The Chicago Bulls are sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 39-23 record, despite a number of key injuries that have threatened to derail their season. Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams have all missed extended time, with all three players still sidelined as they work toward returning before the playoffs.
Another key injury involves a player who's playing right now, and that's Zach LaVine. The Bulls All-Star has been battling a knee issue since January, and he has missed time this season because of it. He admitted earlier this week that he won't be 100% the rest of the campaign but will play through the injury at around 70-80%.
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Chicago Bulls' X-Factor
How Zach LaVine holds up the rest of the way is the biggest X-Factor for the Bulls moving forward. They obviously also need their other guys back from injury, but LaVine is the second-best player on the team and needs to perform at a high level for Chicago to make a deep playoff run.
On the latest episode of Blue Wire's Cash Considerations pod, Ricky O'Donnell talked about LaVine's knee issues:
“It's super worrisome to me. I think it's the biggest swing factor in the Bulls for the rest of this year, is how healthy is Zach LaVine? The thing I'm looking at the most, is how often he can get to the rim. … Zach has not been getting to the hole as often in the second half of the season, mostly because the dude's been banged up all year. … If he's settling for jumpers, I think the Bulls are going to have a very, very tough time in the playoffs. I said there's a blueprint for the Bulls to go on a deep run in the Eastern Conference, and it starts with Zach LaVine driving the ball to the basket.”
LaVine's play has noticeably slowed down since he began dealing with the knee problem:
LaVine has always played through pain, believing he can perform at high level/affect winning even sub-100%
In 12 games (in-and-out of lineup) since GSW on 1/14, which he cites: 23.2 ppg, 5.4 apg, 5 rpg on 44.4/35.3/86.5% splits (58% TS). Great for most, sub-standard for Zach
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) March 2, 2022
LaVine got fluid drained and received an injection right before the All-Star break, and that's going to hold him over for now. But, still, if he can't pick his play up a bit more as the season gets to the home stretch and the Bulls head into the playoffs, they're in trouble.
Listen to the full Cash Considerations episode here:
Cash Considerations: A Chicago Bulls Podcast is part of the Blue Wire Podcast Network. The pod can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts.
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