In light of the moves they made before the trade deadline, the Philadelphia 76ers now actually have a longer to-do list before they enter the stretch run of the season. The exit of Jared McCain leaves a gaping hole in the rotation when it comes to playmaking, which forces the front office to look into the buyout market. One name to watch out for is Lonzo Ball, who is available for taking at the moment.
Ball is probably the best table-setter on the buyout market, which makes him such an intriguing option for the 76ers given their persistent void when it comes to playmaking. Having said that, there are pretty glaring concerns about his shooting across the board, which could very well tank his case for Philly’s brain trust.
In 35 games for the Cavs this season before he got traded to the Jazz (which then waived him), Ball drained just 30.1 percent of his shots — a figure that is too dreadful in and of itself. To make matters worse, he had no semblance of any redeeming factor whatsoever when it comes to his shot. He has canned just 27.2 percent of his triples while converting on only 66.7 percent of his attempts from the charity stripe.
The 76ers could get turned off by Lonzo Ball and his complete lack of shooting
The 76ers definitely need a natural point guard in the rotation — there is no debating that. However, of equal importance is their three-point shooting, and given Ball’s lack of acuity out on the perimeter, a string argument could be made that his weaknesses could easily overshadow his strengths.
Philly is already in the bottom-half of the league in all three-point shooting metrics. As such, signing and installing Ball as their resident floor general off the bench could be very detrimental to their offense and make them easier to game-plan against. The 76ers already have a bunch of shot creators who need space to operate, and deploying Ball could further clog up the lanes and make life tougher for his teammates.
In all fairness, there are some highly pronounced benefits of having someone like Ball in the fold. As mentioned, he is a great playmaker and a positive defender. However, with how teams are defending the 76ers, another non-shooter will only empower opposing defenses to double-down on their top options.
There are still good reasons why the 76ers should go after Lonzo Ball in the buyout market, but if they decide to go on that route, they better be prepared to full accept his critical flaw as a non-shooter. Otherwise, they should look elsewhere.