Just a Dunker?

In the NBA, there’s a lot that can go wrong. For Zach Lavine, it was his ACL during his tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Back when he was with the Thibs-Wolves, Lavine was the guy who relied on his athleticism based on his outrageous dunking

That being said, when Lavine went down during a Detroit Pistons loss, even playing 6 more minutes after the injury occured, everyone feared that he wouldn’t be the same player as he was. At the time the Wolves were considered one of the best cores but this injury made the wolves have to make a hard decision whether or not they should bank on Lavine’s recovery & keep him, missing the playoffs yet again or to make him bait for a bigger fish or better known as Jimmy Butler.

This isn’t to negate the focus on Zach Lavine, in fact, I believe it inspired him to work endless on his game, to be better than he was prior to his injury. He even did a documentary series that shows him working harder than ever to be better and that’s the big distinction between him and Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins has all of the talent but has no work ethic, while Zach’s the opposite of that, he reminds me of – Jimmy Butler in that regard.

Now the whole Jimmy Bulter debacle became one of the most talked about topics in the NBA season til he got traded to the Philadelphia Sixers and even then people still talked about it – primarily because of how the Wolves lost that trade to the Bulls, but enough about that, lets talk about the trade before that;

Zach Lavine’s ACL Injury is the Best Thing to Happen to Him.

So when it came down to deciding as to if the Wolves should get a 3rd defined star to pair up with Karl Anthony Towns & Andrew Wiggins or Lavine himself, Tom Thibodeau actually wanted to or at least open to keeping Lavine and trading Wiggins, yet the Wolves owner, Glen Taylor vetoed the idea primarily because he didn’t want to wait on Lavine’s recovery to make the playoffs and wanted a ‘win-now‘ move for the playoffs.

.@DWolfsonKSTP: Tom Thibodeau was open to trading Andrew Wiggins last summer, but Glen Taylor stepped in and vetoed the idea. Scoop podcast: https://t.co/69S8ChZF5b pic.twitter.com/SWd3ZimNBf — SKOR North (@SKORNorth) March 8, 2018

Thus this led to the draft day trade that made the Chicago Bulls send: Jimmy Butler, Bulls no.16 – Justin Patton for the Wolves Zach Lavine, Chris Dunn, & the no. 7 – Lauri Markkannen.

The initial grade of the trade was that the Wolves won the trade, & the Bulls are in complete purgatory trying to rebuild with lost, injured young guys (similar to what the Knicks are now).

Yet because Butler hated the Wolves, and that whole scenario for them occurred with them trading Butler to the Sizers and later firing Thibs, It reasonable to say ‘maybe the wolves lost that trade, but the Bulls still are nothing’ right?

Now the rise of Zach Lavine – who by the way has averaged 25.6ppg in his last 20 games and for the season he’s averaging 23.8ppg, on 46.7 FG% & having a Player Efficiency Rating of 18.9. (to put that into perspective, the league average is 15.)

Add in the fact that Lauri Markkannen has become a young star for the Bulls, putting up similar numbers to Kristaps Porzingis (lacking on D tho), and Dunn being a serviceable PG for them so far (might be gone later down the line, maybe for Ja Morant?) and then you have the complete 100% argument that the Bulls have won the trade – especially because Lavine’s athleticism has NOT decreased at all, don’t believe me? Take a look at this Hustle play by the Bulls which leads to a Lavine Lob.

To add insult to Injury, Jimmy Butler has not won at all in Chicago since being traded there and it’s kind of funny.

What does the Future Hold for the Chicago Bulls?

Regardless though, Lavine’s rise to Stardom has been similar to D’Lo’s in that both of their former teams just gave up on these guys who had immense potential, now look at them. While the Bulls are still in the lottery, I won’t be surprised if they made a Kings-like resurgence with all of their young players, playing for each other, unlike a certain LA-team.

While I do not know how the much the fans like Jim Boylen, you have to take notice that trading for Otto Porter Jr, was honestly a stroke an underrated genius because he’s putting on a career performance since joining the Bulls.

Bulls fans you guys have a great core to look forward to and I hope you guys succeed. I believe that they’re going to be a problem soon if everything holds true and I think the Bulls fans have something to be excited for. Good Luck.