It was one game.
To paint broad strokes in the wake of the 120-113 overtime win over division-rival Milwaukee on Thursday, especially with DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine in street clothes, would be a major overreaction.
Afterall, it wasn’t like this star-less collection of Bulls shot better from three-point range (35%), held the Bucks under 100 or even won the turnover battle.
What they did do?
Played team basketball with maximum effort.
Still, to grab a random Thursday night game in the Association and draw an organizational-changing conclusion from it is bordering on insanity.
But what if there was more than a small sample size? What if it felt like there were continual growing signs that the Bulls have a No. 8 problem?
To argue that the Bulls are better off without LaVine is a losing proposition. But are they really worse off without him?
They’ll continue to find that out with the team announcing Friday morning that LaVine will be sidelined for at least the next week with the right foot soreness that has hampered him since mid-November. While LaVine wouldn’t give an exact diagnosis of what was going on in the foot, he did say “it’s complicated.’’
A good summary of LaVine’s entire 2023-24 campaign so far.
He came into the season praising the summer roster moves and the excitement of making a playoff run, and less than a month later, he and his representation made it very clear that he was open to being elsewhere. Once that declaration was made, the Bulls lost seven of their next eight games, finally breaking that streak against the Bucks with LaVine sitting out.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But since the “Big Three” of LaVine, DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic came together going into the 2021-22 season, LaVine has missed 22 regular-season games. DeRozan has missed 16 in that same time.
In the games without DeRozan, the Bulls are 7-9 losing by an average margin of 13.1 points in those nine games.
Without LaVine they are 12-10 losing by a margin of 10 points.
They aren’t a playoff team without LaVine, but they haven’t exactly been a playoff team with him, either. One visit to the postseason – a one-round exit in which they won just one game – is all he’s given them in seven seasons.
“Yeah, but poor talent around him, no help, bad coaching over the years, blah, blah, blah … “
The LaVine apologists were quick to stack-up excuses and defend the two-time All-Star over the years. Not so much this season, however.
Especially when the effort hasn’t seemingly been there from him, displayed defensively way too often. When LaVine returns from this foot injury he will do so with the worst defensive rating of his career so far this season (117.7).
That’s not a great look, but it doesn’t change the inevitable. LaVine will be traded before the February deadline. If it’s up to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, LaVine will be the only one of the “Big Three’’ sent out, with Karnisovas wanting to see what the product will then look like.
The market can always change that if Karnisovas is offered an unforeseen deal he can’t refuse, but that’s the immediate agenda.
Until LaVine is sent elsewhere, however, a win over the Bucks shouldn’t lead to an overreaction about the guard.
If only it was just one game.
