The Chicago Bulls have high hopes for shooting guard Zach LaVine next season, but it might be a while until the 2020-21 regular season arrives.
While the roster might not look all that different, the Chicago Bulls organization will sport a completely new face in terms of the front office and coaching staff. And we’ll know what changes the new front office personnel and coaching staff want to make to the roster construction at the outset of this free agent cycle. The Bulls also have the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery that they can use to build up the roster or construct a trade.
Where it could all start for the Bulls roster construction this offseason is figuring out where to build around or what to do with 25-year-old former UCLA Bruins shooting guard Zach LaVine. Definitely the biggest star on the roster as it stands now is LaVine, but he has yet to even get his first All-Star selection.
It’s hard to tell what the future will hold for the likes of LaVine, power forward Lauri Markkanen, center Wendell Carter Jr., etc. But if one thing’s for sure, it’s that LaVine gives the Bulls their best shot on the current roster at getting an All-Star nod in the near future.
Zach LaVine brought up how he already missed a calendar year of basketball to (ACL) injury. Said it would be hard if that happens again because of COVID-19.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) September 24, 2020
It has been a long time since we saw LaVine starring for the Bulls. The last game the Bulls played in, prior to the pause, was back in mid-March. And it might not even be this calendar year that the next NBA regular season begins. Adam Silver recently stated that the season might not be starting until later in January 2021.
Commissioner Adam Silver says his best guess is that the next NBA season will start in January at the earliest
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 22, 2020
(via @CNN) pic.twitter.com/oqAXqlftSK
That would give almost an entire calendar year between regular season games for LaVine and the Bulls. This scenario is more than challenging to keep the rust off. LaVine recently compared the length of this time between game action to when he suffered his ACL tear and returned during the 2018-19 season.
Recovering from an ACL tear is difficult enough for one season, but LaVine is facing another lengthy hiatus between meaningful game action. Although, this is a reality that each of the eight teams that didn’t make the restart in the bubble at Disney World are facing.
Hopefully the voluntary group workouts provide some level of production for LaVine and the Bulls. This will be the first organized set of group workouts for the “Delete Eight” since March, so it should be beneficial in some sense.