How Lonzo Ball injury will affect Bulls' rotation

Lonzo Ball returned to the Chicago Bulls lineup on Oct. 16 for a preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the United Center.

The 26-year-old had gone more than 1,000 days and two and a half seasons between NBA games.

He finally made his regular season return on Oct. 23 in the Bulls' season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans when he scored five points, grabbed two rebounds and dished out four assists in 14 minutes.

Now, however, after injuring his right wrist in Chicago's Oct. 28 road win over the Memphis Grizzlies, Ball will miss at least 10 days. Someone has to fill those minutes, but how will head coach Billy Donovan allocate them?

How the Bulls' rotation could change after Lonzo Ball's injury

In the small sample size of just four games, Ball played most of his minutes alongside Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams and Ayo Dosunmu. He also played in a four-guard lineup with LaVine, Josh Giddey, Coby White and Vucevic.

Dropping him out of those groups leaves a hole for a third or fourth guard.

In Chicago's first game without Ball, Donovan leaned more on his starting group of Giddey, White, LaVine, Williams and Vucevic. Dosunmu played extra minutes off the bench in place of Giddey and made an impact defensively in the team's comeback win.

That group finished with a team-high net rating of 10.8.

Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips played extra minutes as well alongside Dosunmu, White and Vucevic in the closest thing to Donovan's four-guard lineup. Arguably, those two should get some added developmental minutes until Ball regains his spot in the rotation.

There are still a few weeks to go until the 26-year-old floor general returns, but it appears Dosunmu will take his place in the rotation, and Giddey, White and LaVine will get extra run as the regular starters.