Zach LaVine — a mystifying Bulls addition by subtraction

So the Bulls are better without Zach LaVine?

That uncomfortable reality seems to be coming into focus now that the dust has settled on the Feb. 3 three-team trade that sent LaVine to the Kings, Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins and Tre Jones to the Bulls and D’Aaron Fox to the Spurs. 

The Bulls, who were 6-14 in their first 20 games without LaVine this season (3-5 since the trade), have won eight of their last 10, with guard Coby White emerging as a potentially legitimate difference-making star that LaVine was expected to be. And the Kings? After going 8-5 in their first 13 games with LaVine, have lost seven of their last eight games to drop to 9-11 overall with LaVine in the lineup. 

Zach LaVine (8) averaged 24.2 points per game in seven-plus seasons with the Bulls. (Mark Potash photo)

Addition by subtraction is not uncommon in the NBA, but always mystifying when it’s a player like LaVine. He’s consistently productive — occasionally brilliant — a team player and a good guy to have in your locker room. Yet there’s something about his game that doesn’t translate to winning. 

Either that, or he’s just a star-crossed guy who is always at the wrong place at the wrong time. In 10+ seasons in the NBA, LaVine has averaged 20.5 points per game but played in just four playoff games. That’s the fewest playoff games for any player in the NBA over the last 25 years who has played 500 or more games and averaged more than 20 points a game. (Fun Fact: The only other player in that category with fewer than 49 playoff games is Fox — the other key player in the LaVine trade — with seven.)

But that’s his history. From the moment he was acquired from the Timberwolves with draft pick Lauri Markkanen and guard Kris Dunn in a trade for Jimmy Butler in 2017, LaVine was an enigma with the Bulls. One night he was the solution. The next night he was the problem. 

That was never more literally true than at the end of his first season after signing the five-year, $215 million max contract in 2022. LaVine was spectacular in scoring 36 points to lead the Bulls to an upset of the Raptors in a play-in game at the end of the 2022-23 regular season. Two nights later he crapped out — 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting (0-for-6 on three-pointers) in a loss to Butler and the Heat.

Sometimes it’s easy to understand why some players just can’t win. It’s usually a personality-driven failing. Jay Cutler set franchise records with the Broncos and Bears in 12 NFL seasons and played in two playoff games (with a typically controversial exit in the biggest one — the NFC Championship Game in 2011). Brandon Marshall made six Pro Bowls in 13 NFL seasons and never played in a single playoff game. And nobody wonders why. 

But LaVine’s tough luck is harder to explain. He’s an isolation scorer but not selfishly so. He’s usually willling to adapt his game for the betterment of the team, but for some reason it never quite creates the chemistry that championship teams always have. 

And that elusive chemistry is why general managers like the Bulls’ Arturas Karnisovas come in with such promise only to spin their wheels trying to escape from the muck of NBA mediocrity (the Bulls have been in ninth-11th place in the Eastern Conference after Jan. 1 for 289-of-289 days over the past three seasons.)

It’s easy to forget that in Karnisovas’ second season, the Bulls were 39-21 after 60 games and the No. 1 seed in the East — with eight of 10 players in their rotation who were on a different team a year earlier. That sure looked like impressive team-building by Karnisovas at that point. 

The two holdovers were LaVine and White. And it’s probably not a coincidence that White has blossomed since LaVine was traded. White had already taken a big step last season, when he averaged 19.7 points per game. But those big steps are now giant leaps. White was averaging 18.4 points per game with LaVine on the team but is averaging 24.0 points in 22 games since LaVine was traded — and 29.3 points in the last 13 games as the Bulls presumably have settled into a post-LaVine mode. 

The Bulls are 9-4 in that span. The last time LaVine went on a scoring binge like that, he averaged 28.4 points in a 12-game stretch in December-January, but the Bulls went 5-7. For whatever reason, Zach LaVine just can’t win.