Zach LaVine has always wanted our undivided attention.
From the high-flying dunks and acrobatic layups to the incredible fadeaways and clutch performances. To all the gravity-defying plays and to the resurgent Chicago Bulls, LaVine has always got the ball on a string and our heads on a swivel.
And now with his first All-Star selection, the 25-year-old is just beginning to showcase his full potential for the world to see. If you haven’t been paying attention to LaVine or the Bulls, maybe it’s time to take a good hard look.
After 33 games, LaVine is currently averaging 28.5 points on 52.2 percent shooting, 5.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and knocking down 3.5 triples per ball game. Those are all career-highs across the board. He is having a season to remember and it would be amiss not to appreciate it.
LaVine’s All-Star season should be admired on two fronts. His breakout year is revitalizing the Bulls and at the same time shedding away the notion that he’s just a high-flyer that’s bound to fall.
Firstly, LaVine's gaudy numbers aren’t a case of good-player-on-a-bad-team syndrome. The Bulls are more than decent with a 15-18 record. They are 10th in the East, tied with the Indiana Pacers, but just an earshot away from the top tier of the Eastern Conference early in the season. The Toronto Raptors are having an up and down season while the Boston Celtics are in a quandary themselves. This means that if LaVine and company find consistency, they can climb up the standings. They are joining the Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks as a couple of exhilarating teams that are fun to watch. Overall, the Bulls have a legitimate chance of entering the playoffs or at the very least a shot in the play-in tournament at the end of the season.
For context, the Chicago franchise has been through three successive losing years. After losing in the first round of the playoffs in the 2016-2017 season, the Bulls have continued to stumble. They won 27 games the following year in LaVine’s first season with the team since getting traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves (though he was coming off an ACL injury and only played late in the season). Then the Bulls had 22 wins each the next two years as the franchise was in a tailspin. But with a new coach in Billy Donovan and a superstar in LaVine, the Bulls are slowly climbing their way back to relevancy. So with already 15 wins after 33 games, the Bulls are way better than they have been the past three years.
The second point that LaVine’s phenomenal season is trying to get across is that he’s cementing his stature as a deadly scorer who happens to dunk and not a dunker who happens to score.
When LaVine first burst into basketball mainstream as a 19-year-old at the 2015 All-Star Dunk Contest, fans didn’t really know what to expect. We didn’t know it at that particular moment, but he was ready for the spotlight. In his first dunk, he wore a Space Jam No. 23 Michael Jordan jersey. He didn’t disappoint that day as he went on to win his first of two dunk titles. The following year in 2016, he waged war with Aaron Gordon in an epic dunk contest for the ages. He met the hype of his dunking prowess similarly to whenever his eyes met the rim for a vicious slam. Back then as it turned out, he was allowing fans to see just one facet of his do-it-all game. He was ready for the bright lights even during those early years as a scrawny kid who didn’t know what the pull of gravity felt like.
Fast-forward to today, to simply box the guy into a dunker wouldn’t bring justice to how much he’s improved his craft. The numbers speak for themselves as the averages mentioned above are a testament to the makings of an all-around superstar. LaVine’s shot selection has also greatly improved, knowing when to attack defenses and pick spots across the floor. Every now and then, he would still hoist up a shot against two people, but the crazy thing is, the ball would swish through the net more often than not. In terms of playmaking, the Bulls are making it easy for their star. Coby White, Thaddeus Young, and the rest of the crew kind of have a sixth sense of where LaVine attacks and they promptly go where the defense will lag. It’s no coincidence that White, Young, and even Denzel Valentine and Garrett Temple are playing well.
Things aren’t all rainbows and butterflies for LaVine of course as there are still a handful of areas he can improve. There are the 3.9 turnovers per game which can probably be attributed to his high usage rate (31.1 percent, 13th in the league). He’s now the number one guy on top of an opposing team’s scouting report and he’s slowly learning how to navigate through that. Take for example his recent game against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday. The Nuggets are a tough defensive team complete with long and agile players capable of hounding LaVine all throughout a game. The result was a quiet 23-point outing for the Bulls star, including a 1-for-8 shooting from downtown. The upside, however, was his nine rebounds and five assists. As long as he continues to find ways to be effective on the floor, he’ll be alright.
LaVine is maybe even turning into a Tracy McGrady 2.0 — an adept scorer with a penchant for making jaw-dropping plays. Before you call out TMac’s playoff failures or injury woes, you have to appreciate the man at his peak. He was a bonafide point-getter and can serve you a bucket however you want.
LaVine still makes a handful of highlight-worthy plays but more importantly, he now makes winning plays for his team. He can still make an uber-athletic dunk that will make you jump out of your seat. At the same time, he can also deliver a stepback dagger triple that can equally make you breathless. The point is, Zach LaVine is growing into a top-level star and he deserves our attention.
