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It wasn’t clear how many teams would seriously look at LiAngelo Ball — the brother of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball — during the lead-up to the 2018 NBA Draft, but according to Alex Kennedy of Hoopshype, the former UCLA commit has at least five teams to give him a look.
According to Kennedy, the Lakers are among them.
.@LiAngeloBall says he interviewed with the Thunder and Suns yesterday at the @ProBBallCombine. After this event ends, he has private workouts scheduled with the Lakers, Clippers and Warriors.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) May 23, 2018
There was some thought the Lakers would stay away from LiAngelo entirely, despite his stated goal of joining his brother’s NBA team, if for no other reason than to avoid allowing his and Lonzo’s father LaVar to get more hooks into the purple and gold.
Apparently that might have been misinformed, even if it’s far from a guarantee they’ll draft the middle Ball child, according to Bill Oram of the O.C. Register:
Everyone I’ve spoken to has indicated the Lakers will give LiAngelo a workout. Concerned about further fulfilling the Prophecy of LaVar? Drafting him would be another matter entirely. https://t.co/wqbji5aT7X
— Bill Oram (@billoram) May 23, 2018
Drafting him would be different not just because of any theoretical concerns about LaVar or the potentially complicated dynamics of having two siblings of vastly different talent levels play for the same team, but also because LiAngelo just might not be an NBA player.
Despite their father’s suggestion that bringing in LiAngelo will help fix Lonzo’s shot (no, I’m not kidding, he actually said that), it’s not clear that LiAngelo is actually good enough to help the Lakers. He is not even listed among the the top-100 prospects in the 2018 NBA Draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. In a 60-selection draft, that would seem to leave him on the outside looking in when it comes to being selected.
Now, that doesn’t mean that the Lakers couldn’t potentially give LiAngelo a look with either of their summer league teams or in the G League next season, but until they do, it’s probably best to not take this workout for more than what it is: The Lakers hosting a fringe NBA prospect — much like all the others they’ve brought to the facility over the last month — in order to see if they can find a talent others missed.
All stats per sports-reference.com. A full list of every prospect we know the Lakers have worked out is available here. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen, or support his work via Venmo here or Patreon here.