Chicago Sports Exchange: The Re-Education of Zach LaVine
Evolution of Bulls' franchise player at heart of team's splashy off-season; White Sox power up against Cubs
It was all gray just a week ago.
Artūras Karnišovas and Marc Eversley headed into free agency knowing exactly which areas of the Bulls roster needed the most tender loving care, except they only had so much of it to spread around. Or so the story went.
Now, after corralling Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan, two of the top free agents on the market, as well as former champion and point-of-attack picker-upper Alex Caruso, Karnišovas and Eversley are being lauded for their offseason moving and shaking (in most circles anyway). And rightfully so.
But, low key, Zach LaVine did this.
Yes. That Zach LaVine.
The guy who’d won no more than three games in a row in his seven-year career before him and his Olympic teammates reeled off five straight victories to take gold in the Tokyo Games Friday.
The guy who’s seen the Bulls lose nearly three times as many games as they’ve won since he arrived from Minnesota four years ago.
The guy who was supposed to play, at best, second fiddle to Lauri Markkanen when former shot-callers Gar Forman and John Paxson decided to call it quits with Jimmy Butler.
The guy who Forman and Paxson, somewhat understandably, sent to fetch his own offer sheet from the Sacramento Kings three summers ago.
That guy.
It’s because of how LaVine’s oiled the wheels—with a gluttonous appetite for improvement that’s led to statistical spikes you practically could’ve set your watch to before each of the past three seasons—that Karnišovas and Eversley are burning up the road to bring the Bulls and relevancy back together again.
It took little more than half of last season for Karnišovas and Eversley to pivot away from their wait-and-see approach in an effort to build a winner and begin surrounding their freshly minted All-Star with proven talent. What began with the swap of Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., and two first-round draft picks for Nikola Vučević and Al-Farouq Aminu in March, has snowballed into an outright roster overhaul.
Once (if?) the suddenly-vigilant league office approves all of the first-time president of basketball operations and general manager’s wheeling and dealing, LaVine, Coby White, and (maybe) Markkanen will be the only holdovers from the roster Karnišovas and Eversley inherited last spring. With more helping hands at his disposal, LaVine will need to brace for the heaviest expectations he’s ever had on his shoulders.
Yet, for a player who still faces questions about his impact on winning, monetary worth, and defense (careful, Kevin Durant probably has time today), that feels like light work.
LaVine’s already convinced Karnišovas and Eversley to empty their pockets of draft capital and, although money talks and it takes two to tango, his evolution must’ve played some factor in the most notable of his new teammates deciding to join an organization that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in four years.
(Ball walked away from the phenomenon that is Zion Williamson in New Orleans, and stiff armed the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers, two teams that were rumored to be interested in his services, in the process; DeRozan passed on the chance to play in his hometown alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard for the Western Conference runner-up Clippers; While Caruso left the Los Angeles Lakers one season removed from winning a title with LeBron James and Anthony Davis for crying out loud.)
None of what transpired last week—not assistant general manager J.J. Polk’s salary cap gymnastics, nor Eversley rendezvous with DeRozan in Los Angeles, nor Karnišovas burning the boats to take the island—happens without LaVine.
All of a sudden, that guy who never skips out on a moment to trumpet his desire to win is as close as he’s ever been to doing just that.
BUY — White Sox Sweep City Series, Hendriks Steals The Show
Never change, Liam Hendriks.
In a pre-recorded interview with ESPNs Buster Olney that aired in the midst of his team pulverizing the Cubs and clinching just its third series sweep at Wrigley Field Sunday, Hendriks revealed that he built a Lego Infinity Gauntlet to award to his fellow White Sox relievers who strike out the side.
Then he threw out this gem.
Hendriks, who’s given to colorful displays of emotion on the mound, actually drinks coffee to unwind before bed as part of a tradition that began with his father. Even with caffeine surging through his bloodstream, one half of the Sox’s new dynamic closing duo said he can fall asleep just three minutes after his java nightcap.
If Hendriks uses a stimulant to rock himself to sleep at night, inquiring (ahem, nosy) minds have to know what he does when he needs a pick-me-up.
Short of a definitive answer, it’s probably safe to bet that the Sox being a man closer to full-strength - with Luis Robert returning to the fold after missing the last three months because of a torn right hip flexor - would do the trick.