The Cleveland Cavaliers keep waiting for moments of hope that would suggest Lonzo Ball finally being ready to turn the corner on his dreadful scoring touch to start 2025-26. Instead, what they keep seeing is reminders of why the Chicago Bulls were ready to part ways with their old point guard.
Ball's comeback story is something everyone wants to root for. It was undoubtedly a challenging road back to the NBA court for him after years away.
Shaking off that rust is proving to be challenging. A painful shooting night from the field in the Cavaliers' recent 110-99 loss against the Toronto Raptors only reminded viewers just how much work there still is to make defenses respect Ball's scoring ability once more.
Lonzo Ball's fading scoring touch is becoming a real concern for Cavaliers
A 3-of-15 shooting night is not going to look good for anyone. It especially looked bad for Ball against the Raptors.
It was the first time in 2025-26 that the Cavaliers point guard hoisted more than 10 field goal attempts in a game. The approach taken by Ball would lead one to believe he thought shooting his way out of this slump was the best approach.
Relative to the volume, that was definitely the worst shooting performance of the season for the Cavs guard. By the numbers, Ball has four games in which his percentage from the field was even worse than that one.
On the flip side of the equation, there have only been three instances of the former top-five pick shooting 50 percent or better from the field. Unsurprisingly, the Cavaliers are 3-0 in those games. By contrast, Cleveland is 6-6 when Ball shoots under that mark.
This is still a small, and early, sample. The new arrival in Cleveland only has 15 games under his belt. However, the problem, in itself, is not new.
Ball had 19 games of shooting under 40 percent with the Bulls in 2024-25. As a reminder, the former Chicago guard played a total of 35 contests last season.
These struggles were on fully display in his first season back on the court. It only made it that much easier for Chicago to look at Isaac Okoro and take their chances with the former Cavaliers wing.
Ball is shooting 30.6 percent from the field and 28.4 percent from beyond the arc in Cleveland thus far. The conversation will continue to be about patience with Ball. If there is no improvement as the Cavaliers get deeper into the season, those talking points will slowly begin to shift.