As I am sure most of you have been thinking since the bubble, The Pels really need to address the center position and ideally sign/draft a great 3&D lockdown sniper. Adams is a GREAT pickup IMO, doing great work beyond what stats reveal to address the former. And, unfortunately, the latter is something that is in high demand on almost every team in the league.
Having watched Lonzo since he was drafted in LA, I always assumed he would always ONLY see himself as a PG, which poses obvious problems. But the article on The Bird Writes by David Fisher quotes a July podcast with SVG, and it gives me hope that maybe SVG can get Lonzo to buy-in to what SVG himself thankfully has noticed:
"At 6'6", with his ability to defend, he passes the ball and he's making the three. I think sometimes we can get too focused on what guys can't do. He's got a nice package of skills. And as you (Zach Lowe) mentioned they've got other ball handling pieces. He doesn't need to facilitate everything in the half court. If everything goes right and you can run your half court offense through Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and Jrue Holiday with some catch and shoot and movement stuff for JJ Redick. In the half court, what's the problem if Lonzo Ball becomes mainly just a standstill shooter?
That's what you do as a coach. You look to people's strengths and you put it together. We've been reading about with Philly, Ben Simmons playing more as a traditional four. I sort of think Ben Simmons as the point guard in transition. Let's go ahead and outlet to him or he's such a great rebounder, like Lonzo Ball is, take it off the glass and go ahead and be our point guard in transition. And then, in the half court, fine then we'll use Ben Simmons as the screener in pick and roll. I think there's going to be more and more guys in the league like that who are hybrid-type guys. That in transition they're going to play one position and in the half court they're going to have another role. And I think that's where Lonzo Ball fits for these guys."
As the article says, Lonzo shot 38.9% behind the arc on 262 catch and shoot attempts last season illustrating his strengths, while his weaknesses are revealed in his shooting 33.9% on 359 drives with 47 assists against 46 turnovers.
Perhaps we have the excellent 3&D wing we have been looking for all along, if Lonzo can get past the idea that he is a PG and maybe put on a little bit more upper body muscle...