Bulls’ Lonzo Ball will likely miss most, if not all, of the 2023-24 season after third knee surgery

Lonzo Ball will likely miss all of next season.

The Chicago Bulls guard is set to undergo a third surgery on his left knee, which has already kept him out for more than a year. He’s expected to miss most, if not all, of the 2023-24 season recovering, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

While that’s an incredibly long time away from the game — he will be pushing three full years between games — both Ball and the Bulls are reportedly optimistic that the third surgery will be what it takes to finally fix his knee.

Ball was already ruled out for the rest of this season due to his meniscus injury. He hasn’t played since Jan. 14, 2022, and has already undergone a pair of surgeries. He reportedly couldn’t run or jump after his most recent one in September, however, and his rehab clearly hasn’t gone as expected.

Ball has been contemplating the third surgery in recent weeks. The team initialy expected the surgery would only keep Ball out about six months, which could have had him back on the court in time for the start of next season. Based on Charania’s timeline, however, he may not take the court again until the start of the 2024-25 season.

If that’s the case, Ball will have missed about 33 months.

Ball averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 35 games with the Bulls before he tore his meniscus. The Bulls were sitting near the top of the Eastern Conference when he went down, but they finished in sixth and lost in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks. Ball, 25, is currently in the second year of a four-year, $80 million deal with the Bulls.