kodo wrote:I'd agree, Zach is not a ball stopper. His assist total was good for a guy who is a scoring wing at 4.2..he would have more assists than Tatum or Brown in Boston. And getting an assist assumes the receiver can actually make a shot...something that was non-existent for the entire 1st half of the season in Chicago with Otto gone, Lauri unable to hit anything, and Kris Dunn & Sato & Wendell as your shooters.
Of course, if you take away that stretch of 17 games where Lauri averaged 18 points on 49% and 40% shooting, Lavine would have averaged 4.3 assists on the year.
During this part of the season when Lauri was on fire, Lavine's assists per game slightly decreased. This was also the point when the Bulls were starting to turn their season around. They went 7-10 with a +29, and 5 of the losses were by 5 points or less. Unfortunately Carter and Lauri got injured right after this span of good play. If you're curious, Lavine shot only 42% during that stretch.
In addition, Lavine's assists per game were also slightly lower during the nine games he played with Otto. Though Otto wasn't exactly setting any records with his shooting. In Otto's best performance Lavine had 3 assists and in his second best performance Lavine had 7 assists.
Lavine's assists per game shot up at the end of the season between games 48 to 60. During this stretch of games Lavine averaged 27.7 PPG, 5 RPG, 5.8 APG,and shot 47% and 35%. However, his ORtg - DRtg was 107 - 120, and the Bulls won only three of these games. They were also outscored by 84 points.
