Bulls not expecting Lonzo Ball (knee) to play this season

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bulls are entering the offseason with the expectation that guard Lonzo Ball will not be ready to play next season, team vice president Arturas Karnisovas said Thursday night.

Ball, 25, missed all of the 2022-23 season and underwent cartilage transplant surgery on his left knee in March, the third surgery on his knee since he appeared in his last game on Jan. 14, 2022.

“Our expectation is that he’s not coming back next season,” Karnisovas said following Thursday’s NBA draft. “He’s going to continue on his recovery. If he comes back, it would be great. But we’re just going to treat this offseason and get ready for the season that he’s not going to be back.”

The Bulls said Ball’s most recent surgery gave him the best chance of resuming his NBA career at some point in the future, but his progress has been incremental since he initially sustained the knee injury more than 18 months ago.

Ball, whose last game was Jan. 14, 2022, had an initial surgery in February 2022 to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and Chicago said he would be back in 6 to 8 weeks. After missing the rest of the season and continuing to have pain and discomfort in the knee over the summer, Ball had a second surgery in September. However, the discomfort in his knee never improved enough to allow him to return to the court.

Karnisovas said Ball is improving after his last surgery and recently began walking without crutches. The Bulls VP was not ready to rule Ball out from ever playing again and said the team was not ready to petition the NBA for salary relief for Ball’s contract — he signed a four-year, $80 million contract in the summer of 2021.

“I hope eventually we’re going to see him on a basketball court,” Karnisovas said. “But I do not think he’s going to be back next year.”

During his brief tenure on the court, Ball was a perfect match for the Bulls, serving as a catalyst alongside wings Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.

In 35 games for Chicago during the 2021-22 season, he averaged 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while posting the best shooting season of his career, a career-best in field goal percentage (42%) and 3-point percentage (42%). He was the only player to average five rebounds and five assists while shooting 40% from 3 in 2021-22, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. The Bulls had a 27-13 record at the time of Ball’s injury, the best record in the Eastern Conference at that time.

Chicago entered Thursday’s draft without a selection but traded into the second round to select Tennessee forward Julian Phillips at No. 34 overall.

Karnisovas said he also plans to extend qualifying offers to both young point guards currently on the roster, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu.

The Bulls also agreed to a two-way contract with undrafted UConn center Adama Sanogo, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.