With the Los Angeles Lakers set to play their third preseason game on Thursday, there’s a remote possibility Lonzo Ball will take the court with his teammates for the first time. Ball was a full participant in another practice session on Wednesday.
“We’ll see how he feels [Thursday] morning at shootaround,” Lakers head coach Luke Walton said. “If he’s feeling great, maybe we’ll play him very limited minutes. That will be decided [Thursday].”
While the Lakers reported Ball being 100 percent at the outset of training camp, he initially was held out of contact and 5-on-5 scrimmages. However, that was short-lived, and Ball impressed since his return to all basketball activity.
During an offseason in which he could not be on the court because of the recovery from knee surgery, Ball developed and improve in other areas — specifically adding muscle to his frame and establishing more of a presence in the film room.
The latter was influenced in part by the Lakers signing Rajon Rondo, who has embraced his role as a mentor to Ball. Rondo has started each of the first two preseason games thus far, and presumably will do so even if Ball plays Thursday at Staples Center.
And considering that Ball wouldn’t have much game action under his belt come the start of regular season, there’s enough to believe he will open the campaign as the backup point guard.
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