The Chicago Bulls are looking forward to point guard Lonzo Ball playing for the first time in almost three years after a knee injury kept him out. He is set to join the team in a preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday.
Coach Billy Donovan mentioned on Monday that the goal is for Ball to participate in the last two preseason games. The Bulls will host Cleveland on Friday before kicking off the season at New Orleans on October 23.
“Him playing this next preseason game is kind of what we targeted,” Donovan said before the Bulls’ game against Milwaukee. “We really felt like we wanted to try to get him to play two games before the regular season, whether it was play tonight or off and then go the next game.”
Ball had some setbacks with COVID last month, and the team is still figuring out how much activity causes his knee to hurt.
He hasn’t played since January 14, 2022, and had a cartilage and meniscus transplant in his left knee last year after several previous surgeries didn’t fix the issue.
Ball has stated that he plans to be ready for the season opener. He will have limits on how many minutes he can play and won’t participate in games on consecutive days.
“He doesn’t need to necessarily be the same kind of athlete he was because … so much of his game is based on passing,” Donovan explained.
“There are things he sees vision-wise that have nothing to do with where he is athletically. I do think he has shot the ball probably closer to the level we’ve seen in the past since he has gotten his rhythm and timing back. He’s not in the lane a lot. He’s not at the rim a lot.”
The Bulls traded for Ball from New Orleans in a sign-and-trade deal before the 2021-22 season. He had a strong start in Chicago, averaging 13 points and 5.1 assists while shooting 42.3% on three-pointers over 35 games before his injuries.
At 26 years old, Ball had a cartilage transplant in March 2023, marking his third knee surgery in just over a year. He shared on his podcast last May that the surgery was more complicated than expected.
Ball mentioned that he received a new meniscus along with the cartilage transplant. He also had a bone allograft, which means the replacement bone came from another person. Ball said his problems began when he tore his meniscus in 2018 while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
