NBA Rumors: Zach LaVine, Bulls ‘Not Seeing Eye to Eye; ‘Palpable’ Disconnect Felt

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

All is not well in the Windy City. Namely, between Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls.

Amid the team’s surprising 11-18 season, Shams Charania and Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic reported Tuesday that “multiple league sources and sources close to the organization say LaVine and the Bulls are not seeing eye to eye. Over the past few weeks, there’s been a palpable feeling across various parts of the franchise of a disconnect over LaVine’s situation in Chicago.”

Charania and Mayberry added the Bulls have held “have held multiple team meetings to try to work out their issues, and that has included one-on-one, face-to-face sitdowns” with LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.

Per that report, LaVine and DeRozan have maintained a strong personal relationship, but on the court a level of “stylistic tension” has been palpable.

LaVine told Sharania and Mayberry:

“There’s a certain level of frustration in people trying to figure out what we can do to help right the ship. I think with the players that we have, we try to put it on each other to right the ship. We have those type of guys, those type of mentalities where each of us have been number one options on a team before and then we all come together collectively. It’s not going to take one person. It’s going to take all of us as a unit. I think that’s what guys are trying to figure out how to help the group.”

Some of those issues may have carried over from last season. The Bulls were fantastic to start the year and headed into the All-Star break in a tie atop the Eastern Conference at 38-21.

But something shifted down the stretch, and the Bulls limped to an 8-15 record to finish the regular season. That dropped them from the top of the Eastern Conference to the No. 6 seed, and they were promptly dismissed by the Milwaukee Bucks in five games during the opening round of the playoffs.

Like last season, DeRozan has emerged as the team’s leading scorer (25.9 PPG). But LaVine has seen a slight dip in just about every statistical category from a season ago, and his 21.8 points per game represents his lowest scoring average since the 2017-18 season, his first with the Bulls.

The Bulls have actually outscored their opponents by 3.6 points per 100 possessions with LaVine off the court, per NBA.com, but have been outscored by 5.3 points per 100 possessions while he’s played. That’s a concerning trend for a star player.

They also have a negative net rating when DeRozan plays (-0.6), though they’ve been actively worse (-4.6 net rating) when he sits.

“We’ve got to get out of the mindset of worrying about scoring and how’s it going offensively and realize the ball scores,” head coach Billy Donovan told reporters Sunday. “And if the ball’s moved and passed whoever scores, scores.”

Something is amiss in Chicago. The Bulls have too much talent to struggle to this degree. Unless the team learns how to operate as a unit, it’s going to be a long season.