“Lonzo Ball has the highest basketball IQ among all point guards”: Magic Johnson throws his weight behind his first-ever Lakers draft pick ahead of the trade deadline

Magic Johnson has high praise for Lonzo Ball, says that there is no player or point guard in the league with a higher basketball IQ than him. 

With the March 25th trade deadline fast approaching, the NBA trade rumor mill has been churning out landing spots for a multitude of players. Scenarios such as Andre Drummond to the Lakers, Kyle Lowry to the Heat, and even Spencer Dinwiddie to Miami have been thrown out there. 

Perhaps one of the most lucrative, under-the-radar players that make been on the trading block as of this moment, is Lonzo Ball. The Pelicans point guard was poised to live up to the standards LaVar Ball and Magic Johnson set for him back in 2017, after being traded to the Pelicans two years later. 

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His first year in NOP however, didn’t go as planned. The projected ‘Most Improved Player’ season didn’t pan out the way it was expected to last season. Fast-forward to today and Zo is shooting better than Trae Young from deep while averaging nearly 15 points per game. 

Magic Johnson says Lonzo Ball has some of the highest basketball IQ out there

Seems as though Zo’s old recruiter Magic hasn’t lost any love for him as he takes to his interview with Stephen A. Smith to praise Lonzo Ball’s game, and more so, his basketball IQ and knowhow of the game. 

“There’s no point guard in this league whose basketball IQ is higher than Lonzo Ball’s. The IQ of Lonzo Ball is off the charts.” 

“There’s no point guard in this league whose basketball IQ is higher than Lonzo Ball.”

—@MagicJohnson on @FirstTake pic.twitter.com/LcLcSwcFbE

— ESPN (@espn) March 23, 2021

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It’s no secret that the oldest Ball brother is a gifted playmaker. Whether it’s his timely passes out of dribble penetration or his perfectly placed lobs to Zion Williamson, Lonzo has proven to be one of the smartest guys handling the rock. 

On the flipside, Magic Johnson could be singing Lonzo’s praise to save face. After all, he did make the decision to build the Lakers around the UCLA Bruin back in 2017 after trading away D’Angelo Russell.

Magic bet all his money in the hopes of Zo breaking his old records and leading the Lakers to the glory days of Showtime. So him talking about Lonzo in such a high regard could just be a way of him trying to justify picking Lonzo over guys like Bam Adebayo, Donovan Mitchell, and Jayson Tatum.