Bulls Guard Lonzo Ball to Miss Time With New Injury

Veteran Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball has been no stranger to injuries across his three seasons and change in the Windy City.

While drawing a lucrative four-season, $80 million contract, the 6-foot-6 UCLA product has only been healthy for 38 of a possible 250 regular season matchups. He’s missed the last two full seasons — and half of the 2021-22 season — while recuperating from three left knee surgeries to repair a mensicus tear.

Now, the 27-year-old is slated to be on the shelf for Chicago yet again. But probably not for quite as long.

Shams Charania of ESPN reports that the 3-and-D point guard has sprained his right wrist. The Bulls expect him to be out for the next 10 days, at a minimum.

Ball had already been playing limited bench minutes for the Bulls, who are no doubt looking to rehab his trade value as an expiring contract while he rehabs his game on the court.

Across just 15.7 minutes a game, Ball is averaging a career-low 4.7 points on 35.7 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent shooting from long range, on 4.0 3-point attempts a game, along with 3.7 dishes and 2.7 boards.

Read more: Lonzo Ball Reacts to First Healthy Bulls Game Since January 2022

That’s far below his career averages of 11.8 points on .400/.364/.578 shooting from the floor, 6.2 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks a bout, across his 255 regular season games (239 starts).

Surprisingly, behind the play of guards Zach LaVine, Coby White and Josh Giddey, the Bulls have gotten off to a decent 2-2 start for their 2024-25 season.

Ball, still a versatile defender and one of the bigger players on this frontcourt-challenged roster, has value off the bench for Chicago, but his injury history and gradual rollout has precluded him from being a big part of head coach Billy Donovan’s rotation.

A native of Chino Hills, Ball was selected by his hometown Los Angeles Lakers with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, ahead of future All-Stars Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox, Lauri Markkanen, Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo.

Ball has never reached those All-Star heights. Before being completely derailed by his knee injury, Ball had worked himself into being an above-average starter on his second team, the New Orleans Pelicans. He was traded to the Pelicans as part of the Lakers’ blockbuster package for All-NBA superstar center Anthony Davis. Los Angeles instantly won a championship by pairing Davis alongside All-NBA combo forward LeBron James.

Injuries have always been an impediment for Ball to some extent. Only once has he played more than 55 games in a season.

It seems likely that he’ll be back on the Bulls sooner rather than later. His availability is more of a bonus to the team’s season than a necessity. Chicago is clearly looking to tank ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, as evinced by its decisions to offload its two best players this summer in All-Star small forward DeMar DeRozan and All-Defensive Team guard Alex Caruso. DeRozan joined the Sacramento Kings in a sign-and-trade deal, while Caruso was flipped to the title-contending Oklahoma City Thunder in a trade for Josh Giddey.

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