It is very safe to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers' acquisition of Lonzo Ball did not work out according to plan. Acquired in a straight-up trade with the Chicago Bulls for Isaac Okoro, Ball struggled mightily in his half-season with the Cavs. He ended up being a cap casualty, with the Cavs deciding to dump his salary to the Utah Jazz, which then waived him and sent him to free agency.
Ball did not produce well in a Cavs uniform; in 35 games, he put up just 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists while shooting 30.1 percent from the field and 27.2 percent from deep. It got to a point where Ball's father, LaVar, felt as though he had to step in and tell the Cavs how to utilize his son better.
“You're already messing him up by not starting him,” LaVar said in an appearance on the Ball in the Family podcast. “You got him coming off the bench, running to the corner. He’s never played like that in his life and he’s supposed to adapt after he didn’t play all these years of basketball. That’s not going to work.”
“I told them that when I went up there and I said, ‘If you only want him to play 20 minutes, how about we let him play 24 but just let him play the last two quarters?'”
LaVar Ball will always have his son's back despite rough end to Cavs tenure
What doesn't make sense in LaVar's plan to use Lonzo is that the Cavs were very much wary of overtaxing his body. Ball has well-documented knee problems that took years out of his career, so it doesn't make much sense for Cleveland to give him such a heavy workload.
At present, Ball remains a free agent, and there isn't much buzz surrounding his name. It doesn't seem as though he'll be latching with a team before the 2025-26 season ends, which is a testament to how his stock fell off a cliff during his time with the Cavs.
