Hearing Lonzo Ball Talk About What Could Have Been With The Bulls If Not For His Brutal Injury Is Depressing As Hell
The last time we saw Lonzo Ball on an NBA court was January 14th, 2022. He played 23 minutes, had 15/2/3 on 41/40% in a 138-96 loss to the Warriors. While they got absolutely rocked in that game, at the time the Bulls were 27-13 and sat atop the Eastern Conference, a position they would hold onto for about another week. With Lonzo out for the remainder of the year, by the end of it the Bulls finished in 6th place with a 46-36 record before losing in 5 games to the Bucks in the 2022 playoffs. It was almost as if losing Ball sunk their entire season.
With Lonzo, there's no debating that Bulls team was intriguing as hell. Coming over from the Pelicans with that $80M deal, Ball seemed to fit perfectly right away. Not only did they have the best record in the East, they also had the 4th ranked offense and a top 10 net rating during the 35 game stretch in which Lonzo played. He had the most efficient start to the season of his career with 42/42% splits and 3.1 3PM a night, and the core of DeRozan/LaVine/Ball/Vucevic looked legit as hell.
But like is so common in the NBA, things can change in a blink of an eye. Since that January 14th game, the Bulls are 59-65. You could make the case that they've never really recovered. There were hopes that after the 2021-22 season that maybe with all the time off to recover/rehab that Ball would be ready for the 2022-23 season, but he missed the entire thing as well. Not only that, now entering 2023-24, things aren't looking all that better, with Ball now expected to miss the entire season
it all sucks. The NBA is certainly better when the Bulls are good, and for a while there it looked like Ball was going to be a big piece of the puzzle when it came to getting the Bulls out of NBA Purgatory, which everyone knows is the worst place you can be. Not good enough to truly contend, but not shitty enough to truly tank for a high lottery pick. It's another one of those classic NBA "what ifs" where we saw just enough to wonder what might have been had Ball never gotten hurt, or at the very least if the injury wasn't so severe.
That's partly why hearing Ball talk about it is so goddamn depressing
Injuries man, they're the absolute worst. I hate to say it, but that kind of sounds like a guy who might know his NBA career is a wrap, which sucks. How many guys basically miss 2.5 seasons and ultimately come back? Lonzo is just 25, but when you're getting arthroscopic knee surgery, then another arthroscopic debridement, and then have a cartilage transplant for a 3rd surgery in about a year, the odds are certainly stacked against you. I hope that's not the case because watching Lonzo Ball play is fun as hell. He has a player option for next season at $21M which I imagine he's picking up, and then in the summer of 2025 he hits the market as an UFA at the age of 28. If he's healthy someone will take a look, but honestly who knows at this point if he still hasn't been able to get right even after all this time. Sometimes your body just says you're cooked.
As such, the Bulls are in an interesting spot. DeRozan is 34 and in the final year of his deal. Alex Caruso has $9.4M this year and then a partially guaranteed $9.8M next year. They decided not to blow it up this summer, instead opting to extend Vucevic for 3/60M and Coby White for 3/36M. Zach LaVine still has 3+1 left on his 5/215M deal. So who exactly are the Bulls? They finished last year 40-42 which isn't terrible, but ultimately they lost in the Play In and were 21-30 against teams .500 or better. They were 24th in offense, 5th in defense, and 13th in net rating. On some nights, they looked like they could beat anyone. On others, they looked like an Eastern Conference middler. Now they run into a situation where they either offer DeRozan an extension, trade him at the deadline, or potentially lose that asset for nothing. Things are a bit in flux at the moment I would say.
What's sad is Lonzo Ball is the exact player they are missing. Remember, this was a top 5 offense with him running the show, and look at last year's ranking. What's the one thing they needed help with? Offense. That's what makes this whole thing depressing. They found their missing piece, and only got to see it on the court for 35 games.
Brutal.