Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball hasn't played since January 2022 because of knee issues, but he is in line to take a significant step toward his recovery in the near future.

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan told reporters Ball is expected to resume running in January because "the pain that he was experiencing has been eliminated."

That doesn't mean Ball will be taking the court this season.

Rather, as Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune explained, it is a sign that some of the problematic pain that has hampered him in everyday life has finally subsided:

Ball's tenure with the Bulls, which started when he was acquired via a sign-and-trade ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, has been a story of what could have been. After all, Chicago was the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the early portion of his first season with the team and seemed to have a solid core of Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vučević and Alex Caruso.

When he was initially sidelined in January 2022 to undergo surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee, the expectation was he would miss six-to-eight weeks and return in time for the playoffs.

Yet he never did return, and the Bulls fell to the No. 6 seed and lost in the first round.

Ball needed another surgery after the 2021-22 campaign and ended up missing the 2022-23 season. As if that wasn't enough, he told reporters in September 2022 that "even going up stairs and stuff, it's still painful."

He then underwent a cartilage transplant in March and is not expected back this season.

The UCLA product has a $21.4 million player option on his deal for the 2024-25 campaign. It isn't a stretch to suggest he will exercise it instead of hitting free agency given the uncertainty around his health.

Perhaps he will eventually return to the Bulls lineup next season and pick up where he left off on a team that was a contender when he was healthy. For now, though, he is at least making progress and experiencing far less pain.