After the Los Angeles Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell and selected Lonzo Ball second overall in last June’s draft, it was clear that they see him as their point guard of the future. Despite only being 19 years old, they were ready to hand over the playmaking duties to him, and earn a lot of experience together with their other young players.

With all the expectations they have for the rookie out of UCLA, Luke Walton wants him to get more familiarized with the style of play of all his teammates quickly. That said, he plans to have them share the court as much as they can with Ball. However, the second-year head coach also made it clear that he will stick to the usual minutes he gives him, and not have him play entire games, via Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.

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“The way Julius [Randle] was rolling to the basket in the fourth quarter [against New Orleans on Sunday], I’d like to get them some minutes together,” Walton said. “You could go down the line. The way that Brook [Lopez] can stretch the floor, I’d like to keep Brook and Lonzo in together. Unfortunately a lot of those guys are overlapping positions and we’re not going to play Lonzo 48 minutes.”

“We’ve kind of thrown the whole rookie thing out the window. Even though I do believe it’s important for young players to kind of grow up under some vets, that’s just not the way our team is. We got young players and they’re gonna play.”

Walton's comments definitely show how much trust he has on Lonzo Ball, and that he wants him to be better at co-existing with his teammates on the floor. Playing alongside them will definitely give him the understanding he needs to make them more effective on the floor, which could lead to more victories in their coming games. Should that happen, the Lakers will be able to live up to the hype, and could mark the end of their rebuilding stage if they can make a postseason appearance this season.