Chicago Bulls land Lonzo Ball in four-year, $ 85 million signing-and-swap deal

Chicago Bulls and playmaker Lonzo Ball close four-year, $ 85 million deal in New Orleans Pelicans signing-and-trade deal, Ball agent Rich Paul said on Monday. to Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN.

For the Bulls, Ball positions himself at a guard post where he can grow up around Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic as Chicago tries to take another step to be competitive in the Eastern Conference.

As New Orleans shifted more toward allowing Zion Williamson to play an offensive role, Ball’s role for the Pelicans became that of an off-ball winger who could control the offense on the pitch and hand over his homework to Williamson in the half court. He will have the opportunity to regain control of things with Chicago.

Ball, 23, has had four seasons up and down since entering the league as a second overall pick in 2017. It was difficult to immediately meet the higher expectations in Los Angeles, but once he got to New Orleans, things have started to improve. As part of Anthony Davis’ trade, Ball found a new shooting life with the Pelicans. After shooting 31.5% from deep and 43.7% from the line during his two seasons with the Lakers, Ball has since increased those numbers to 37.6% and 66.4%.

In 2020-2021, he’s averaged career highs starting with a three-point percentage (.378), field goal percentage (.414), free throw percentage ( .781), a percentage of live shots (.551) and points per game (14.6). ).

He also protected the ball like never before with a career-low 14.5 spin percentage, while his use percentage also hit a career high (20.5).

Ball has struggled with injury throughout his young career and has yet to play a full season in the NBA. He missed 65 games in his first two seasons with Los Angeles and a total of 26 in the past two years with New Orleans.