Chicago Bulls: It’s clear this team is still a work in progress

The Building Blocks

LaVine has made tremendous strides as a player this season. He’s raised his game from an efficiency standpoint and has put up career-high numbers on his way to his first All-Star bid. We saw how important he was to this team when he missed 11 games and the offense had long stretches where they stagnated.

Now, they are prone to that when he’s healthy as was the case against Brooklyn. But without him, there was no one to even give them a fighting chance.

That being said, his shot selection late in games can leave a lot to be desired even though he’s sixth in the league in fourth-quarter scoring. He can also become too passive early in games trying not to force the issue.

It may be nitpicky, but that’s how you judge guys once they reach the level LaVine has.

Vucevic, like White, chose the absolute worst time to have easily his second-worst game with the Bulls. He had just 12 points on 27.8 percent shooting.

But we got a glimpse of how he can be the hub for this offense when Zach was out. The Bulls ran everything through Vuc and we saw the effect it had on defenses. They are often forced to collapse on him creating open shooters.

We also saw that formula work with Zach in the lineup. It was different from their early winning run following the trade. That was talent showing. This time it feels like it’s by design.