Lonzo Ball’s Continued Uncertainty Jeopardizes Bulls’ Potential
Whenever we think we see the light at the end of the Lonzo Ball knee injury tunnel, the tunnel seems to grow. Ever since the Bulls point guard played his last game in mid-January, there has been one setback after another. Every time he appeared to be on the verge of coming back, something happened to halt the progress. Now, he’s about to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery that will keep out at least four to six weeks.
Last season, the Bulls were atop the Eastern Conference at 27–13 before Ball first missed a game with this ever-present problem. On Jan. 14, they were third in the NBA in true shooting percentage (57.7) and fifth in offensive rating (112.1). They also were tied for third in effective field-goal percentage (54.1).
Once Ball went out, everything changed. From Jan. 15 on, the Bulls were 13th in true shooting percentage (58.0) 20th in offense rating (113.2) and a three-way tie for 14th in effective field-goal percentage (54.2). Ultimately, their final league rankings had dropped to eighth (57.9) 13th (112.7) and 10th (54.1). Sure, the numbers themselves were higher, but the Bulls went 19–23 and dropped to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Could the Bulls have beaten the defending-champion Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs with Ball? Maybe not, but he at least would have gotten the first-round series to six or seven games in that case. His 13.0 points and team-leading 5.1 assists a game paint only a small picture of how much he could have meant with the stakes raised. Alas, he went out, and the Bulls never recovered from his absence.
Now, the Bulls will have to be without their primary offensive facilitator for the start of the regular season. This is not how the second year of Ball’s four-year, $80 million contract was supposed to start. Instead, he’ll have to watch 36-year-old Goran Dragic, the often-maligned Coby White and rookie Dalen Terry try to replicate what he can provide. Doing that for someone with Ball’s supposed ceiling is almost impossible.
With this uncertainty looming over the Bulls like a dark cloud, you really have to wonder if this group of players can go further than it has to this point. DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine will get their points regardless, but what about everyone else? Nikola Vucevic needs to provide more than just scoring to work in this team’s system. Without Ball, there’s less confidence that he or any other supporting player can provide that.
All of this adds to the argument that Ball was the Jenga piece that couldn’t be removed without the tower falling. This is a man who knows how to run an offense and make solid contributions in all facets along the way. No one else on the team could do it consistently last year, hence the signing of Dragic as insurance. But unless Dragic plans on having his second All-Star season at his age, he won’t be the player to get the Bulls to the next level.
It would be a shame to see these Bulls’ potential shattered because they can’t be without Ball for an extended period. Blame goes to Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley for constructing their roster in such a way. The Bulls need Ball more than Ball needs them, and to not plan for that possibility last season was a sign of negligence and the bad things it can cause. Jerry Reinsdorf’s other Chicago team, the White Sox, is mastering that.
Perhaps all of this is overreacting, and the Bulls will be fine. However, there’s no reason to suggest that a point center in Vucevic or Andre Drummond will emerge a la Joakim Noah in 2013–14. The offense will have to be run from the top as usual, and if Ball is as important to the team as it seems, the Bulls are in trouble in an Eastern Conference that only got better during the offseason.
Pray to whatever deity you pray to that once Ball’s projected recovery timetable passes, that will be the end of this particular issue. It would be a shame to have his Bulls tenure end before it really begins, thus torpedoing any real chance for this team to contend over the next few years. Again, you can blame the roster construction in that event. It’s hard because it means being critical of a front office that, for the most part, has done a nice job of getting the Bulls back to respectability.
