Walton wants everyone to get some time with Ball
As Lakers coach Luke Walton chooses lineups and distributes minutes, he has come across a problem.
He’d like everyone on his roster to get minutes with point guard Lonzo Ball.
“The way Julius [Randle] was rolling to the basket in the fourth quarter [against New Orleans on Sunday], I’d like to get them some minutes together,” Walton said. “You could go down the line. The way that Brook [Lopez] can stretch the floor, I’d like to keep Brook and Lonzo in together. Unfortunately a lot of those guys are overlapping positions and we’re not going to play Lonzo 48 minutes.”
Walton wants Ball’s time to not exceed around 30 to 35 minutes so as not to overload him. He has similar unofficial minute limits on his other rookies too.
What Walton won’t do is keep rookies on the bench simply because of their youth.
“We’ve kind of thrown the whole rookie thing out the window,” Walton said. “Even though I do believe it’s important for young players to kind of grow up under some vets, that’s just not the way our team is. We got young players and they’re gonna play.
Brooks looks at Ball
A former point guard himself, Wizards coach Scott Brooks’ evaluation of Ball carries some weight.
So far Ball has impressed Brooks.
“He has the ability to make all of his teammates happy … because he’s willing to pass, and when you have that and you have a selfless mentality and you don’t care about scoring, you’re going to attract all of your teammates and they’re going to play hard for you and they’re going to run hard for you and you’re going to be able to lead them,” Brooks said. “And he has that. His offense is going to continue to improve.”
Magic does a double
Lakers president of basketball operations, and minority owner of the Dodgers Magic Johnson split his time Wednesday evening. He began the day at Dodger Stadium to watch the start of Game 2 of the World Series. Johnson left around the seventh inning and went to Staples Center, where he appeared on ESPN at halftime of the Lakers’ game against the Wizards.
While at the arena, Johnson spent some time with Rams players including quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley. Goff and Gurley were also introduced to soccer star David Beckham, who sat courtside.
Developing story
The Lakers assigned rookie center Thomas Bryant to the South Bay Lakers, their development league team, on Wednesday morning, only to call him back up to the Lakers for Wednesday night’s game.
That kind of back-and-forth journey is typical for young players who aren’t seeing any action during games. Last season the Lakers used a similar formula for then-rookie Ivica Zubac.
“He has been great in practice, he brings energy, he’s a good young player,” Walton said. “But we’ve got three games in four nights. And again next week. There’s just not a ton of practice time. With him we need him playing every single day.”
Bryant participated in a shoot-around with the Lakers on Wednesday morning, then practiced with the South Bay Lakers before returning to the Lakers for Wednesday’s game, for which he was inactive.
“ It’s just getting those guys as much development as possible, because there’s not minutes in the rotation for them,” Walton said. “It allows them to keep growing as players.”
Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @taniaganguli
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