2023-06-23 20:35:05
June 23, 2023 20:35Last update: June 23, 2023 20:35
The Chicago Bulls expect its playmaker Lonzo Ball to miss the entire 2023-2024 season in the NBA, as he continues to recover from a knee injury that required several surgeries.
“As we entered the holiday, I think our expectations were that he would not return next season and would continue his recovery process,” Arturas Karnisovas, director of basketball operations at the Lithuanian club, said on the sidelines of the league’s draft on Thursday.
He added, “If he returns, that would be great, but we will deal with the preparatory period and prepare for the season with our mind that he will not return.”
Karnisovas said that he hopes “at the end” to see the 25-year-old play with the Bulls after he arrived at the club in 2021 with a 4-year contract for $ 80 million, adding, “But I don’t think he will return next year.”
Paul, who was chosen from the Los Angeles Lakers as a second choice in the 2017 league draft, has not played a match since January 14, 2022, and last March he underwent a third surgery for a cartilage transplant.
It was expected that the first laparoscopic surgery he underwent in early 2022 would lead to him being out of competition for up to 8 weeks.
But with the pain continuing, he underwent another surgery in September 2022, and in February the Bulls ruled him out for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
Lonzo, the older brother of LaMelo Ball, the 2021 NBA Rookie of the Year, averaged 11.9 points, 6.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 252 league games.
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