{"id":61456,"date":"2025-05-15T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T07:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=61456"},"modified":"2025-05-15T07:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T07:01:02","slug":"bulls-lonzo-ball-makes-bold-prediction-on-lebron-james-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=61456","title":{"rendered":"Bulls&#8217; Lonzo Ball Makes Bold Prediction on LeBron James&#8217; Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2181270435-e1747257649999.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2181270435-e1747257649999.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2181270435-e1747257649999.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2181270435-e1747257649999.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Bulls' Lonzo Ball Makes Bold Prediction on LeBron James' Future\" width=\"780\" height=\"440\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Lonzo Ball, Chicago Bulls<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lonzo Ball doesn\u2019t expect LeBron James to retire this summer. The Chicago Bulls guard made the claim during a recent appearance on his \u201cWhat an Experience With Lonzo Ball\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_te28n4w93\">\u201cHe\u2019s done everything you can do in basketball,\u201d Ball said. \u201cHe\u2019s maximized the situation. Him hooping at 40, he\u2019s still averaging like 27, eight, and 7. [Retirement] is up to him, to be honest. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s retiring this summer. He\u2019s playing again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LeBron has a player option for next season. He potentially could opt out of the deal and look to play elsewhere, call time on his career, opt out and re-sign at a better price point or opt in and play out the final year of his deal. It\u2019s worth noting that LeBron will be entering his age 41 season if he decides to return for another year.<\/p>\n<p>Ball spent one year with LeBron before being traded by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was sent to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the deal that saw Anthony Davis head toward Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>Since leaving the Lakers, Ball has proven himself as an elite playmaker and perimeter defender. Unfortunately, a persistent knee injury has derailed his career. However, that hasn\u2019t stopped him from being a fan favorite, especially among younger NBA fans. Ball\u2019s podcast also features his brother LiAngelo Ball.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Ball\u2019s Injury Issues are Persistent<\/h2>\n<p>Despite returning from a two-year injury layoff, Lonzo Ball ended the 2024-25 season on the Bulls\u2019 injury report. The playmaking guard continues to search for a prolonged period of health.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Ball is under contract for the next two years, having signed an extension with the Bulls earlier this year. As such, Ball has plenty of time to get healthy and rebuild his value around the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>For now, though, Ball must continue to work on his conditioning and his pain management. The best way for him to rebuild his value is to remain healthy. After all, until he proves he can sustain a full season, other teams around the league will likely be apprehensive to acquire him.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Bulls Maybe Made a Mistake on Extending Ball<\/h2>\n<p>During\u00a0a recent episode of the \u201cCHGO Bulls Podcast,\u201d Matt Peck and Will Gottlieb questioned the decision to give Ball a two-year $20 million contract extension.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bulls roster building strategy should be to take on bad contracts for picks, to have multiple bites of the apple,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cTo be able to bring in multiple players on rookie scale contracts to fill out your roster that have potential\u2026I think ultimately, it was a mistake not to trade him (Ball).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When healthy this season, Ball made a strong impression off the Bulls\u2019 bench. He averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists, shooting 36.6% from the field. Considering how much time he\u2019s missed over the past few years, those numbers were encouraging for Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>After all, Ball may never reach the level he once played at, but, he could still be a highly impactful member of a rotation. His ability to break down defenses in the half-court, while guarding the opposing teams best player are both still highly valuable in the NBA.<\/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 playmaking guard made the bold prediction regarding LeBron James future during a recent podcast episode<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":61457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61456","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&#039; Lonzo Ball Makes Bold Prediction on LeBron James&#039; Future - 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=61456\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulls&#039; 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