LOS ANGELES — Zach LaVine said everything a fan would want to hear Saturday.
“I feel really good,” the Chicago Bulls guard told reporters in his first public comments since undergoing season-ending right foot surgery Feb. 8.
“My legs feel strong. My body feels good. I’m getting ready for another birth of my child. So we’re all happy.”
There’s no doubt, LaVine said, that he’ll be back by opening night next season.
“Oh yeah,” he said, “I’ll be pretty much ready to go way before then.”
And the question everyone is asking: How does he fit on the Bulls now?
“The same way it always has been,” LaVine said. “It’s not hard to fit back in, especially with the way I play the game. I want to go out there and help.”
Zach LaVine update… pic.twitter.com/JuXcbiUx27
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) March 9, 2024
LaVine is not just some complementary piece. He’s much better than a role player. But in his absence, LaVine’s younger teammates have begun fulfilling the role more effectively.
The Bulls went 10-15 with LaVine in the lineup and are 21-18 without him. Strangely, Chicago has become the most frequent and one of the most successful crunchtime teams in the NBA. On the surface, without any additional context, the Bulls’ performance says they don’t need LaVine.
“With the record part of it,” said Bulls coach Billy Donovan, “we just really dug ourselves a hole early in the year. And we’ve been fighting out of it since. And these guys have done a good job fighting back out of it.”
Coby White deserves a lot of the credit. His emergence, coupled with Ayo Dosunmu’s, as well as the stabilizing play of DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso and Nikola Vučević, have kept the Bulls competitive.
“It’s hard to say you knew he had it in him,” LaVine said. “But to see him put it together and the player he’s turning into is just special.”
It’s difficult to envision a scenario in which LaVine’s return to the Bulls doesn’t disrupt White’s ascension. White has supplanted LaVine as the team’s second-leading scorer, morphing into a reliable second-scoring option next to DeRozan — while playing on a much cheaper contract.
Dosunmu also has capitalized on LaVine’s absence to solidify himself as a worthy rotational fixture. His perimeter defense, 3-point shooting and driving ability have all been important weapons for the Bulls and skills Dosunmu still can build out. But the potential of White and Dosunmu, a pair of certified dogs in their early 20s, gives Bulls fans a reason to be hopeful. Dosunmu admitted they even dream about what they could become.
“For sure,” Dosunmu told The Athletic. “I mean, we’re both still young. We’re both still trying to find ways to become better people off the court and better players on the court. So the sky is the limit. This is pretty much new for us both, playing together so much. Now we’re trying to keep building that chemistry, building that camaraderie.”
It’s not quite the tandem of LaVine and Lonzo Ball. But the hard truth is the Bulls aren’t likely to see that pairing at its best again. And whether using the eye test or old-fashioned wins and losses, the Bulls are functioning better the way they’re structured now.
Who knows where that leaves LaVine?
“Everybody has their own opinion of that,” LaVine said. “But my main objective is to go out there and help the guys play and be myself out there. When I’m on the court, I know I make an impact most of the time offensively but defensively as well.”
Ball begins running, cutting
A positive update came Saturday on Ball, who has been sidelined all season with a chronic knee injury.
“He’s starting to run,” Donovan said. “Some of the workouts have been positive in terms of running, cutting, jumping, doing those things. So he’s progressed into that and responded well. Not with my own eyes, but some of the things that the medical guys have shown me, he looks good moving.”
Ball, who hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since Jan. 14, 2022, still has a long way to go before returning.
“It’s all controlled,” Donovan said. “There’s no contact.”
The biggest step for Ball, according to Donovan, will be playing 5-on-5, which still has no timetable. Until Ball reaches that stage and responds well, no one can be sure what to expect from him, or when to expect it.
“This is something that’s been unprecedented that’s been done,” Donovan said. “And he’s kind of been able to pass every hurdle so far. We’ll see when he gets back to playing 5-on-5.”
Is Caruso embracing superstitions?
On the Bulls’ four-game road trip, a member of the team’s media relations staff informed reporters that Alex Caruso no longer wants to do interviews or entertain even informal conversations before the game.
The reason?
Superstition.
Hey, whatever it takes. When a player shows up each night and performs as Caruso does, the sole objective of everyone in the organization becomes maintaining the machine.
It’s amazing how much Caruso has developed over his seven seasons. He’s transformed from an undrafted player into an NBA All-Defensive-caliber performer. How has he done it?
“Just learning through the fire,” he said despite his superstitions. “This is year seven for me in the league, and the first two years I was on a two-way (contract) so I got limited action. And since then I’ve been learning any chance I get; (from) coaches over the years, players over the years, watching other games.
“I love basketball. I’m a student of the game so just figuring out different things that work and understanding what winning basketball is, just trying to pay attention to that and adding different stuff to my game.”
(Photo of Alex Caruso: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
