{"id":101030,"date":"2024-10-13T19:35:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=101030"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:57:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:57:49","slug":"bulls-head-coach-reveals-what-team-needs-from-zach-lavine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/13\/bulls-head-coach-reveals-what-team-needs-from-zach-lavine\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls\u2019 Billy Donovan Reveals What Team Needs From Zach LaVine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Bulls guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lavinza01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach LaVine<\/a> has been walking around with a bullseye on his back for years now. Calamitous front office leaks and cries of condescension from a media machine that\u2019s condemned him for not being a \u2018winning player\u2019 have led to him being a permanent fixture on the trade block.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s almost like LaVine hasn\u2019t averaged 24.7 points per game over the past six seasons. It\u2019s almost like, in that time, he didn\u2019t shoot 38.5 percent from three. One might even think he didn\u2019t make a name for himself as one of the NBA\u2019s best athletes before he solidified himself as one of the best scorers. On Saturday, LaVine reminded everyone who is, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/bulls\/news\/bulls-fall-to-grizzlies-in-preseason-lavine-scores-28\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">most importantly his head coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Bulls Head Coach Billy Donovan Reveals What Team Needs From Zach LaVine<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cZach was really decisive,\u201d Billy Donovan tells reporters after LaVine scored 28 points in 22 minutes (h\/t NBA.com\u2019s Sam Smith).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Zach LaVine hit almost EVERYTHING in the preseason for Chicago!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcca 28 PTS, 4 AST, 9\/12 FGM, 6\/6 3PM, 22 MIN<\/p>\n<p>Healthy LaVine is HERE! \ud83d\udcaa <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SZ7t27ylFr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/SZ7t27ylFr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CourtsideBuzzX\/status\/1845291899222962316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 13, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe took his shots when they were there. What was encouraging on the threes, there was no hesitation; he just went up and shot it. He got off to a great start, shot unbelievable from three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the Bulls\u2019 desire to play at a higher tempo than season\u2019s past, there will likely be more shot attempts. While that elicits thoughts of players racing up and down the court, speeding up the game also requires a certain mentality. As Donovan notes, players need to be decisive, not hesitant.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHe can get on a run. He can go 0-for-4 and then come back and make 6-for-6, so I never worry (if he\u2019s missing). I thought he was really decisive, and when he had daylight and a crack he shot it. We need him to do that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps that\u2019s been Donovan\u2019s biggest gripe with LaVine. His inconsistency at the other end can be problematic but defense isn\u2019t his forte and the Bulls knew that when they got him.<\/p>\n<p>Scoring is what LaVine is known for. Unfortunately for LaVine, for all of his athleticism and touch, he pounded the air out of the ball. This slowed down the offense, draining the shot clock, putting his team\u2019s in more compromising situations.<\/p>\n<p>Against the Memphis Grizzlies, LaVine was cobra-like with his quickness and precision. Nobody is expecting him to shoot 75 percent from the field or 100 percent from three every game. He can carry over the way he <em>thought<\/em> the game though.<\/p>\n<p>Doing so may not mean he remains with the Bulls, who are going younger. However, his potential metamorphosis could lead to other teams being <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/12\/does-no-one-want-zach-lavine\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">more inclined to trade for him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he\u2019s got a head of steam, his athletic ability and his ability to shoot the ball and put it on the floor, he\u2019s really hard to guard,\u201d Donovan says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine has been walking around with a bullseye on his back for years now. Calamitous front office leaks and cries of condescension from a media machine that\u2019s condemned him for not being a \u2018winning player\u2019 have led to him being a permanent fixture on the trade block. It\u2019s almost like LaVine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":101040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1608,32,62,3],"tags":[545,48967,4774,457],"class_list":["post-101030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulls","category-basketball","category-grizzlies","category-nba","category-news","tag-billy-donovan","tag-nba-preseason","tag-rumors","tag-zach-lavine"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}