Zach LaVine is ready to set his record straight in the NBA.
The goals for this season are clear. After a year trapped on the sideline and frustrated by trade chatter, LaVine is eager to reestablish his reputation as a dominant guard.
“The NBA is a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ league,” LaVine said last week. “I think some guys get a pass that some other guys don’t. I don’t think I have to reintroduce myself. I think everybody in the NBA knows who I am and what I do. It’s just getting back to who I am.”
As the Chicago Bulls open the preseason schedule Tuesday night in Cleveland, coach Billy Donovan echoed the desire for LaVine to return to a former version of himself. Injuries have cost him the better part of three seasons in his career, and last season a broken right foot nearly eliminated his above-the-rim offense — one of the most effective parts of his game — before he had season-ending surgery in early February.
Donovan felt the injury limited every aspect of LaVine on the court.
“Even when I watched him shoot in practice, he didn’t have the same pop and the same lift and the same explosiveness,” Donovan said.
But Donovan also has seen the type of player LaVine can be when healthy — a two-time All-Star who averaged 24.8 points in 77 games just two seasons ago.
Donovan said LaVine, 29, came back from the offseason in good shape and was “much further advanced” physically than in prior years. With LaVine on track for a healthy return, the Bulls are tasked with a new challenge: fitting him back into a backcourt that became cluttered in the nine months since he last stepped on the court.
The Bulls haven’t nailed down the precise rotations to blend in LaVine alongside fellow guards Coby White, Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu and Lonzo Ball. But LaVine remains the centerpiece of the offense, with the other guards supplementing him in an undersized lineup that will emphasize playing at a higher tempo.
While the guard rotation is a lingering question mark, Giddey should provide a new key to unlock LaVine offensively — particularly his cutting, which could open the type of narrow passing windows that Giddey excels at finding.
For a pass-first guard like Giddey, feeding LaVine early and often will be the primary focus of building out the offense. And Giddey believes that with his help as a facilitator, LaVine is on track to return to his former stature in the league.
“It’s not a secret that he’s a star,” Giddey said. “The rap he’s had from the media and from whatever it is in the NBA isn’t fair. He is a superstar player in this league.”
Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball are game-day decisions
Donovan said neither Giddey nor Ball has suffered a setback in the first week of training camp, with both guards mixing into varying levels of contact drills and full-speed scrimmages.
But the Bulls are continuing to exercise caution with both, which means the decision to play either in the preseason opener in Cleveland won’t be made until Tuesday.
Giddey is working back from a two-month rehabilitation after rupturing the anterior talofibular ligament in his ankle during the Paris Olympics. Ball is attempting to return after three knee surgeries and more than two years on the sideline.
Donovan said either player’s availability will be based on the medical team’s assessment of whether they can play at least five to six minutes in succession, the ideal rotation to allow either to gain footing in a game.
How to watch Tuesday’s preseason opener
Tuesday’s game against the Cavaliers will be the inaugural Bulls broadcast on the new Chicago Sports Network, which launched Oct. 1. But for many Chicagoans, the game will be available only with a television antenna over free broadcast TV.
DirecTV and Astound are the only cable, satellite or streaming providers that have struck a deal with CHSN. The channel is available on DirecTV through the 125-plus-channel Choice Package, priced at $74.99 a month. DirecTV subscribers — about 300,000 in the Chicago area — can find CHSN at Channel 665 and on U-verse at Channels 1741 (HD) and 741 (SD).
For the rest of the area, preseason games will be available solely over the air with an antenna, which already has caused issues for some viewers over the last week. Preseason games will be accessible out of market on NBA League Pass.
