Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is not only coaching his teammates, he’s building up their confidence. 

“Sometimes he doesn’t realize how great he is,” James said after a 90-83 win over the Utah Jazz on Friday night at Staples Center.

Ball finished with 9 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists against the Jazz, but it was his decision-making in the fourth quarter that made the difference.

“Even when he’s not making, just his attack as you’ve seen earlier in the game, just him getting to the rim [is important],” James said of Ball, who went 4-for-10 from the field. “He missed a couple of ’em; that’s absolutely fine. He had a couple charges; that’s absolutely fine. When he’s aggressive it just changes our dynamic of the team, and he’s been doing it of late and we need him to continue to do that because he’s very good.”

“I just play better like that,” Ball said, also crediting teammate Rajon Rondo for coaching him up. “… I have a great coaching staff, great teammates pushing me every day. So I just keep hearing them in my ear, trying to do the right things on the court.”

Walton said the one player who always makes the extra pass — sometimes so much that the team encourages him to hold on to the ball longer, so he can do something with it and make a play — is Ball.

“He doesn’t [even] have 82 games under his belt yet,” James said of Ball. “So I think every game is another teaching point for him and experience will continue to happen more and more and he’s going to know what he does extremely well to help us, but more importantly help him be successful on the floor. I can see it, but sometimes for you personally, you have to continue to figure it out. He hasn’t even put a full regular season into his books yet.”

If Lonzo buys in to the LeBron program, the Lakers have a great shot of getting to the playoffs. I don’t see them making any noise when they get there, but you never know. 

LeBron had done more with a lot less.