Chicago Bulls: Making the case to rest Zach LaVine

Let me start off by saying this, we don’t know how long the Chicago Bulls would be missing star shooting guard Zach LaVine if he were to rest through this thumb laceration in his non-shooting hand. It’s starting to show of late the impact that the thumb injury for LaVine is having on his ability to control the ball and effectively create his own shots. That was especially evident in the Bulls’ 103-98 loss on the road on Nov. 3 to the Philadelphia 76ers.

LaVine turned the ball over multiple times in the fourth quarter, which helped to give the Sixers the win in the end. A couple of his turnovers in the second half also looked to be a result of some of the discomfort he could be feeling from this thumb injury.

And while LaVine’s stat lines still look pretty good in the last few games since his injury, you can tell that there is a greater level of inconsistencies present since the injury came about. For instance, LaVine finished up the Nov. 3 loss to the Sixers with no points on 0-of-5 shooting from the field, with three turnovers, in the fourth quarter of the game.

That is the worst fourth quarter of the regular season thus far for LaVine, and these types of nights will come every so often. But the injury definitely seems to be furthering this problem of discomfort and frustration for LaVine.

Moreover, LaVine just hasn’t played all that well in the first and last quarters of games, in general, this season. In those two quarters during the regular season so far, LaVine has shot 24-of-63 from the field (field goal percentage around 38) and 4-of-18 from beyond the arc (22.2 percent).

This could just be a weird trend for LaVine. But he didn’t fair too well in the first quarter of the first two games he played in coming off the news of the thumb injury. And he really didn’t play well in the fourth quarter in this loss to the Sixers.

Zach LaVine might be worth resting for the Chicago Bulls moving forward

It’s hard to tell whether a couple of weeks of rest would go a long way to help LaVine. But we are sure that we don’t want this thumb issue for LaVine to get any worse than it already is. This sounds like something that LaVine will be recovering from for a good while.

Most indications point to LaVine playing through this thumb injury almost no matter what. That is, of course, unless it gets worse anytime soon.

It’s easy to make a case, if LaVine can recover from this quicker by resting for a while, that it’s worth second-year head coach Billy Donovan sitting him down for at least a couple of weeks. LaVine’s scoring presence would be the main thing that the Bulls would be missing if he were to miss time in the near future.

If the Bulls do get third-year point guard Coby White back in the lineup in the next couple of weeks, and LaVine is still uncomfortable while dealing with this thumb injury, it might be worth considering letting him rest it for a while. White can provide some type of volume-scoring presence in the backcourt unit off the bench to alleviate some of the pressure from star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan.

Even if White is out for most of the month of November, you would have to think that it is still worth considering resting LaVine if it will help him recover.

The two arguments against resting LaVine exist in his recovery process and the difficulty of the schedule that the Bulls are currently going through. If LaVine is going to heal at the same rate whether he’s playing with the wrapped thumb or resting on the bench, he might as well be in the game.

And the Bulls are currently going through one of the biggest gauntlets of the entire regular season schedule. Having LaVine in the lineup is most likely going to help this team a lot more than it is going to hurt.

LaVine and the Bulls hold a record of 6-2 following the 103-98 loss to the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center on Nov. 3. Next up is the second of two meetings in a row for the Bulls against the Sixers, this time coming at home at the United Center on Nov. 6.