Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine needs help to keep playoff hopes alive

The Chicago Bulls are still hanging on in the playoff race, but they won’t last much longer if the team can’t find a second option next to Zach LaVine.

In a season that has seemed to provide just as many questions as answers for the Chicago Bulls, Zach LaVine has remained one of the only sure-fire pieces.

LaVine has been asked to shoulder an immense load this season, especially with the injury bug once again biting the team. His usage rate has soared to the 11th highest in the league at 31.2 percent, putting him in company with megastars like LeBron James and Damian Lillard.

It’s a testament to LaVine’s play and future as a star in this league that he’s been able to shoulder that kind of burden while still developing his game. He’s averaging career high rates in rebounds, steals, and three-pointers this season, and has looked more engaged on the defensive end than he’s ever been.

With six seasons in the NBA, it’s easy to forget that LaVine is just 24 years old and still has that kind of room to develop into a well-rounded franchise player for a real championship contender.

We might just be seeing the start of that this season in fact, aside from the championship contender part, although there are signs that someone needs to help take some responsibilities away from LaVine.

He’s 42nd in the league in player efficiency, ranking down near players like Danilo Gallinari and De’Aaron Fox rather than the superstars he’s being asked to play like. His shooting percentage has also dipped this year, a symptom of both the offensive scheme the Bulls have employed and the amount of three-pointers the team is asking him to throw up each night.

Then, there’s the elephant in the room. The Bulls still aren’t good. Period. LaVine’s play, no matter how great it’s been, hasn’t been able to pull them into a playoff spot.

None of that is to say that Bulls fans shouldn’t be celebrating LaVine’s play this season however, more that it’s just obvious that he’s not quite ready to be a superstar in the vein of James or Lillard. He’s still rightfully the face of the team, and is perhaps the only player who the Bulls should be entirely confident is key to the success of their seemingly never-ending rebuild.

Those questions about how the roster should be constructed around LaVine are going to need to be answered sooner rather than later though, and the rest of this season must be dedicated to that process.

After the All-Star break, the Bulls should be on the fast track to getting back three of their key starters from injury, Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., and Otto Porter Jr. All three of those players have something to prove during this final stretch of the season, and could become key parts of a late playoff push or the rebuild entirely if they can show the team more of the skills they’ve been expected to bring.

For Markkanen, that means commanding the ball and the defense’s attention more consistently. Markkanen’s slump this year has been slightly exaggerated as he’s never really seemed like a vocal point in the Bulls offense, but perhaps that just points to the heart of the problem itself.

He simply hasn’t consistently appeared to be a cornerstone piece of this team. Instead, he oftentimes looks like a complimentary role player rather than the star that many believe he could be.

Believe it or not, a healthy dose of bravado and selfishness would actually do Markkanen some good considering that may be the best way to get a chance to prove his worth as an indispensable piece for the Bulls.

Similar sentiments can be expressed about Carter Jr. seeing as he’s still not quite the Al Horford 2.0 that his collegiate scouting reports promised. The floor-stretching range has largely been absent from Carter’s game so far, and he’s oftentimes lost on the offensive side of the floor when not crashing the boards.

An injection of confidence in his shooting ability would be just what the doctor ordered to make Carter into a real threat for the Bulls.

That leaves Porter Jr., someone who had seemed to take a major step back this season prior to his injury. With Porter’s skillset, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine him in something of a CJ McCollum to LaVine’s Lillard as he has the range and stroke to compliment LaVine’s impressive shooting.

At just 11 points per game in the nine he’s played this season though, he needs to prove that his early struggles were remedied during his extended absence.

At the end of the day, if one or any of those players can truly live up to their full potential before season’s end, then a late playoff push shouldn’t be out of the question. The Eastern Conference isn’t exactly filled with powerhouses at the back end, and even the chance to be swept by Giannis Antetokounmpo in the playoffs would be a huge win worthy of an all-out effort from this team.

That’s because it would help signify that there’s something to this collection of players that’s worth sticking with, and perhaps provide a few much-needed answers in the process to guide the Bulls in what is shaping up to be a crucial offseason for the franchise as a whole.