Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Lonzo Ball opened up about his performance this season on a recent episode of his podcast, the "Ball In The Family Podcast".
There Ball spoke about his weak shooting performances from deep this season.
“I don’t feel like I’m playing as badly as people are saying. I know I’m the scapegoat right now," said Ball. “I'm not gonna say I'm playing great. But to me, I’m just missing shots, for real.”
In 35 games with Cleveland this season before being traded to the Utah Jazz at the deadline as part of a salary dump, Ball had been shooting a career-low 27.2% from three-point range. This number is much lower than his previous career-low (30.5%), which came eight seasons ago in Ball's rookie year with the Los Angeles Lakers.
With all of this in mind, is Ball really a scapegoat in Cleveland?
It's hard to believe that he is.
Following Cleveland's trade for guards Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis from the Sacramento Kings, Ball became expendable.
Not to mention, the Cavaliers had salary cap restraints that led them to find another home for Ball.
Considering Cleveland entered the season with the highest payroll in the league, keeping Ball's $10 million salary wasn't in their best interest, especially after he moved down in the depth chart.
The James Harden trade also played a factor, with Harden becoming another guard Ball had to play behind. Furthermore, Cleveland was desperate to move money around in order to make a legitimate run at signing Harden to an extension this offseason.
Either way, the Cavaliers have went on a run since his departure, going undefeated since the trade deadline.
As for Ball, he's rumored to have plenty of suitors on the buyout market.
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