TORONTO — Lonzo Ball is putting the rest of the NBA on notice: He’s ready for more.
More minutes. More responsibility in the Chicago Bulls starting lineup. And as Thursday’s trade deadline nears, more chatter about how he could contribute to an actual contender.
Caution has been the keyword for Ball this season. No member of the Bulls organization wanted to rush him back.
But after another successful string of games, Ball approached the medical team with a request to up his workload again. After some deliberation, team doctors agreed to increase his restriction by four minutes, clearing Ball to play 28 minutes per game.
A minute a quarter might seem minuscule. But for Ball, it was another monumental step toward full clearance after missing two full seasons with a knee injury. His restriction is now less than three minutes fewer than the average workload for the team’s core starting lineup, which averages 30.8 minutes.
“We’ve been very transparent about it — and I told them I’m ready for it,” Ball told the Tribune. “An extra minute a quarter isn’t going to hurt me. I’m getting stronger as the year is going on. I’m getting better. The minutes are going up with no problem.”
Less than a week before the deadline, this increase means something even more important to the Bulls front office — Ball is a better trade asset than ever.
Coach Billy Donovan acknowledged Friday that Ball’s readiness to play a substantial load of minutes could alter the NBA landscape: “I think he’s letting the league know — ‘Hey, listen, I’m pretty healthy right now. I can play.’ And 28 minutes is a pretty substantial number of minutes to be able to play with.”
It’s not just the time spent on the court. Even in a bad game, Ball is a difference maker.
A quiet five-point performance in Friday night’s 122-106 win over the Toronto Raptors showed it’s the little things that set Ball apart.
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Outjumping Jakob Poeltl for an offensive rebound in transition. Sprinting full court to blindly tap the ball out of RJ Barrett’s hands just as he was about to finish a wide-open transition layup. Grabbing a wayward pass that was sailing out of bounds to somehow fling the ball back to Matas Buzelis for a 3-point attempt.
When the Bulls were struggling to keep up with the lengthy Raptors on the glass, Ball was the player whom Donovan leaned on, playing him for nearly 11 consecutive minutes in the first quarter until the team finally found its footing.
Donovan’s explanation for the lengthy stint was simple: Ball is always the player to be counted on.
Ball wants to play even more, of course. If it were up to Ball, Donovan believes he would play 40 minutes every night — heck, probably more like 48. This eagerness to be on the court is one of the reasons Donovan appreciates Ball as a player.
There’s a chance Ball could finish this season almost completely unrestricted. It’s a small one. Ball doesn’t fully expect it. He knows that back-to-back games, for instance, are all but off the table for the whole season.
But after successfully raising his restriction from 16 minutes in the preseason to 28 minutes in his 28th appearance of the season, Ball is on track to play starter-level minutes by the time the regular season ends in April.
“I’m not going to rule anything out with him,” Donovan said.
Regardless of minutes, Ball has cleared yet another threshold in proving he’s ready to return to the top of his game — on the court and, potentially, in the postseason.
The question isn’t whether he’s ready to compete with a true contender.
It’s simpler than that: Is the rest of the league watching?
