Minnesota Sports Forum

Good read.

https://www.blogabull.com/2017/9/11/16288130/can-chicago-bulls-guard-zach-lavine-thrive-as-a-first-option

I hope he thrives. No only does he seem like a great kid, but my gut tells me he will do whatever work he needs to do to make it happen.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Good read.

https://www.blogabull.com/2017/9/11/16288130/can-chicago-bulls-guard-zach-lavine-thrive-as-a-first-option

I hope he thrives. No only does he seem like a great kid, but my gut tells me he will do whatever work he needs to do to make it happen.

I'm a big Lavine fan. The thing I worry about is the more I have read and listened to stuff I wonder if the Bulls are a really terrible franchise at this point. I hope not for Hoiberg and Lavine's sake. The Cameron Payne trade continues to look bad. The PGs jokes have shifted to the Bulls.

Sure Lavine doesn't drive much but...

His shooting could be really elite. That's a pretty big deal.

Lavine isn't a guy that really drives to the rim but it's not like the Wolves had spacing when he was there. The bad news is the Bulls may not have more space for them this year. He may have more of that to his game than he has shown.

Is Lavine a #1 option guy? No probably not but I think he can be a ridiculously good offensive player and I would not be shocked if he took a step towards being something close to a #1 type. There is talent athletic ability and like Bleed said he is a hard worker and is confident but still seems to be humble and coachable. Hoiberg could be a good coach for him in a few ways.

He could easily become a Monta Ellis or Jamal Crawford type of scorer. Monta was a #1 option offensively for years, but it was for bad teams. That's not to say LaVine can't win as a team's number 1 offensive player, but he'll need to get better at D, have some very good defenders around him, and ideally have a #2 and #3 scorer who isn't too far behind him offensively if he really wants to be on a contender. That's a lot of things that'll need to happen.

The Bulls will suck this year, but if you put Zach on Utah, he could score a ton AND that team could make the playoffs. If the other guys picked up the slack offensively, they could even be a bit of a threat there.

But realistically, unless his defense improves significantly IMO, he really needs a great defensive team around him. Honestly, if you put him on the top 10 teams in the league, on how many teams would he be any higher than the 4th or 5th best player overall? I doubt too many, even if he could be a top 2 scorer on a lot of those teams. And that's what's holding him back, his defense.

Any word on his contract extension?

bleedspeed177 wrote:Any word on his contract extension?

Unless he's ready to sign for a fraction of the max... I don't expect there to be.

Simply too many question marks right now as he rehabs + takes on a larger role.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Any word on his contract extension?

Unless he's ready to sign for a fraction of the max... I don't expect there to be.

Simply too many question marks right now as he rehabs + takes on a larger role.

Yep. Another consideration is Lavine's cap hold for next offseason is less than 5 million and so that's another reason the Bulls may be willing to just wait if they want to take a swing at some FAs with as much cap space as they can.

If thriving is scoring a lot of points with horrible D on one of the worst teams in the league then yes.

thedoper wrote:If thriving is scoring a lot of points with horrible D on one of the worst teams in the league then yes.

He knows that role pretty well right? Lol