Zach LaVine should be making his Chicago Bulls debut in the coming days and the suddenly resurgent team has some questions to answer.
Should the team still look to trade Nikola Mirotic, and how about a deal to move Robin Lopez and his contract? Moreover, is it time to stop tanking and to begin pushing for a playoff spot?
Like other previously pondered NBA questions, I used NBA 2K18 and the MyLeague mode to simulate the scenario. Using the Start Today feature, I began simulating the rest of the Bulls' season. LaVine made his debut with his new team on Monday, January 8 at home against the Houston Rockets.
LaVine was on a minutes restriction, similar to what we saw with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Isaiah Thomas during his debut on Wednesday night. In 14 minutes of action, LaVine scored 7 points and dished 4 assists. As you can see from the box score below, the Bulls were blown out, but you know the fans and organization will be thrilled to have LaVine back on the court.
Later in the month, when LaVine joins the starting lineup in place of Justin Holiday, his production picks up. LaVine's best game was a 31-point performance against the Memphis Grizzlies. By the end of the regular season, LaVine finished with the team's highest per game average (16.7 ppg).
The Bulls finished the season with a 33-49 record, which was far too low for the playoffs and too good for the type of draft pick the team covets in the NBA Draft. The Bulls have been too good to miss the postseason, but not good enough to seriously contend over the past two years. This simulated year ended in only slightly different fashion.
Normally, I'd stop here, but what goes on with LaVine and the Bulls is more about the future than it is the present.
As most expect, the sim Bulls re-signed LaVine. Per NBA 2K18, the contract terms were for four years $105 million. However, instead of getting a top-4 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, they had to settle for the ninth selection thanks to their return to respectability in December and throughout the remainder of the season.
Instead of going after the best of this year's modest free agent crop, the sim Bulls will instead save their financial assets for the summer of 2019. Many believe the real Bulls will take the same approach. Essentially, the 2018-19 sim Bulls still had Mirotic and Lopez, and their only free-agent signing was Dewayne Dedmon on a two-year deal.
With the ninth pick, the Bulls selected athletic tweener from the Michigan State Spartans, Miles Bridges. That's not a bad pick for the spot, but you can bet the Bulls and their fan base would prefer to have an opportunity to draft someone like Marvin Bagley III, DeAndre Ayton, Trae Young, Mohamed Bamba, Luka Doncic or Michael Porter Jr. It's almost a given all of those prospects will be off the board by the time the ninth pick rolls around.
As it stood in the simulation, the Bulls starting lineup for the 18-19 season was Kris Dunn, LaVine, Denzel Valentine, Nikola Mirotic and DeWayne Dedmon with Lauri Markkanen, Bobby Portis and Bridges playing the bulk of the minutes off the bench.
That's probably not going to excite many Bulls fans, but we'll wait and see what happens with the real LaVine return and the rest of this campaign and offseason.
