Chicago Bulls: Comparing this team to our last playoff team
By Keith Cork
2016-17 Dwyane Wade Per 36: 22 PPG, 4.6 APG, 0.8 SPG, 5.4 RPG, 43.4 FG%, 31 3PT%, 79.4 FT%, 2.8 TOV
Vs.
2019-20 Zach LaVine Per 36: 24.7 PPG, 4.3 APG, 1.4 SPG, 5 RPG, 42.7 FG%, 40.6 3PT%, 81 FT%, 3.7 TOV
In another season, these numbers would undoubtedly look much different. Firmly in the twilight of his storied career, Dwyane Wade had one of his poorest seasons in points, assists, rebounds, blocks, and field goal percentage while he was with the Bulls.
Conversely, Zach is having his best season in many of those categories. However, we are comparing one season to one season here, so let’s take a look and see if we choose the 34-year-old 13-time all-star, Olympic champion, and NBA champion, or the 24-year-old two-time dunk champion.
Scoring
There is 0 doubt that Zach is a gifted scorer, though I’ve written in previous articles that I think he is not at the level he needs to be to be a superstar.
He is shooting the best of his young career from three-point land this season, but he’s also turning the ball over a whole bunch with his increased usage as “the guy” on this Bulls team. Wade was a prolific scorer in his time, but by the 2016-17 season, he was nowhere near the same.
Winner: Zach LaVine can flat-out score the ball better than 34-year-old Wade.
Defense
Wade contributed 2.5 in Defensive Win Shares in 2016-17, which wasn’t great in relation to his career, but way better than LaVine so far who is sitting at 1.1, the exact same number he ended with last year. Zach is also averaging 1.8 steals per 100 possessions just like last year, while Wade pulled in 2.4 in that one season.
Defensive rating was Wade’s 106 vs. LaVine’s admittedly much improved 107 (at least 4 better than any previous season). Wade also put up 0.5 more blocks per 100 possessions, even in one of his worst seasons.
Winner: Dwyane Wade. I’ll take pretty much anyone over LaVine on defense most days.
Rebounding
Wade’s Total Rebound Percentage is not much higher than Zach’s, at 8.1% versus LaVine’s 7.3%. Both players have nabbed 4.5 rebounds per game in their respective seasons, but a much larger portion of Wade’s rebounds were “contested.”
Why is that important? Because it implies that Wade took more rebounds away from players going for the ball (and thus possessions of the basketball) than Zach has, which is definitely more important. 27.1% of Wade’s rebounds in 2016-17 were contested according to NBA.com, compared to just 13% of Zach’s this season.
Winner: Dwyane Wade is the superior rebounder.
Intangibles
LaVine definitely has the media savvy to not misstep in his comments, and to accept blame with grace when appropriate. He’s an overall fine guy to have on your team, but I don’t view him as a leader or having particularly high basketball IQ. Wade, on the other hand, has both.
The other intangible I would consider at the shooting guard position would be the player’s scoring in the clutch. According to NBA.com’s clutch statistics, LaVine is 34.8% during “clutch” time and 40% from 3’s. NBA.com defines clutch time as the last five minutes of a game with a point differential of 5 points or less. In the last 10 seconds of the game with a point differential of three points or less (one possession), Zach’s shooting 50% in 7 games in that scenario.
Wade in the 5-minute “clutch” as defined by the NBA, shot slightly higher than Zach at 38.3% across 25 games. Wade also shot 50% in 11 games with a point differential of three points or less, the same as Zach but in a larger sample size.
Winner: I’m going to have to go Wade here, even at his advanced age, more so for the leadership than the slight clutch advantage.