Wolves Season in Review: Zach LaVine
By Ben Beecken
This is Part Thirteen of the Wolves Season in Review player capsules. We’ll be looking at every player that finished the season on the Wolves roster, excluding ten-day contract signees. We’re starting with the players that played the fewest minutes and working our way up the roster to those that logged the most playing time. Today’s featured player is Zach LaVine.
We’ve spent a lot of time debating Zach LaVine in the past ten months or so. It started the week of the draft. Then, LaVine was drafted.
Early in the season, I was critical of LaVine’s approach to the offensive end of the floor. After a few more weeks passed and we had some additional data to utilize, I was even more critical, especially regarding the rookie guard’s shot selection. And not just on LaVine, but on how he (and the entire Wolves’ offense) was being coached.
As the injuries mounted for the Wolves and LaVine saw exponentially more playing time, opinions began to change. LaVine improved, yes, but the larger impact on his marginal improvement was precipitated by first the return of Ricky Rubio for a few weeks in 2015 and then followed by more consistent minutes at point guard for Lorenzo Brown. He was allowed to play some shooting guard and not control the ball all of the time — a definite positive for his development.
And as the volume-based numbers increased to what eventually became gaudy numbers (from March 15th through the end of the year, LaVine averaged 18.7 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game and shot 39% from three-point range), optimism increased.
Our own Drew Mahowald broke down similarities between LaVine’s rookie year and Kobe Bryant‘s first season. Joseph Zapata also went in-depth on LaVine’s shot selection and overall numbers from his rookie campaign.
The majority of what I delved into in my shot selection review earlier in the year remains true. LaVine began to hit his three-point attempts with more regularity later in the year which improved his effectiveness across the board. He also did a good job getting to the rim and even was okay finishing through contact — somewhat surprising given his slight build.
The athleticism plays, however, and if LaVine realizes that he should be driving to the rim even more often and not settling for weird little fadeaway-type shots in transition and in traffic, some of the parallels to Westbrook could begin to develop.
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The outside shooting seems to be real, and while his season-long rate of 34.1% beyond the arc isn’t great, the shot improved as the year moved along. If he can stay in the 36-39% range, it’ll be lethal. At this point, 35.4% of LaVine’s shots were still attempted between the 16-foot mark and the arc — far, far too many. If a few of those are pushed to long-range attempts, it’ll be a very good thing for both the player and the organization.
Defense is the issue, of course. LaVine finished dead last out of 84 points guards in ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus. His impact on the Wolves’ defensive performance, measured in points allowed per 100 defensive possessions, was -4.35. The next worst player was the aging and banged-up Tony Parker, who was more than a full point better than LaVine at -3.3. That’s staggering.
LaVine’s lack of understanding on the defensive end contributed greatly to his poor positioning, and his strength issues certainly had something to do with the poor performance, too. In time, LaVine should be able to learn how to use his nearly 6′-6″ frame to his advantage on the defensive end of the floor.
Any minutes that he’s able to play between Ricky Rubio and Andrew Wiggins will only help, and the length of a Rubio (6′-4″), LaVine (6′-5″), and Wiggins (6′-8″) will give opposing teams fits if LaVine can figure out how to fit into defensive schemes.
Like Wiggins, LaVine finished off his rookie season in encouraging fashion. He improved incrementally, and if his shot selection and passing decisions improve significantly couple with what will need to be a sizable improvement on defense, LaVine could be something special. Here’s hoping that the coaching staff does an outstanding job in developing the 20 year-old and that Wolves fans will be treated so a rapidly improving, well-rounded young core in the very near future.
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