Lonzo Ball has already been a tremendous addition for the Cleveland Cavaliers in a lot of ways. His scoring ability is the dreaded department that has been holding him back from making his impact even larger for his new team.
Making buckets has never been the strong suit of Ball's game at the NBA level. His career high in points per game was 14.6 in the 2020-21 season with the New Orleans Pelicans.
The best field goal percentage of his career was registered in 2021-22, when Ball put up a mark of 42.3 before the injury that would cost him several seasons in the NBA. Since returning, there has still been an uphill battle to really find a spark as a scorer for the former second overall pick.
No one doubts that Ball's overall impact is still positive. His playmaking and perimeter defense make him an easy inclusion to any lineup. The Cavaliers have no reason to shy away from him in the rotation as long as they know his scoring impact may still be rough for quite some time.
Lonzo Ball's comeback shows how tough it is to rediscover scoring touch
After missing over two seasons with a knee injury that could have easily prevented him from returning to an NBA court at all, Ball finally played again with the Chicago Bulls in 2024-25. The two-way guard offered encouraging signs of ability after missing all that time.
His impact as a scorer, similarly to the start of this season, was just not fully there yet. Ball only averaged 7.6 points per game, shooting a disappointing 36.6 percent from the field and a modest 34.4 percent from beyond the arc.
That was a real shame for a player who had carved out a respectable niche with his scoring ability before his injury. Ball had developed a reliable shot from deep in the seasons leading up to his career-altering ailments.
From the start of the 2019-20 campaign up until his injury in 2021-22, the tall point guard shot 38.7 percent from 3-point land on 7.3 attempts per game. That helped Ball with his overall field goal percentage, shooting 41.2, as the majority of his looks came from distance.
That effective surge of scoring has not been recaptured yet. That does not mean it never will be. However, if the Cavaliers want to benefit from everything else Ball brings, they will need to accept him being a negative as a scorer as he goes through the growing pains of returning to form.