The Minnesota Timberwolves bittersweet reunion in Chicago
The Minnesota Timberwolves will reunite with Zach LaVine while Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Tom Thibodeau return to their old stomping grounds in Chicago.
Almost exactly a year ago, Zach LaVine tore his ACL against the Detroit Pistons and played his last game in a Minnesota Timberwolves uniform. Nobody knew either to be true at the time, but here we are 371 days later with LaVine about to tip-off against the team that drafted him.
It’s been a long road back for the former 13th overall pick and he’s picked up right where he left off last year, if not even better.
As a deadly outside shooter, LaVine is knocking down 39.3 percent of his outside shots and, oddly enough, he’s exactly the type of player the Timberwolves could use this season. Unfortunately, it was a necessary evil for Tom Thibodeau to send him to the Chicago Bulls as part of a package deal for two-way superstar Jimmy Butler.
Given LaVine still has some of his best friends in Minnesota, this game will surely mean a little more to him and he even admitted as much:
"Of course it means a little bit extra."
LaVine went on to talk about the difficulties of keeping himself, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns together in the long run:
"I feel like it would’ve been hard for all three of us to stay on the same team. We all talked about it in the locker room, messing around: ‘One day, one of us is going to be on a different team.’ It was me and you move forward. It’s a great opportunity here that I embrace. I’m very happy with the situation I’m in."
However, LaVine isn’t nearly the only Bull reuniting with his former team as point guard Kris Dunn has come into his own with Chicago this season, as he’s averaging 13.7 points, 6.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Unfortunately, he won’t play in this game due to a concussion that’s caused him to miss the last eight games. He’s officially out of the league’s concussion protocol as of yesterday, but still needs to get into game-shape. Minnesota and Chicago play again in just a couple of weeks on Feb. 24 so hopefully, he will be back by then.
As for the other side, Thibodeau faced the Bulls two times last year so this won’t be a completely new experience for him.
It’s a completely different story for Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler, however, as both will be making their first trip back to the United Center on Friday night.
The Bulls are planning on releasing a video tribute for each of the players which should draw a huge reaction from the fans. The two were a part of the best Bulls’ team since Michael Jordan.
Despite Butler amping up the matchup shortly after the trade last summer, he’s taking a different approach this time around:
"To me, another basketball game. I play to win. I’m going to go out there, pass the ball when I’m not open, shoot it when I am. Hopefully play a little bit better defense and get us a dub.”"
I sure hope we get to see the super-intense version of Butler because that’s the most fun one. It will also be interesting to see how he tackles the challenge of guarding LaVine and if he takes that personally.
There are certainly lots of good stuff to watch for in tonight’s Bulls-Timberwolves matchup, not to mention it’s nationally televised on ESPN. Make sure to tune in.