Zach LaVine Has Fully Returned To Stardom, Sporting Elite Efficiency
The 30-year-old, who has played 73 games this season so far, is averaging 23.4 points per game, and is sporting a frankly ridiculous level of efficiency, with a true-shooting percentage of 64%.
LaVine, who signed a max contract worth $215 million with Chicago in 2022, was curiously seen as a dramatic overpay by the Bulls, and his reputation suffered as a result.
When he then got injured last season, and was limited to just 25 games, he was more or less deemed as having one of the biggest albatross contracts in the league, meaning moving off of him would be a near impossibility.
Fortunately for LaVine, he showed that such reactions were too reactive, as he bounced back for the Bulls over the course of 42 games, leading the Sacramento Kings to get involved before the deadline, and acquire him as part of the De'Aaron Fox trade.
During his tenure as a King, LaVine has kept up his efficient scoring, and has maintained an already effective three-point efficiency.
LaVine is hitting 44.3% from downtown this season, and has canned 235 of those long-balls, establishing a career-high in shooting efficiency, and makes.
The issue with LaVine's contractual compensation was always his role in Chicago, as he was continuously miscast as the number one option.
In Sacramento, LaVine is finally playing alongside an elite passer in Domantas Sabonis, meaning the ball doesn't automatically go through LaVine to the same extent. This is good news for LaVine, and the Kings, assuming of course Sabonis wish to stick around after this season.
LaVine's switch to Sacramento has, at the very least, confirmed the overarching theory that he's best in a role where he can scale up and down, and thus play off of others, as opposed to being the main cog in a system.
The former All-Star is being assisted on 53.5% of his two-pointers (by far a career-high), and 57.6% of his three-pointers, which is a six percentage point bump from his season in Chicago.
LaVine's overall gravity on the floor provides loads of space to teammates such as DeMar DeRozan and Keegan Murray, and the mission for the Kings now will be to keep building a team in which LaVine functions as a high-level, scalable scorer who can bend defenses.
LaVine's case emphasizes that, sometimes, all a player needs is the right circumstances to thrive.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
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