Bulls guard Zach LaVine has fresh outlook after knee, contract issues fade into past

It was Bulls guard Zach LaVine’s ‘‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’’ moment.

Late last season, LaVine was on the brink of becoming an unrestricted free agent with a huge payday in his future and was playing on a team that was playoff-bound for the first time in his eight-year career.

All the while, his injured left knee was betraying him.

He made a decision to play through it, publicly downplay the injury even at the cost of his performance and deal with the consequences.

‘‘Me at 80%, 70%, whatever it is, I’m still one of the best players in the NBA and damn sure one of the best players on the court when we play,’’ LaVine said in March.

The attitude was admirable, but the statement wasn’t entirely true. LaVine wasn’t even the best player on his own team during the second half of last season.

The Sun-Times reported in April that LaVine was operating at closer to 50%. A source went on to say that getting LaVine ready for games was an almost all-day procedure.

Fast-forward to the start of the upcoming season, and LaVine sounded like a man who had a bunch of weight lifted off his shoulders. Then again, signing a max contract worth $215 million over the next five years has that effect.

‘‘I just feel good,’’ LaVine told reporters after playing in three of the Bulls’ four preseason games.

That’s not only because of his new tax bracket, it’s also because the cleanup surgery LaVine had on the knee during the offseason has him playing without limitations.

‘‘I think that’s been the main thing, not having any aches and pains and being able to go out there and really play without any limitations in my own mind,’’ LaVine said. ‘‘Like, ‘OK, I can’t go left.’ Or, ‘I might not be able to dunk on this play.’ You’re not supposed to be thinking that way when you play basketball. I dealt with that a lot last year.’’

It showed.

LaVine came out of the summer of 2021 with Team USA looking like a player who finally understood the importance of dominating offensively but also being an irritant defensively.

In Team USA’s run to an Olympic gold medal, LaVine’s role was to pick up the opposing guard full-court and disrupt the offense. It was a mindset he kept at the start of the Bulls’ season.

With LaVine, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, the Bulls’ backcourt began last season as a nightly headache for opponents. Whether it was getting out in transition or simple deflections to disrupt timing, the Bulls were among the league leaders in steals and deflections.

By the end of November, however, LaVine’s left knee had become an issue and his defensive numbers began to nosedive.

The surgery and rehab are now in his past, but there are still question marks entering the season opener Wednesday against the Heat (6:30 p.m., NBCSCH, 670-AM) and no clear-cut plan for how LaVine and the coaching staff will handle his workload this season.

‘‘I’m going to still do some maintenance,’’ LaVine said of the knee. ‘‘That’s just the truth about it. . . . I’ve had two knee surgeries now, and I have to understand that I have to do the little extra things to make sure I’m feeling my best every game.’’

What will this latest version of LaVine look like on both ends of the court? The opener in Miami will be a good place to start answering that question.