The Whiteboard: Zach LaVine is earning his big-time money this season

Props to him, Zach LaVine is earning every cent of the big contract he signed with the Chicago Bulls this summer.

When the Chicago Bulls decided to match the Sacramento Kings’ mammoth offer sheet signed by restricted free agent Zach LaVine, it seemed like a bad idea for Chicago. The Bulls would end up with another offense-first (really, offense-only) player in Jabari Parker, and it seemed neither would be worthwhile.

Parker has definitely not lived up to his own deal, but LaVine was far more important considering Chicago invested four years in him, as opposed to just one for Parker. Thus far, he’s making the Bulls look pretty smart for not letting him walk.

Monday night was the latest example. LaVine carried the Bulls to a double-overtime win over the hapless New York Knicks, scoring a career-high 41 points and hitting the game-winning free throw. He also purposefully missed the game-clincher, to ensure the game would end without New York getting a chance to go for a tip-in with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

LaVine is averaging 27.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.0 steals per game, on 47.4 percent field goal shooting and 35.1 percent 3-point shooting. LaVine isn’t the most efficient scorer in the league, but that makes sense considering he’s using more possessions than any other wing in the NBA, as per Cleaning the Glass.

He is in the upper fourth of wings in points per shot attempt, which is exemplary considering he’s in the 100th percentile when it comes to usage percentage. The good news for LaVine and the Bulls is that it appears this production should be sustainable. LaVine isn’t doing any better than he has in previous seasons when it comes to his 3-point percentage or his field goal percentage on shots at the rim, he’s just driving more often and using more possessions in general.

LaVine has been fouled on 15.6 percent of his shot attempts, which puts him in the 98th percentile of wings this season. That comes out to 8.3 free throw attempts per game of which he’s hitting 84.6 percent, adding an easy seven points to his average. LaVine hadn’t been fouled on more than 12 percent of his shot attempts in any prior season.

His huge contract looked bad based on LaVine’s play last season, but what he’s been able to do this year is reliving those concerns. LaVine pretty clearly is getting a lot, if not all, of his bounce back after his unfortunate ACL tear in February 2017. The 2018-19 version of LaVine is still a potent shooter from anywhere, who could probably stand to take some more 3-pointers, but his tenacity in attacking the rim is new and exciting. If he can make some improvement on the defensive end, the Bulls might really have something.

If LaVine truly is a player still adding new offensive skills and honing his game, he’ll end up being a good value on his current deal. Scoring nearly 28 points per game through 11 games is impressive, and even if that number comes down slightly LaVine should stay dangerous if he can keep attacking the basket and drawing fouls.

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