Yahoo Sports Senior NBA writer Dan Devine and Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Jake Fischer discuss the outlook this upcoming season for the Chicago guard – who’s missed the last two seasons with a knee injury. Hear the full conversation on “Devine Intervention” – part of Ball Don’t Lie – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Alonzo Ball played roughly 30 ish games in his first year, 2122 when he led the Chicago Bulls to the number one seed in the Eastern conference before devastating the injuries.
He purports to be back.
He’s doing pods with this guy demo over under line the ball, 35 games for Chicago this year.
I this is after two straight seasons lost to knee injury.
He has, you know, they will like this time last year, we were wondering if you could literally stand up in a chair.
We weren’t Stephen A Smith was fair enough, but the, I’m gonna go up for the pure vibes of this.
I’m gonna go over, I’m gonna say I want, I want it to be the right answer that he plays more than 35 games because Loso obviously has never panned out into the kind of pro that we hoped he would be coming out of out, right?
All right.
I, I, what I’m trying to pan out and start trying to pan in uh what what I’m saying is though, like he’s the number two pick in the draft, right?
And so de is wild as I would tell you, I’m sure he would.
But the idea being like you draft somebody there, you hope that they are going to hit and be a superstar, right?
And what I think we’ve seen or the best versions of Alonzo Ball that we have seen is really like an elite complementary player, a like the star in your role, kind of role player, like the guy when he was in healthy in New Orleans and he actually got the three point shot online and the volume up and he was that hit ahead monster feeding Zion, right?
And not on the bill version of Tyres.
Halliburton.
I think that’s a fair way to look at it, right?
Like somebody who is like fuel injects your offense and gets you moving faster.
But also how, whereas Halliburton is somebody that obviously he makes up for it by just how great he is offensively is someone who has to be, you know, maneuvered around on the defensive end.
Alonso, an excellent on ball defender and off ball defender where he like the the best version of that Bulls team was him and Caruso wreaking havoc at the top deflections and steals getting the transition game going.
So I would not anticipate that level of pro uh you know, productivity and uh impact coming off two straight missed seasons.
But the idea of him at whatever is 27 like getting back on the floor and being able to play at least half a healthy season.
I want to believe in it.
So I’m gonna say over on that.
Yeah, I agree.
Over Alonzo.
We’re rooting for you, buddy.