Prior to the 2017 NBA Draft, there were concerns about Lonzo Ball's father, LaVar Ball and his antics. However, the Los Angeles Lakers still selected his son with the second overall pick with President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka in charge.

During the 2017-18 NBA season, Johnson revealed he had two conversations with Ball's father and does not need to monitor him according to Ryan Ward of ClutchPoints:

During the team's nine-game losing streak in late December, Ball's father made unfair comments about head coach Luke Walton losing the team. In a time when a young Lakers team was struggling, his comments could have been extremely damaging, but Los Angeles was able to turn it around en route to their first 30-plus win season since 2012-13.

For the 20-year-old, he handled himself extremely well in his rookie season despite some distractions from his father. While the point guard will need to improve his shooting percentages and play more than 52 games, he showed flashes of what he can eventually become.

With a young head coach leading the young core, there is great optimism for the storied franchise moving forward. As Johnson and Pelinka have cleared cap space for two max contract players, the focus will be on signing LeBron James and Paul George. However, if that does not happen, the Lakers can re-sign Julius Randle and preserve cap space for next year which features Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, and Jimmy Butler.