Minnesota Timberwolves: Zach LaVine To Start At The 2?

If you are an advance stats aficionado and judged Zach LaVine purely based on his statistical metrics last season, it would be easy to conclude that he may have been one of the worst rotational players in the association last year.

More explicitly, the former UCLA Bruin ranked among the league’s worst in WS/48 (win shares per 48 minutes), BPM (box score plus-minus), and VORP (value over replacement player) for players who appeared in more than 50 games in 2014-15.

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However, much like most things in life, context is key.

LaVine was clearly in way over his head last season, starting — and playing — primarily at the point guard position at age 19. Not only does he lack some of the instinctual savvy to be a primary ballhandler, he was also physically outmatched; much too frail to consistently defend and fight through pick-and-rolls.

Not surprisingly, when some of his initiating responsibilities vanished towards the back end of last year, especially when the Minnesota Timberwolves brought in Lorenzo Brown to relief Zach of some of his lead guard duties, his counting stats skyrocketed during the month of April when he played in a combo guard capacity.

Full disclosure, however, LaVine did play an insane amount of minutes. Along the same vein, there has been a number of forgotten rookies (paging Terrence Williams and MarShon Brooks) who performed admirably for lottery-bound teams down the stretch of a season when the games were more or less meaningless.

Now, none of them possessed the rare concoction of elite athleticism and photogenic foundational skill set of a LaVine; but, it is imperative for all Zach enthusiasts, like myself, to temper our expectations — especially when taking into consideration the depth on the wings the Wolves boast when operating with a full, healthy roster.

As training camp kicked off this past week, though, the starting shooting guard position — the position in which the Renton, Wash., native excelled in last year — has suddenly opened up. In what was considered a job for Kevin Martin to lose, LaVine has impressed — his teammates, the coaching staff, and media pundits, alike — enough to give the Wolves brass to consider otherwise.

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While his innate unwillingness to seek contact and overall on-court awareness still leave a lot to be desired, Zach most definitely does not lack in the confidence department. Adding approximately eight pounds to his slender frame this offseason (#MUSCLE WATCH), LaVine is not one to back down from a challenge.

More prominently, his game, as currently constituted, may fit more harmoniously alongside Minnesota’s projected starting lineup — most notably, when theoretically playing alongside Ricky Rubio and Andrew Wiggins.

Due to a series of unforeseen injuries last season, LaVine and Rubio rarely shared the court with one another (in fact, the two only played 36 minutes in total together); but ideally, one would be logical to assume, with Zach’s ability to run the floor, finish above the rim, and catch-and-shoot with proficiency, that he would be a coherent fit with Pretty Ricky’s clairvoyant, selfless play style.

In fact, LaVine made 46 percent of catch-and-shoot 3-pointers post-All-Star break last season, and produced 0.97 PPP (points per possession) in dribble-handoff situations, which ranked within the top-66 percentile, per NBA.com’s SportVU Data.

Contrarily, Martin — although he remains a walking 20-point per game scorer in the league — likes to play at a slower pace, and has proven to take a lot of half-court touches away from Wiggins when the two played alongside one another last year.

LaVine, on the other hand, would act as more of a secondary ball-handler.

Specifically, as Wiggins cuts and establishes position in the pinch-post, the Wolves can run a plethora of dribble-offs and pin-downs for Zach on the opposite side. While his vision and handle are well below average for a point guard, LaVine’s penchant for breaking defenses down, and dropping dump-off passes to his high-flying bigs should serve valuable as a complementary playmaker.

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Moreover, with K-Mart and Shabazz Muhammad coming off of the pine, Minnesota should not miss a beat offensively when Wiggins and LaVine sit.

If given the opportunity, Zach will score; he will drain 3s; and he will dazzle the crowd with dunks that ESPN Sports Science can meticulously dissect. But, the lingering quagmire lies with his defense.

If the little snippets shown in NBATV’s Real Training Camp are of any indication, though, LaVine did seem a lot more vocal and attentive on that end of the floor (even though he famously failed to realize what he did right when coach Sam Mitchell gave him an impromptu exam).

More times than not, LaVine is quick enough to stay in front of his man; hopefully, with the added bulk on his arms and shoulders, he can prevent the opposition from overpowering him, and likewise, with one year under his belt, he can evolve into a much more contentious help/team defender.

There are just so many plots/storylines for Timberwolves fans to get excited about as we head into the 2015-16 season — Kevin Garnett returning for a full year, Andrew Wiggins’ encore campaign, and the debut of Karl-Anthony Towns, just to name a few — but, Zach LaVine’s maturation into a bonafide, cold-blooded scorer may just sit atop of that list.

Next: Grooming The King Of The North: Assessing Andrew Wiggins' Summer

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