Following Thursday's defeat to the Charlotte Hornets, the Chicago Bulls fell to 19-37 on the season. The Bulls have lost seven games in a row and are slipping down the standings.
Bulls star guard Zach LaVine voiced his displeasure with what appears to be another season in which the Bulls will be on the outside looking in of the playoff picture:
“I’ve done a lot of losing my whole career,’’ Lavine said, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve been frustrated from the get-go, so I want that to change.’’
LaVine leads the Bulls in scoring this season at 25.2 points per game. He has been the lone constant for the team in a rocky season, with Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Kris Dunn and Otto Porter Jr. all missing significant time due to injuries. With all those guys hurt, the No. 2 scorer is rookie Coby White (11.3 PPG), who has come off the bench in every game that he has appeared and has struggled with efficiency.
Now in his third year with the organization, LaVine has yet to make the postseason in his career after also losing a lot with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Chicago snuck into the playoffs during 2016-17 as the No. 8 seed, before promptly being knocked out by the Celtics. The franchise has won just one playoff series since the start of 2013-14, and that came during the Derrick Rose era.
LaVine and the Bulls are tied to one another for at least the next two seasons at a $19.5 million price tag, and they don't have much interest in trading him. Acquired in a draft night blockbuster (along with Markkanen and Dunn) with the Timberwolves in June 2017, LaVine has long outlasted the tenure of Jimmy Butler in Minnesota. But even the development of LaVine's game has not translated to victories. He may not be able to flip the script in 2019-20, but a critical summer awaits.
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