Here's what the Bulls need to do with Lonzo Ball now

Ball has picked up his player option, but the Bulls don't have to be hostage to his comeback attempt

Kind of interesting that Lonzo Ball has already picked up his player option for next season. He had until 6/29 to do so. I suppose, from his perspective, there’s no point in waiting.

But now I’ll never know if the Bulls were considering some negotiation here, and if it was even legal under the CBA. My half-baked idea (that is now impossible): negotiate with Lonzo to have him turn down his player option but sign an extension for the same amount of money. Heck, could have even given him more money for the trouble (and present value of money philosophy). Then, you waive him and apply the stretch provision, spreading out that cap figure over as much as seven seasons.

But while that dream is dead (and again, may have not even been possible, so no Bulls fault), the Bulls should just get out of the Lonzo Ball business. Take some control back over your future salary obligations and cap sheet.

Whether or not Lonzo can actually return to play, he can’t plausibly provide > $21M value any more. The other headwind the Bulls face is that even if they get the independent assessment required to wipe the cap figure from the books entirely, that won’t be for a long while and certainly not before free agency this summer. Arturas Karnisovas was asked about this timing issue directly and he answered so poorly it was if he didn’t understand the question (not uncommon for AK).

Here’s what the Bulls do: waive and stretch Lonzo now. It spreads out the cap hit from $21.4M to $7.1M over the next three seasons.

For a ‘human side’, Lonzo still gets paid, and can continue his comeback attempt. He can even use the facilities if he wants (though he probably would prefer - like many seem to lately - do this independently).

The Bulls then can still pursue the medical retirement if that comeback attempt fails, and wipe the cap figure entirely off for the future seasons.

As a tertiary bonus, the team wouldn’t have to deal with the headache of this comeback attempt (again) where Billy Donovan is providing unprompted updates to 8 second clips on Instagram.

There’s simply a lot more certainty in this situation, where you have potentially $7M less room under the tax. Instead of the current one where it’s potentially $21M less but you won’t know until midseason and it sets up this antagonism between the parties where the team, thinking financially, really doesn’t want Ball to come back.

Of course, thinking cynically: ownership probably DOES want Ball’s $21M salary to stay on the cap, especially with insurance paying 80% of it back. Because even if that money is off the cap, the Bulls still have to literally pay Lonzo the money and then also more players with this added room under the tax. That’s a lot of money for a poverty franchise like Chicago.

So I may have just undercut my entire argument there. But that counterargument is very cynical. Surely Karnisovas can reason with his bosses that for the good of the team achieving its goals they should waive Lonzo now, right?