Chicago Bulls: Quality year from LaVine should’ve resulted in All-Star bid

Zach Lavine had the best year of his career with the Chicago Bulls, with many stats worthy of him being an All-Star. But he was snubbed for worse players.

The Chicago Bulls had a disappointing season, winning only 22 games in the COVID-19 shortened season. Despite a negative season, the team was able to have a singular shining spot, that spot was in the form of Zach LaVine.

LaVine’s difficulties in getting selected to be an All-Star stem from a lack of recognition for his year statistical wise, a quality year on a terrible team, and also the All-Star games location being in Chicago.

His stats were on a high level and no one can deny that

LaVine played his first fully healthy season, his third overall, with the Bulls. His numbers also increased to the best in his career and the best while donning the Bulls uniform.

He averaged 25.5 points a game, with 4.8 rebounds a game, 4.2 assists, 3.4 turnovers, while shooting 45 percent from a field goal, 38 percent from three-point, and had an effective field goal percentage of 52.6.

Those stats may resemble those of a current All-Star, a guy who shoots the three well, has a good field goal percentage, and has a high point per game.

Stats are the first reason why he should have been an All-Star. LaVine was not the best player by any means, but when comparing his year to other people who made the All-Star game you can see that there is not much disparity.

There were six players who got the All-Star bid in front of LaVine. Those men were Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young, Pascal Siakam, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, James Harden, and Luka Doncic.

Based strictly on stats, LaVine is not the best but in terms of points, he is better than Pascal Siakam, Donovan Mitchell, and Jayson Tatum. His point total is also within one point of Devin Booker’s.

Points matter in the grand scheme of things, but when comparing players, one must fully explore the all-around game that each of them poses. This includes rebounds and assists.

He doesn’t have a high number of assists, like Doncic or Trae Young may have, and he doesn’t rebound as well as players like Siakam or Tatum.

However, he is comparable to Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker, who are not amazing all-around players.

LaVine’s field goal percentage is lower than most of those players, but his three-ball goes in at a higher rate than everyone but Tatum. He even shots more threes than the Celtics star does.

The argument that LaVine didn’t have worthy enough stats to qualify for the All-Star game is ridiculous and extremely biased against him.

LaVine played on a team that was very bad

LaVine also passed the eye test despite having a lackluster team.

Like I said the Bulls were a very mediocre team, who didn’t even get an invite to the expanded playoffs in Disney.

The team lost a key contributor in Lauri Markkanen, who regressed majorly and fought injuries. The organization failed to bring in an even decent supporting cast to combat injuries such as Wendell Carter Jr.’s and Otto Porter’s.

They also failed to play backups Thaddeus Young and Coby White decent enough minutes, when each player proved to be starting caliber talents.

Despite all these things LaVine prospered.

There were several times where he was the only person taking late minute shots, and he got slammed for it. He had no choice, when a player cannot rely on other people around him to make consistent baskets, and the best player outside of him is a center with a limited range, you have to get very creative.

That’s how magical moments such as his buzzer-beating three to beat the Charlotte Hornets came to be.

Those 22 wins are a testament to how great LaVine was this year, because honestly with the way the Bulls performed during the season it could have been much worse.

Also, LaVine’s team may have not been good but Trae Young’s team was much worse, and Booker’s Suns didn’t do much better than the lowly Bulls.

All-Star weekend was also in Chicago

Finally, the last reason the LaVine should have been an All-Star was the fact that the game to honor the league’s best players was played in the city he currently calls home.

Chicago hosted an action-packed All-Star weekend that saw team Giannis and team LeBron face off and how great would it have been for the city’s star to be a part of the game.

He obviously deserved the honor and it never could be a bad move for the host to have a player in the game.

LaVine was instead invited to participate in the Three-Point Contest, which he did not win. That just didn’t feel right though.

Anyone could tell LaVine didn’t want to be there for just the contest, but rather the entire weekend and to have his jersey always be remembered.

Not having LaVine in the All-Star game just felt wrong, and even as time has gone on I still sit here, wondering if LaVine will ever get the respect of an All-Star bid, or whether it will forever be a lost cause.