Ball isn’t answer to all Suns’ questions
Let’s just say Lonzo Ball ends up in Phoenix before Thursday’s trade deadline or as the clock strikes 1 p.m. Phoenix time.
The Suns will be without one of their young players, likely Josh Jackson, and possibly a first-round pick — and still have a starting lineup with an average age of 22 years old.
PG: Lonzo Ball, 21 years old
SG: Devin Booker, 22 years old
C: Deandre Ayton, 20 years old
SF: Mikal Bridges, 22 years old
PF: TJ Warren, 25 years old
Like Ball, Jackson is 21 years of age, too.
Then, let’s just say the Suns get that top pick for the 2019 draft.
Do they trade it for a scorer or a rebounder, or someone who can do both as part of a package deal, or do the Suns keep the pick and select Duke freshman phenom Zion Williamson — and get even younger?
Williamson won’t turn 19 until July. R.J. Barrett might be a better fit, but the outstanding Duke freshman point guard is just 18 as well. He’ll turn 19 in June.
History has shown you can’t win with all young talent.
Does Phoenix really want to become the franchise that develops young players for other teams to pluck away so they can immediately start winning?
OK. OK. Let’s get back to the original topic at hand.
Adding Ball would be more about the future than the present for the Suns. They’d play better with a natural point guard, but Ball is trying to figure out the NBA game just as much as Ayton and Bridges.
Phoenix isn’t going to shoot up the NBA ladder and make the playoffs.
With 42 losses going into Saturday’s game against Atlanta, they are a loss away from having a fifth straight losing season.
However, the Suns could use the final 26 or so games building some sort of chemistry and see if Ball can make Igor Kokoskov’s offense flourish. In turn, Kokoskov can show what the offense would really look like with someone who has an understanding of how to play the point.
Ball could certainly help increase the tempo and give the Suns perhaps their most dynamic athlete next to Ayton. He can run the pick-and-roll with the rookie 7-footer and make the right play, be it a lob to Ayton, a dish or a finish at the rim himself.
Devin Booker has been playing off the ball recently with De’Anthony Melton and Elie Okobo at the point, but Ball can make Booker's game so much easier because he can make the right reads.
He’s young just like Melton and Okobo, but has a better understanding of how to get other players involved.
Plus, Ball is good enough to defend not only the point guard, but the shooting guard, and can switch. He’s also gotten stronger since his rookie season.
This would be a great opportunity for him to show he can play point in the NBA.
There are plenty of positives, but Ball, again, is a work in progress, especially as a shooter. He’s a career 38 percent shooter overall and 31.5 percent from 3. Teams are still going to trap Booker and force someone else to beat them.
That would test Ball’s decision-making. He’s played without the ball, especially this season with LeBron James and Rajon Rondo, but the Lakers have a system.
Phoenix is just establishing one. If you add Ball, you’re basically saying this is your guy at the point. It would also be a second chance for Ball to show he can run a team.
His personality would fit in the Phoenix locker room. He’s young, but also low key. Yes, his dad, Lavar, would be around, but not nearly to the degree he was earlier in his career – at least the Suns would hope not.