If Lonzo Ball is available, the Detroit Pistons should go after him

Anthony Davis requesting a trade from New Orleans has caused a rippling effect across the NBA. One effect should get the Detroit Pistons involved.

Anthony Davis has let the New Orleans Pelicans know that he will not be signing a contract extension with them and has requested a trade, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

This is breaking news, though many have seen this coming for a long time.

The Detroit Pistons have ZERO shot at even offering the Pelicans an offer for Davis, but his trade request has a rippling effect that even hits southeast Michigan.

The Los Angeles Lakers, of course, are extremely interested in Davis; as they have been waiting to try and pull a second superstar to play with LeBron James.

Magic Johnson believes they have the assets to do so, with young intriguing players like Brandon Ingram. Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart…

And Lonzo Ball.

Depending who you ask, Ball may be the most valuable out of all them. Kuzma can score and create looks for himself (19.1 points per game this season), but can’t do much else outside of that.

Ingram is an intriguing wing with loads of potential, but has taken a step back this year.

Hart is the perfect three and D player you’d like to have in this kind of NBA, but has struggled this year with his deep shot, going from a 40 percent shooter last year to 34 percent this year.

Ball is the most controversial player of them all. His fans will rightfully talk about how high his basketball IQ is, how great of a passer he is, his high level defense, and rebounding for a guard.

His naysayers will bring up his inconsistent and junky jump shot, as he is a 33 percent shooter from long range.

The potential is there for Ball and he already is good at so many things, but the lack of offensive scoring has left some questioning how good he can actually be.

Anyways, these are the players the Lakers would have to trade or build a trade around in order to go after Davis.

However, as reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, Ball’s camp would prefer to be traded to a third team that does not have an established starting point guard.

If this actually is an option, and the Lakers search for a third team to grab Ball, the Pistons should jump all over it.

The Reggie Jackson experiment is over for the Pistons, and they’ve been linked in trade rumors to multiple point guards like Dennis Smith Jr. and Markelle Fultz. They desperately need to find an upgrade at point guard, and Ball would be that.

Ball isn’t as good of a shooter than Jackson (Jackson is a 34 percent shooter), but he is better at just about every other aspect of basketball.

He’s an incredible passer, that is always looking to make his teammates better. He has great vision and a great feel for the game.

He’s seen his usage rate drop this year due to the arrival of James, but has seen his role increase since James went down with a leg injury.

In the 13 games Ball has played in since James has went down, he is averaging 12.5 points, 7.2 assists, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.4 steals a game on 42 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent shooting from deep.

All of those being an upgrade over his season averages.

Ball is also one of the best passers you’ll ever see off a rebound and sending an outlet pass down the court.

Ball makes passes like this all the time, sometimes multiple times per game. His fast pace style, matched with his passing vision and willingness to get his teammates easy buckets make everyone around him better.

For whatever reason coming out of college, people thought Ball’s defense would be a question mark in the NBA. This couldn’t have been proved wrong anymore than it has through two years.

Ball is 6’6″ with a 6’9″ wingspan, and is more athletic than people thought coming out of college. He’s proven not only to be a good enough defender for the NBA, but he is a high level defender for his position.

His length and athleticism causes guards problems in the pick and roll, and his length allows him to be a menace off-ball.

Defense is hard to represent through statistics and eye test is the best way to observe ones defense. However for what it is worth, the Lakers defensive rating is two points better with Ball on the floor.

This was against your very own Detroit Pistons. As said above, Ball has an extremely high basketball IQ and makes a ton of plays based of instincts.

Here, Ball reads the play by the Pistons and gambles by rotating over and jumping the pass to Reggie Bullock. His length allows him to make plays like this, plays he makes all the time.

Another play here where Ball uses his all of his special talents inside of one play. Ball uses his length, athleticism, and anticipation to stop a fast break attempt off a made basket.

The Sacramento Kings rank first in fast break points, and have shown Pistons fans this year how much they love to run at any time, made basket or not.

Ball knows this, gets back quickly, and makes the play to stop the break for the Lakers.

His lone, biggest downfall is his shooting.

His jump shot is all funky, and he is inconsistent making his long range shot attempts.

He has improved his long range shooting this year from 30 percent to 33 percent, but that still isn’t great. The biggest problem in my humble opinion is the inconsistency with his shot.

As said above, Ball is shooting 37 percent from downtown since James went down (13 games).

He’s had stretches of shooting pretty good from downtown, but then he has stretches when he can’t throw a rock in the ocean. He’s shown potential and the willingness to be a deep range shooter, but the biggest problem has been the inconsistency.

In this video I made last year, I was obviously a bit off with the title. However, I talked about how Ball went through a few month stretch of shooting the ball really well.

But, he then had an absolute horrific stretch shooting and it destroyed his percentage.

So, once again. The biggest downfall to his game is his shooting, and I believe it has to do with consistency. I think with another off-season and possibly tweaking a little bit more of his shot (like he willingly did last summer), his shot will be much more consistent.

And while 33 percent isn’t a great percentage, it’s really good to see the improvement from 30 percent in year one to 33 percent in year two.

Ball is arguably the best player among the Lakers young prospects and has the most potential out of all them.

Ball is 21 years old, and is on a rookie deal.

He would be an immediate upgrade at point guard for the Detroit Pistons, which is one of the biggest problems with the team.

If Ball is involved in a Davis trade for the Lakers, the Detroit Pistons should absolutely go all out after him. A 21 year old point guard, who’s already great at many aspects of the game, with tons of potential, at a position of need is a no brainer for the Pistons.

The trade deadline in on February 7th.

We’ll find out soon whether the Detroit Pistons inquire about the member of the Ball family.

Oh, did I say it’d be fun to have Lavar around Detroit?