The Chicago Bulls had a solid 2021-22 NBA season, earning the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. However, it is fair to question what could have been, as the team was near the top of the conference for a majority of the season before their roster was hit hard by injuries and players being sidelined for being in the league’s health and safety protocols.
Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan were the only players on the team to appear in at least 73 games. The next highest was Zach LaVine, who missed 15 games as he dealt with some nagging injuries.
Way down the games played list was Lonzo Ball. He appeared in only 35 games in his first season in the Windy City and his absence was a big reason for them struggling to replicate their level of success in the second half of the season.
Ball injured his meniscus and it was an injury that originally had a 6-8 week timetable before he could get back on the court. He ended up not suiting up the remainder of the season, and even now, things aren’t progressing as the team had hoped.
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While making an appearance on NBA TV, Bulls vice president of basketball operations, Arturas Karnisovas spoke about Ball’s rehab. While progressing, it is taking longer than they had hoped.
“He’s progressing. That’s as much as I can say. He’s getting better — probably not at the speed that we would like, but he is getting better. Hopefully he’s going to be ready for training camp, (but) that’s just our hopes.”
That’s certainly not an encouraging update. Lonzo Ball suffered the injury to his knee on January 14th and the recovery process has been slow. In late April, as the team was facing off against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs, Ball said that his recovery was at a standstill.
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In late June it was reported that he was making progress with his knee, but things are progressing slower than anticipated. It would be surprising if he wasn’t ready to go for training camp, which would be about eight months following the injury, but Chicago Bulls brass doesn’t sound very confident that he will be on the court with the rest of his teammates.
