It was one game.
To paint broad strokes in the wake of the Bulls’ 120-113 overtime victory over the division rival Bucks, especially with DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine in street clothes, would be a major overreaction.
After all, they didn’t shoot better from three-point range (35%) or hold the Bucks under 100 points or even win the turnover battle.
But they played team basketball with maximum effort.
Still, to draw an organizational-changing conclusion from a random Thursday night NBA game is borderline insanity.
But what if there was more than a small sample size? What if there were continuing signs that the Bulls have a No. 8 problem?
To argue that the Bulls are better off without LaVine is a losing proposition. But are they really worse off without him?
The Bulls will continue to find that out. They announced Friday morning that LaVine will be sidelined for at least the next week with a sore right foot that has hampered him since mid-November.
Coach Billy Donovan said the plan was to rest LaVine the next week, reassess where he’s at, then ramp him back up for activity, so there’s a good chance he’ll miss at least three games, likely more.
While LaVine wouldn’t give an exact diagnosis of his injury, he did say “it’s complicated.’’
That also would be a good way to sum up his season.
He came in praising the summer roster moves and was excited about making a playoff run.
Less than a month later, however, he and his camp made it clear that he was open to being moved elsewhere. Once that declaration was made, the Bulls lost seven of their next eight games before the OT win against Milwaukee with LaVine sitting out.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But since the “Big Three” — LaVine, DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic — came together going into the 2021-22 season, LaVine has missed 22 regular-season games. DeRozan has missed 16.
In the games without DeRozan, the Bulls are 7-9 with an average margin of 13.1 points in the losses.
Without LaVine, they are 12-10 with an average margin of 10 points in the losses.
The Bulls aren’t a playoff team without LaVine, but they haven’t exactly been a playoff team with him, either. One visit to the postseason — a first-round exit in which they won only one game — is all he has to show in seven seasons.
“Yeah, but he had poor talent around him, no help, bad coaching over the years,’’ the LaVine apologists would say, quickly stacking up excuses in defense of the two-time All-Star. But that hasn’t been the case so much this season, especially when the defensive effort seemingly hasn’t been there.
When LaVine returns, he will do so with the worst defensive rating (117.7) of his career.
That’s not a great look, and LaVine will be traded before the February deadline. If it’s up to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, he will be the only one of the “Big Three’’ sent out. Karnisovas wants to see what the product will look like then.
Of course, the market can change that if Karnisovas is offered an unforeseen deal that he can’t refuse, but that’s the agenda for now.
Until LaVine is sent elsewhere, however, that win over the Bucks isn’t enough evidence to make any conclusions, but we’ll have more indications in the next few games.
