Chicago Bulls: Was Zach LaVine snubbed by Team USA?

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine is coming off his best statistical season but still wasn’t invited to join Team USA. Was it the right decision?

Chicago Bulls fans and at least one player are wondering out loud about Zach LaVine being on Team USA. The national team, who recently beat Spain 82-76 in a friendly, has had a rough summer. Numerous players have dropped out; De’Aaron Fox is the latest. An overall lack of name recognition was already fueling ceaseless jokes on social media.

Then there was the scrimmage against the select team that resulted in a loss, Team USA’s second to what essentially was the JV squad.

His new teammate, Thaddeus Young, was selected but was cut before the final roster. There are currently five guards on the Team USA roster: Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell, Marcus Smart, Joe Harris, and Derrick White. Jaylen Brown, normally a shooting guard with the Boston Celtics, is listed as a forward on the Team USA website.

Walker and Mitchell are the locks among the group, but after that it gets tricky. Smart is the best defender of the guards and with Walker around that is necessary. Mitchell is a good defender in his own right but is limited by his size.

Harris is the certified sniper of the squad. He led all qualifiers in three-point shooting percentage and won the three-point contest during All-Star weekend.

That leaves White as the lone questionable one to have over LaVine. White is the only other true point guard aside from Walker on the roster, an undeniable advantage over the Bulls guard. LaVine does have some experience at point guard and is used to being the primary ball-handler in an offense but a traditional floor general he is not.

It can be questioned if being a “pure point guard” is enough to have the third-year San Antonio Spurs player ahead of the Bulls leading scorer. White only averaged 9.9 points and 3.9 assists in the regular season. But he did up his scoring output to 15 points per game against the Denver Nuggets in a series that went seven games.

Team USA’s head coach is Gregg Popovich so a little favoritism cannot be entirely ruled out in White’s case.

But winning is still the ultimate goal in the FIBA World Cup, just as it is in the NBA. And Pop has never been a coach to sacrifice a chance at victory to appease or show favor to a player. There is also another cut coming to bring the roster down to 12 players so any one of these players mentioned could be the next to go.

And Bulls fans will rationalize it as not risking injury (a valid point) or focusing on the upcoming season. But beyond the top two guards, it is debatable whether or not LaVine should have been, at least, invited.

He was, after all, one of only 14 players in the NBA last season to average at least 23 points, four rebounds, and four assists. The only other Team USA players to do that were…Walker and Mitchell. Go figure.