The Los Angeles Lakers may be years removed from Lonzo Ball’s purple-and-gold chapter, but the former No. 2 pick just poured gasoline on one of the franchise’s most defining modern trades. Now a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers and still working his way back from years of injuries, Ball has finally spoken out in a way he never has before — and his explosive comments are already rattling Lakers fans who lived through the Anthony Davis blockbuster of 2019.
Ball, who was shipped to New Orleans alongside Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and a mountain of first-round picks, didn’t mince words when reflecting on the trade that effectively ended the “Baby Lakers” era. Speaking on the Ball in the Family podcast, he dropped a take that immediately lit up social media:
“Unpopular opinion probably, though I feel like I could have played with D’Angelo Russell honestly… I think they should have just kept all these picks and just see how it would have went.”
It’s a statement that lands like a punch — especially because the Lakers did win a championship with Davis in his first season. That 2020 bubble run became the franchise’s 17th title and stood for years as justification that the blockbuster deal, expensive as it was, paid off. But with Davis now gone in one of the most surprising trades in league history, Ball’s revisionist perspective suddenly feels less outrageous and more like a stinging “what if” aimed straight at the Lakers’ front office.
To Ball’s credit, he earned the right to speak on his potential. His second season in New Orleans was the breakout many expected: 14.6 points, 7.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds and a rapidly improving jumper. The vision was still intact. The playmaking was still elite. The defensive instincts still popped. But everything changed in January 2022, when a meniscus injury began a two-year spiral that derailed his trajectory and silenced speculation about his former team. Ball missed the entire 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons, and even now — averaging 6.1 points, 5.2 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 24 minutes with Cleveland — he is essentially trying to rebuild his career brick by brick.
Yet that context hasn’t stopped him from asserting what could have happened if the Lakers had stuck with their young core. And his comments land at a moment when the Lakers themselves are undergoing another seismic shift. Davis, the star they traded half their roster for, was dealt to Dallas last season in the shocking move that brought Luka Doncic to Los Angeles. The franchise, now preparing for the eventual post-LeBron James era, is openly pivoting toward long-term sustainability — a model eerily similar to the one they abandoned when they traded Ball in the first place.
For many fans, Ball’s claim sparks a bizarre re-evaluation: Would a homegrown core built around Ball, Ingram and a returning D’Angelo Russell have flourished in the long run? Could they have become the West’s next great young powerhouse? Did the Lakers sacrifice too much for a star who, despite delivering a title, ultimately stayed only five-and-a-half seasons?
Those questions only get louder knowing Ball will face the Lakers in January, his first real chance to show them — even after everything — what they gave up.
And with Lonzo now speaking freely, it’s fair to wonder: Is this just nostalgia talking, or is Ball saying what Laker fans have secretly wondered for years?
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