Lonzo Ball’s highly anticipated return from nearly a three-year absence due to injury was short-lived. Just three games into the 2024-25 campaign, Ball suffered a low-grain wrist sprain that has sidelined him ever since. After hearing optimistic things regarding his knee and strengthening it before his original return, fans were excited to welcome back their best facilitator and three-point shooter from several seasons ago when he first arrived in Chicago. After a promising pre-season stretch, he began the year off the bench and made it known that he still could not play in games on back-to-back nights. Billy Donovan’s most recent update provides an estimated timeline and progress report for Ball’s return to full strength.
Donovan coined Saturday as Ball’s “best day” in rehab. Although he only does individual drills to improve mobility and strength, it’s a promising sign. The critical hurdle will be returning to contact, which his head coach said could be as soon as next week. His originally planned return date, per Chicago Sports Network’s K.C. Johnson, was the week of December 16th. If contact can begin next week and ramp up in the following week, the Bulls might gain their point guard back sooner than that. Assuming the next two weeks go well, he could be eyeing a comeback one or two weeks earlier than planned.
Ball was playing very well before his injury. The Bulls were 1-2 in his three games, but he averaged five points and four assists with only one turnover per contest. His three-point shooting needs to find consistency, which will come through the course of the year after such an extended hiatus from the NBA’s pace of play. Still, overall, he contributed to winning basketball, and his excellent court vision and transition skills benefited the entire group around him.
While it would be a near-impossible task to find a player who doesn’t have playoff aspirations and goals, especially this early into the season, Ball fits in with the masses, and it’s hard to say if that’s been a genuine belief in recent years. On a recent podcast appearance, he echoed the words of Donovan from before the year started, saying the Bulls are a much faster, three-point-centric, pace-reliant team this year, which flips the script from the last two campaigns. Through 18 games, Chicago is fourth in three-point percentage and third in three-point attempts per game. This is staggering compared to their bottom-five finish in that category in the last three seasons. This doesn’t mention their defensive woes, which have led to 11 losses in those 18 games, represented as being 30th in points per game allowed.
Ball is not entirely wrong about the talent of the group. If this crew could improve defensively, currently ranked last in the NBA in most defensive categories, their three-point shooting is better than most. As it stands, most wins are due to shooting lights out from beyond the arc, and most losses are by allowing embarrassing amounts of paint points, offensive rebounds, and three-point makes. They have surrendered 120 or more points in 12-of-18 outings and are 3-9 in those games. If that wasn’t pathetic enough, they’ve also allowed 135 or more five times, losing all five instances.
With an improved defensive approach and reinforced rebounding effort down the entire team, the three-point shooting and transition numbers could push them to playoff contention. Will Ball’s playoff prediction come to fruition? The sooner he returns to action, the better those odds are.
