The Chicago Bulls will be without Lonzo Ball for the remainder of the season.
One hurdle every NBA team faces is the chance of losing a player to injury for an extended period of time. The season can quickly shift and teams can find themselves slowly falling down the rankings.
This is true for Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball who still seems to be dealing with an ongoing knee injury and is unlikely to return this season.
Sources: Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is expected to be shut down for the remainder of the season. Ball has been rehabbing from meniscus surgery in late January, but continues to feel discomfort amid several recovery methods to return to action and a bone bruise in his knee.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 5, 2022
The Bulls confirmed that Ball will be out of the remainder of the season.
Chicago had some big offseason signings that included Ball, DeMar DeRozan, and Alex Caruso. The Bulls spent over $198 million dollars on just those three players. A 2020-2021 in-season trade for Nikola Vucevic with the Magic sent two players and two future first-round picks to Orlando. Ten players left the Bulls in various ways throughout the offseason and the team looked very different at the start of this year.
Lonzo has been out since January 15, and the Bulls have been slowly falling since then. Chicago was first in the Eastern Conference after the first week of January. It is now the first week of April and the Bulls are sixth in the East. In the last game Ball played this season, the Bulls had a 27-13 record. The team is currently 45-34 with three regular-season games left.
In 35 games played this season, Ball was averaging 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. Luckily, the Bulls have a lot of other explosive talents that can make up for the absence of Ball.
The master of the mid-range, DeMar DeRozan has had to burden a lot of the scoring duties for the Bulls. I don’t think he minds one bit. This is the most points per game he’s averaged as a pro with 28.2 per game. DeRozan has had 18 games in his career with 40-plus points, and five of them have been with Chicago in just one season.
With Ball unlikely to make a return this year, Chicago will need veteran leadership to take over in the playoffs. If the season ended today, they would have a first-round matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks. Certainly not the team you want to see to start the playoffs.
The regular season ends this Sunday, April 10th and the Play-In Tournament begins Tuesday, April 12th. Milwaukee is looking to make it back-to-back Eastern Conference titles. Will anyone else be able to stop Giannis and the Bucks, or is Greek Freak taking over?