Vucevic says LaVine should be appreciated in return to United Center
Sacramento's Zach LaVine scored more than 30 points in each of his first three games this season, but he was not the NBA's highest-scoring ex-Bull as of Tuesday morning.
That honor belongs to Utah's Lauri Markkanen, who was averaging 34.7 points per game after pouring in a career-high 51 against Phoenix on Monday.
LaVine will make an early return to the United Center on Wednesday, along with DeMar DeRozan, to take on the undefeated Bulls. The Kings will be playing the second leg of back-to-back games since they spent Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
In the midst of his eighth season in Chicago, LaVine was traded to Sacramento last Feb. 3. The Bulls received Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones and Zach Collins in return, along with the rights to their own 2025 first-round pick.
Now, the Bulls are off to a surprising 3-0 start, and it's way too early to declare any trade victories or presume the Bulls are a playoff contender. But one obvious trait with the LaVine Era is it wasn't very successful.
From the time LaVine made his Bulls debut on Jan. 13, 2018 (after recovering from an ACL tear the previous season) to the day he played his last game in Chicago, the Bulls were a collective 88 games below .500.
Bulls center Nikola Vucevic came to LaVine's defense following Monday's win over Atlanta.
“I hope the Bulls fans give him the welcome he deserves,” Vucevic said. “I think he gave a lot to the organization throughout the years. I know people criticize him at times, but I think it wasn't always fair. He's a great guy. He always competed and played hard. He always tried his best.”
LaVine dealt with some tough circumstances from the start of his NBA career. After spending one season with Steve Alford at UCLA, and not even playing heavy minutes, the two-time slam dunk champ joined a Minnesota Timberwolves squad that went 16-66 in his rookie season.
Two years later, he was traded to a Bulls team that was trying to lose. Getting LaVine, Markkanen and Kris Dunn for Jimmy Butler was the starting point of a rebuild that went nowhere.
So it's easy to see why LaVine didn't learn many winning habits early in his career. As further evidence, look at how much better Phoenix guard Devin Booker got when he was gifted Chris Paul as a teammate. The Suns went from 19 wins to the NBA Finals in two seasons.
The Bulls had their half-season of glory with LaVine, DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso. But once Ball was injured, it became nothing more than play-in disappointment.
“I think he didn't always have the pieces and when he did, it didn't work out for all of us,” said Vucevic, also a member of that 2021-22 playoff squad. “For me personally, it will be great to see him. We built a great relationship off the court. That's something I cherish more than whatever happened on the court.”
Something that stands out about the current Bulls is they've been practicing winning habits. After Monday's win, they ranked seventh in the league in pace, so they're following the game plan of pushing the tempo. But they were also tied for first in defensive rating with the Thunder.
The Bulls have a nucleus of players in their fifth or sixth NBA seasons who seem to be at the point where they've realized what it takes to be successful — how to buckle down defensively, where to go when they need a basket, how to figure it all out on the fly.
The Bulls have seen players like Jones, Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu, Patrick Williams, Isaac Okoro and Jalen Smith — all in Year 5 or 6 — start to apply what they've learned. Then the one young player getting heavy minutes, Matas Buzelis, seems blessed with a beyond-his-years basketball IQ.
Why didn't any of LaVine's teams start playing like that? That's impossible to say. LaVine was a popular teammate and respected in the locker room. Maybe there was never enough focus on the little details it takes to win in the NBA, but it doesn't matter now.
LaVine's return will be a nice opportunity for the Bulls to get to 4-0, with a long, long road still to travel.