Bulls Rumors: $10.2M Exception for Lonzo Ball's Knee Injury Granted by NBA

The Chicago Bulls will reportedly have some additional financial flexibility because of Lonzo Ball's ongoing knee problems.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the NBA granted Chicago a $10.2 million disabled player exception because Ball is expected to miss the entire season. The Bulls applied for the exception on July 2.

Ball hasn't played since the 2021-22 campaign.

Keith Smith of Spotrac explained the disabled player exception can be used to acquire just one player via a signing, trade or waiver claim. It can also only be used to add a player on a remainder-of-season contract.

The Bulls aren't going to land a franchise-altering addition with this flexibility, but it does give them another avenue to bolster their talent as they attempt to go from a play-in team to a playoff contender.

To say Ball's time in Chicago hasn't gone as planned is quite an understatement.

He came to the Bulls via a sign-and-trade ahead of the 2021-22 season, and things got off to an ideal start. With a new core of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Ball, Nikola Vučević and Alex Caruso, Chicago was the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the early part of the campaign.

However, Ball suffered a knee injury and things gradually went downhill.

The Bulls fell to the No. 6 seed and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. The UCLA product then missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season, and the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament by the Miami Heat.

Now that he is also expected to miss the entire 2023-24 campaign, Ball will have played just 35 games with the Bulls in three seasons. It is difficult to envision the club contending with the best teams in the Eastern Conference without him during the upcoming season, making the situation all the more difficult.

But at least it received a bit of good news Thursday with the NBA's decision to grant the exception.