket! So we won't go over this again, but suffice to say even in the half court Lonzo as PG is looking across the entire half-court FIRST for his first pass option. He wants to pass long, make defenders spend max energy. Lonzo is like a quarterback who's first look receiver is the guy running the fly downfield-- EVERY PLAY. But it gets better, Lonzo's teammates HUSTLE bc the teammate who hustles most GETS LONZO'S super-accurate pass as a reward. So Lonzo inspires offensive hustle, which is why his teammates perform better vs other high-draft-pick's teammates. Over the length of a game, tho, Lonzo's Big Baller team is spending less energy than your team. Call it the Lactic Acid contest, Lonzo wants the other team's lactic acid inside their muscles to be greater than his at halftime, going into the 4th. Your team and its best player are tiring, while he's been practically resting making long passes instead of dribbling all over hell-- AND he's in great shape besides.

#4 Layups are the goal, Three Pointers are the Crackerjack surprise

What is the ONE stat which defines Lonzo Ball? His 2-point FG% at UCLA. It was fucking > 70% for a point guard!
What does it mean? It means he was shooting almost all layups all game, otherwise giving the ball to a teammate for a layup.
Lonzo is NOT a pass-first point guard, he's a LAYUP FIRST POINT GUARD. Remember this when watching future Laker games.
Lonzo isn't passing for the sake of passing, he's passing to achieve a layup as early as the shot-clock will allow.
First Option? Cherrypicker off the inbound
2nd Option? Lob to the big man underneath-- but close to basket
3rd Option? Dribble around defender for layup
4th Option? Dribble-drive end with two big defenders in your face? No problemo Chino, throw that pass out to the deadly 3-point shooter outside.
Last option? With shot clock boiling down, then and only then would a Ball even THINK of taking a 2 pointer-- it just doesn't happen.
The Balls LOVE 3 pointers, but it's not their first option. Think they can't shoot the three? 40% at UCLA on a LOT of attempts (historically speaking anyway) MIGHT be a tad high, but make no mistake the number was > 40% bc Lonzo is ONLY shooting that 3-pointer when wide open.

#5 OPEN SHOTS AS RELIGION

In the Ball family religion, apparently, an open 3 pointer bomb from 3 steps behind the arc the defender doesn't expect and therefore is too late to contest efficiently, is better than a decently-contested layup attempt. You don't shoot contested layups, you pass it to someone else who MIGHT have an open shot. Wanna win in the NBA? Don't take contested shots. Lonzo bats > 70% from 2P shots bc he's taking them uncontested. He's actually taking less shots than you, he's just making more of them bc he has been doggytrained to not take a contested shot even if under the basket. This is why you see him making so many short passes to big men near the basket while going up to the rim like a freight train.

#6 DEFENSE is making you work hard, not making you miss

The Balls play defense like the opposite they play offense. They want the ball handler to dribble, they protect against the long passes, they make you RUN! If you can dribble-drive, pull-up-two, you can score 50. But like Carmelo Anthony's offensive game, the best offensive player has nothing left to play defense right after scoring, and by the 4th quarter is missing shots due to the biathlon effect (material for another article). The Balls didn't go out of their way to stop Adebayo or Malik Monk from scoring; hell it was almost the opposite, they WANTED the other team's top scorer shooting the ball as early in the game as possible. Why?? Tire him out. Not only is the primary scorer the tiredest guy after the shot, but he's also wearing down-- lactic acid building in the muscles. The Balls are COASTING!

#7 COAST, unless you're down
Wanna see Lonzo's dribble-drives, power rebounds, top-notch defensive intensity? Wait til the score is getting ugly for his team late in the game. Watch the Summer League Sixers game. Sixers were up by more than 10 points with 4th quarter becoming middle aged, and Lonzo's intensity became maximized. Running, Gunning, fast drives to the hoop, and lightening speed on defense. MAX EFFORT-- THE SPRINT AT THE END. What if he's winning? Shit, if you're not beating Lonzo by middle of 4th quarter, you've lost, bc he's been coasting the ENTIRE GAME. You've been dribbling all over kingdom come at 15 miles per hour, he's been passing at 60 mph watching you run after his teammates. If you're not winning towards the end of the game, he's mailing it in-- in almost disrespectful style.

#8 Winner's Mentality occurs OFF court, not ON court

A lot of writers and fans think certain players like Kobe or MJ or Bill Russell just have a winning mentality, and this is only partially true. They think it's magical, something inside the personality-- it is not. A Winner's Mentality isn't some reserve tank that only the GOATs have, it's something earned in all the minutes, hours, and days which exist outside of "showtime". Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who might even be better than MJ (another article), didn't win 6 championships in a row during gametime-- they won it before those games were played. Those two drilled themselves into tip top shape, and simply outlasted everyone else-- outDEFENDED everyone else. Hell, this "saving gas in the tank" maneuver isn't invented by the Ball Family, it stems from simply taking your basketball fitness as a top priority. MJ and Pippen existed in a skills-based era, where everyone including the player's themselves relied on extraordinary shooting, passing skills. Sure, those are necessary, and MJ and Pippen had them too, but their advantage was just working harder than everyone else-- OFF COURT. So while the Ball Family recipe of fitness isn't rocket science, it's the COASTING part where they've truly innovated in revolutionary fashion-- the long passes, the lack of dribbling and running, the 3 pointers = less work theme.

The best part of this new revolutionary strategy and player, is that the architect of this style of play is LaVar. He may not have come up with ALL the ideas, credit the whole family, particularly Lonzo, but he's the QB of the family. While everyone in the media has jumped all over him in a negative way, he's confident bc he's not just developed great players but a great strategy to give to his family to beat everyone else. Maybe that's why he wants ALL his boys on the Lakers, eh? Keep all this info guarded.
Well it's not guarded now, bc he let too much leak via interviews and game film. And you can read it right here, the "Big Baller Brand" of basketball strategy that's going to take LA and the NBA by storm-- starting NOW!

It's not so important Lonzo Ball has TWO triple-doubles as a point guard in this year's NBA Summer League, it's important he's the only player to do it in the last decade. Achievements which put a player all alone on an island are typically how legends are made, you see it in golf all the time with great players boasting wins at major amateur events amongst scores of other young players.

Big Baller Brand is a brand, certainly, but it's more than that-- it's a new version of an old way of playing basketball.

Scout.com's BruinReportOnline
Tracy Pierson march 21, 2017
this is the definitive commentary on Lonzo's game
http://www.scout.com/college/ucla/story/1764607-the-transcendent-game-of-ucla-s-lonzo-ball
"transcendent"
"unusually gifted"
Kareem, Magic, Bird, MJ, LeBron, Curry
"so mentally gifted at the game of basketball it becomes a different game when he plays it"
Kidd, passing, unexpected, timed perfectly, pinpoint, effortless
only Ball-- and few other human beings- can see
but Kidd didn't change the game
more like Magic "ability to create points on the fast break"
Magic changed halfcourt game too, conjured up by Magic not GM Jerry West or Pat Riley
offense predicated on passing
Lonzo's game at UCLA was like a virus, even without acknowledgment you're infected by it.
Bryce Alford changed the way they approach and play the game when alongside Ball on the court.
not just looking to pass, but a mindset of how offensive basketball functions at its best, a blend of movement, passing and mindset, with each piece on the dame page of the magical basketball handbook.
"he isn't looking to "get his", what Ball's teammates sense from him.
even if it's involuntary, something clicks in the human DNA that this is the way to basketball Nirvana and you have to jump on the train.
deceptive athlete. there are times when he can take it to another level, especially on defense
extra gear-- Gershon scout
plays at a cruise level quite a bit
on defense shown ability to be very quick laterally
does feel at times he's not plaing to his full cabability. He's an immortal and playing with mortals.
get the ense he knows he could take just about anyone off the dribble but chooses not to.
he knows he could hit a 28-foot 3P at just about any time, but he only takes a few per game.
(evidence he's making micro-decisions based on defense)
a feeling UCLA fast break has reached just 3rd or 4th gear, but he (can) take it to 6 gears.
when scoring himself, either shoots it from 28 feet or puts the ball on the floor
CRITICISMS: mid range game unknown, thin physically, must learn ball-screen offense of NBA,
this author gives the sense that Ball thrives in higher competition levels bc he languishes with lesser teammates
you feel if Ball were asked to be primarily a scorer (see summer league game 4) he has that ability

It's possible Lonzo was a bit shackled by Steve Alford (and his son) in a way we'll never know until we see his Lakers team play.
Other players are excited to play with him-- rare for a rookie.

Charlotte Observer: march 24, 2017
Langston Wertz Jr
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/high-school/article140700158.html
Monk vs Lonzo
Monk had 50 points
Ball 19 pts, 15 assists, 12 rebounds

UCLA from 15-17 2016 to 28-4 2017
Lonzo fouled out of his state championship game, lost, jr yr
won his sr yr
beat Monk who dropped 50 in a tournament consolation game, with a triple double
All u can find on the internet is how Monk dropped 50 on ball, yet Ball's team won the game! Classic.

10 assists in 3 out of 4 summer league games (game 5?)
6 players since 2004 have summer lg game 10+ assists.
17-12 season before Lonzo arrived Chino Hills, 35-0 his senior season.

Stack.com Dec 7, 2016, Jordan Zirm

"If you play the game three to four minutes hard with no fouls, that's how you get teams tired," LaVar said. "Sometimes you just let them go, let them score, just so you can throw it down the court and run the other way. They can't take their players out of the game unless you call a timeout. That's how we would do it. Teams would play their hearts out in the first half, and then after that they were done. It's not even about what my boys can do as far as shooting and layups and all that, it's just the conditioning that was so high."

All three of my boys will be one and done," LaVar said. "This year, I gave them the best passer and the best playmaker. He's going to be gone, and guess what, I'm going to bring you the best scorer ever, which is LiAngelo. I'm going to let you rest for a year, and then I'm going to bring you the ultimate one, you ain't seen before, which is LaMelo. He's a mixture of Lonzo and LiAngelo. Watch the show, it's about to begin."
Buckle up. LaVar Ball's boys are changing the game of basketball.

HS video:
Balls pass when defenders have back to ball handler
Balls quick inbound, inbounder has two options beneath basket at all times, usually passes to one
they don't call timeouts, bc they rely on conditioning to beat you.
there's always someone cherry picking
they shoot a lot of threes and layups, almost nothing else, rely on 3 late in shot clock

Kentucky Game:
FTs: 3 points
3P: 3 points (Lonzo 1-6)
OReb: 1 pt (Leaf sucked)
De'Aaron Fox's high motor, surprise 2ptr attack, great defense shut down UCLA
great shooting by Fox inside, and Monk outside
game was kinda over down 11 w 3:40 to play w/ Bryce Alford missed 3P J
4 NBA players vs 3
De'Aaron Fox (5), Bam (14), Monk (11), & Briscoe (U) vs Ball (2), Leaf (18), Bryce Alford (U)