{"id":43882,"date":"2025-03-17T07:28:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43882"},"modified":"2025-03-17T07:28:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:28:42","slug":"bulls-coach-billy-donovan-makes-decision-on-shutting-down-lonzo-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43882","title":{"rendered":"Bulls Coach Billy Donovan Makes Decision on Shutting Down Lonzo Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Billy-Donovan-makes-Lonzo-Ball-admission-after-nasty-bout-with-COVID.jpg\" alt=\"Billy Donovan makes Lonzo Ball admission after 'nasty' bout with COVID\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Chicago Bulls have been without Lonzo Ball for the past seven games. The veteran playmaker is seadling with an injury to his right wrist. It\u2019s the same wrist that hampered Ball\u2019s start to the season, keeping him out for the opening 15 games.<\/p>\n<p>According to ESPN, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan is not planning on shutting Ball down for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLonzo Ball missed his seventh game with a right wrist injury on Saturday night, but there\u2019s no plan to shut him down for the rest of the season, Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan said,\u201d ESPN reported. \u201c\u2026Donovan also said there\u2019s no plan at this point for Ball to have surgery in the offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ball has struggled with injuries throughout his tenure on the Bulls roster. A knee issue kept him out of Chicago\u2019s rotation from January 15, 2022 until October 23, 2024. As such, you can understand why some sections of the fanbase would prefer the front office to approach his current recovery with caution.<\/p>\n<p>Since returning to the Bulls rotation this season, Ball has played in 35 games. He\u2019s averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 36.6% from the field and 34.4% from deep. After missing over two years of professional basketball, it\u2019s going to take a while until we see Ball back to his best. Each time he suffered a setback such as this, he was forced to start from the ground up.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Bulls Lonzo Ball Is Enjoying Being Back<\/h2>\n<p>During a March 11 interview with Heavy on Sports, Ball discussed his significant layoff. He noted how he\u2019s pleased to be back on an NBA court, despite being written off by some sections of the media and the fanbase.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a blessing man, to be honest. A lot of people wrote me off \u2013 for good reason. A lot of people didn\u2019t think I would be here right now, still hooping. But the people around me did. I felt it,\u201d\u00a0Ball told Heavy Sports\u00a0\u201cThe journey made me stronger. Got to dive into myself a little bit more away from hoop with the time off, and I just felt like I came out of it a better man. And just overall, just full of happiness, man. Just to be able to play again and be out there and do the things I love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chicago recently inked Ball to a two-year $20 million contract extension, with the second year being a team option. As such, he has every reason to be motivated to get back on the court and producing at a consistent level.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Bulls\u2019 Lonzo Ball Happy to Repay The Franchise<\/h2>\n<p>During his sitdown with Heavy on Sports, Ball praised the commitment and support he received from the organization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve believed in me. I think that\u2019s helped me, definitely, along the process,\u201d Ball said. \u201cVery happy to be staying in Chicago, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the Bulls front office is at a crossroads. They can either pivot toward a full-scale rebuild, or begin re-tooling the roster on the fly. Both options have their benefits, and Ball is capable of slotting into the rotation regardless of the direction the front office takes. Nevertheless, he, just like the rest of us, would likely prefer to know what to expect in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Taylor is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns for Heavy. He has also written for CelticsBlog, USA Today, Yardbarker and FanSided. Adam has a bachelor\u2019s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Bulls head coach provided an update on whether the team is going to shut Lonzo Ball down for the remainder of the season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bulls Coach Billy Donovan Makes Decision on Shutting Down Lonzo Ball - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=43882\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulls Coach Billy Donovan Makes Decision on Shutting Down Lonzo Ball - 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