On his podcast, the WAE show (Twitter video link), Bulls guard Lonzo Ball said he plans to play in two of the team’s final three preseason contests. As Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune notes (via Twitter), that means Ball expects to make his preseason debut either next Monday in Milwaukee or Wednesday vs. Minnesota.
It’s been a long road back for Ball, who has missed the past two-and-a-half seasons due to a knee injury that required three surgeries. The former No. 2 overall pick will be a free agent next summer, as he’s on an expiring $21.4MM contract.
Here are a few more notes from Chicago:
- Former NBA MVP Derrick Rose announced his retirement as a player last month. On Friday, the Bulls announced they’ll hold a “Derrick Rose Night” on January 4 vs. the Knicks. However, the team won’t be retiring his No. 1 jersey during the halftime ceremony, according to Poe of The Chicago Tribune. Still, as Poe observes, no player has worn that jersey number since Rose departed the Bulls in 2016, so it’s possible the Chicago native could see his jersey hang in the rafters of the United Center in the future.
- The Bulls’ starting lineup — Josh Giddey, Coby White, Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams and Nikola Vucevic — doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence on the defensive end. Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times suggests one workaround could be taking LaVine out early in favor of Ayo Dosunmu, which is something the Bulls did the past few seasons with DeMar DeRozan. Dosunmu would provide point-of-attack defense to pair with the other four starters, and staggering LaVine’s minutes would enable him to serve as the primary scorer with the reserves, Cowley notes.
- Head coach Billy Donovan says LaVine looks fully recovered from a foot injury that limited him to 25 games last season, per Cowley. “I think he’s practiced really well,” Donovan said. “I don’t think I could say that the last couple of years, and I don’t think it was necessarily because of him not wanting to practice well. I think a lot of times he was coming out of an injury. Seeing him in September and some of this August, I felt like this is about as good as I’ve seen him physically in a couple of years.”
Personally I’d like to see. Zach n Josh started backcourt. Talk about positional size.
Williams should be the starting SF. You are damaging his career.
Zach healthy is a good thing. Zach playing well can bring back good value. Heat is a good place.
Ball with an expiring contract. Can also bring back value.
Bulls can redo team quickly. By these two trades.
Zach is trash, he cant lead a team to wins. Why would they ruin Coby White’s career who showed a lot of promise last season in favor of an older, worse defender and more injury prone player?
I never liked his game all l no finesse. Could not shoot the ball either. He was not a leader very overrated.
Bulls are a couple of trades away from making any real sense…
They’ve been stuck with the question of who to keep as complimentary players to a top 5 star for years…
They have been faced with not having a top 5 star for at least 10 years…so what is the difference?
Fact is this is an expensive, Ridiculously badly constructed roster that has ZERO chance of doing anything. Did I miss anything?
The entire first half of 2022
I’m 68. I don’t remember last week. Much less those ancient times. They took a nice first step and then sat on their as**s for the last 3 years.
I really didn’t think that Lonzo Ball would ever set foot on a court again so good luck Lonzo.