Lonzo Ball’s season may be over before it could even start.
During an appearance on “NBA Countdown” Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said there are “no guarantees” Ball plays at all this season, adding that the Bulls point guard is still experiencing “some pain” amid his rehab for a left knee injury.
“I think the hope is that, perhaps by the All-Star break in mid-February, that they have a sense of whether Lonzo Ball is ready to come back and play for Chicago,” Wojnarowski said. “A lot of that may depend on, where are the Bulls in the standings?”
The Bulls dropped to 11-16 with Wednesday night’s overtime loss to the Knicks and are 1 ½ games behind the Raptors for the final play-in spot in the East.
Ball hasn’t played since Jan. 14 last season after being diagnosed with a small meniscus tear and bone bruise. Two weeks later, the 25-year-old underwent arthroscopic surgery and was initially expected to miss six-to-eight weeks.
In March, seven weeks after the surgery, Bulls coach Billy Donovan said Ball “hasn’t responded” in rehab and was experiencing discomfort in his knee due to the bone bruise.
“He hasn’t gone backwards,” Donovan said at the time. “He just has not been able to go forward far enough to do the things he’s gonna need to be able to do to play.”
Following a series of setbacks, Ball was ruled out for the remainder of the 2021-22 season in April, with the team saying he was still experiencing pain with high-level physical activity.
Ball underwent another arthroscopic debridement surgery on his left knee in September, with a re-evaluation timeline of four-to-six weeks. Later that month, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported there was optimism that Ball could return this season after a successful surgery.
“Literally, I really can’t run. I can’t run or jump,” Ball said prior to his second arthroscopic surgery. “There’s a range from, like, 30 to 60 degrees when my knee is bent that I have, like, no force and I can’t, like, catch myself. 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 run full speed or jump. So surgery is the next step.”
Ball, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft, underwent a separate arthroscopic procedure on the same knee in July 2018 to address another small meniscus tear.
Ball played 35 games last season, which marked his first campaign with the Bulls after signing a four-year, $72 million contract. He averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 34.6 minutes per game before the injury.