Analysing Lonzo Ball's way of playing

The first thing that catches your attention when you see Lonzo Ball is his odd way of shooting. He shoots with his right hand but brings the ball up from the left side. This allows him to shoot even when he is being defended from the right side. Thus, to defend him you must do it as if he were a left-handed shooter. You must place your right foot forward and keep your left foot behind.

Passing and change of direction

In the video below, you can see in the first play that he is standing still with the ball in his hands. In this case, he is thinking of making a pass to the man who cuts to the basket. He makes a chest pass.

When he gets from the backcourt to the other end of the court and finds a defender, he fakes to the left and then to the right (see minute 1:14). He does it a lot of times during the game. In this case he benefits from a screen.

Finishing and fast-break passing

Normally, when he drives to the basket from the left side, he uses his left hand to finish. Frequently, he finishes on the far side of the rim (1:22) (6:58). When he drives to the basket from the right side, he finishes with a high lay-up (2:09) or dunks (2:29).

Another play that he likes a lot is to make a fast-break pass (2:41). He does it a lot of times. The player receiving it is almost always the same guy, this forward who looks like a mixture of Spanish player Iturriaga and Scottie Pippen. He also makes a baseball pass to the same player (2:52) (8:36). He usually throws lob passes to the post players (3:07) (3:19) (7:19).

This ability to read teammates, screens and open spaces is also the kind of tactical detail discussed in my review of NBA Coaches Playbook.

Details visible in the highlights

When he shoots and scores, normally he has his defender on his right side, but as he is a right-handed shooter who shoots from the left side, as we already said, he is difficult to defend because it is counter-intuitive (3:59) (4:12) (6:00) (9:00).

When he drives along the baseline on the right side, he uses his left forearm to create separation and get past his defender (5:37).

When he drives to the basket from the left side and is stopped by a double team, he then passes the ball with his right hand (7:46) (8:13), and when the same happens on the right side, he passes with his right hand again instead of using his left hand. This is when it is more obvious that he is right-handed; however, he uses both hands very well.

When he intercepts the ball, he normally makes a very quick movement (9:19).

What highlight videos do not show

It would be interesting to observe when he makes mistakes, which mistakes he makes most often, but videos frequently show only highlights.

So, watching this video, Lonzo Ball reminds me very much of the ingenious Croatian Drazen Petrovic in all his movements.