Bulls guard Lonzo Ball won’t play in 2022-23 with knee injury

According to Jamal Collier of ESPN on Thursday, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball of Anaheim, California will not play at all during the 2022-23 National Basketball Association regular season because of a knee injury. Ball had arthroscopic knee surgery before the beginning of the season, but continues to feel significant discomfort during basketball related activities. In fact, Ball cannot jump, run or cut without pain.

Ball’s 2021-22 season was cut short too. Last season he only played 35 games before having his season shut down on January 14 in a 138-96 Bulls loss to the reigning NBA Finals champions Golden State Warriors. Since then Ball has had two surgeries during the 2022 calendar year (one in January and one in September), but the surgeries have not been very successful to date.

Ball was the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was only selected behind Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

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Interestingly, Fultz, who is now with the Orlando Magic, has experienced a significant injury himself. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament at the beginning of January of 2021, and did not play again until February of 2022. In 2022-23, Fultz missed the first month of the season due to a fractured big toe.

Ball has averaged 11.9 points per game over five seasons with the Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans and Bulls. It will be interesting to see how much the Bulls will be impacted the rest of the season without Ball. Chicago has lost six games in a row and are now 11th in the East. On Tuesday the Bulls signed Patrick Beverley, but he has only averaged 6.4 points per game this season himself, and it is unlikely this signing will give Chicago a significant lift.

What do you think? Can the Bulls be better with Beverley than Ball?

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