Defying the odds
Zach LaVine has taken his game to a new level and is rewarded with spot in the All-Star Game
When the Bulls made that franchise-altering decision on draft night in 2017, pivoting away from a future with Jimmy Butler and trading him to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Zach LaVine was not the headliner of the trio of young players they received in return.
Sure, LaVine was intriguing, but he was a player known for his athleticism coming off a torn ACL in his left knee. The chance to grab Lauri Markkanen with the No.7 overall pick was the big splash for the Bulls — along with a baffling pick swap. Markkanen was easier to project as a future All-Star because he was still an unknown. Kris Dunn was the “point guard of the future” the team had chased for years, and the team planned to tank and more chances at stars were on the way.
Most of those promises never manifested, but LaVine emerged from that trade as the Bulls’ most promising player. And this season, he took his game to another
level. On Sunday, he will play for Team Durant as the first Bulls player to appear in an All-Star Game since Butler in 2016-17, his final season in Chicago.
To earn a spot in the All-Star Game,
LaVine elevated his strengths and improved upon his weaknesses.
LaVine still might be the best dunker in the NBA, but he’s also a threat to score from anywhere on the floor. A two-time winner of the Slam Dunk contest, he will compete in the 3-point contest before Sunday’s game. He’s averaging 28.7 points per game (seventh in the NBA), while shooting career-highs from everywhere — at the rim (69%), in the mid-range (45%), from 3-point range (44%) and from the free-throw line (86%).
“I’m very excited about this one,” Durant said as he selected LaVine during the All-Star Game draft Thursday night.
“That boy got a sniper,” LeBron James added. “That boy got game. That boy got game.”
The first half of this season became a breakout party for LaVine, and players around the league have taken notice. Opposing players are usually the most complementary of his game, including this incredible story from former Grizzles guard Tony Allen.
While LaVine has always been capable of scoring in bunches, he’s also started showing progress as a playmaker while being much more active on defense. Those areas — along with the idea that his scoring totals were “empty calories” on a team out of contention — have been points of LaVine criticism.
And while he’s not perfect in either area, he’s getting better. Every year, in fact, LaVine has found a way to improve his game.
“He’s making the right reads and the right plays, as opposed to previous years where it was just score, score, score, score,” said Bulls forward Thad Young, who was also LaVine’s teammate when he was a rookie in Minnesota. “Now he’s letting us help him and he’s feeding off the energy of his teammates. He’s letting us get into a position where he can have easier baskets, and have some of the energy on the defensive end, also.
“His growth has been tremendous over the course of time. He’s developing into a true leader.”
LaVine is only the sixth Bulls All-Star since Michael Jordan last played for the team in 1998. Players of this magnitude have not come around often for a franchise that has spent more time rudderless than not since the end of the Jordan dynasty.
LaVine’s ascension among the game’s elite comes a few months after Butler led the Heat to the NBA Finals in October. An injury-riddled first half prevented Butler from making the All-Star team, but after a slow start, his recent emergence has the Heat right back in the playoff hunt. The Bulls have still not been to the playoff since Butler was traded four years ago, but LaVine has embraced the idea of leading the team back to prominence ever since he first arrived.
“That’s something that we had to go out there and try to earn that respect, and we’re still trying to do that as a team and not just individually,” LaVine said. “So it’s big. We’re moving in the right direction. We’re just going to continue to climb that totem pole.”
There will be a time for the Bulls to examine what this All-Star berth means for LaVine, but the team is going to face another crossroads soon. LaVine is set to become a free agent at the end of next season, and the team will have to determine whether they plan to commit to a future with him.
If anything, this breakout season should give the Bulls pause to consider whether LaVine’s ceiling is higher than imagined. He is still flawed defensively and can become turnover prone, but he also turns 26 in March, has improved in every year of his career and seems committed to transforming into a two-way player capable of leading a franchise.
Just look at his comments the night after he found out he made his first All-Star Game.
“It was deserving, and I’m thankful for that, but it makes you more hungry,” LaVine said. “You want more for me and the team.
“So I’m excited to see where it goes from here. I’m definitely not content. I definitely want to keep pushing that envelope.”