When he agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal with the Chicago Bulls in the summer of 2021, 3-and-D point guard Lonzo Ball helped usher in a dominant half-season of basketball for the Windy City. He and fellow ex-Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso, another key new signing, cultivated a ruthless defensive attack along the perimeter.
All-Star swingman DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine and former All-Star center Nikola Vucevic helped supply the offense.
For a while there, Chicago looked like the new class of the Eastern Conference, emerging as the No. 1 seed. But Ball couldn’t stay healthy, and as he went, so did the Bulls’ chances of competing for a deep playoff run.
He tore the meniscus in his left knee in Jan. 2022, and ultimately would be on the shelf until the start of the 2024-25 season while undergoing three increasingly more experimental surgeries. He did play in 35 games for the Bulls last year, but was on a strict minutes limit and even then couldn’t avoid a season-ending wrist injury.
In 22.2 minutes per, now as a bench player, the 6-foot-6 UCLA product averaged 7.6 points on .366/.344/.815 shooting splits, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.5 blocks a night.
Chicago inked Ball to a two-season, $20 million contract extension - a slight overpay considering his limited availability and middling offensive production, but, to Ball’s line of thinking anyway, an inflated number that the Bulls fully expected to trade later. And trade it they did, when they swapped wing Isaac Okoro in for Ball during a summer deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Ball conceded to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times that he had pretty much expected the Bulls to trade him when he agreed to the extension this spring.
"I think teams trade to try to get better, so Chicago did what was best for them, and I think Cleveland did what they thought was best for them," Ball said. "So all I can control is where I'm at and who I'm playing for, and that's the Cavs right now. Go out there and give them my all."
Reflecting on his snake-bitten Chicago experience, Ball hardly seemed bitter.
"Just thankful, man," Ball insisted. "I made a lot of good relationships here on and off the court. Loved the city of Chicago, and, as you can see, the fans still rock with me, so a lot of love to them. But coaches, man, even my teammates, it's always great seeing them and hope the best for them moving forward, for sure."
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