The Chicago Bulls announced last week that star guard Lonzo Ball will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his injured left knee and will be evaluated again in four-to-six weeks.
This was the clearest indication yet that the torn meniscus Ball suffered last season had not completely healed. Said timeline would have kept him out at least through the start of Chicago’s regular season.
Ball, 24, provided more clarity on this during a Q&A with the media on Tuesday. The update he provided is not great. Ball noted that sitting out the entire 2022-23 season was the “worst-case scenario.” He also expanded on the issues that the guard has been dealing with while he still recovers from the meniscus injury and plans for another surgery.
“The whole summer was just meeting with specialists, talking to different doctors and rehabbing. Doing everything we could to stay out of surgery and get back on the court.
Unfortunately, we’re at a point where we used the whole summer to pretty much just work and get as far as I can. The pain is gone down, but I’d say the range was this far (motions a gap with hands), and now it’s still like this (closes gap with hands). But I still can’t play basketball. So, unfortunately, I’ve got to take the next step and that’s surgery.”
Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball on injury update, via Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic
Ball last played a game back on Jan. 14 against the Golden State Warriors. He missed Chicago’s final 42 regular-season outings and its playoff loss to the Milwaukee Bucks after undergoing surgery. This represented the second mensiscus surgery Ball has undergone since the Los Angeles Lakers made him the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
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Lonzo Ball injury update is concerning
“This is something I’ve never dealt with. Even the doctors are surprised a little bit,” Ball told reporters. That can’t be seen as a good omen moving forward into the 2022-23 season.
Ball has missed ample time during his still-young NBA career, primarily due to lower-body injuries. He sat out 30 games as a rookie, 35 more games during his sophomore campaign and had to miss another 47 outings during the 2021-22 season. It’s looking like more of the same with the 2022-23 season nearly upon us.
“Yeah, I literally can’t. I can’t run. I can’t run or jump. There’s a range from, like, 30 to 60 degrees on my knee is bent that I have no force. And I can’t catch myself,” Ball said on Tuesday. “So until I can do those things, I can’t play. I did rehab. It was getting better. But it was not to a point where I could get out there and go out there and run at full speed or jump. So surgery was the next step.”
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Chicago Bulls did prepare for Lonzo Ball injury news
Chicago’s decision to keep combo guard Coby White coupled with its late-summer signing of veteran Goran Dragic made it clear that the power to be in the Windy City were planning for this eventuality.
It’s not great given that Chicago signed Ball to a four-year, $80 million contract ahead of the 2021-22 season. When he played last season, the guard looked darn good in a Bulls uniform.
Lonzo Ball stats (2021-22): 13.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.8 SPG, 42% shooting, 42% 3-point, 1.4 defensive win shares
With Ball on the court, Chicago boasted a 22-13 record. It was a pedestrian 24-23 in the 47 games that he missed. If Ball is forced to miss the entire season, the Bulls could look to the trade market. If not, White and Dragic will join stud youngster Ayo Dosunmu in sharing point guard duties for a team that still fancies itself as a title contender.