ZACHOMETER
LaVine debut shows June trade with Timberwolves could prove to be a blockbuster
The plan for Zach LaVine remains the same.
Looking like an All- Star- caliber talent in just 19 minutes in his debut Saturday doesn’t change anything. Coach Fred Hoiberg reiterated that Sunday.
LaVine is scheduled to play 20 minutesMonday afternoon against the Heat and Wednesday against the Warriors. The plan will be reevaluated before the game Saturday at Atlanta. It’s sensible but also concrete.
Considered the key piece in the draft- night trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves despite having a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, LaVine is one of the few players who is athletic enough to take almost a year off to rehab and strut back on the court looking smooth in every basketball move he makes.
But as good as he looked in the 107- 105 victory over the Pistons, it’s fair to ask if he’ll remain the key piece in the deal.
Point guard Kris Dunn also arrived in the deal, which included a swap of draft picks that helped the Bulls land 7- foot star- in- the- making Lauri Markkanen.
Dunn is the fifth- leading scorer ( averaging 13.8 points) in the 2016 draft class, and he trails only Ben Simmons in that group with 6.3 assists per game. Based on his improvement, Dunn’s ceiling might be higher than initially thought.
He has an off- the- charts work ethic — it mirrors Butler’s — and he’s humble enough to accept coaching, a trait he has shown while working on his outside jumper.
Then there’s Markkanen, who leads the rookie class in threepointers ( 98), is second in rebounds per game( 7.5) and is fourth in points per game ( 15.5). He’s the “Baby Unicorn,’’ and that’s in just 40 games.
“It’s scary what he could become,’’ guard Justin Holiday said.
And Holiday knows a little something about unicorns, considering he played with Kristaps Porzingis in New York last season.
“Wait until [ Markkanen] learns all the tricks and subtleties of the game that vets learn,’’ Holiday said. “He’s going to get stronger, smarter . . . his game will only get better.’’
The other layer of Markkanen’s accelerated impact is that he has made Nikola Mirotic expendable. Mirotic wants to be elsewhere, and because he’s eligible to be traded Monday, what he brings back in return can be directly linked to landing Markkanen.
That’s why it’s safe to say this has proved to be one of the better trades made in the last few seasons in which both teams benefitted.
The Bulls jump- started their rebuild while the Timberwolves ( sitting fourth in the West) jumpstarted their pursuit of the Herculean task of trying to climb atop the Western Conference.
There’s nothing wrong with tipping your cap and acknowledging both organizations made out well.
“Do I pay attention to them? No,’’ Butler told the Sun- Times about the Bulls earlier this week. “But do I see their scores and what they’ve done? Of course. Hell, I wish them the best. I don’t have hard feelings toward any of the players there.
“I don’t consider what they’re doing a surprise. That’s the league for you. You got guys that can put the ball in the basket, just playing basketball, make shots, you’re going to come up and catch people on certain nights. You can’t take anybody in this league lightly for that exact reason. I feel like without question it was a trade where both sides benefitted.’’