Former Lakers Star Lonzo Ball Faces New Injury Setback

When will he take the floor again?

Oct 26, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball (2) brings the ball up court against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball, the Los Angeles Lakers' former prized No. 2 overall pick out of UCLA in the 2017 NBA Draft and a beloved Chino Hills native son, saw his career derailed by a serious lingering left knee injury upon his arrival to the Windy City in 2021. He missed two-and-a-half years of action between January 2022 and his comeback to the court, following three surgeries to the pesky knee, in October of this year.

The 6-foot-6 vet lasted just three games, while playing on a minutes restriction, before incurring another injury — he suffered a strained right wrist in October and has been on the shelf ever since.

Per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, Ball's wrist ailment recovery time had already been pushed back a bonus week from its initial projected return. That was this week. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan revealed that Ball's timeline has been pushed back yet another week.

“That will hopefully be when we start to see progress from him,” Donovan noted. “I do think he’ll do more ballhandling, do more shooting, but for him to be really ramped up where we can see, it’s probably going to be [another week].”

When healthy, Ball had been the head of the snake defensively along the perimeter for a semi-contending Chicago club during his lone prior healthy season, next to fellow Lakers expat Alex Caruso.

He was a terrific 3-and-D role player, and an above-average starter on a franchise with a non-traditional defensive hierarchy.

Starting center Nikola Vucevic is a poor defender with bad footspeed and lackluster rim protection, while then-All-Star wings DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine were limited man-to-man defenders, so it fell to Ball and Caruso to preemptively stop guys closer to the point of attack.

This 2024-25 Chicago squad looks very different than the team did during Ball's first year in town. DeRozan and Caruso are both now on Western Conference contenders (DeRozan is on the Sacramento Kings, Caruso is with the Oklahoma City Thunder), while the Bulls have gone all-in on guards. Guards Ayo Dosunmu — a rookie in 2021-22 — Coby White and Josh Giddey have now joined LaVine as perhaps the club's most valuable players. Donovan has gotten creative, opting for three- and even four-guard lineups, as starting power forward Patrick Williams has been something of a non-entity.

Chicago these days is emphasizing a pace-and-space offense, heavy on 3-point shooting and passing but light on defense. Ball when healthy was a useful bench part of that program. The club's defense is taking a major hit regardless, which Donovan has acknowledged.

“That is a flat-out issue,” Donovan said of his squad's coverage woes, which he blames in part on players' in-game assignment coordination. “Like, generally when you communicate, you’re never wrong because it at least gives direction to everyone else on what to do.”

Ball spent his first two pro seasons with the Lakers, but health issues even then plagued his consistency, and he had not yet found his 3-point stroke. He was flipped to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of L.A.'s trade for Anthony Davis in the summer of 2019.

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