During a recent appearance on Bulls television commentator Stacey King’s podcast Gimme The Hot Sauce, Lonzo Ball‘s father LaVar shed some light on the Chicago point guard’s lingering knee injury, now in its 13th month after two surgeries, writes Ryan Taylor of NBC Sports Chicago.
“Lonzo is gonna be fine,” LaVar Ball said. “He’s only 25 years old. He’s gonna get his stuff together and (he’s) gonna be ready to play and do his thing again. He had some debris in the nerve; that’s why he couldn’t get nothing done. But, all that’s done now. So now it’s about getting your strength back and then getting your endurance.”
At 24-27 this season, Chicago could sure use Ball’s three-point shooting and perimeter defense sooner rather than later.
There’s more out of the Windy City:
- Chicago needs to make some roster changes by the upcoming February 9 trade deadline, opines Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. The Bulls seem to be struggling to communicate in a lot of late-game situations and are having trouble protecting the ball, Mayberry notes.
- Bulls center Nikola Vucevic is doing his best to ignore the trade chatter surrounding him this season, writes Mark Potash of The Chicago Sun-Times. “I don’t pay attention to that,” Vucevic said. “I’ve been in the league for a long time now [13 seasons]. I’ve been involved in two trades. It’s part of it, obviously. It’s not easy when you get the call and are told you’re traded — everything changes for you. But there’s nothing you can do about it. If you think about it, you’re just going to make it harder on yourself.” The 32-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent this summer if he doesn’t sign a veteran extension with the Bulls before then.
- Veteran Bulls reserve guard Alex Caruso weighed in on the trade rumors surrounding him in the days before the deadline, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I fully expect to be here,” Caruso said. “The coaches still seem to like me. The front office seems to like me. The players like me. As long as things are the way they are, obviously I want to win some basketball games. That’s what I came here to do, what I want to do and what makes me happiest in sports.”
This team is not likely to do anything significant at the TDL. I’d love to see them get a real point guard like Conley to see if that could open things up, but there really isn’t a sensible trade to be had with the Jazz.
Fred Van Vleet is an Illinois native, seems like he’s the perfect fit for Chicago. But could the Bulls meet the asking price?
Could they? Sure. Should they? He’s similar to Lonzo but less versatile on d and better in the half court offensively.
Fwiw fvv probably going to want like a 4 yr 110 mil type deal in the offseason after he declines his player option. He’s really only worth a first and a solid young player/prospect.
Debris on the nerve? He still isn’t playing, so when did they go in & remove this debris which was causing Ball to not be able to use his knee without pain? I guess the media isn’t informed about everything, and Chicago has been keeping information on Ball in-house?
Nothing about this statement by Lavar would make me feel any better, just more questions
I completely agree
Exactly, when did this go from ‘bone bruise’ to ‘debris in the nerve’?
So thats taken care of now, which apparently will take another season to prepare to play again… great. He’ll work hard to come back to have the next injury that take another 1-2 years to figure out…
Another problem with JR owned teams, players riding the pine, too hurt to play, not not hurt enough that they cannot pickup their paychecks…
You know, I love AC. I think everyone does. But if you offered me a nice bench piece (or two) in trade, I would drive him to the airport myself. And believe me, I can think of several.
Do you mean an offensive bench piece? It’d be hard to top Caruso as a bench piece given his defense, IQ, leadership, and capable scoring.
I’d keep Caruso to start building a culture. Trade Derozan and Vuc while their value is high, and before they just leave in FA. Trade Lavine as he’s skilled, but not enough of a leader to make sense of keeping him as the highest paid in the team.
Build s core around youth and those who play with passion.
DeRozan to the >>>>> Knicks ….
He wants to go West not East Al. Sorry
Well as long as Lonzo’s crazy old man says he’ll be fine I guess it’s cool then. I’m good.
Lonzo’s only fine the year his contract is up.
Bulls need to trade the main three and see how the season finishes with AC, Ayo, Williams, a new PF and Andre as the starting five with White, Terry and other bench pieces rotating in!
That actually doesn’t sound bad imo. But we all know AkMe will probably make different decisions with the team.
As much as I would love to blame Ball for all of this, it was the org that apparently hitched their championship aspirations to this one chandelier of a player… Shame on them.. Now you have a team, like another JR owned team, that just goes through the motions thinking they have won everything already and looking godawful against teams they should demolish… I think between last season and this season they should have seen all they need to to know this team is going nowhere.
Now if they are smart (and they are not) they would trade every player worth a first rounder or even 2nd rounder. Id keep Williams, Dosunmu and maybe White and jettison everyone else for picks or whatever you can get. Then find players hungry to win, who have the heart to give it their all every game, not those who want to play half a season then be injured for the rest.