Wizards Should Avoid Trading for Lamelo Ball

Ball is a great offensive player; no one can deny that. He has averaged 21.1 points per game across six seasons of play. The star guard is also shooting 36.2 percent from distance across his career, but his three-point shot has taken a step back this season, down to 29.8 percent. Ball is also averaging 9.6 assists per game this year.

Wizards Strengths and Struggles

The offense is clearly there, though he turns the ball over often, at 3.7 per game. The trade sounds excellent in theory, but if it were to happen, this would ruin the entire rebuild for this Wizards team. Ball is an All-Star caliber player, but that does not mean he would help every team he is on. There are two main reasons why this trade would never work. The first is that he is a horrible defensive player, and the second is that it would stunt the growth of other young players.

The Wizards are really struggling on defense, ranking among the worst in the NBA by many metrics. If they make a trade, it should be for a player who can help the team on defense. Ball would make this defense worse. The offense is already looking decent and has promise. Still, this team has to do something to improve the defense for future seasons.

The truth is, Ball would make this defense historically bad and just frustrate fans even more. It's like having a worse defensive version of Jordan Poole back on the team.

The second reason this trade would be awful is that it would take time away from young talent. Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, and many others need time to play and develop. Adding Ball just means Johnson and Bub Carrington would get even less time honing their skills that got them drafted into the league. George would see his usage drop and revert to his rookie-season self. This would just spell doom for the developmental system.

The truth is that for a Ball trade, and any trade for a superstar, it would severely limit growing opportunities for other players. Ball would take most of the shots, turn the ball over the majority of the time, and do virtually nothing on defense. This team would be a play-in team at best for multiple years. They would never be good, but never be horrible, just below average. The bottom line is Ball is a great player, but in Washington, he would only bring more misery and sorrow.