Chicago Bulls: Is Zach LaVine on pace to make his first All-Star team?

With the 2020 NBA All-Star game held in the windy city, will the Chicago Bulls be able to get their star player onto the team?

Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine is no stranger to NBA All-Star weekend. His back-to-back Slam Dunk Contest wins in 2015 and 2016 means his name is oftentimes in the conversation when the weekend approaches.

Nevertheless, LaVine has never made it all the way to the actual NBA All-Star game itself. Despite averaging career bests in nearly every counting stat last season, LaVine didn’t crack the team.

Luckily for Bulls fans, LaVine’s renaissance doesn’t appear to have been a flash in the pan. Through 30 games this year, LaVine has been able to closely replicate some of those career highs.

LaVine’s averaging a solid 23.2 points a game with about 4 boards and a drop under 4 dimes (all stats courtesy of basketball-reference.com). In other words, LaVine’s basically keeping pace with his production last season, albeit slightly less efficiently.

For advanced statistics junkies, LaVine’s seen a slight dip in his Player Efficiency Rating (PER), dropping from 18.7 to 18.2. That leaves him an uninspired 62nd in the league in PER, decidedly lower than many would likely expect from an All-Star caliber player, although still within striking distance of other big name hopefuls like Ben Simmons and Russell Westbrook.

Of course, PER isn’t the be-all, end-all that some consider it to be. It’s hard to knock a dynamic playmaker like LaVine on efficiency when he’s stuck trying to carry a listless offense that ranks dead last in the league in offensive rating.

Even so, no amount of justification can change the fact that we’re not seeing an elite level of production out of LaVine. His stats weren’t good enough to join the ranks of NBA All-Stars last year, so there’s little reason to assume they would be enough to do the job this year.

The only area that real growth can be seen thus far in LaVine’s game this season is his 3-point shot, which is falling more often and more efficiently than it has in his entire career. Still, that alone is hardly enough to warrant an All-Star berth.

Fortunately, as any long-time sports fan is certainly aware, stats aren’t everything when it comes to All-Star games. With Chicago playing host to the All-Star festivities this year, you would have to imagine their would be some desire to get one of the hometown players in on the action.

Although windy city representation can certainly take the form of 3-point and slam dunk contest participants, the latter of which LaVine himself hasn’t necessarily ruled out, it would mean a bit more if one of the Chicago Bulls players could actually make the team itself.

While that doesn’t likely mean much to the player or media portion of the voting, it could have an effect on the fan vote. You would have to hope the Bulls would make a good-faith media effort to send their best player on the team to the game, especially considering the atrocious offense and turbulent coaching he’s been forced to work with this season.

It would also help the Bulls look a little bit less like a bottom-of-the-barrel team if they could actually claim to have an All-Star on the roster.

Fan voting comprises 50% of the All-Star ballots this year, as it has in year’s past, so it’s certainly something to keep in mind when it comes to potentially borderline players like LaVine.

When put all together, this leaves Zach LaVine as somewhat of a question mark when it comes to the All-Star game. With solid, yet unexceptional, statistical production, LaVine’s All-Star fate may really might come down to intangibles like how many more times LaVine’s late-game heroics can lead the Bulls to victory, as they did against Washington.

String together a few more fourth quarter performances like that, and come time for voters to decide who warrants a spot among the 2020 season’s best, Zach LaVine’s name might just make the list this time.