Lonzo Ball discusses Lakers: “I don’t think we ever got on the same page my rookie year”

Lonzo Ball reflected on his two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers during episode #6 of Trae Young’s podcast.

(via From The Point Podcast by Trae Young):

Ball describes tough rookie year/sophomore season progress:

“You know how it is, you don’t really know what to expect coming into something new, especially the NBA. For me it was a lot different than college personally just because I think fit…honestly, college is important, too. You gotta pick the right school to go to, you need to go to who wants you, where you can rock out, and do your thing like that. NBA, you don’t get to decide that much; it’s just based off the draft and who needs what. But for me, it was just coming in and try to work as hard and learn as much as I can. I would say it was just a little tough because when I went to the Lakers my first year we didn’t have no vets, we didn’t have like no leadership or nothing.

“It was just a bunch of young guys, a young coach, and we were all trying to figure it out at the same time. So I don’t think we ever got on the same page my rookie year, but that kinda changed my second year when we got Rondo & Bron and some more vets around the team to really guide the young guys. That’s important in the league, showing us the way and stuff like that. It was going good, but we all just got hurt that second year. But other than that, I don’t regret nothing. I played for my hometown team, that was a dream come true for me.”

Young asks Ball if the Lakers mindset changed as a team when LeBron James & Rajon Rondo arrived:

“For sure, you could just tell with Bron in the gym, it’s just a different feel, just off bat. But way more attention to detail, like our practices were way different. It was just literally night and day, man, night and day, and I really wish we could have seen what could have happened that second year. But everybody went down, starting with Bron first, and then me, and then BI (Brandon Ingram), Rondo, like our whole team got hurt.”