A few years ago, the Chicago Bulls were amongst the most fun teams in the NBA. After the team traded their star forward, Jimmy Butler, for a package including Zach LaVine and the seventh overall pick, which became Lauri Markkanen, they started a rebuild that they expedited with a set of sign-and-trades for Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan, and an aggressive swing for Nikola Vučević.
While it wasn't a bad attempt, the team never truly made it back to the heights of their first few months after Lonzo Ball's knee gave out.
No player's image has taken a bigger hit since then than Zach LaVine's. Once the best player on an up-and-coming team and deserving of a massive $40 million-a-year deal, LaVine is now being kept home by the absolutely dreadful Sacramento Kings after the Bulls dumped him there as part of a larger De'Aaron Fox trade.
LaVine was once among the most exciting young shooting guards in the league, recovering from a torn ACL to go from dunk contest champ to walking flamethrower on offense.
It's unclear how much of that player still exists. At the very least, he is not worth his massive contract and may just be one of the worst defensive players in the NBA, despite his athleticism and drive to stick around.
Still, there could be a useful player hidden under all the layers of injury and lack of effort. There could be the answer to the Indiana Pacers' problems.
Indiana could have all of that for the low, low price of a minimum contract after he is bought out by the Kings.
LaVine's downfall and his potential bounce back
Zach was at his absolute best when he was next to another playmaker. It was the aforementioned, ever-talented Lonzo Ball who brought out the best in him as a transition finisher and a movement shooter. While LaVine spent quite a lot of time farming his stats on the ball, it was his time off of it that hinted at the player he could be.
While the Pacers should be looking for a better complement who can also shoot and create, getting LaVine for cheap could bring out the best in him.
Tyrese Haliburton is in the same general archetype of player as Lonzo Ball while being a far, far better player. To go along with that, LaVine has never been on a team with the type of team identity he could buy into.
That may be the main reason for hope with LaVine. When asked to establish a culture as a team's best player, he has failed spectacularly to make the team win at an average level or defend at all. However, if he is asked to buy into a team that already does those things, he could take them to the next level.
At the very least, this is the type of move that has no cost. The Pacers are not damaged by bringing in LaVine beyond the loss of their final roster slot. At the very best, they'd be adding a scoring specialist that could be the exact type of player they lost when they traded Bennedict Mathurin.
For a team short on creators, you could do a whole lot worse.
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