Chicago Bulls: Could Zach LaVine debut some time this week?
If team management likes where Zach LaVine is health-wise, could we finally see him take the court for the Chicago Bulls this week?
Chicago Bulls fans are hopefully about to get a huge post-holiday present: Zach LaVine’s return, barring setbacks, is imminent.
And I mean “could happen this week” imminent.
Reports are starting to trickle out that LaVine, after completing a rehab stint with the Windy City Bulls and practicing vigorously, will make his long-awaited debut for the Chicago Bulls within the next few weeks.
In fact, at least one Bulls insider, Vincent Goodwill, thinks that he will suit up on Saturday against the Detroit Pistons.
How close is Zach LaVine to returning to the court? @vgoodwill thinks his #Bulls debut may come one week from today against the Pistons 👇 pic.twitter.com/RujHY5zkpH
— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) January 6, 2018
Of course, all of that will be pending a visit (which happens today) with management and the training staff to assess his progress.
He could return on Saturday against the Pistons, a solid date in case the Bulls wanted him to get a G-League game in or just practice with the team more.
.@ZachLaVine completed his 6 straight practice with No setbacks. He'll travel & sit on the bench the next 2 games & workout before a sit down meeting with management & team physicians on Monday, so they can set a date on when he play for the #Bulls.
— Carlos Douglas Jr. (@TheRealC_Los) January 5, 2018
Who knows? Maybe he could even play on Wednesday against the New York Knicks if he has progressed far enough and they chose to spoon-feed him 10-15 minutes of action off the bench. That’s a fairly low-impact game unlike tonight’s game against Houston, which I can’t fathom him playing in.
Or maybe the Bulls would prefer to let him just get acclimated for another week before giving him NBA action. In that case, bringing him back for either the Miami Heat (1/15) or Atlanta Hawks (1/20) games would make sense. Starting him off against Golden State (1/17) sounds nice, but I seriously doubt the Chicago Bulls would make him debut that way.
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One thing’s for sure in my eyes, however: once he’s ready to play, he needs to play.
In the end, the last stage of his recovery, as with Derrick Rose years ago, mandates that he gets on the court and plays real basketball. Keeping him in bubble wrap actually serves little purpose for him staying healthy or being a better player in the long term.
As we saw with Rose, his refusal to play when he was supposed to led to extra complications with his conditioning and health. And of course, in addition to those immediate issues when he returned, he didn’t stay healthy anyway.
While the Bulls obviously shouldn’t push LaVine to play before he’s ready, they can’t let irrational fear slow his progress.
If the doctors think he can play this week and his body holds up through workouts and practice, he should play this week and not later.
Next: Will the Chicago Bulls re-sign David Nwaba?
Assuming that everything checks out, I’d hope to see him by no later than Saturday. I’ll also hold out some outside hope for him to play on Wednesday against New York.
Either way, LaVine is inching closer and closer to joining this unexpectedly interesting young, albeit still bad, Chicago Bulls team. And I, for one, can hardly wait.