When the 2021-22 NBA season began, the Chicago Bulls looked to prove that they could hang with the bets of the best in the league. Nikola Vucevic was set to begin his first full season with the team, DeMar DeRozan joined in free agency and the Bulls landed Lonzo Ball to be their new point guard in a sign-and-trade agreement with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ball, the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, was coming off his best season and had rapidly become one of the league's best facilitating guards. With their new three-headed monster in Zach LaVine, Vucevic and DeRozan, as well as Ball leading the backcourt, the Bulls got off to a fast start and were sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with a 27-12 record.
Things went south from here for Chicago, though, as Ball suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee and he has not played since. Now expected to miss the entirety of the 2023-24 season after undergoing cartilage transplant surgery, the 25-year-old's NBA career is very much in question. Recently appearing on the From the Point by Trae Young podcast, Ball discussed his current injury status and he explained why he feels bad for the Bulls and the front office.
“It’s gonna be a big ‘what if?' I mean, for me, I feel bad, especially for the GM,” Ball stated. “I feel like they made the perfect team around me, and I felt like I was involved. It was the most I’ve ever been involved in an organization. I finally got the perfect team that I felt fit my game and played my way. Really just do what I wanted to do.
“That injury, you know I'm still going through right now, but that one messed me up early just because we really had a chance and never got to see what is was.”
Since Lonzo's knee injury, the Bulls have gone 59-65 in regular season games, failing to prove that they have what to takes to be a real, contending threat in the East. While they did make the playoffs without him on the court during the second-half of the 2021-22 season, Chicago failed to win their first-round playoff series and they missed the playoffs entirely this past season.
In wake of his lingering injury concerns, the Bulls agreed to new contracts with Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Jevon Carter for added backcourt depth this offseason. All three will lead the team at the point guard position as Ball continues to rehab and attempt to work his way back from multiple knee surgeries.
Regarding his potential return and his mindset on coming back to play for Chicago, Ball remains focused on his recovery, hoping that he will be back on the floor again.
“I think I've played hoop the same my whole life,” Ball told Young. “I always just love playing basketball so it's just basically something that got taken away from me that's going to be a whole new joy again. I'm going to be hella happy to be back out there, but I never took the game for granted so for me, it's just like giving the love back for sure.”
The Bulls are set to begin the 2023-24 season at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 25.
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