Zach LaVine finally made his much-awaited season debut for the Chicago Bulls on Saturday as they hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers at the United Center. LaVine is coming off offseason surgery on his left knee, which forced him to sit out the Bulls' first two games of the season.
LaVine is good to go now, though, but it seems that this injury could be a pressing concern for the Bulls moving forward. Chicago head coach Billy Donovan himself admitted that this is a situation that the team will be watching closely for the foreseeable future (via Jamal Collier of ESPN):
“There's nothing wrong with him structurally, he's fine,” Donovan said prior to Saturday's game. “It's just something that we'll have to manage. We knew we were gonna have to manage that going into the season. We just didn't know when or what it will look like.”
At this point, it's looking like LaVine will be sitting out games whenever the Bulls have back-to-back games. This was the case on Friday night, as Chicago suffered a 102-100 defeat at the hands of the Washington Wizards. Chicago has another back-to-back set next Friday/Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs and the Philadelphia 76ers. It wouldn't be surprising if Zach ends up on the sidelines for one of those matchups, which will likely be Friday versus the rebuilding Spurs.
Chicago gets two more back-to-back sets to open the month of November.
Billy Donovan did not provide the details of their plan to manage LaVine, as well as how long this maintenance scheme will be in place. What you can say for sure, though, is that Bulls fans just can't wait to get their All-Star swingman back at full strength.
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