On the first Friday evening of July, which just so happened to be the opening night of the NBA’s annual Las Vegas extravaganza, a murmur crescendoed into a buzz, and Lonzo Ball wasn’t even moving yet. He stood still, 30 feet from one basket at the Thomas & Mack Center, an orange pearl in his hands, and the eyes of thousands of purple-and gold-clad disciples glued to him. Laker Nation couldn’t contain its excitement. And that was before Ball ever flicked his wrists and let the orange pearl fly.

The pass was majestic. It delicately whizzed toward the far side of the rim. As it did, its gravitational pull yanked Laker fans out of their seats. There were more than 10,000 of them. And as Brandon Ingram glided to meet Lonzo’s pass and complete the alley-oop, the vast majority of them roared.

Ball’s career had gotten off to an ideal start. He was the basketball wizard that so many hoped he would be. His status as franchise savior was confirmed. And then two hours later, he stunk.

And people overreacted.

And other people advised them not to overreact, but it was too tempting.

And Lonzo Ball was the center of attention.

More than a week later, all three of those statements still apply, but the nature of the (over)reactions couldn’t be more different. Lonzo led the Lakers to a Las Vegas summer league title with enthralling performance after enthralling performance, his unrivaled passing ability on full display. He was named MVP despite sitting out two games, including the final. He’s suddenly the toast of L.A., and the subject of newly formed basketball addictions for viewers around the world.

Yet, the advice still stands. In fact, the contrast between Lonzo opinions on July 7 and July 17 is why the advice was given in the first place. Not that we need yet another cautionary tale to guard against summer league overreactions, but let Lonzo’s 10 days in Vegas serve as one. He was immediately stunning. Then he was disappointing. Then he won back the label of franchise cornerstone.

And, ultimately, despite the fact that his six games were actually a mixed bag, Lonzo leads our list of the most notable winners and losers of the NBA’s various summer leagues in 2017.

Winner: Lonzo Ball, Los Angeles Lakers

So, where to begin? With the passing, of course. With the head-turning, wealth-spreading, inventive, stimulating, orgasmic passing. Everything about it is special, and it makes basketball impossibly fun.

But we already knew about the passing; the question marks were everywhere else: on-ball and off-ball defense, shooting, strength, off-the-bounce attacking, finishing, etc. Outside of his passing and vision, and perhaps his height (6-foot-6), he doesn’t have a demonstrably above-average NBA skill.

And after six summer games, many of those question marks are still, well, question marks. Ball shot just 12-for-50 on jumpers (per Synergy, via The Ringer’s Kevin O’Conner) in Vegas. He flashed occasional ability to get to the rim, but not with the regularity you’d hope to see against players on the NBA fringes. And he was hit-or-miss on defense. All those problems could be exacerbated when Ball takes the floor opposite John Wall instead of Larry Drew II or Spencer Dinwiddie.

But the passing was so captivating that it temporarily obscured every single one of his flaws. It made individual players better. It made the team better. And it should be even more influential when the talent level of the players on the ends of those passes improves.

It’s not time to crown Ball a superstar, just as it wasn’t time to hang a “BUST” tag from his shorts after Game One. As with all the players we’ll discuss below, the sample size wasn’t big enough, and the competition wasn’t representative of what Ball will see come October.

But the main takeaway from Ball’s summer league exploits is that his passing just might be so brilliant, so peerless, so transcendent that no defect can stop him from becoming at least an above-average NBA point guard. There’s no guarantee that it will be. But it sure looked that way.

Winner: Los Angeles Lakers

The Las Vegas summer league champions were more than just Lonzo. Much more. Ball and Ingram were the headliners heading into Vegas, but even without Ingram for all but one game, and without Ball for portions of three games, including part of the semifinal and all of the final, multiple summer Lakers starred. Point guard Alex Caruso earned a two-way contract with a standout performance in Lonzo’s absence. L.A.’s second first-round pick of 2017, Kyle Kuzma, and 2016-17 D-League MVP Vander Blue then caught fire during the final two games and led the Lakers to the title. Of the three, Kuzma’s performance was most encouraging.

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