Getty Bulls star Zach LaVine dunks the ball.
Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine has never been to the playoffs. As a result, he’s built up a reputation as an “empty stat guy” since his scoring numbers haven’t netted his team wins.
That narrative has been put to bed this season, though. Not only is LaVine 13th in the league in scoring, but his Bulls also have the top record in the Eastern Conference standings.
National and local pundits picked Chicago to be a play-in team before the season started. LaVine and his teammates used that negativity as motivation and now stand at the top of the Eastern Conference with 32 wins to 18 losses so far this season. The two-time NBA All-Star Slam Dunk champion (in 2015 and 2016) criticized the “basketball IQ” of certain media members.
LaVine: ‘We’re Shutting a Lot of People Up’
The Bulls acquired LaVine from the Minnesota Timberwolves on draft night in 2017 in the blockbuster Jimmy Butler trade. Despite the UCLA product averaging 24.5 points in a Chicago uniform, the Windy City franchise hasn’t made the playoffs since shipping Butler to Minnesota, causing many in the media to label LaVine as a guy who scores a lot but doesn’t impact winning.
Some argued, though, that LaVine never had the proper talent around him to succeed in Chicago before this season. Now that he’s playing with DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, Nikola Vucevic and Alex Caruso, LaVine is finally on a winning team and proving his critics wrong.
“Obviously, I know who I am as a player,” LaVine told Abe Schwadron of SLAM Magazine. “But there’s been a lot of critics about my game and the way I’ve played: Zach’s an empty stat guy because they’re not winning. I think this year, we’re shutting a lot of people up and making them really look at their basketball IQ and seeing how they’re just talking on TV for viewership. Sometimes I feel like that’s what it is.”
Many NBA players don’t respect the media because they feel like analysts and reporters don’t understand the game of basketball and simply say things for clicks. LaVine was called a “stat padder on a losing team” for the first four years of his Bulls career, but those statements are nowhere to be found now since Chicago has the best record in the East.
Since this is the first time he’s been on a winning NBA team, LaVine is having the most fun he’s had in his career and he’s setting himself up for a huge payday in the offseason.
Bulls Star Becomes Free Agent in Offseason
LaVine is in the final year of the four-year, $78 million deal he signed with the Bulls in 2018. The one-time All-Star is going to get a massive pay raise this offseason after putting up stellar numbers since signing the deal.
Life is good for LaVine, who is no longer on a losing team and has plenty of “dogs” next to him.
“I’m having the most fun I’ve had in my career,” LaVine told Schwadron. “Over the last couple years, it’s been tough for me personally because I try to keep progressing my game, I try to do everything I can do to help the team win. But I feel like in the media, if you’re a successful player on a team that loses, you get criticized for it. It never made sense to me. It’s tough, but all I care about is winning. I want to be a winning player, and having this team this year, playing this well, has been the most fun I’ve had in my career, so I just want to keep it going. We have a bunch of dogs on this team.”
Behind LaVine, the Bulls could make the postseason this campaign for the first time since 2017, with FiveThirtyEight giving them an 87% chance of making the playoffs as of early February. It would certainly be fun to watch the electric guard make his playoff debut and showcase his skills on a national stage.