CHICAGO — Just shy of the one-year anniversary of his last NBA game, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball posted a video of himself dunking to his Instagram account, a sign of the small improvement he said he has experienced recently in the recovery of his left knee.
“Those are things that maybe six weeks ago he couldn’t do,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said before Friday’s game against the Thunder. “As much as they’re little steps, it’s still progress that he’s continuing to make.”
However, Donovan did temper expectations about Ball’s progress, noting the point guard, who has not played in a game since Jan. 14, 2022, is still experiencing discomfort in his knee when doing basketball activity.
“Is there pain there? Yes, there’s still some discomfort there,” Donovan said. “But not at the level it was six weeks ago.
“I’m not trying to say what Lonzo’s pain is. But the question is does he have pain? Yes. Is it the same pain he was dealing with six weeks ago? No. How much better is it? It’s good enough that he can get on a treadmill and do some running and he can go jump and go dunk the ball.”
Ball told reporters at a team charity event last month that he is seeing some improvement in his surgically repaired knee, his most encouraging signs of progress following a pair of arthroscopic knee surgeries last January and before the start of training camp in September.
Even if Ball’s knee does start to make rapid improvement, he still has not played basketball in a year. Donovan said Ball would need “a significant ramp-up period” to increase his stamina and conditioning before he would be ready to return to the floor.
“When you’re out a year, whenever he gets back to playing, I don’t think missing that much time is going to expect him to pick up right where he left off. There’s going to be an adjustment period, there’s no question,” Donovan said.
“There’s certainly going to be a period of time before they ever allow him back to play that they feel comfortable that he can endure what an NBA schedule looks like.”
The Bulls entered Friday’s game 19-23 and in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Donovan did not believe Ball’s uncertain injury status would impact the team’s actions at the upcoming Feb. 9 trade deadline, but he did reiterate the need for the team to get healthy.
Chicago was without All-Star DeMar DeRozan for the second straight game on Friday as he recovers from a quad injury. DeRozan did some shooting drills at shootaround earlier in…
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