What colleagues say LaVine must do to take game to next level

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In his first comments to reporters as a Bull, while quarantined at a Chicago hotel after testing positive for COVID-19, Garrett Temple minced few words about Zach LaVine’s potential.

“I think Zach is a budding superstar in this league,” the 11-year NBA veteran said.

It didn’t take long for LaVine to build on that first impression. 

Following Temple’s first group practice with the team, he reiterated the above sentiment verbatim, adding that LaVine’s “ceiling is really high.” After a morning shootaround in advance of a matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers -- having played alongside LaVine just six regular-season games -- Temple went further.

“Seeing Zach up close now in person, the things he can do from a physical standpoint is something that I've never as a teammate of anybody I've ever played with,” Temple said. “He's easily the most athletic, the most fluid teammate I've ever had, with the skills to match in terms of the ability to shoot, the ability to get to where he wants to on the court, finish.”

The Bulls are Temple’s 10th NBA team. He’s enjoyed the company of 191 teammates in his professional career, including, in recent years, Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal. Those words carry weight.

And the operative word is “budding.” Even settling into his seventh NBA season, LaVine is just 25 years old. Save for the tear to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that shortened his third and fourth seasons -- and underpinned his trade to the Bulls -- he’s improved close to lineally every year.

The 2019-20 campaign saw him average a career-high 25.5 points, shoot 38 percent from 3-point range on 8.1 attempts per game and tally the fifth-most 40-point games in the league. 2020-21 began with the hiring of his sixth NBA coach, Billy Donovan, an essential note to understanding LaVine’s trajectory.

“I think he’s an improved defensive player and he’s an underrated playmaker,” added Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle before their Jan. 3 contest in Chicago. “He’s gonna be around a long time and continue to make more and more of an impact in this league.”

Indeed, defense and playmaking are the two most often discussed improvement areas when debating LaVine’s true ceiling. In both facets, LaVine has talked up and at times displayed a fervent desire to develop. 

Temple hit on them too in his post-first-practice comments, saying he wanted to see LaVine be more of a “pest” defensively. But recently, he highlighted a different area of LaVine’s game that he thinks could take him to the next level.

“To bring it every single night,” Temple said. "If you go back and watch film on (Michael) Jordan, Kobe (Bryant), the reason these guys are great is not only because they have that elite athleticism and skills, but they're consistently just at your neck every single time, they're out for blood, every single play, every single night. 

“I think Zach getting that into his game, the rest of the team will follow suit. If he has that mindset every single game, every single play, that will really raise his level.”

That’s not questioning LaVine’s effort. And might sound crazy, speaking about someone currently sporting a 31.3 percent usage rate, per Cleaning the Glass, 89th percentile for his position.

But consistently being at opponents’ “necks every single time” doesn’t have to solely be about scoring. It can mean pressuring defenses by persistently pushing downhill. Making split-second decisions -- drive, pass, shoot -- off the catch. Getting to the free throw line. Bending defenses and making plays for others.

It’s a sentiment Donovan has touched on before, specifically following LaVine posted 39 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals in the win over the Mavericks. After sprinting out to 29 first-half points, LaVine scored just 10 in the final two quarters, but slung four assists -- including a game-defining, high-degree-of-difficulty dime to Otto Porter Jr. late in the fourth -- and traveled to the charity stripe six times.

I mean he was incredible putting the ball in the basket, but can we get him playing nightly with that kind of aggressiveness? That's what we need from him,” Donovan said. “It doesn't always mean scoring. It means passing, it means getting into the teeth of the defense, it means maybe getting fouled, it means finding an open teammate, maybe it means finishing. Whatever it is. But I think when he's playing with that kind of force and that kind of speed, it opens things up for other people.”

So, yes, LaVine will want to improve on his negative assist-to-turnover (4.2-to-4.4) ratio through nine games. His 29.7 percent 3-point shooting should see a tick-up. He can always be more active and engaged defensively. And winning is what will grow his leaguewide stature, as he's said on myriad occasions.

But ask those that know him best, and it’s his offensive aggressiveness that will decide his ceiling. Just know what to look for.

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