Chicago Bulls All-Star Zach LaVine had a career season in 2020-21, but he's still not getting the respect he deserves because the Bulls have been such a bad team since he came over in the Jimmy Butler trade in 2017. In fact, LaVine has never been to the playoffs in his career, as he was on a young, rebuilding Minnesota Timberwolves squad before coming to Chicago.

LaVine's critics have suggested he's an empty stats star who doesn't impact winning enough. While this may have been true at the start of his career when he was still developing, it's harder to make that case now, especially given his production amid the rosters he has had to deal with in Chicago.

Now, LaVine actually has legitimate talent around him. The Bulls brought in Nikola Vucevic before last season's trade deadline and then added Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan this offseason. There's a lot more firepower in Chicago, putting them in position to make a big jump in the standings.

A Bulls jump in the standings would coincide with a jump in respect for LaVine. And with that, the Bulls star is ready to show that he can be an All-NBA player. On the latest episode of Cash Considerations, The Quest for the Best podcast series creator Mat Issa declared LaVine ready to show he's one of the 15 best players in the NBA:

“I think LaVine, in this system, he's going to be one of the 15 best players in the world this year, and probably one of the 10 best offensive players in the world. If you put LaVine next to Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, I think honestly he's primed to be the best out of all of those guys this year because he's probably in the best situation for his talents.”

If LaVine does make All-NBA, he'll become eligible for a supermax extension, so that's a good goal for him to hit as he tries to lead this Bulls team to the playoffs.

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Here's the full episode of Cash Considerations:

Cash Considerations: A Chicago Bulls Podcast is part of the Blue Wire sports podcasting network. The pod can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts.