Bulls prepping for life without guard Lonzo Ball with surgery coming

Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is scheduled to have surgery to remove some debris from his left knee Wednesday, with the hope of being on track for a re-evaluation in four to six weeks.

That was all executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was willing to say with conviction at media day Monday.

How quickly Ball will return or whether he even will return this season wasn’t something Karnisovas was willing to address.

‘‘I’m not a doctor,’’ Karnisovas said. ‘‘I’m just going to wait and see what the doctors are going to tell me.’’

That’s where it gets tricky.

Ball went down in January with what first was diagnosed as a bone bruise that would need a few weeks to heal. One surgery and eight months later, Ball still is sidelined and awaiting another surgery.

There was some criticism about the timing of Ball’s second surgery, but Karnisovas explained that timeline.

‘‘We gave every opportunity [for Ball] to rehab and get back on the court without doing the surgery,’’ Karnisovas said. ‘‘That was our thought process, with the thought in mind of what’s best for the player. We’re at a crossroads now where we need to do something else, and that’s why we opted in to do the procedure.’’

Ball’s teammates have been in contact with him and know how tough this injury saga has been for him.

‘‘I know guys have talked about it all summer, but let’s understand he wants to be out here more than anyone else,’’ guard Zach LaVine said. ‘‘Nobody wants to be injured. It’s tough to have people talk about it each and every day and when you’re going to be back.

‘‘I just told him: ‘Make sure you’re ready because when you come back, we need you. You’re our starting point guard. You’re the cog to our defense, our facilitator.’ ’’

As far as a plan to replace Ball for the time being, coach Billy Donovan was leaving it an open competition. Second-year man Ayo Dosunmu and veterans Alex Caruso and Goran Dragic are all in play, but Donovan said he wanted to use practices and exhibition games to see which groups work in sync with certain personnel.

‘What are you doing, Dragic?’

Dragic knew the question was coming in his first media session with the Bulls. Sure enough, it came.

He was on the receiving end of a 2010 dunk by Derrick Rose, leaving Bulls analyst Stacey King to scream, ‘‘What are you doing, Dragic?’’ after the then-Suns guard attempted to block the shot.

‘‘Yes, this is my nightmare,’’ Dragic said, laughing.

He then explained the play all these years later.

‘‘The funny thing, this was the only time somebody dunked on me in my whole NBA career,’’ Dragic said.

Dragic said he later spoke with Rose about the play when the two were on an Adidas promotion tour.

‘‘I said, ‘You had to do it like that?’ ’’ Dragic recalled. ‘‘I was young, second year in the league. First year I didn’t play much. My second year I started to play a little bit, so I had to go for that play. Of course, if I knew [the outcome], I would never [have challenged Rose]. But it is what it is. At least I’m on TV all the time.’’