It doesn’t appear that the Bulls will be getting their starting point guard Lonzo Ball back anytime soon. In remarks made to reporters after Thursday’s draft, team president Arturas Karnisovas poured cold water on the idea that he could return to the hardwood in 2023/24 at all.
“Going into the offseason, our [expectation] is that he’s not coming back next season,” Karnisovas said, tweets Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic.
Since agreeing to a four-year, $80MM sign-and-trade deal with Chicago in the summer of 2021, Ball has appeared in a grand total of 35 contests for his new team.
If he so chooses, Karnisovas could opt to file for a disabled player exception. The exception would be worth half of Ball’s salary and would give the Bulls another tool to sign or trade for a replacement. It would only be granted if Ball is deemed more likely than not to remain sidelined through June 15, 2024.
There’s more out of the Windy City:
- Speaking of free agency, Karnisovas indicated that he hopes to add more long range shooting to the Bulls’ spacing-challenged roster this summer, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “We’re trying to change our shooting profile,” Karnisovas said. “Being last in the league in rate from 3 and 3-point makes, we’re going to try to address that in the offseason.”
- According to Johnson, Karnisovas also indicated that Bulls ownership is amenable to entering the luxury tax in pursuit of improvement, something the team has only ever done once. The Bulls’ president of basketball operations also suggested that Chicago would extend qualifying offers to guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, making them restricted free agents. White showed significant strides at the end of the 2022/23 season, and makes sense to retain. Dosunmu, meanwhile, regressed considerably during his second season, to the point where he became virtually unplayable in Chicago’s two play-in contests this spring, suiting up for an average of 5.5 MPG.
- With former Hornets majority owner Michael Jordan in the midst of selling the franchise, it’s high time he bought a stake in the team where he became a Hall of Famer, opines Jon Greenberg of The Athletic. Jordan intends to continue to hold a minority stake in Charlotte for now, but Greenberg argues that the former Chicago shooting guard could divest from the Hornets to buy a solid share of his old team. As Greenberg notes, nowhere is Jordan more beloved than in the city where he cemented his legend, winning six titles in eight seasons while being widely heralded as the greatest player ever.
Reinsdorf going into the Luxury tax is a blatant lie. Absolute nonsense. The Bulls were idiots for not getting the exemption for Ball LAST YEAR. See if they’re that stupid again.
Reinsdorf is scum and a disgrace to this city, to say your willing to go into the tax is just the cherry on top to all the lying and stealing from fans this franchise has done, absolute pathetic embarrassment, hope they go 0-82
Bulls need to just go full rebuild. They own their own pick this year so it’ll benefit them to lose whereas last year they needed to try win as they didn’t own their pick.
So to start
Zach LaVine for Gordon Hayward, Bouknight, Mark Williams, Thor and a first round pick
Then
DeMare DeRozan for DRose, Toppin and McBride
Zach has a huge contract which is similar to Beal’s that it’s long, has lots of money owed and because of that may not net the best return. You manage to get 3 young players, a expiring deal and a first that’s a solid return. As for DeRozan he’s about to be 34 and is on an expiring deal. So his value also wont be that high. In return for him you get back DRose who is a home town hero and 2 good young players.
Straight away that’s a full reset. Keep some vets (Hayward, DRose and Caruso) to build culture for the youngsters and help them develop. You’ll continue to sell tickets with DRose in a farewell season and guys like Toppin will produce many highlights.
Hornets don’t give up too much, Bouknight hadn’t done much, nor has Thor. Williams has been battling Richards for the centre spot and they own most their own picks. They now become an exciting competitive side.
Knicks also take a big stride to being better. DeRozan would be a huge boost for them especially his wealth of experience on this young side. They give up Toppin is his last year and McBride. DRose wasn’t in the rotation and McBride was averaging 12 minutes a game so 2/3 aren’t big pieces.
Chicago would lose a lot of games next season but it’s for the better as they secure a top 5 pick. Hopefully 1 or 2 guys shine in a larger role and all of a sudden in 2/3 years your back in the playoffs again.
Interesting thoughts. Question is whether they should move off of Ball if he will be out for the rest of the season.
If they don’t go for the rebuild option but want to compete, maybe a sign-and-trade for Kuzma and Shamet for Ball and DeRozan could make sense?
Rebuilding Wizards can have a year of patience with Ball.
Can’t do sign and trades and partner said player (Kuzma) with another player…
I also think the value on Ball would be a huge negative cause he may never play again so no one is taking thy back. I think for now you just have to sit with it and get the disabled player exception which is for half his salary. That frees up about 10 mil
Why they ever decided to sign Ball is beyond me. I hated it, knew it was going to be a train wreck and they lost a draft pick for tampering trying to get his dumbass. As a Bulls fan, I argue he’s the worst signing by this franchise in my lifetime.