Stratmaster wrote:YEP. The contrast has to do with this being the 7th season on the roster for Lavine, including 2 all-star apperances, 5 straight seasons where he averaged between 24 and 27 ppg, 3 straight seasons of over .600 ts٪ (including an amazing .634 one season)... then followed by a 2nd knee surgery and a foot surgery.
Add in alienation between him and Donovan, complete mismanagement of the trade process by AKME, and an unwillingness of either the coach or front office to stand with their 40 million star player.
You couldn't write a better manual for how to ruin the value of an asset.
I believe all of those things to some extent, and generally think Zach is beaten up way too much.
That said:
- He also has never demonstrated a consistent impact on winning ever in his career, and his teams seem to do better without him
- He either takes too long to process or just too lazy (I think the 1st), particularly on defense
- He has had run ins with both of his coaches and would appears to sulk over them even when the coach is reasonable
I don't know that individuals have swung that big on Zach as much as all the people who always hated Zach are now louder because of the current situation and those who like Zach generally have less to stand on in the immediate moment.
If we ignore contract / attitude, I like Zach a lot, he's a 3 level scorer that could play next to a lot of guys. That said, even at his career best performance, his contract is probably barely viable which leaves little room for any dip in performance, and I certainly perceive him to have at least some lack of flexibility in his role.
Whatever you want to prescribe it to (perception time, low BBIQ, laziness), on both ends of the floor he doesn't react well or quickly to changing information. He's frequently in the wrong spot defensively, and on offense he tends to hold the ball a ton and operates less well in a high pass offense / high action / more complicated scheme which limits some of his strengths.
At any rate, best case for the Bulls is Zach's issues are highly correlated to this procedure even at the start of the year, and he comes back killing it on offense like he did in the past.