The Chicago Bulls were at the top of the Eastern Conference early in the 2021-22 season as they were getting star performances from Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, but they were also led by a young point guard in Lonzo Ball.
In the 2021-22 season, Ball averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while shooting 42.3% from deep. It appeared that he was beginning to break through and be a big part of the Bulls and their success as they moved forward.
However, Ball’s season was cut short after just 35 games after he underwent surgery in January to repair a meniscus injury in his knee. As the 2022-23 season draws closer, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne provided an update on Ball that isn’t all that great to hear:
They thought they were gonna have Lonzo Ball back, but from what I’m told, he’s going to miss the week of training camp and the beginning of the regular season because that knee that he had surgery on in January, just the knee is structurally sound, but he has the type of recovery and injury that he’s been to a ton of specialists where they’ve all tried to figure out what’s going on with it. He’s still experience the pain and discomfort in that leg. Another part of his leg was injured described to me and, I’m not a doctor so I don’t want to mangle the facts here but there’s still pain there. And it’s sort of a mysterious situation with Lonzo, he’s in Chicago right now. They’re looking at him. They’re going to do a separate evaluation of him and decide how long they think he’s gonna be out or at least get some kind of a plan for him coming back, but Lonzo Ball had a meniscus surgery back in January. He’s still not ready for training camp and won’t be ready for the start of the regular season. Gonna expect to miss some time even into the start of the regular season.
In order for the Bulls to be able to have the type of success they were having at the beginning, they will need a healthy Ball on the floor in order to lead them on the floor.
