Zach LaVine’s new contract will be a major deterrent in the continued development of Kris Dunn, who should be playing off the bench this season for the Chicago Bulls
Are Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn the next great backcourt duo?
These are two players who like to have the ball in their hands and it shows. According to SBNation’s Blogabull.com:
"LaVine “established a pattern of ball-dominance up against the greatest players in Bulls franchise history.”"
LaVine already ranks fifth in team history in field goal attempts per 100 possessions behind Michael Jordan, Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon and Dwyane Wade, averaging 26.4 field goal attempts. On the other hand, Dunn needs the ball because he is still developing as a playmaker.
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According to Rob Mahoney of Sports Illustrated:
"“Dunn, as a rookie, rarely seemed to glance beyond them. His entire game appeared overly tight—wound up completely in the scenario in front of him. A pick-and-roll became a binary: Dunn would attempt to thread a pass to the roll man or call his own number. The new Dunn approaches that same premise from a different place, squaring the attention he draws with a wider view of his teammates’ positioning”."
His improved playmaking helped Dunn increase his assist per 100 possessions from 7.2 to 9.9 last season. The improvement vaulted him into third place in franchise history only behind Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose.
With ball handling a strength for both, LaVine and Dunn often alternate possessions within Chicago’s pick and roll offense. You’ll often find Kris Dunn dribbling the basketball up to the 3-point line and passing it to LaVine to initiate the pick-and-roll and to place himself in the role of a spot-up shooter.
However, there are equally occasions when Dunn would start the process of the pick-and-roll himself, forcing LaVine to play the role of a spot-up shooter.
As expected of an offense as it has come to be for the Chicago Bulls, it is different from teams like Oklahoma City where a single player mans the backcourt in a pick and roll offense. It is also hurting the team. In fact, Kris Dunn saw a significant decline in his statistics during the 14 games he shared the court with Zach LaVine.
More importantly, they put the opposing team in a good position defensively, as they can often afford to leave Dunn open. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Kris Dunn shoots 30.9 percent from behind the arc.This is significantly below the league average in 3-point percentage for this past season (36.2%).
What’s becoming increasingly obvious is that they are better apart. In 37 games without LaVine, Dunn averaged 13.7 points per game with 6.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds.
This is a stark contract to his numbers when LaVine was on the court – he averaged 12.8 points per game with 5.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds.
The Chicago Bulls would be better served letting Dunn come off the bench and having him dominate the ball for 20 minutes against backups. This is the only way he will be able to develop his game without interference, with Lavine having signed a new contract with the team last week and poised to remain in the role of a spot up shooter to justify the cost of the contract.
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A prime example of this is the Milwaukee Bucks who signed Matthew Dellavedova to a 4 year contract worth $38.4 million in 2016. During the subsequent season, Dellavedova averaged a career high in assists, field goal attempts, points and usage rate, all to prove him worthy of the contract.