In his rookie campaign lasts season, Los Angeles Lakers stud Lonzo Ball showed the entire basketball world why he deserved the second overall pick in the Draft. Now entering his sophomore year, Ball seems primed to take his game a step further.

Ball’s debut season was cut short by a knee injury that caused him to sit out the last remaining weeks of the regular season. However, it appears that his recovery is going far better than expected. According to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN, team head coach Luke Walton was actually taken aback at how far along his prized youngster is in terms of his his road to recovery.

“Coach Luke Walton said he was ‘shocked how good he looked’ over the previous few days as far as his feel, considering he hadn’t played since his rookie season ended in April.”

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Nonetheless, Walton admitted that they have no intentions of rushing Ball back to game action.

“We’re gonna be patient,” Walton said. “No need to rush it right now. We’ll put minutes restrictions on him as he starts coming back in the preseason. And everything will be, ‘How do you feel?’ the next day, ‘How do you feel?’ that night. As long we keep checking those off and he’s fine, the minutes restrictions will go up and up until we decide to get rid of it altogether.”

Given these recent developments, it would not be surprising if Ball gets close to 100 percent once the season officially gets underway in a couple of weeks’ time. The Lakers at full strength would definitely be a sight to see this season.