Two-time All-Star Zach LaVine will make his regular season debut on Saturday against the Cavaliers after missing the Bulls‘ first two games, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
LaVine has been dealing with left knee soreness and the issue isn’t a new one — he dealt with knee problems most of last season and had arthroscopic surgery during the offseason.
Head coach Billy Donovan said that LaVine won’t have a minutes restriction, but a substantial workload is unlikely.
“There’s no minute restriction on him, but clearly the more load there is on him, you’ll have to take a look at him,” Donovan said. “There’s nothing going into the [games] where they are saying, ‘Listen, we’ve got to keep his minutes right here.’ Certainly, him playing 40 minutes or 39 or 38 isn’t the best thing.”
According to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune, LaVine was a full participant in Thursday’s practice.
“He feels fine,” Donovan said Friday. “He was able to get work in and told me he felt good. Obviously yesterday (Thursday) was a very, very light day. He had player development guys out there guarding him, he was coming off screens, working on his ballhandling, using pick-and-rolls. He was doing his normal things. He needed a crisp workout and he was able to do that.”
After reporting to camp this fall, LaVine spoke repeatedly about how good his knee was feeling, and was able to play in three of four preseason games. However, he later stated that he and the team decided it would be best to manage the issue so he’s feeling his best at the end of the season.
LaVine, who re-signed with the Bulls on a five-year, maximum-salary deal over the summer, will be held out one game of back-to-backs for the foreseeable future, but his availability remains unclear beyond that.
“It’s hard just to go in and say, ‘OK, here’s the schedule, and here’s the games that we’re going to rest him or manage him when he’s feeling great,’” Donovan said, per Cowley. “You know if he’s feeling great, he’s obviously going to want to play, but I also think we need to be smart and [that] this is more the medical and doctors, those guys looking at, ‘OK, sometimes it’s not in that moment — it’s a cumulative effect of something happening later on.’
“There may be some times where he does feel OK and the doctors, our medical group, says, ‘OK, this is the game to rest and get yourself back.’ So I can’t tell you I’ve looked at the schedule and here are the games we know [he’ll sit].”
I’m glad to see Zach LaVine coming back sooner rather than later. He’s part of a dynamic duo with DeMar DeRozan that the Chicago Bulls need.
This was my fear when they made the Butler trade, that sunk cost fallacy would force them to commit to Lavine and pretend he is going to be their star. He is a very good player, but I believe he has hit his ceiling and will be injury prone for b the rest of his career.
In the end, Butler need them Lavine and Derrick Jones Jr., which does not seem to be a good return. They could have just as easily built around Butler in his prime and avoided the many tank years.