LaVine doing well at halfway point of his personal training camp
Zach LaVine is halfway through his six-day, one-man training camp. Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg got to witness Monday's LaVine workout with the Windy City Bulls and reports all is well.
"Everything looked great," Hoiberg said. "He's had two lengthy practices the last couple days with Windy City and has had no complications. He's sore, as expected. Again, he's in training-camp mode right now, but he's handling the workload well and that's the important thing."
There's still no target date for a LaVine return. The 6-foot-5 guard tore the ACL in his left knee last year on Feb. 3 while playing with Minnesota.
If LaVine survives the next three practices - two more with Windy City before he gets back with the Bulls on Thursday - the team will work on a plan.
"It sounds like (doctors) have pretty much cleared him for full activity now it's about getting together with the medical team," Hoiberg said. "It's about getting in that room with our doctors, trainers, everybody that is involved in making this decision, and seeing what date is the best for him to come back."
No go for RoLo:
One of the tougher decisions for coach Fred Hoiberg each game is which big men to use in the fourth quarter.
Sunday's narrow loss in Washington was another example, when maybe in hindsight Robin Lopez could have helped finish off the win.
Lopez scored an efficient 16 points against the Wizards, hitting 7 of 8 shots in 21 minutes of action. The Bulls led by 3 with 54 seconds left but let Washington finish with a 7-0 run.
"It's tough. We've got four bigs that are playing for us right now who all have very unique skill sets and different things they can bring to the table," Hoiberg said, adding Bobby Portis to the mix. "The way we looked at it last night, Lauri (Markkanen) had just hit a huge 3 for us to put us up. Niko (Mirotic) was as important as anybody in that game.
"We had a 3-point lead with under a minute to go. We felt we had a lineup out there to put us in position to win that game."
Prepping for new addition:
While going 10-4 since Dec. 8, the Bulls have averaged 109.1 points per game, fifth in the NBA during that span, and rank second in pace. Coach Fred Hoiberg was asked if the Bulls can be even better with Zach LaVine in the lineup.
"We'll see. I think there's a lot of unknown right now with Zach," Hoiberg said. "I think the one thing we do know for sure is he's a very talented offensive player. He's a guy who can create his own shot. He can play in transition."
At the time of his injury last season, LaVine was averaging 18 points and shooting 38 percent from 3-point range for the Timberwolves. He's also a two-time slam-dunk contest champ, so he was one of the NBA's most athletic players when he went down with the knee injury.
"You can run different actions for him because of his athleticism and his ability to shoot deep from anywhere on the floor," Hoiberg said. "I'm confident if we continue to stress getting out and playing fast, Zach will fit with that."