Zach LaVine isn’t about to start walking back his preseason opinions of the Bulls.
Not with an Eastern Conference that is filled with so many below-average franchises, including an Orlando roster that was just a few stumbles away from allowing the Bulls to grab the No. 8 playoff seeding.
LaVine, however, is a realist.
The guard knows that the other part of the equation is his own locker room finally starting to understand the importance of turning this 13-21 season around, and doing that sooner than later.
Like starting on Thursday, when the Bulls host Utah.
“I mean, as important as this season is,” LaVine said on Wednesday, discussing what the month of January will mean to his franchise, “going into the All-Star break could make or break a season. We know we have a pretty grueling schedule. But I think we’re up for the task. We had a bad showing to close out 2019.
“We understand the position we’re in. We’re 1.5 games out of eighth place. I think we’ve thrown some games away. I think we should be right in that hunt. As poorly as we’ve played some nights, we can still make up for it. We just have to understand what it is.”
Not that LaVine’s glass half-full mentality comes as a surprise.
It was LaVine who started the playoff smoke about his organization at the end of last season. Smoke that flamed up a bit into the summer, and then started burning throughout the fall training camp.
It didn’t take long for the dousing to start, however.
The Bulls had a tailor-made schedule for a quick start and squandered that. Now, they have a brutal January schedule to contend with, and have very little room for error.
Still, LaVine doesn’t regret the playoff talk.
“You have to think that way,” LaVine said. “If you don’t think that way, you’re not a competitive person or a dude who believes in yourself or the team. I believe every game that we play we’re going to win. Is it realistic? No. But if you don’t go in with that mindset, I think you already lost.
“We’re 1.5 games out. Anything can happen. It’s the NBA. You can get hot, go on a run. We haven’t had that yet this year.”
There’s more than just a playoff push at stake for the organization.
Some decisions about the state of this rebuild have to be made by February, and what happens the next four weeks will dictate the path the front office takes.
It was very noticeable that Jim Boylen spent a few minutes after practice sitting with vice president of basketball operations John Paxson, but the coach did say that trade scenarios are not a part of their daily talks at this point.
With second-year forward Chandler Hutchison (right shoulder) all but ready to return to the rotation, the focus is on what they currently have on the roster rather than what they can add to the roster.
“John and I talk every day about the team, about practice, about what I think we need to work on, where we’re at,” Boylen said. “I try to give him a synopsis of the last game, where I think we can grow, what we did well. We have not had discussions about the trade deadline or our roster in that way.
“It’s coming, yeah, it’s coming. To be honest with you this month is as difficult a month – with the number of games and the quality of opponent — that we’ve had in a while. We’re going to try and practice hard when we can and we’re going to try and improve in every situation. That’s been my focus and our staff’s focus, so we’ll keep working at it.”
