Getty Zach LaVine
Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine was on fire this season The UCLA product averaged 25.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per contest in 60 games for the Bulls this season.
Yet the Bulls grasped a 22-43 record before the NBA’s coronavirus pandemic halted play back in March.
NBA legend, Stephon Marbury thinks the Bulls front office needs to give LaVine more around help around him to elevate his profile and to help him succeed. “Zach needs to be in a position where he has the right infrastructure from the organization and coaching staff to allow him to be able to flourish,” Marbury told me today on Heavy With Scoop B.
A two-time NBA All Star, Stephon Marbury played 12 NBA seasons in the NBA. During his NBA career, Marbury averaged 19.3 points and 7.6 assists in stops with the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Jersey Nets, Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.
Back in the spring, the Bulls hired Marc Eversley as their new General Manager and Artūras Karnišovas as their Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. Before arriving in Chicago, Eversley spent 14 years working in the NBA for the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. Karnišovas has nearly two decades of front-office experience working with the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets.
The Bulls have a decision to make soon. Who will be their next head coach?
Earlier this month, the Bulls fired head coach, Jim Boylen. Boylen accepted the Bulls coaching job in December 2018 and compiled a 39-84 record. The Bulls hadn’t made the NBA Playoffs under his watch.
League sources indicate that David Vanterpool, Adrian Griffin and Kenny Atkinson are some of the candidates who are on Chicago’s list. “For a young team its the right personality and the right fit,” one league fixture tells me.
“You gotta have a coach that understands the development of players, while also relating to players. The Bulls are expected to make it to the NBA Playoffs this year and they are a team that should have same trajectory like the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns. You look at Brooklyn [Nets] and the Wizards and they’re in the .500 range, there’s no reason that the Bulls shouldn’t have been there this season and in the bubble in Orlando.”
The face of the franchise, Zach LaVine signed a 4 year, $78 milion contract in 2018 with the Chicago Bulls that runs through 2022.
LaVine will become an unrestricted free agent Summer 2022 and the Bulls currently host a roster of young talent that has struggled with injuries throughout the course of this season. That roster includes Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Thaddeus Young, Otto Porter Jr., Tomas Satoransky, Chandler Hutchison, Ryan Arcidiacono, Denzel Valentine and Coby White.
Coby White is one of LaVine’s favorite teammates. White, the Bulls’ third leading scorer, averaged 13.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists per game for Chicago. “He’s a human flamethrower, man,” LaVine said on Instagram Live back in the spring.
“He’s got stepbacks, hesitations, he has finishing, he can shoot the hell out of the ball, he’s fast, his potential is limitless, man. I’m excited to play with him and be in the backcourt where I think we can be a problem.”
“Me and Zach are really tight, are boys, we’re really cool,” White told me during a Zenni Blockz Blue Light Glasses round table discussion with Bulls teammate, Ryan Arcidiacono before back in the spring.
“You know, Zach; you can go back to training camp and see one of his interviews, he’s had belief in me since day one and I think toward the end of this season, I got to show what he was believing in me for. It means a lot. So, in the offseason, he was saying: ‘I gotta come up with a nickname for you.’ And I guess he found it.”