Former Lakers Guard Lonzo Ball Injury Return Timeline Revealed

When will the ex-L.A. lottery pick return to the hardwood?

Jan 19, 2019; Houston, TX, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball (2) drives with the ball during the third quarter against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball, selected with the No. 2 overall draft pick in the 2017 NBA Draft out of UCLA, is finally nearing his return to the court once again this season.

The 6-foot-6 pro has been on the shelf since October 28 due to a left wrist sprain.

ESPN's Shams Charania reports that Ball is set to come back from this latest ailment in a road tilt against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.

Ball missed the previous two-and-a-half seasons with a left knee mensicus injury that required three successive surgeries. In his three games back for Chicago this year, he's been kept on an understandable minutes limit. In 15.7 minutes per, the Chino Hills native averaged 4.7 points on 35.7 percent shooting from the field (33.3 percent from long range), 3.7 assists, and 2.7 boards a night.

Following a spectacular run at UCLA, Ball was the prized first pick of then-Magic team president Magic Johnson and then-general manager Rob Pelinka. Ball was selected ahead of eventual All-Stars Jayson Tatum, De'Aaron Fox, Lauri Markkanen, Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo.

Pelinka took over for Johnson ahead of the 2019 NBA Draft, and engineered the trade to ship out Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram and major draft equity to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for All-NBA superstar power forward/center Anthony Davis. Los Angeles instantly won a title during Davis' first season with the club.

After offloading All-Star combo forward DeMar DeRozan and All-Defensive Team combo guard Alex Caruso this summer (DeRozan departed to the Sacramento Kings via a three-team sign-and-trade, while Caruso was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for former lottery pick point guard Josh Giddey). The Bulls are currently 7-11 on the young 2024-25 season, and currently sit as the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, where only four clubs sport records better than .500.

During his two seasons with his hometown Lakers from 2017-19, Ball struggled with health — and his jumper. He averaged 10.0 points on .380/.315/.437 shooting splits, 6.4 assists, 6.2 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per bout, across just 99 of 164 total possible regular season games (95 starts).

Ball blossomed with the Pelicans and Bulls prior to his knee injury. From 2019-22, he averaged 13.1 points on .412/.387/.679 shooting splits (that 3-point rate arrived on 7.3 triple tries), 6.1 dimes, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks a night.

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