Why Bulls guard Lonzo Ball 'dodged a bullet' with wrist injury
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Chicago Bulls fans might be frustrated that Lonzo Ball is out with another injury but should see his absence as more of a blessing in disguise.
While Ball is sidelined with a sore wrist just three games into the 2024-2025 season, playing through the pain likely would have caused further damage, leading to season-ending surgery, per team insider K.C. Johnson. Head coach Billy Donovan believes the team “dodged a bullet” with Ball’s injury.
Per Johnson, Donovan compared the significance of Ball’s injury to one that Patrick Williams had in 2021. Then in his second year, Williams saw his season come to an end after just 17 games due to wrist surgery. Donovan believes that had Ball played with his current injury, it would have developed into a situation similar to the one Williams dealt with.
After returning to the court for the first time in over two years, Ball has not played since the Bulls’ fourth game of the season against the Memphis Grizzlies. He previously sat out the entire 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons with a myriad of knee issues. Since his return, the former No. 2 overall pick has accrued just 48 total minutes of court time before his wrist put him back on the bench.
As a player, Ball has obvious offensive limitations but since being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2017, his biggest issue has been staying on the court. In the eight years he has been in the NBA, Ball has never played more than 63 games in a single season and has appeared in just 44 percent of a possible 583 games since entering the league.
Bulls’ struggles in Lonzo Ball’s absence
While the Bulls have struggled for many reasons over the last decade, they have severely missed Ball’s impact without the athletic guard on the court. Through their first nine games, Chicago is just 3-6 and is on track for another disappointing season. The Bulls went just 39-43 in 2023-2024 and qualified for the play-in tournament but were eliminated by the Miami Heat.
Now in a new era, the team moved on from star forward Demar DeRozan in the offseason and acquired controversial guard Josh Giddey. While they miss the scoring that DeRozan brought to the table, most of the team’s struggles are on defense. The Bulls have given up 121.1 points per game through nine outings; the fourth-worst mark in the league.
Despite his inconsistency on offense, defense is an aspect that Ball has thrived in throughout his career. His combination of size and athleticism has made him a persistent on-ball defender wherever he has been in his six-year career. In a limited sample size, Ball’s career 109.8 defensive rating is well above the league average.
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