Zach LaVine didn’t want to wait for questions.
Before he took any questions during Chicago Bulls media day at the Advocate Center on Monday, the team’s $215 million maximum contract star made his own statement after spending the last year at the epicenter of rumors and reports of trade requests and failed deals.
“When you go through a long offseason like I have, you get to learn a lot about yourself and the company you keep,” LaVine said. “With everything that I learned, there’s times you need to speak and there’s times that you don’t. Whenever there’s something that needs to be said, it’ll come from Zach LaVine or my representation. … Everything else you can take with a grain of salt. … Anything negative that would try to pin me, the organization — rumors, drama, whatever it is — I’ll leave that in the past.”
LaVine said he doesn’t want to talk about the potential for a trade or the possibility that he might play somewhere else during the season. Instead he focused on basketball, emphasizing that he plans to play whatever role is deemed necessary by coach Billy Donovan for the Bulls to get back on track this season.
And the Bulls top brass didn’t want to face those questions either. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas similarly ducked the question, focusing instead on how LaVine fits into the revamped, recycled roster after the departures of DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso.
This doesn’t fully distract from the reality for the Bulls and LaVine, who logged a personal-worst performance in the 2023-24 season — averaging 19.5 points and 3.9 assists while shooting 34.9% behind the arc — before his season ended early with a foot injury in January. For both parties, the true focus of this season is returning LaVine to his former stature in the league to pave the way forward for a new future in Chicago — one that, most likely, starts with a trade to send LaVine to a new team.
Josh Giddey is recovering from an ankle injury
New addition Josh Giddey dropped a surprise injury reveal during his interview, explaining that he ruptured his anterior talofibular ligament in a quarterfinal loss to Serbia while representing the Australian national team at the Paris Olympics.
Giddey said he originally thought the injury was a simple rolled ankle, but additional scans upon his return home to Melbourne revealed the ruptured ligament. Although he participated in voluntary practices leading up to training camp, the guard has not been able to scrimmage with his new teammates since he was traded from Oklahoma City in June.
Although he will still be somewhat restricted in training camp, Giddey said he will be ready for a full workload by the season opener in New Orleans on Oct. 23.
“Everything is getting much better,” Giddey said. “It’s probably at a point where if it was a playoff game, I’d be out there playing. But because we’re in the offseason, this isn’t something you want to rush. We just want to get 100% right.”
looks like the young guys had fun at media day pic.twitter.com/xSZP2dL5b6
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) September 30, 2024
Not a tank job just yet
Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas still won’t commit to tanking.
This isn’t new. A focus on “competitiveness” has been a motif of every season since Karnišovas arrived in Chicago. But after trading away two of their best players and doubling down on a young roster, the Bulls face real consequences for winning — losing a top-10 protected pick in a stacked draft headlined by Cooper Flagg.
Karnišovas knows there’s a choice for the Bulls to make this season. But at media day, he was uninterested in addressing the potential of prioritizing keeping that draft pick over winning basketball games.
“This is not our focus,” Karnišovas said. “Developing our players is crucial, but we won’t sacrifice the integrity of the game just for the sake of development.”
This will be the central push-pull of the season for the Bulls, who have already missed the playoffs for two consecutive seasons.
Honoring Dikembe Mutombo
Before speaking about basketball, Karnišovas opened the day with a tribute to Dikembe Mutombo, who died on Monday after a two-year battle with brain cancer. An eight-time All-Star, four-time Defensive Player of the Year and Hall of Famer who redefined dominance around the rim, Mutombo was a titan for the expansion of basketball in Africa while investing deeply in his local community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I’ve got a lot of beautiful memories about him,” Karnišovas said. “He was a huge part of the globalization of the game. His contributions to the game of basketball and to the league and to the continent of Africa will never be forgotten.”
Former Bull Joakim Noah shared a long tribute to Mutombo on Instagram, detailing the impact the Hall of Famer had on African basketball. Noah highlighted the moment when Mutombo presented him with the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2014, a memory that was shadowed by grief due to the loss of his mentor, former New York City youth program director Tyrone Green.
“The award felt meaningless at that time,” Noah wrote. “But it was your award. I’ll never forget you handing me that trophy. It was the personal individual height of my career and being handed your trophy by you brought perspective back and made me feel the meaning in my life again.”
