Zach Lavine thread

[contestedlayups]

I'm stunned... no, SHOCKED that the two guys enjoying crazy usage under Boylen seem to really like him these days.

If we weren't competitive things would not be so buddy buddy. Plus Boylen seems to have gone from drill seargent to player’s coach.

That goes both ways. There was a time this season where the Bulls weren't competitive at all and were getting blown out seemingly every game, and Lavine openly questioned Boylen's strategies/coaching style. It's a maturation process for both, to go along with a level of trust that has gotten their relationship to this point where Boylen had to do what he did when he got promoted to earn the team's trust, and it has obviously paid off handsomely. Boylen, as poor as his in-game decisions are and have been, has earned another year in Chicago and has earned the buy-in from each player on this team, which sets up well for next season.

[sco]

I think a positive coming out of this season is that Zach may realize that even if he plays his best, he is not good enough to carry his team without several good teammates. I'm not sure he had that perspective coming into the season.

[WindyCityBorn]

I think a positive coming out of this season is that Zach may realize that even if he plays his best, he is not good enough to carry his team without several good teammates. I'm not sure he had that perspective coming into the season.

I don't think he ever believed that. Not in today's NBA you cannot win alone no matter who good your are

[bigworld2017]

I am seeing a real maturation to Zach's game in this latter part of the season. Since we got Otto Porter to be honest. I'm not sure what triggered it in Zach's psyche, but he has developed into the All-Star caliber SG that he always possessed the talent to be, but had not consistently demonstrated before this. More effort on defense. More looking for teammates. Much higher offensive efficiency. More camaraderie with his teammates. More signs of leadership. He's earning his contract that's for sure. I'm glad we matched Sacramento. I'd hate to see this development happening next to De'Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley.

[StunnerKO]

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[t-time]

Our players have Stockholm syndrome

[sco]

Our players have Stockholm syndrome

Wait isn't Stockholm in Finland?

[Shill]

Our players have Stockholm syndrome

Wait isn't Stockholm in Finland?

Die Hard reference?

[League Circles]

I haven't been able to watch much this year, but I'm happy with Zachs progression for sure. His play is starting to catch up to his talent. I had been pretty strongly against matching his contract.

[TheJordanRule]

Zach had some great passes to Felicio for easy dunks last night. That alley-oop to Shaq on that fastbreak, and his "I'm just slowly taking the ball up the court-- whoops, I turned it into fastbreak" drive at the end of the night were my favorite moments of the night. He set up Rolo about as often and as well as anyone on our roster could, including PGs Kris and Archi. There are still obvious problems with his turnovers, but he would have tied Rolo for MVP honors in the game last night. Zach is a beast.

[jump]

Stockholm = Sweden
Helsinki = Finland

[WindyCityBorn]

Zach had some great passes to Felicio for easy dunks last night. That alley-oop to Shaq on that fastbreak, and his "I'm just slowly taking the ball up the court-- whoops, I turned it into fastbreak" drive at the end of the night were my favorite moments of the night. He set up Rolo about as often and as well as anyone on our roster could, including PGs Kris and Archi. There are still obvious problems with his turnovers, but he would have tied Rolo for MVP honors in the game last night. Zach is a beast.

He is definitely becoming a more well-rounded player and no longer just a scorer. I think he averages 25/5/5 next season and makes the all-star team if we are competitive.

[StunnerKO]

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[sco]

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Good find. I will say that I bet that mix has improve a lot since Kingpin took over coaching. I rarely see Zack taking long 2's anymore - to their collective credit.

[PaKii94]

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Good find. I will say that I bet that mix has improve a lot since Kingpin took over coaching. I rarely see Zack taking long 2's anymore - to their collective credit.

Pretty much what I've been sayingg for lavine since the beginning of the season. Lavines definitely gotten better with his shot selection so I'm hopeful for further improvement

[PaKii94]

More lavine material:

9. Zach LaVine, showing glimpses?
I am still not buying LaVine as a Most Improved Player candidate, or future alpha dog of an NBA contender. He is not James Harden -- wing operating as point guard -- no matter how much the Bulls push it. He turns the ball over too much, jacks at least three horrible shots per game, and gives back so much of his offensive production with clueless defense.

But LaVine doesn't have to be Harden. He just has to be better, and he has shown glimpses. He opened the season rampaging to the rim, and that has sustained. He's well above the league average from deep on a diet of contested, off-the-dribble attempts.

And over the past two months, there has been growing sophistication to his passing:

LaVine has leveled up on that slingshot to the weakside corner. He whips it off the bounce, with a one-handed gather that works to disguise the pass until it is airborne. He releases it with the key help defender -- Josh Jackson -- still leaning into the paint, away from Lauri Markkanen.

LaVine's passing numbers are at career-high levels. February may have been his best passing month ever: 58 dimes against 24 turnovers.

He still has a long way to go. He's dishing 4.7 dimes per game -- not exactly John Stockton territory. His assist-to-turnover ratio is about even again in March. He gets caught in crowds, threads passes that aren't there, and kicks to shooters who have already cut someplace else.

But all progress is healthy, and LaVine has shown meaningful progress.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26320441/ten-things-like-including-terrifying-giannis

[Clocian]

KC has an article up with Zach wants to work on his mid post game this summer. Can't wait to see how his game improves next season

[dougthonus]

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While I certainly can't disagree with the conceptual idea of taking 3s and layups, it's a heck of a lot harder to do that then people think. That mid range shot is tempting because its a much easier shot to generate than a good 3 or a good at the rim attempt. Teams focus on stopping quality looks for those other shots.

Players are often forced to choose between a really terrible three, terrible drive, or open pull up two, and while the open two is worse than a good three or drive its probably better than the heavily contested 3 or the drive with no room.

In this sense, stats can't fully tell the story because they can say shot type X is better than shot type Y but teams can't just choose to take X all the time or they would do nothing but dunk attempts which have something like a 90% completion rate.

So, yes, I hope LaVine is able to be more like Harden, but every player wishes they could do that and it isn't so easy.

[MeloRoseNoah]

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While I certainly can't disagree with the conceptual idea of taking 3s and layups, it's a heck of a lot harder to do that then people think. That mid range shot is tempting because its a much easier shot to generate than a good 3 or a good at the rim attempt. Teams focus on stopping quality looks for those other shots.

Players are often forced to choose between a really terrible three, terrible drive, or open pull up two, and while the open two is worse than a good three or drive its probably better than the heavily contested 3 or the drive with no room.

In this sense, stats can't fully tell the story because they can say shot type X is better than shot type Y but teams can't just choose to take X all the time or they would do nothing but dunk attempts which have something like a 90% completion rate.

So, yes, I hope LaVine is able to be more like Harden, but every player wishes they could do that and it isn't so easy.

Yeah, but Lavine is one of the few guys in this league that can go to the basket at will and has a Ray Allen smooth jumper with limitless range. The only thing that stops Lavine from playing Harden like basketball is his bball in combination with his lack of concentration.

Thankfully, Lavine isn't an idiot. With a lot of film studying and a lot of hard work, I personally think that he can raise his low bball IQ to be the league average.

[GimmeDat]

I don't think the 3's and layups thing is a philosophy unique for Lavine. Every team wants every player to trend in that direction.