Chicago Bulls: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season
5. Zach LaVine had an up and down season
The Bulls took a lot of heat for sending Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for a shooting guard coming off an ACL injury and a point guard who had a less-than-stellar rookie season.
You traded Butler for a 23-year old PG that can’t shoot, and a 22-year old guard that relies on his athleticism coming off a torn ACL.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) June 22, 2017
While the Bulls were excited about acquiring the high-flying guard who won two slam dunk titles, they wisely approached his rehab with conservatively. LaVine finally made his debut in January and the early returns were favorable.
In his first two outings as a member of the Bulls, LaVine scored 14 and 18 points, respectively. He shot 57.1 percent from the field and connected on five of his eight attempts from long range en route to finishing the month of January with averages of 13.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
LaVine turned it up a notch in February, posting averages of 22.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest on 40.8 shooting and 43.2 percent from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, the narrative took a turn for the worst after that.
During what proved to be his last seven games of the season, LaVine still averaged a respectable 14.3 points per outing, but his shooting numbers plummeted to 33.7 percent shooting overall, including an abysmal conversion rate of 21.6 percent from 3-point range.
With that in mind, LaVine’s level of play was somewhat inconsistent, which is to be expected following an 11-month absence from the court. LaVine has stated he is looking forward to improving his game during the offseason and I’m more than sure the Bulls feel the same way.