The Chicago Bulls came under fire for their trade of oft-hurt point guard Lonzo Ball earlier this summer.
Offloading the 6-foot-6 UCLA product in and of itself wasn’t such a problem.
Ball had suited up for just 70 games in the four years he was with the Bulls, at one point missing two-and-a-half consecutive seasons due to a series of knee surgeries.
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Across 35 contests for the 39-43 Bulls last season (14 starts), Ball averaged 7.6 points on .366/.344/.815 shooting splits, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.5 blocks a night.
Still, Ball looked pretty good in limited minutes. Despite his three knee surgeries during his Bulls stint, the 27-year-old looked about as good defensively as he had during his New Orleans Pelicans days, and exhibited a surprisingly willingness to put his body on the line on that end of the hardwood. Unfortunately, that body ultimately wouldn’t cooperate, and Ball was shut down midseason with a wrist injury.
Chicago was impressed enough to ink Ball to a two-season, $20 million contract extension midseason.
Or so the world thought.
During an appearance on the essential Chicago fan podcast “CHGO Bulls,” longtime NBA insider Marc Stein of The Stein Line indicated that Ball’s extension may have been more about setting him up for his own future than locking him down for the Bulls long-term.
LIVE show at 4pm CT, Bulls Nation! @Bulls_Peck & @BawlSports kick off your weekend with:
😠 Josh Giddey “not happy” with contract negotiations?
🗣️ @TheSteinLine joins with his latest intel
😟 panic or patience with Josh?
🔀 zero trade market for Vucevic?https://t.co/R5Xvo9ELEf— CHGO Bulls (@CHGO_Bulls) July 25, 2025
“I mean the reality is, when Lonzo got that contract, it was instantly being described by people around the league as, ‘That’s someone Chicago’s going to trade,'” Stein said. “Lonzo still has a lot of fans in this league. The only concern with him is health. He’s a proven two-way player. Could the Bulls have gotten more? I think we’ve had that conversation a time or two on this show.”
Chicago flipped Ball, straight-up, to a contending club, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in exchange for 10th man small forward Isaac Okoro. The Bulls had plenty of negotiating leverage in the deal, as Ball was the prize, Okoro the cast-off. Ball, when available, is a proven commodity. Okoro has displayed plenty of defensive potential and can be an effective spot jump shooter, but struggles with consistency have lowered his ceiling.
“It’s looked pretty apparent that he wasn’t a huge part of Cleveland’s plans going forward, so to take a flier on a young player and see what he might do in a new situation, that certainly makes sense,” Stein noted of Okoro.
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